to organize his government, mary launched her own campaigns hosting family and friends, greeting diplomats and statesmen, anticipating her new set of duties, and she sought to maneuver the treacherous shoals of secession. the coldness and snobbery of easterners was wearing her down. she confronted one of the most idiosyncratic of american institutions washington society. at the heart of the city's bow monday, the toughened core of social arbiters were known as cave dwellers. their tenure and tenacity gave them influence over the parade of newcomers who straggled into the city at irregular but certainly every four-year intervals. the inner city of d.c. society was surrounded by the money bags whose rung on the ladder was bought, and then there were the high brows, whose station was secured by talent regardless of wealth although it was considered felicitous when the two went together. three outer rings applied steady social pressure jockeying for improved position, the diplomats, the army and navy crowd, and the politicos, but clearly it is the cave dwellers, particularly women like mary clemor and laura holloway who influenced the pecking order among the capital's society. fanny ems, mrs. charles, maintained an eclectic sunday salon at her 14th and 8th street salon while her sister marion campbell was embedded when several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames in d.c. and she would later befriend 345irmary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. it would be difficult to could be receive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue, and as we just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were of course areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the finest aide of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle a legendary beauty, nearly 25 years his junior held equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of son nora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgium but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan myrrhal in the world. harriet lane buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabeth keckley was a prominent mixed race seamstress favored by the washington elite. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was varina davis. assuming the role herself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslin palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight his wife stayed on dancing into the night. she surprised the washington snobs. they commented on her exquisite toilette. the new york herald weighed in again, that's the newspaper, not our harold, she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoi polloi. like the proverbial cinderella after the ball she had wicked step sisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with con fed rat kin. the republicans were flocking into town in droves but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee, daughter frances presson blair suggested the women kind are give mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder and the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created department rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s, who could forget bully brooks and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861, the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said, i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights so church going even became a divided enterprise. lincoln's election, like andrew jackson's decades before, represented a seismic social shifert in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage, denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to, but the cage was not exactly 2k3wi8ded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby run down condition of the president's residence. the fur nirning in the red room which the lincolns claims for private callers had pieces left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second rate hotel with its threadbare carpets and chopped up drapes. mary was determined to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month the washington ladies had not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate hoping once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on ft. sumter and lincoln's call to arm, her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where quote under the gorgeous gas chandeliers, they disposed themselves in picturesque biv wak on the brilliant patterned velvet carpet. a remarkable vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced edd lincoln's pred soror to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the cost would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she suggested they stop the customary state dinners. she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her husband was skeptical, but her arguments and i'm sure her%3p persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries, john nicolet, proclaimed le wren has determined to abrogate dinners and she got her way. while sher husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln demonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levees will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainedder of the session of congress. they were obligatory and staff found them wearying. nicolet confided they are both novel and pleasant to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to quote, do washington, but for us who have to surf the infliction once a week they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained to the president looking more and more gaunt and care worn. to relieve the teat yum, mrs. lincoln introduced the program of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion. lincoln's favorite singers actors, and others might be singled out for recognition when one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts, colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february of 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manners invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room, not only the labor required for such an event but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln sergeants who by now had nicknamed her hell cat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not, mr. and mrs. wade are and for that reason decline to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge, quail, duck, turkey foie gras, beef, and the president's favorite oysters, greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant spun sugar deserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year hoping to banish the memory of her predecessors reign in the white house. hair yet lane had been both a popular socialite and an impeccable style setter. mary clemor, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense harmonious vitality. her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke kindle with humor, or soften with tenderness. her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's gold when she took over the executive mansion focused on e ray sure of memories of when this blond younger model made washington society dance to her tune. clemor suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives, we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and mary lincoln made her jurn why i to washington a triumphant passage. with all of mary's faults as margaret leech has argued, in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. marey mary's poor relations with the press form a mainstay of my by graphical treatment. she and her husband were unforgiving of what they felt was an abusive fourth estate. lincoln had his battles with journalists and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while on a carriage ride and the president was not so good humored nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and win over the public. her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign and fervently as a statesman wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's vacuum was filled by kate chase, the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house in the chase home at 6th and e. quite a good place this clara barton, mathew brady nexus. this contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john aller's new book, american queen, the rise and fall of kate chase sprague which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fascinating life. rumors in washington suggest that the chase/lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william dennison of ohio on february 13th the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol and then they spent the eke being entertained, including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night, which, of course, was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counter story was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance, but both fanciful tales seem manufactured, lylely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness in her rendition of the rivalry in later years particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and miry lincoln were introduced at the first white house levee in 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and a confidant of mrs. lk. this young eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. anne richardson french, wife of sculptor daniel chester french, described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow dibeliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded both chase's striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared, people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns first state dinner on march 28th battle lines were clearly being drawn as the story is repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left i shall be glad to see you anytime, miss chase and chase allegedly replied, mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me anytime. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction but i think we know that both parties were giving thinly veiled signals of the rough seas ahead. mrs. lincoln knew that the gauntlet had been thrown down. her white house receptions and levees were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure a coterie of power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1960 but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent vil for and many other wealthy financier financiers financiers. she held receptions every wednesday afternoon. afternoon gathers would drift in evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about worming her way into lincoln's inner circle attending the theater with john hey and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases. he stayed in the picture and was manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wunder kind william sprague who was by all accounts a bounder when he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, the youngest man elected at 26 to lead a state sprague cut a dashing figure and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington the president was extraordinarily kind even solicitous of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife, but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spy glass to her during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with the delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth keckley repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception, something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook, including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known weakness for alcohol. chase did not care that sprague had more money than sense and was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife wrote inquis sitly. you and miss kat are taking dinners out. is miss kate a very charming, interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a new york tribune reporter lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow one year kate chase's junior and a decade younger than garfield. as for kate, perhaps being scire squired in public was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work because thereafter they became involved and eventually engaged. sprague paid close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. kate's campaign to advance her father's career never wavered but once lincoln trumped with the emancipation proclamation it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln/chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lk has a new french rig with all the posies costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6000 arrangement, including a $3000 shawl. go to it green banks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. if you read a washington paper of the era, sarah austin chanced to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rivals. one called out the austin equipage contained a tub of guts. they were fined $2.50 each. newspaper's might treat female rivalry sa tirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication whether high brow or low brow hi jinxes or low blows, all part of the washington merry go round. in 1864 kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863 had been hailed as the social event of the eason. the bride was replen accident in a white velvet wedding dress sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire, part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln's spent over two hours to, quote, take the cuss off the meagerness of the presidential party as he put it. mrs. sprague however after her marriage did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed, within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864, although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage appointment on chase's behalf, the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation this time it was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house, i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also endull ge in her shoppingmania and the new york herald reported she reason sacked the treasures of dry good stores. maim yir clemor complained while sher sisters scraped lint the wife of the president spent her time rolling to and fro between washington and new york. intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife, but we do know that, indeed, even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven barry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally lock the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some polliticians ghan to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. over the next two years he was dubbed the american napoleon, and he found criticism no laughsing matter. he wrote to his wife ellen when he received his first military promotion, i find myself at a new and strange position her, president, cabinet, general scott, and all deferring to me. by some strange operation of magic, i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore, i won't be dictator. admirable self denial, and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship but their courtship was protracted and it was stymied by ellen's lack of enthusiasm. in 1854 mcclellan fell head over heels in love with the daughter of his former army commander randolphm arcy. her father encouraged this young soldier who had prospects and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military ellen's father threatened if she did not break off with him i fear my ardent affections will turn to hate. alen did eventually abandon hill who would later as we know serve the rebel cause and often faced mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. when the mek clelens were on a visit to chicago and she was 25, mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. they were married in may 1860 and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self promoter on his own achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34 consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when infield scott retired in november 1861 mcclenen insisted to lincoln i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mic time. by july of 1862, salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed, yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. antietam became mcclellan's final fountainfall despite his protestations to the opposite. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle 134re7b didly. one of these days history will i trust do me justice. lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he deflected vain and vaingloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party and held onto his military commission until election day november 8th. following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe, it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the ap probation of your excellency. mcclellan failed to carry even a majority of the soldiers' vote and forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all, the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marcie mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations last year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger blonder rivals? hairrriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush were sip tusly into mat ri moanal connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one although she lost her uncle, her husband, and both of her children, two sons, before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nette were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring williams philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity, her involvement with new york 12340r roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alimony. after months of wrangling, the marriage was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife. she settled in the washington sue bauer ban home her father left her caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty, who was more than mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life, which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. but much like the first lady, she so desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidates' victory. instead, they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies, perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864, and one which just like today is ruled by social media. just as generals petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught. never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex, and media mix in washington. thank you. [ applause ] >> if there are any questions we have maybe ten minutes or so before we need to move on to the next session. >> the question -- >> i'd love it if you'd identify yourself. do you mind? >> i'm norm. >> hi norm. >> i'm norm from akron ohio. originally lincoln, illinois. >> okay. hi. >> i'll try to get down to the level that most -- >> you're lincolnian. >> i ask this question of jean baker when she was here last and i'll ask the same question to you but i'm not going give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask a question. i can give an answer. we can't rehash history here. >> do you think mary was bipolar? >> i have often said, and i will repeat, that my doctorate is in history, not in medicine, and i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today and she were examined by people they would have very divided views. so i don't diagnose i try to lay out the patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues, jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary lincoln. jason emerson has written about his diagnosis exactly and we have new work coming out about concussions and what head trauma and injury can do. i very much welcome that speculation, but i myself try to contextualize and i believe i was ironically most moved to believe she was not bipolar but had medication problems and psychological problems, especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason emmerson dug up that were written while she was incarcerated confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> mel burger, boston, mass. >> don't forget us over here. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. >> you should -- >> i must go to the left first mel. do you mind? i'll take this and come right back to you. yes, sir, i'm sorry. >> i'm jim mcgrath, i'm from buffalo, new york. >> hi, jim. sorry. >> grover cleveland territory and fannie. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland's white house. >> anyway my question is mary todd lincoln -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia, but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor but in the 1870s curiously enough when grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well, i would just check my last chapter because -- i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. >> that's what i heard. i just wondered if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her -- >> any actually had an interesting incident that she was living abroad and it's a very small town kind of very springfield-like, a little capital in the south of -- i think they always maintained quite polite, but as an ex-president, his popularity was something i think that -- deeply disturbed mary because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death -- she never i think recovered from the long-term effects of his death was to campaign for her husband very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederick douglass. she donated artifacts to african-americans. she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much sacrificed himself for a cause. so she and grant i don't think were ever going to -- and julia dent grant no they were never going to really become, you know -- >> bosom buddies. >> yeah. >> where would you rank her on the list of great american first ladies? i hope i didn't steal somebody's question? >> what about mel here? what if that was his question? >> i don't care. >> you get one. now it's mel's turn. >> thank you. so after the deaths of -- that mary lincoln experienced in the white house of her children -- >> only one died in the white house. >> okay. >> one died before. >> what was -- were her social rivals able to empathize and ease the stings of what was going on in their relationships or did they just really empathize with lincoln and totally ignore here? >> after her child's death? well, that what i was so struck by in my biography i had written thematically but when i got to the '61, '62 '63 period of her life i tried to write it chronologically because i was so struck by how carping her critics were. she just went through an amazing year of press surveillance. presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack everywhere she went followed by reporters, and doris goodwin put me on to the notion if you want to attack the house you set fire to the thatch and mary was the thatch. so she was often being scorched, burnt, during this particular period, and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat looking. the whole notion of social rivals is something i didn't really find in particular but she does by '64 get herself revved up again although she can throughout the period '63-'64 dissolve completely losing total control of herself in front of reporters, in front of friends over this question. she's quite angry that, for example, no one really recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, willy except for neptune. i'm blanking -- >> gideon wells swells. >> gideon wells wife who had lost so many children of her own. there were many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her, that she was going to hospitals. they were trying to start press campaigns, but she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways and didn't want her name appearing in the paper which s of course why the old clothes scandal after she left the white house was such a painful episode for both her and her son. >> thank you. >> thank you, mel. >> i'm dr. john will and i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychiatrist, but i always thought she was bipolar, some of her behavior, her shopping behavior and so forth, but you may know this, but the reason that mcclellan -- or that a.p. hill and ellen marcie broke up is because a.p. hill had gonorrhea which he had contracted at west point during a weekend in new york with mcclellan. so mcclellan knew he had gonorrhea, and he informed the family, the marcie family of ample p. hill's condition. >> thank you for that. you see, i just don't do military history but i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. this gentleman and then -- >>
considered felicityious when the two went together. three outer rungs applied social steady pressure, jockeying for pressure, the diplomats the army and navy crowd and the politicos, but clearly it was the cave dwellers particularly women like mary klemmer and laura holloway who influenced the pecking order among the capitol's society. fanny eams mrs. charles, maintained an eclectic sunday salon at her 14th and 8th street home while her sister marian campbell governeur of new york was in several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames reigned in d.c. and she would later befriend the first lady, mary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. john hay concurred it would be difficult to conceive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue. and as we just heard maybe the architectural recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remained there. there were of course areas of the city which boasted palatial homes. the finest date of senator steven douglas near "i" street and jersey avenue where his wife, adele, a legendary beauty near 25 years his junior held her court. equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwynn, however, was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began was imprisoned until 1863, then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgian but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only james buchanan mural in the world. harriet lane, buchanan's niece, who assumed the role of white house hostess, left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed. and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish doorkeeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. arriving in a town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a dressmaking order with mrs. kekly. elizabeth kekly was a prominent mixed-race seamstress. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was farina davis. assuming the role himself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslim palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight, his wife stayed on dancing polka and shodishes into the night. she viced the washington snobs as elizabeth ellet an influential cave dweller, commented on mary lincoln's exquisite toilette and complimented her admiral ease and grace. "the new york herald" weighed in, again, that's the newspaper not our herald she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoy palloy. but she had wicked step-sisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with confederate kin. and so many elite southern women boycotted inaugural festivities and they turned their backs on the president's wife. the republicans were flocking into town in droves but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee daughter of marilyn power broker frances preston blair, suggested the womenkind are giving mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder in the city, and consequently the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created deep rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s. who could forget bully brooks and his cane and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861 the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights. so churchgoing even became a divided enterprise. linken's election like andrew jackson's decades before represented a seismic social shift in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs. and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage, denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to but the cage was not exactly gilded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby run-down condition of the president's residence. the furnishing in the red room which the lincolns claimed for private callers had pleases left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second-rate hotel with its red bare carpets and chopped-up drapes. mary was discernment to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month, the washington ladies have not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself. and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate. hoping that once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city, and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on fort sumter and lincoln's call to arms her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where quote, under the gorgeous glass sland here shand lirchandeliers on the brilliant carpet. a vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration, the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced lincoln's predecessor to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the costs would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she proposed to the president that they drop the customary state dinners, not simply for reasons of economy she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her argument was skeptical. i'm sure her persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries proclaimed lauren has determined to abrogate dinners, and lauren got her way. while her husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln zmondemonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at-homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levies will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainder of the session of congress. these social occasions were obligatory and staff found them wearing. nickel let confided they are both novel and plechb to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to, quote, do washington. but for us who have to suffer the infliction once a week they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained of the president looking more and more gaunt and care-worn. to relieve the tedium mrs. lincoln introduced the practice of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion for special occasions. linken's favorite singers actors and others might be singled out for recognition, even one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts, colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. the first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manors invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room. not only the labor required for such an event but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln secretaries who by now had nicknamed her hellcat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not mr. and mrs. wade are. and for that reason declined to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge quail, duck, turkey, foie gras, beef, and the president's favorites, oysters greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant sponge sugar desserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka, composed to honor the first lady. and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year, hoping to banish the memory of her predecessor's reign in the white house. harriet lane had been both a popular socialite and impeccable style setter. mary klemmer, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense harmonious vitality, her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke rebuke, kijd withndle. her mouth was her most peculiar beautiful feature while her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's goal when she took over the executive mansion focused on erasure of memories of when this blonde younger model made washington society dance to her tune. klemmer suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition. and mary lincoln made her journey to washington a triumphal passage. and with all of mary's faults as pulitzer prize-winning historian margaret leach has argued in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. mary's poor relations with the press formed a mainstay of my biographical treatment of her in mrs. lincoln and she and her husband were unforgiving. what they felt was an abusive forth of state. lincoln had his battles with journalists during his administration, and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while they were on a carriage ride. and the president was not so good-humored, nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip. and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and went over the public her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst, ludicrous ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign as fervently as the statesmen wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's exit created a vacuum almost immediately filled by the charismatic kate chase. the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival salmon p. chase. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house. in the chase home at 6th & "e," quite a good place this clara barton matthew brady nexus. contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office. and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john auller's new book, "american queen: the rise and fall of kate chase sprague, civil war belle of the north and gilded age women of scandal," which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fast nate fascinating life. rumors in washington say that the chase lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william denison of ohio on february 13th, the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol, then he and his family spent the evening being entertained including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night which of course, was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counterstory was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance. but both fanciful tales seem manufactured likely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness and her rendition of the revivalry in later years, particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and mary lincoln was introduced at the first white house levy on march 8th, 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and confidante of mrs. lincoln. this young eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. ann richardson french wife of sculptor daniel chester french, described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow deliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded that both her striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns' first state dinner on march 28th, battle lines were clearly being drawn as the stories repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left, i shall be glad to see you any time, ms. chase. and chase allegedly replied mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me any time. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction, but i think we both know they were giving veiled of the seas ahead. the gauntlet had been thrown down. they were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile, kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1860, but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent visitor as well as many other wealthy financiers. in addition, kate held receptions for the republican faithful every wednesday afternoon. and afternoon gatherings would drift into evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the influential wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england, lord lyons, apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about warming her way into lincoln's inner circle, attending a theater with john hay and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip. and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases'. hay stayed in the picture and was even manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wonderkind, sprague. he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, heir to a textile fortune, the youngest man elected at 29 to lead a state nicknamed the boy governor of rhode island, sprague cut a dashing figure at war's onset. and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's, and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington the president was extraordinarily kind, even solace tus of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife. but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spyglass tour during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with a delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth kekly repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception. something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known affinity for alcohol. he was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege brigadier general james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife, wrote inquisitively you and ms. kate are taking dinners out, visiting camps et cetera. is ms. kate a very charming, interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period, we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a "new york tribune" reporter lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow, one year kate chase's junior and nearly a decade younger than garfield. as for kate perhaps being squired in public by garfield was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work as thereafter the couple became involved again and eventually engaged. sprague played close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. an $18,000 paris gown was part of her bridal wardrobe. kate's advance to advance her father's career never wavered. it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lincoln has a new french rig with all the poseys, costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6,000 arrangement including a $3,000 shawl. go to it, greenbacks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. but if you read a washington paper of the period sara austin, the proprietor of a popular fancy house, chance to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rival ss. one of them called out that it contained a tub of guts. madam austin summoned the police and the fannys were hailed before justice and fined $2.50 each. newspapers might treat female rivalry satirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication, whether highbrow or lowbrow, hijinks or low blows, all part of the washington merry-go-round. in 1864, kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863, had been hailed as the social event of the season. the bride was resplendent in a white velvet wedding dress with a needle did point veil sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln spent over two hours to quote, take the cuffs off the meagerness of the presidential party, as he put it. mrs. sprague, however, after her marriage, did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated that she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864. although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage apartment on chase's behalf, the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation, this time this was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors, having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck, suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly that i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set, and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also indulge in her shopping mania and "the new york herald" reported during the summer of '64 that she ransacked the treasures of the broadway dry goods stores. mary klemmer complained while her sisters scraped lint, the wife of president spent her time rolling to and 'fro between washington and new york, intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife. but we do know that indeed even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven berry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan, although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally locked the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some politicians began to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan in congress a week earlier which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. but over the next two years mcclellan dubbed the american napoleon more for his personality than his military prowess, found criticism no laughing matter. he wrote to his wife, ellen when he received his first great military promotion in july 1861, i find myself in a new and strange position here. president, cabinet, general scott and all deferring to me by some strange operation of magic i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now, i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore i won't be dictator. admirable self-denial. and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship, but their courtship was protracted and it wasstymied. he fell head over heels with the daughter of his former army commander, randolph marci. he encouraged this young soldier who had prospects. and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother that he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military, ellen's father threatened that if she did not break off with him, i fear that my ardent affections will turn to hate. ellen did eventually abandon hill who would later, as we know, serve the rebel cause and often face mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox. but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find that mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. and when the mcclellans were on a visit to chicago and she was 25 mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. the couple were married in may 1860. and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self-promoter on his own. achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34, consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when winfield scott retired in november 1861 mcclellan insisted to lincoln that i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not. and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private, he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mike time. by july of 1862 salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed. yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. and tetum became her final downfall. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle splendidly. one of these days history will, i trust do me justice. yet lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he defected blame and then gloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party as their nominee in 1864. he actually held on to his military commission until election day november 8th following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the afterfirmation of your excellency. he forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marci mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations next year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger, blonder rivals? harriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush precipitously into matrimonial connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one, although she lost her uncle her husband, and both of her children, two sons before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s, donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography. as mary lincoln and harriet lane did. even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nettie were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court, an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873, four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring william's philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity her involvement with new york senator roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alleyil alimoney. it was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife who would return to the use of her maiden name, kate chase. she settled in the washington suburban home her father left her, caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty who was born mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life. which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. as auller argues, rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was, like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. much like the first lady she desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidate's victory. instead they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864 and one which just like today is ruled by social media just as generals petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught, never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex and media mix in washington. thank you. >> if there are any questions, we have maybe ten minutes or so before we need to move on to the next session. >> the question -- >> i'd love it if you'd identify yourself. do you mind? >> oh i'm norm. >> hi, norm. >> from akron, illinois but original ly originally -- >> lincolnian. >> i asked this question of jean baker when she was here last. and i'll ask the same question to you, but i'm not going to give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask a question i can give an answer. we can't rehash history here. >> do you think mary was bipolar bipolar? >> i have often said -- and i will repeat -- that pie doctorate's in history, not in medicine. and i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today, and she were examined by people, they would have very divided views. so i don't diagnose. i try and lay out the patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues. jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary lincoln. and we have some new work coming out about concussions and what head trauma and injuries can do. so i very much welcome that speculation. but i myself try to contextualize, and i believe that i was ironically most moved to believe she was not bipolar but had medication problems and psychological problems especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason emerson dug up that were written while she was incarcerated, confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> melberger, boston mass. >> hey don't forget us over here. >> oh, i'm sorry. i'm sorry. i must go to the left first, mel. do you mind? i'll take this, then i'll come right back to you. yes, sir, i'm sorry. >> i'm jim mcgrath from buffalo, new york. grover cleveland territory. and fannie. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland's white house. >> yeah. anyway my question is mary todd linken didn't -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia. but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor. but in the 1870s, grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well i would just check my last chapter because i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. that's just my -- >> that's what i heard. i just wonder if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> oh did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her presidential -- >> they actually had a really interesting incident that she was living abroad. and it's a very small town, very springfieldlike, a little capital in the south of france. you would go there for your health. british doctors would come. and interestingly, the grants were visiting there. and while she was in residence. and i came across an exchange of correspondence which was that very sincere, we're so terribly sorry, we had no idea you were here. and now our schedule doesn't allow us to visit you. so i think they always maintained quite polite, but as an ex-president, his popularity was something i think that deeply disturbed mary because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death, she never, i think, recovered from the long-term effects of his death was to campaign for her husband very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederickd douglass douglass. she donated artifacts to african-americans. she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much sacrificed himself for a cause. so she and grant, i don't think were ever going to -- and julia dunn grant, no they were never going to really become, you know bosom buddies, yeah. >> where would you rank her on first ladies? would she be on your top five? >> what if that was his question? >> i don't care. >> you get one. now it's mel's turn. yes. >> thank you. so after the deaths of -- that mary lincoln experienced in the white house of her children and then subsequently -- >> only one died in the white house. >> okay. >> one died before. one died after. >> what was the -- were her social rivals able to empathize and, you know ease the stings of what was going on in their relationships, or did they just really empathize with lincoln and totally ignore her? >> after her -- after her child's death. well, that was what i was so struck by in my biography i had written thematically. but when i got to the '61, '62, '63 period of her life i tried to write it chronologically because i was so struck by how karping her critics were. she just went through, you know, an amazing year of press surveillance, presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack everywhere she went followed by reporters. and doris goodwin put me on to the notion that if you want to attack the house, you set fire to the that muchch. she was often being scorched burnt during this particular period. and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat looking the whole notion of social rivals is something i didn't really find particular. but she does by '64 get herself revved up again. although she can throughout the period '63, '64 dissolve completely losing total control of herself in front of reporters, in front of friends over this question. she's quite angry that, for example, no one really recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, willie, except for neptune. i'm blanking. >> gideon wells. >> gideon wells' life who had lost so many children herself that she wrote a very reassuring note. so i do find some people coming in. there were many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her. that she was going to hospitals. that she was feeding -- they were trying to start press campaigns, but she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways and didn't want her name appearing in the paper, which is, of course, why the old clothes scandal after she left the white house was such a painful episode for both her and her son. >> thank you. >> thank you, mel. >> i'm dr. john will and i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychiatrist, but i always thought she was bipolar. some of her behavior her shopping behavior and so forth. but you may know this, but the reason that mcclellan -- or that a.p. hill and ellen marci broke up is because a.p. hill had gonorrhea which he contracted at west point during a weekend in new york with mcclellan. so mcclellan knew he had gonorrhea, and he informed the family the marci family, of amplgts p. a.p. hill's condition. >> well, thank you for that. i just don't do military history, but i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. this gentleman and then yes. >> yes. good c sxmorning. i'm david carroll. i'm from chicago. >> hi, david. >> hi. in the last year, published in "the journal of the abraham lincoln association" -- >> yes. >> -- there has been great speculation on mary lincoln purchasing pennyroyal at diller's drugstore in springfield when she was born with thad who was born with a rift cleft palate. i was wondering if you had any insights on this recent scholarship. >> i'm sorry, i can't comment on the scholarship. i apologize that i haven't read it, my recent move and dislocation of many of my books and pieces have meant that you know, i don't have the 41 trunks of mary lincoln, but moving a household from ireland was difficult, so i haven't looked at that particular thing. i would say from my estimation, my reading during that period, i would have no evidence from her letters or otherwise that there would be any way i could comment or believe that she was trying to not have a fourth child. the lincolns the lincolns were besoted by their children. they were very proud and devoted that when she suffered family tragedies and the death of oh little eddie, she was pregnant within a month. indeed the idea of having two younger sons and robert already gone to school was something that was in the minds of the lincolns. i look forward to it. thanks. >> i wish they would leave the poor woman alone. that's all. >> oh, well, well. >> congratulations. >> thank you. we'll applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. i think it's good. i did take great umbrage at the book that came out that said she definitely had syphilis. medically, i'm sure people can speculate. >> originally from ohio. the land of the presidents. can you talk more about mary lincoln's work. she spent time in the hospitals writing letters home for the soldiers. it seems to me that all of the vicious attacks against her could have been blunted if she had allowed the reporters to write about that. why did she not want that? and was it kept kind of a secret? did people not understand she was doing this? >> i don't think she advertised on purpose. thank you for that. i think she was someone of very much went into penaltyt penitence when her son died. one of the things is i told you about the grand ball and her grand aspirations for dethroning harriet lane. that was the night her son's illness became evident. she and the president kept checking in the bedroom. if you go to the lincoln library, it is a moving exhibit they have of going into the room to check during the ball. here was her great social triumph. within days her beloved willie was dead. i think during that period, if you contrast her next trip to new york with 64 i think you find she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature that she was. but also writing letters and taking care of the bonds between families during the wartime dislocations was something she very much did dedicate herself to. she took flowerses from the white house. she took fruit. she was, indeed, serving the role which she thought was a political role. we nolin con did it as well. they didn't go in as a couple. they went in separately and made tear way through the wards. when people came to her to try to publicize it, when someone mentioned it, she wrote to them saying please don't. we do know she was trying to keep that side of her charity. she wanted to be an anonymous donor to the soldiers' cause during that period. that's what i think was her interest at that time. yes? >> mary beth donnelly. i appreciate the opportunity to oh ask a question. >> i'm sorry. the last question. make it a good one. >> i'll try. >> i'm sorry. >> it's broad. i'm thinking of last night's conversation about lincoln on film. what do you think about the portrayal of oh mary lincoln on film. specifically related to spielberg or anything else. do you feel it's been fair? >> well, i do have weaknesses. i think that i have very strong feelings about ann rutledge on film which i won't share. nevertheless, i think mary on film is a really interesting phenomenon. i do believe, for example, you could see in the portrait with sam waterston with gore vidal and mary tyler moore trying to show a woman with clear disturbances. i thought that was powerful. but i felt that the recent portrait by sally field, which i very much regret didn't earn her her third oscar, was nevertheless such an amazing inhabiting of the role. i think people can have differences of opinion about what were her problems. what were her flaws. i think that portrait captured her as a flawed, dynamic, intense character. she contributed to that in a way that i found amazing. i'm regretful i can't name the actress who portrayed mary todd in "lincoln the vampire slayer." you have to understand that any scholar who has written a biography of harriet tubman and mary lincoln that finds these characters taking guns to gettysburg to save the union is =q> we'd like to tell you about some of our other american history tv programs. join us every saturday at 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern for a special look at the civil war. we'll bring you to the battlefields, let you hear from scholars and reenactors and bring you the latest historical forums on the subject. that's programs on the civil war every saturday at 6:00 and 10:00 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franklin, talking about the battle of franklin, the battle of nashville and the final campaign, the last campaign has meant to tennessee, southern history and american history. 1r so thanks for coming out. it's sort of like introducing a rock star next. you have had the well known acts and the front acts. now you get a special event.
salon while her sister marion campbell was embedded when several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames in d.c. and she would later befriend 345irmary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. it would be difficult to could be receive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue, and as we just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were of course areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the finest aide of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle a legendary beauty, nearly 25 years his junior held equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of son nora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgium but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan myrrhal in the world. harriet lane buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabeth keckley was a prominent mixed race seamstress favored by the washington elite. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was varina davis. assuming the role herself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslin palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight his wife stayed on dancing into the night. she surprised the washington snobs. they commented on her exquisite toilette. the new york herald weighed in again, that's the newspaper, not our harold, she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoi polloi. like the proverbial cinderella after the ball she had wicked step sisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with con fed rat kin. the republicans were flocking into town in droves but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee, daughter frances presson blair suggested the women kind are give mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder and the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created department rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s, who could forget bully brooks and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861, the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said, i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights so church going even became a divided enterprise. lincoln's election, like andrew jackson's decades before, represented a seismic social shifert in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage, denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to, but the cage was not exactly 2k3wi8ded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby run down condition of the president's residence. the fur nirning in the red room which the lincolns claims for private callers had pieces left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second rate hotel with its threadbare carpets and chopped up drapes. mary was determined to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month the washington ladies had not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate hoping once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on ft. sumter and lincoln's call to arm, her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where quote under the gorgeous gas chandeliers, they disposed themselves in picturesque biv wak on the brilliant patterned velvet carpet. a remarkable vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced edd lincoln's pred soror to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the cost would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she suggested they stop the customary state dinners. she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her husband was skeptical, but her arguments and i'm sure her%3p persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries, john nicolet, proclaimed le wren has determined to abrogate dinners and she got her way. while sher husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln demonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levees will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainedder of the session of congress. they were obligatory and staff found them wearying. nicolet confided they are both novel and pleasant to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to quote, do washington, but for us who have to surf the infliction once a week they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained to the president looking more and more gaunt and care worn. to relieve the teat yum, mrs. lincoln introduced the program of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion. lincoln's favorite singers actors, and others might be singled out for recognition when one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts, colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february of 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manners invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room, not only the labor required for such an event but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln sergeants who by now had nicknamed her hell cat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not, mr. and mrs. wade are and for that reason decline to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge, quail, duck, turkey foie gras, beef, and the president's favorite oysters, greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant spun sugar deserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year hoping to banish the memory of her predecessors reign in the white house. hair yet lane had been both a popular socialite and an impeccable style setter. mary clemor, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense harmonious vitality. her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke kindle with humor, or soften with tenderness. her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's gold when she took over the executive mansion focused on e ray sure of memories of when this blond younger model made washington society dance to her tune. clemor suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives, we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and mary lincoln made her jurn why i to washington a triumphant passage. with all of mary's faults as margaret leech has argued, in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. marey mary's poor relations with the press form a mainstay of my by graphical treatment. she and her husband were unforgiving of what they felt was an abusive fourth estate. lincoln had his battles with journalists and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while on a carriage ride and the president was not so good humored nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and win over the public. her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign and fervently as a statesman wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's vacuum was filled by kate chase, the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house in the chase home at 6th and e. quite a good place this clara barton, mathew brady nexus. this contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john aller's new book, american queen, the rise and fall of kate chase sprague which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fascinating life. rumors in washington suggest that the chase/lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william dennison of ohio on february 13th the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol and then they spent the eke being entertained, including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night, which, of course, was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counter story was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance, but both fanciful tales seem manufactured, lylely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness in her rendition of the rivalry in later years particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and miry lincoln were introduced at the first white house levee in 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and a confidant of mrs. lk. this young eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. anne richardson french, wife of sculptor daniel chester french, described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow dibeliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded both chase's striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared, people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns first state dinner on march 28th battle lines were clearly being drawn as the story is repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left i shall be glad to see you anytime, miss chase and chase allegedly replied, mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me anytime. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction but i think we know that both parties were giving thinly veiled signals of the rough seas ahead. mrs. lincoln knew that the gauntlet had been thrown down. her white house receptions and levees were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure a coterie of power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1960 but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent vil for and many other wealthy financier financiers financiers. she held receptions every wednesday afternoon. afternoon gathers would drift in evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about worming her way into lincoln's inner circle attending the theater with john hey and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases. he stayed in the picture and was manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wunder kind william sprague who was by all accounts a bounder when he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, the youngest man elected at 26 to lead a state sprague cut a dashing figure and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington the president was extraordinarily kind even solicitous of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife, but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spy glass to her during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with the delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth keckley repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception, something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook, including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known weakness for alcohol. chase did not care that sprague had more money than sense and was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife wrote inquis sitly. you and miss kat are taking dinners out. is miss kate a very charming, interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a new york tribune reporter lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow one year kate chase's junior and a decade younger than garfield. as for kate, perhaps being scire squired in public was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work because thereafter they became involved and eventually engaged. sprague paid close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. kate's campaign to advance her father's career never wavered but once lincoln trumped with the emancipation proclamation it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln/chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lk has a new french rig with all the posies costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6000 arrangement, including a $3000 shawl. go to it green banks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. if you read a washington paper of the era, sarah austin chanced to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rivals. one called out the austin equipage contained a tub of guts. they were fined $2.50 each. newspaper's might treat female rivalry sa tirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication whether high brow or low brow hi jinxes or low blows, all part of the washington merry go round. in 1864 kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863 had been hailed as the social event of the eason. the bride was replen accident in a white velvet wedding dress sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire, part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln's spent over two hours to, quote, take the cuss off the meagerness of the presidential party as he put it. mrs. sprague however after her marriage did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed, within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864, although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage appointment on chase's behalf, the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation this time it was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house, i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also endull ge in her shoppingmania and the new york herald reported she reason sacked the treasures of dry good stores. maim yir clemor complained while sher sisters scraped lint the wife of the president spent her time rolling to and fro between washington and new york. intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife, but we do know that, indeed, even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven barry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally lock the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some polliticians ghan to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. over the next two years he was dubbed the american napoleon, and he found criticism no laughsing matter. he wrote to his wife ellen when he received his first military promotion, i find myself at a new and strange position her, president, cabinet, general scott, and all deferring to me. by some strange operation of magic, i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore, i won't be dictator. admirable self denial, and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship but their courtship was protracted and it was stymied by ellen's lack of enthusiasm. in 1854 mcclellan fell head over heels in love with the daughter of his former army commander randolphm arcy. her father encouraged this young soldier who had prospects and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military ellen's father threatened if she did not break off with him i fear my ardent affections will turn to hate. alen did eventually abandon hill who would later as we know serve the rebel cause and often faced mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. when the mek clelens were on a visit to chicago and she was 25, mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. they were married in may 1860 and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self promoter on his own achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34 consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when infield scott retired in november 1861 mcclenen insisted to lincoln i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mic time. by july of 1862, salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed, yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. antietam became mcclellan's final fountainfall despite his protestations to the opposite. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle 134re7b didly. one of these days history will i trust do me justice. lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he deflected vain and vaingloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party and held onto his military commission until election day november 8th. following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe, it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the ap probation of your excellency. mcclellan failed to carry even a majority of the soldiers' vote and forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all, the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marcie mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations last year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger blonder rivals? hairrriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush were sip tusly into mat ri moanal connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one although she lost her uncle, her husband, and both of her children, two sons, before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nette were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring williams philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity, her involvement with new york 12340r roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alimony. after months of wrangling, the marriage was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife. she settled in the washington sue bauer ban home her father left her caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty, who was more than mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life, which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. but much like the first lady, she so desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidates' victory. instead, they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies, perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864, and one which just like today is ruled by social media. just as generals petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught. never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex, and media mix in washington. thank you. [ applause ] >> if there are any questions we have maybe ten minutes or so before we need to move on to the next session. >> the question -- >> i'd love it if you'd identify yourself. do you mind? >> i'm norm. >> hi norm. >> i'm norm from akron ohio. originally lincoln, illinois. >> okay. hi. >> i'll try to get down to the level that most -- >> you're lincolnian. >> i ask this question of jean baker when she was here last and i'll ask the same question to you but i'm not going give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask a question. i can give an answer. we can't rehash history here. >> do you think mary was bipolar? >> i have often said, and i will repeat, that my doctorate is in history, not in medicine, and i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today and she were examined by people they would have very divided views. so i don't diagnose i try to lay out the patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues, jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary lincoln. jason emerson has written about his diagnosis exactly and we have new work coming out about concussions and what head trauma and injury can do. i very much welcome that speculation, but i myself try to contextualize and i believe i was ironically most moved to believe she was not bipolar but had medication problems and psychological problems, especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason emmerson dug up that were written while she was incarcerated confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> mel burger, boston, mass. >> don't forget us over here. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. >> you should -- >> i must go to the left first mel. do you mind? i'll take this and come right back to you. yes, sir, i'm sorry. >> i'm jim mcgrath, i'm from buffalo, new york. >> hi, jim. sorry. >> grover cleveland territory and fannie. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland's white house. >> anyway my question is mary todd lincoln -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia, but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor but in the 1870s curiously enough when grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well, i would just check my last chapter because -- i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. >> that's what i heard. i just wondered if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her -- >> any actually had an interesting incident that she was living abroad and it's a very small town kind of very springfield-like, a little capital in the south of -- i think they always maintained quite polite, but as an ex-president, his popularity was something i think that -- deeply disturbed mary because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death -- she never i think recovered from the long-term effects of his death was to campaign for her husband very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederick douglass. she donated artifacts to african-americans. she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much sacrificed himself for a cause. so she and grant i don't think were ever going to -- and julia dent grant no they were never going to really become, you know -- >> bosom buddies. >> yeah. >> where would you rank her on the list of great american first ladies? i hope i didn't steal somebody's question? >> what about mel here? what if that was his question? >> i don't care. >> you get one. now it's mel's turn. >> thank you. so after the deaths of -- that mary lincoln experienced in the white house of her children -- >> only one died in the white house. >> okay. >> one died before. >> what was -- were her social rivals able to empathize and ease the stings of what was going on in their relationships or did they just really empathize with lincoln and totally ignore here? >> after her child's death? well, that what i was so struck by in my biography i had written thematically but when i got to the '61, '62 '63 period of her life i tried to write it chronologically because i was so struck by how carping her critics were. she just went through an amazing year of press surveillance. presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack everywhere she went followed by reporters, and doris goodwin put me on to the notion if you want to attack the house you set fire to the thatch and mary was the thatch. so she was often being scorched, burnt, during this particular period, and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat looking. the whole notion of social rivals is something i didn't really find in particular but she does by '64 get herself revved up again although she can throughout the period '63-'64 dissolve completely losing total control of herself in front of reporters, in front of friends over this question. she's quite angry that, for example, no one really recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, willy except for neptune. i'm blanking -- >> gideon wells swells. >> gideon wells wife who had lost so many children of her own. there were many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her, that she was going to hospitals. they were trying to start press campaigns, but she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways and didn't want her name appearing in the paper which s of course why the old clothes scandal after she left the white house was such a painful episode for both her and her son. >> thank you. >> thank you, mel. >> i'm dr. john will and i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychiatrist, but i always thought she was bipolar, some of her behavior, her shopping behavior and so forth, but you may know this, but the reason that mcclellan -- or that a.p. hill and ellen marcie broke up is because a.p. hill had gonorrhea which he had contracted at west point during a weekend in new york with mcclellan. so mcclellan knew he had gonorrhea, and he informed the family, the marcie family of ample p. hill's condition. >> thank you for that. you see, i just don't do military history but i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. this gentleman and then -- >> yes. good morning. i'm david carroll from chicago. >> hi, david. >> hi. in the last year published in the journal of the abraham lincoln association there has been great speculation on mary lincoln purchasing penny royal at dill lard's drugstore in springfield when she was pregnant with tad who was born with a cleft palate. penny royal is used to rid dogs of fleas or induce abortion. do you have insight on this recent scholarship? >> i'm sorry. i can't comment on that. my recent move and dislocation of many of my books and pieces meant that i don't have the 41 -- of oh mary lincoln but moving from ireland was difficult. i would say from my reading i have no evidence from her letters or otherwise that there would be any way i could comment or believe she was trying to not have a fourth child. the lincolns were besoted by their children. they were very proud and devoted that when she suffered family tragedies and the death of oh little eddie she was pregnant within a month. indeed the idea of having two younger sons and robert already gone to school was something that was in the minds of the lincolns. i look forward to it. thanks. >> i wish they would leave the poor woman alone. that's all. >> oh well, well. >> congratulations. >> thank you. we'll applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. i think it's good. i did take great umbrage at the book that came out that said she definitely had syphilis. people can speculate. >> originally from ohio. the land of the presidents. can you talk more about mary lincoln's work. she spent time in the hospitals writing letters home for the soldiers. it seems to me that all of the vicious attacks against her could have been blunted if she had allowed the reporters to write about that. why did she not want that? and was it kept kind of a secret? did people not understand she was doing this? >> i don't think she advertised on purpose. thank you for that. she very much went into penitence when her son died. one of the things is i told you about the grand ball and her grand aspirations for dethroning harriet lane. that was the night her son's illness became evident. she and the president kept checking in the bedroom. if you go to the lincoln library, it is a moving exhibit they have of going into the room to check during the ball. here was her great social triumph. within days her beloved willie was dead. i think during that period if you contrast her next trip to new york with 64 i think you find she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature that she was. but also writing letterers and taking care of the bonds between families during the wartime dislocations was something she very much did dedicate herself to. she took flowerses from the white house. she took fruit. she was, indeed serving the role which she thought was a political role. we nolin con did it as well. they didn't go in as a couple. they went in separately and made tear way through the wards. when people came to her to try to publicize it, when someone mentioned it, she wrote to them saying please don't. we do know she was trying to keep that
just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were of course areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the finest aide of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle a legendary beauty, nearly 25 years his junior held equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of son nora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgium but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan myrrhal in the world. harriet lane buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabeth keckley was a prominent mixed race seamstress favored by the washington elite. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was varina davis. assuming the role herself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslin palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight his wife stayed on dancing into the night. she surprised the washington snobs. they commented on her exquisite toilette. the new york herald weighed in again, that's the newspaper, not our harold, she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoi polloi. like the proverbial cinderella after the ball she had wicked step sisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with con fed rat kin. the republicans were flocking into town in droves but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee, daughter frances presson blair suggested the women kind are give mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder and the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created department rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s, who could forget bully brooks and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861, the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said, i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights so church going even became a divided enterprise. lincoln's election, like andrew jackson's decades before, represented a seismic social shifert in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage, denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to, but the cage was not exactly 2k3wi8ded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby run down condition of the president's residence. the fur nirning in the red room which the lincolns claims for private callers had pieces left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second rate hotel with its threadbare carpets and chopped up drapes. mary was determined to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month the washington ladies had not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate hoping once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on ft. sumter and lincoln's call to arm, her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where quote under the gorgeous gas chandeliers, they disposed themselves in picturesque biv wak on the brilliant patterned velvet carpet. a remarkable vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced edd lincoln's pred soror to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the cost would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she suggested they stop the customary state dinners. she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her husband was skeptical, but her arguments and i'm sure her%3p persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries, john nicolet, proclaimed le wren has determined to abrogate dinners and she got her way. while sher husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln demonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levees will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainedder of the session of congress. they were obligatory and staff found them wearying. nicolet confided they are both novel and pleasant to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to quote, do washington, but for us who have to surf the infliction once a week they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained to the president looking more and more gaunt and care worn. to relieve the teat yum, mrs. lincoln introduced the program of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion. lincoln's favorite singers actors, and others might be singled out for recognition when one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts, colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february of 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manners invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room, not only the labor required for such an event but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln sergeants who by now had nicknamed her hell cat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not, mr. and mrs. wade are and for that reason decline to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge, quail, duck, turkey foie gras, beef, and the president's favorite oysters, greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant spun sugar deserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year hoping to banish the memory of her predecessors reign in the white house. hair yet lane had been both a popular socialite and an impeccable style setter. mary clemor, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense harmonious vitality. her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke kindle with humor, or soften with tenderness. her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's gold when she took over the executive mansion focused on e ray sure of memories of when this blond younger model made washington society dance to her tune. clemor suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives, we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and mary lincoln made her jurn why i to washington a triumphant passage. with all of mary's faults as margaret leech has argued, in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. marey mary's poor relations with the press form a mainstay of my by graphical treatment. she and her husband were unforgiving of what they felt was an abusive fourth estate. lincoln had his battles with journalists and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while on a carriage ride and the president was not so good humored nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and win over the public. her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign and fervently as a statesman wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's vacuum was filled by kate chase, the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house in the chase home at 6th and e. quite a good place this clara barton, mathew brady nexus. this contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john aller's new book, american queen, the rise and fall of kate chase sprague which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fascinating life. rumors in washington suggest that the chase/lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william dennison of ohio on february 13th the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol and then they spent the eke being entertained, including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night, which, of course, was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counter story was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance, but both fanciful tales seem manufactured, lylely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness in her rendition of the rivalry in later years particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and miry lincoln were introduced at the first white house levee in 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and a confidant of mrs. lk. this young eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. anne richardson french, wife of sculptor daniel chester french, described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow dibeliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded both chase's striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared, people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns first state dinner on march 28th battle lines were clearly being drawn as the story is repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left i shall be glad to see you anytime, miss chase and chase allegedly replied, mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me anytime. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction but i think we know that both parties were giving thinly veiled signals of the rough seas ahead. mrs. lincoln knew that the gauntlet had been thrown down. her white house receptions and levees were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure a coterie of power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1960 but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent vil for and many other wealthy financier financiers financiers. she held receptions every wednesday afternoon. afternoon gathers would drift in evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about worming her way into lincoln's inner circle attending the theater with john hey and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases. he stayed in the picture and was manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wunder kind william sprague who was by all accounts a bounder when he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, the youngest man elected at 26 to lead a state sprague cut a dashing figure and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington the president was extraordinarily kind even solicitous of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife, but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spy glass to her during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with the delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth keckley repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception, something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook, including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known weakness for alcohol. chase did not care that sprague had more money than sense and was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife wrote inquis sitly. you and miss kat are taking dinners out. is miss kate a very charming, interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a new york tribune reporter lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow one year kate chase's junior and a decade younger than garfield. as for kate, perhaps being scire squired in public was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work because thereafter they became involved and eventually engaged. sprague paid close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. kate's campaign to advance her father's career never wavered but once lincoln trumped with the emancipation proclamation it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln/chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lk has a new french rig with all the posies costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6000 arrangement, including a $3000 shawl. go to it green banks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. if you read a washington paper of the era, sarah austin chanced to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rivals. one called out the austin equipage contained a tub of guts. they were fined $2.50 each. newspaper's might treat female rivalry sa tirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication whether high brow or low brow hi jinxes or low blows, all part of the washington merry go round. in 1864 kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863 had been hailed as the social event of the eason. the bride was replen accident in a white velvet wedding dress sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire, part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln's spent over two hours to, quote, take the cuss off the meagerness of the presidential party as he put it. mrs. sprague however after her marriage did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed, within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864, although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage appointment on chase's behalf, the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation this time it was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house, i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also endull ge in her shoppingmania and the new york herald reported she reason sacked the treasures of dry good stores. maim yir clemor complained while sher sisters scraped lint the wife of the president spent her time rolling to and fro between washington and new york. intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife, but we do know that, indeed, even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven barry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally lock the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some polliticians ghan to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. over the next two years he was dubbed the american napoleon, and he found criticism no laughsing matter. he wrote to his wife ellen when he received his first military promotion, i find myself at a new and strange position her, president, cabinet, general scott, and all deferring to me. by some strange operation of magic, i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore, i won't be dictator. admirable self denial, and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship but their courtship was protracted and it was stymied by ellen's lack of enthusiasm. in 1854 mcclellan fell head over heels in love with the daughter of his former army commander randolphm arcy. her father encouraged this young soldier who had prospects and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military ellen's father threatened if she did not break off with him i fear my ardent affections will turn to hate. alen did eventually abandon hill who would later as we know serve the rebel cause and often faced mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. when the mek clelens were on a visit to chicago and she was 25, mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. they were married in may 1860 and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self promoter on his own achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34 consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when infield scott retired in november 1861 mcclenen insisted to lincoln i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mic time. by july of 1862, salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed, yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. antietam became mcclellan's final fountainfall despite his protestations to the opposite. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle 134re7b didly. one of these days history will i trust do me justice. lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he deflected vain and vaingloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party and held onto his military commission until election day november 8th. following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe, it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the ap probation of your excellency. mcclellan failed to carry even a majority of the soldiers' vote and forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all, the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marcie mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations last year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger blonder rivals? hairrriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush were sip tusly into mat ri moanal connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one although she lost her uncle, her husband, and both of her children, two sons, before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nette were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring williams philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity, her involvement with new york 12340r roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alimony. after months of wrangling, the marriage was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife. she settled in the washington sue bauer ban home her father left her caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty, who was more than mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life, which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. but much like the first lady, she so desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidates' victory. instead, they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies, perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864, and one which just like today is ruled by social media. just as generals petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught. never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex, and media mix in washington. thank you. [ applause ] >> if there are any questions we have maybe ten minutes or so before we need to move on to the next session. >> the question -- >> i'd love it if you'd identify yourself. do you mind? >> i'm norm. >> hi norm. >> i'm norm from akron ohio. originally lincoln, illinois. >> okay. hi. >> i'll try to get down to the level that most -- >> you're lincolnian. >> i ask this question of jean baker when she was here last and i'll ask the same question to you but i'm not going give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask a question. i can give an answer. we can't rehash history here. >> do you think mary was bipolar? >> i have often said, and i will repeat, that my doctorate is in history, not in medicine, and i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today and she were examined by people they would have very divided views. so i don't diagnose i try to lay out the patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues, jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary lincoln. jason emerson has written about his diagnosis exactly and we have new work coming out about concussions and what head trauma and injury can do. i very much welcome that speculation, but i myself try to contextualize and i believe i was ironically most moved to believe she was not bipolar but had medication problems and psychological problems, especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason emmerson dug up that were written while she was incarcerated confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> mel burger, boston, mass. >> don't forget us over here. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. >> you should -- >> i must go to the left first mel. do you mind? i'll take this and come right back to you. yes, sir, i'm sorry. >> i'm jim mcgrath, i'm from buffalo, new york. >> hi, jim. sorry. >> grover cleveland territory and fannie. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland's white house. >> anyway my question is mary todd lincoln -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia, but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor but in the 1870s curiously enough when grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well, i would just check my last chapter because -- i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. >> that's what i heard. i just wondered if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her -- >> any actually had an interesting incident that she was living abroad and it's a very small town kind of very springfield-like, a little capital in the south of -- i think they always maintained quite polite, but as an ex-president, his popularity was something i think that -- deeply disturbed mary because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death -- she never i think recovered from the long-term effects of his death was to campaign for her husband very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederick douglass. she donated artifacts to african-americans. she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much sacrificed himself for a cause. so she and grant i don't think were ever going to -- and julia dent grant no they were never going to really become, you know -- >> bosom buddies. >> yeah. >> where would you rank her on the list of great american first ladies? i hope i didn't steal somebody's question? >> what about mel here? what if that was his question? >> i don't care. >> you get one. now it's mel's turn. >> thank you. so after the deaths of -- that mary lincoln experienced in the white house of her children -- >> only one died in the white house. >> okay. >> one died before. >> what was -- were her social rivals able to empathize and ease the stings of what was going on in their relationships or did they just really empathize with lincoln and totally ignore here? >> after her child's death? well, that what i was so struck by in my biography i had written thematically but when i got to the '61, '62 '63 period of her life i tried to write it chronologically because i was so struck by how carping her critics were. she just went through an amazing year of press surveillance. presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack everywhere she went followed by reporters, and doris goodwin put me on to the notion if you want to attack the house you set fire to the thatch and mary was the thatch. so she was often being scorched, burnt, during this particular period, and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat looking. the whole notion of social rivals is something i didn't really find in particular but she does by '64 get herself revved up again although she can throughout the period '63-'64 dissolve completely losing total control of herself in front of reporters, in front of friends over this question. she's quite angry that, for example, no one really recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, willy except for neptune. i'm blanking -- >> gideon wells swells. >> gideon wells wife who had lost so many children of her own. there were many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her, that she was going to hospitals. they were trying to start press campaigns, but she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways and didn't want her name appearing in the paper which s of course why the old clothes scandal after she left the white house was such a painful episode for both her and her son. >> thank you. >> thank you, mel. >> i'm dr. john will and i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychiatrist, but i always thought she was bipolar, some of her behavior, her shopping behavior and so forth, but you may know this, but the reason that mcclellan -- or that a.p. hill and ellen marcie broke up is because a.p. hill had gonorrhea which he had contracted at west point during a weekend in new york with mcclellan. so mcclellan knew he had gonorrhea, and he informed the family, the marcie family of ample p. hill's condition. >> thank you for that. you see, i just don't do military history but i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. this gentleman and then -- >> yes. good morning. i'm david carroll from chicago. >> hi, david. >> hi. in the last year published in the journal of the abraham lincoln association there has been great speculation on mary lincoln purchasing penny royal at dill lard's drugstore in springfield when she was pregnant with tad who was born with a cleft palate. penny royal is used to rid dogs of fleas or induce abortion. do you have insight on this recent scholarship? >> i'm sorry. i can't comment on that. my recent move and dislocation of many of my books and pieces meant that i don't have the 41 -- of oh mary lincoln but moving from ireland was difficult. i would say from my reading i have no evidence from her letters or otherwise that there would be any way i could comment or believe she was trying to not have a fourth child. the lincolns were besoted by their children. they were very proud and devoted that when she suffered family tragedies and the death of oh little eddie she was pregnant within a month. indeed the idea of having two younger sons and robert already gone to school was something that was in the minds of the lincolns. i look forward to it. thanks. >> i wish they would leave the poor woman alone. that's all. >> oh well, well. >> congratulations. >> thank you. we'll applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. i think it's good. i did take great umbrage at the book that came out that said she definitely had syphilis. people can speculate. >> originally from ohio. the land of the presidents. can you talk more about mary lincoln's work. she spent time in the hospitals writing letters home for the soldiers. it seems to me that all of the vicious attacks against her could have been blunted if she had allowed the reporters to write about that. why did she not want that? and was it kept kind of a secret? did people not understand she was doing this? >> i don't think she advertised on purpose. thank you for that. she very much went into penitence when her son died. one of the things is i told you about the grand ball and her grand aspirations for dethroning harriet lane. that was the night her son's illness became evident. she and the president kept checking in the bedroom. if you go to the lincoln library, it is a moving exhibit they have of going into the room to check during the ball. here was her great social triumph. within days her beloved willie was dead. i think during that period if you contrast her next trip to new york with 64 i think you find she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature that she was. but also writing letterers and taking care of the bonds between families during the wartime dislocations was something she very much did dedicate herself to. she took flowerses from the white house. she took fruit. she was, indeed serving the role which she thought was a political role. we nolin con did it as well. they didn't go in as a couple. they went in separately and made tear way through the wards. when people came to her to try to publicize it, when someone mentioned it, she wrote to them saying please don't. we do know she was trying to keep that side of her charity. she wanted to be an anonymous donor to the soldiers' cause during that period. that's what i think was her interest at that time. yes? >> mary beth donnelly. i appreciate the opportunity to oh ask a question. >> i'm sorry. the last question. make it a good one. >> i'll try. >> i'm sorry. >> it's broad. i'm thinking of last night's conversation about lincoln on film. what do you think about the portrayal of oh mary lincoln on film. specifically related to spielberg or anything else. do you feel
women such as mary lincoln and kate chase daughter of salmon p chase, it carried out their own social battles through gossip, spending wars, and hosting parties. according to ms. clinton, meri lincoln often drew criticism for attempting to keep up appearances through lavish diplomatic interest despite the ongoing civil war. this hour-long event was part of the lincoln form's symposium in gettysburg, pennsylvania. >> it's my pleasure to introduce your second speaker this morning, dr. catherine clinton. dr. clinton earned her bachelor's degree at harvard and ph.d. at princeton where she studied under dr. james mcpherson. she taught at the citadel, wesleyan wesleyan, brandeis, and queens university in belfast northern ireland. since august of 2014, she's been the denman endowed professor at american history at the university of texas at san antonio. so from northern ireland to texas, that's quite a journey. and 2016 she'll assume the presidency of the southern historical association. her prestigious post recognizing her standing in the field. she's the author or editor of two dozen books, many focusing on family, gender, or women's issues in the 19th century. i suspect many people in this room have read her 2009 biography of mary todd lincoln. her talk today is titled "teeming with rivals: women's parlor politics during the civil war." please help me welcome dr. clinton. [applause] >> well, thank you. it's so lovely to be here in gettysburg, and, yes, indeed the journey from northern ireland to texas, what would draw me into these arctic temperatures? but i want to credit certainly the quartet of very kind scholars in the field. i was first brought her by gabor and then thanks to harold holzer and chief frank, i have been back again and again, but thank you, jim, of course, for helping this needy student on her journey toward civil war history. a powerful woman was at the center of swirling political debates during a re-election campaign of the president. her influence over him, did she or did she not sway him? was a source of parlor games in that most murky of fir bowls washington, d.c. gossip and gender create puerful sparks and reverberations and for those who think such issues don't matter, recall the presidential ambitions of ed muskie, dissolved in the melting snow versus tears debate in february 1972. a well educated woman with a track record of speaking her mind, a woman who did not mind bumping against the young, shiny palace guard at the white house. the capital remained agog anticipating her every misstep speculating on her motives with intensifying speculation as reporters tracked her every move. could it be 2012? or is it 1864? as i suggest in my recent biography of mrs. lincoln, a life, the storm enveloping lincoln's wife could not be matched until we had hillary clinton in the white house as the president's wife, and it was mrs. lincoln who first carvinged out a distinctive role for herself during her white house years. as much by necessity as by choice. several of mary lincoln's immediate family were engaged in military rebellion dedicated to the overthrow of her husband's government. she remained completely loyal to the union and went well beyond what was required having her mail incoming and outgoing read for her. lincoln's wife had perhaps the most challenging time as first lady, a term that was coined before she assumed the role, but became a label embraced by the press to designate the president's wife. due to mary's visibility and profile, she took advantage of this new role. as mary lincoln, the todd was only added later by descendants who actually wanted to link mary to her birth family, the todds and also to another president, and that is dolly todd madison was married to a todd, but in her own lifetime, the two-named mary lincoln felt herself at the center of a converging disaster inform 1864. for three long years she had weathered the political storms. she'd endured fearful threats against her husband in 1861, suffered the loss of a child in 1862, and she nearly died herself of an injury following the sabotage of the president's carriage in june 1863 which resulted in an accident intended to have a fatal effect on the president rather than the very severe head trauma it caused his wife. in the year 1864 it proved a severely challenged siege for the much maligned mrs. lincoln. rather than serenely reigning, she found her parlor teeming with rivals. mary had worked hard during her husband's first presidential campaign in the summer 1860. she made a favorable impression on john scripps, editor of the chicago tribune who suggested that the lincolns were not the country bump kins the eastern establishment might expect especially as lincoln's wife was educated, french speaking, an aristocratic daughter of the bluegrass. a new york herald reporter suggested lincoln's springfield resident resembled longfellow he 's abode in cambridge. another credited lincoln's wife who was an amiable and accomplished lady. these reports were meant to reassure voters along the eastern seaboard that they hadn't really had a wild westerner for a candidate. after lincoln's victory at the ballot box, he had an uphill battle when he arrived in washington, d.c. while the president-elect worked to organize his government, mary launched her own campaigns hosting family and friends greeting diplomats and statesmen, anticipating her new set of duties, and she sought to maneuver the treacherous shoals of secession. the coldness and snobbery of easterners was wearing her down. she confronted one of the most idiosyncratic of american institutions, washington society. at the heart of the city's bow monday, the toughened core of social arbiters were known as cave dwellers. their tenure and tenacity gave them influence over the parade of newcomers who straggled into the city at irregular but certainly every four-year intervals. the inner city of d.c. society was surrounded by the money bags whose rung on the ladder was bought, and then there were the high brows, whose station was secured by talent regardless of wealth although it was considered felicitous when the two went together. three outer rings applied steady social pressure jockeying for improved position, the diplomats, the army and navy crowd, and the politicos, but clearly it is the cave dwellers, particularly women like mary clemor and laura holloway who influenced the pecking order among the capital's society. fanny, mrs. charles, maintained an eclectic sunday salon at her 14th and 8th street salon while her sister marion campbell was embedded within several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames in d.c. and she would later befriend mary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. it would be difficult to could be receive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue, and as we just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were, of course, areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the finest aide of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle a legendary beauty, nearly 25 years his junior held court. equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began, was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of son nora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgium but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan mural in the world. harriet lane, buchanan's niece , who assumed the role of white house hostess, left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. arriving into town with such rigid social snobbery, mrs. lincoln immediately placed a dressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabeth keckley was a prominent mixed race seamstress favored by the washington elite. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was varina davis. assuming the role herself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslin palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight his wife stayed on dancing into the night. she surprised the washington snobs. they commented on her exquisite toilette. the new york herald weighed in again, that's the newspaper, not our harold, she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoi polloi. like the proverbial cinderella after the ball she had wicked step sisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with confederate kin. the republicans were flocking into town in droves, but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee, daughter of frances presson blair suggested the women kind are giving mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder and the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created department rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s, who could forget bully brooks and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861, the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said, i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights so church going even became a divided enterprise. lincoln's election, like andrew jackson's decades before represented a seismic social shift in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to but the cage was not exactly guilded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby, run down condition of the president's residence. the furnishings in the red room which the lincolns claims for private callers had pieces left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second rate hotel with its threadbare carpets and chopped up drapes. mary was determined to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month, the washington ladies had not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate hoping once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on ft. sumter and lincoln's call to arm, her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where, quote, under the gorgeous gas chandeliers, they disposed themselves in picturesque biv ouaks on the brilliant patterned velvet carpet. a remarkable vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration, the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced lincoln's pred eccesor to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the cost would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she suggested they stop the customary state dinners. she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her husband was skeptical, but her arguments and i'm sure her persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries, john nicolet, proclaimed le wren has determined to abrogate dinners and she got her way. while sher husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln demonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levees will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainder of the session of congress. they were obligatory and staff found them wearying. nicolet confided they are both novel and pleasant to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to, quote, do washington, but for us who have to surf the infliction once a week, they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained to the president looking more and more gaunt and care worn. to relieve the tedium, mrs. lincoln introduced the program of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion. lincoln's favorite singers actors, and others might be singled out for recognition when one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february of 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manners invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room, not only the labor required for such an event, but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln secretaries who by now had nicknamed her hell cat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not, mr. and mrs. wade are and for that reason decline to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge quail, duck, turkey, foie gras beef, and the president's favorite, oysters, greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant spun sugar desserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year hoping to banish the memory of her predecessors reign in the white house. lane had been both a popular socialite and an impeccable style setter. mary clemor, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense, harmonious vitality. her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke, kindle with humor, or soften with tenderness. her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's goal when she took over the executive mansion focused on erasure of memories of when this blond younger model made washington society dance to her tune. clemor suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives, we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and mary lincoln made her jurn why i to -- her journey to washington a triumphant passage. with all of mary's faults as margaret leech has argued, in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. mary's poor relations with the press form a mainstay of my by graphical treatment. she and her husband were unforgiving of what they felt was an abusive fourth estate. lincoln had his battles with journalists and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while on a carriage ride and the president was not so good humored nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip, and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and win over the public. her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign and fervently as a statesman wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's vacuum was filled by kate chase, the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house in the chase home at 6th and e. quite a good place this clara barton, mathew brady nexus. this contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john aller's new book, american queen, the rise and fall of kate chase sprague which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fascinating life. rumors in washington suggest that the chase/lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william dennison of ohio on february 13th, the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol and then they spent the eke being entertained, including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night, which, of course was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counter story was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance, but both fanciful tales seem manufactured, lylely -- likely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness in her rendition of the rivalry in later years particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and mary lincoln were introduced at the first white house levee in 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and a confidant of mrs. lincoln. this young, eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. anne richardson french, wife of sculptor daniel chester french described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow, dibeliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded both chase's striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared, people drop back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns first state dinner on march 28th battle lines were clearly being drawn as the story is repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left, i shall be glad to see you anytime, miss chase, and chase allegedly replied, mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me anytime. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction, but i think we know that both parties were giving thinly veiled signals of the rough seas ahead. mrs. lincoln knew that the gauntlet had been thrown down. her white house receptions and levees were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure a coterie of power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1960 -- 1860, but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent visitor and many other wealthy financier financiers financiers. she held receptions every wednesday afternoon. afternoon gathers would drift in evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about worming her way into lincoln's inner circle attending the theater with john hey and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip, and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases. he stayed in the picture and was manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wunder kind william sprague who was by all accounts a bounder when he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, the youngest man elected at 26 to lead a state, sprague cut a dashing figure and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington, the president was extraordinarily kind, even solicitous of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife, but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spy glass to her during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with the delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth keckley repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception, something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook, including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known weakness for alcohol. chase did not care that sprague had more money than sense and was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife wrote. you and miss kate are taking dinners out. is miss kate a very charming interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a new york tribune reporter, lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow one year kate chase's junior and a decade younger than garfield. as for kate, perhaps being scire -- squired in public was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work because thereafter they became involved and eventually engaged. sprague paid close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. kate's campaign to advance her father's career never wavered but once lincoln trumped with the emancipation proclamation it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln/chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lincoln has a new french rig with all the posies costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6,000 arrangement, including a $3,000 shawl. go to it green banks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. if you read a washington paper of the era, sarah austin chanced to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rivals. one called out the austin equipage contained a tub of guts. they were fined $2.50 each. newspapers might treat female rivalry satirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication whether high brow or low brow, hi jinxes or low blows, all part of the washington merry go round. in 1864 kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863, had been hailed as the social event of the eason. the bride was replen accident in -- resplendent in a white velvet wedding dress sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire, part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln's spent over two hours to, quote, take the cuss off the meagerness of the presidential party as he put it. mrs. sprague, however, after her marriage did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed, within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864, although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless, when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage appointment on chase's behalf the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation this time it was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house, i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also endulge in her shopping mania and the new york herald reported she reason sacked the treasures of dry good stores. clemor complained while sher sisters scraped lint the wife of the president spent her time rolling to and fro between washington and new york. intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife, but we do know that, indeed, even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven barry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally lock ed the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some politicians began to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. over the next two years he was dubbed the american napoleon and he found criticism no laughing matter. he wrote to his wife ellen when he received his first military promotion, i find myself at a new and strange position her e, president, cabinet, general scott, and all deferring to me. by some strange operation of magic, i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now, i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore, i won't be dictator. admirable self denial, and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship but their courtship was protracted and it was stymied by ellen's lack of enthusiasm. in 1854 mcclellan fell head over heels in love with the daughter of his former army commander randolph marcy. her father encouraged this young soldier who had prospects and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military ellen's father threatened if she did not break off with him, i fear my ardent affections will turn to hate. ellen did eventually abandon hill who would later as we know serve the rebel cause and often faced mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. when the mclelens were on a visit to chicago and she was 25, mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. they were married in may 1860 and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self promoter on his own achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34, consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when winfield scott retired in november 1861, mcclenen insisted to lincoln i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not, and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mic time. by july of 1862, salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed, yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle splendidly. one of these days history will i trust do me justice. lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he deflected blame and vaingloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party and held onto his military commission until election day november 8th. following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe, it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the approbation of your excellency. mcclellan failed to carry even a majority of the soldiers' vote and forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all, the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marcie mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations next year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger blonder rivals? harriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush were into matrimony and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one although she lost her uncle, her husband, and both of her children, two sons, before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son, and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court, an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring williams philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity, her involvement with new york 12340r senator roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alimony. after months of wrangling, the marriage was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife. she settled in the washington home her father left her caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty, who was more -- was born mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life, which plunged kate chase, impoverished, reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was, like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. but much like the first lady she so desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidates' victory. instead, they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies, perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864, and one which just like today is ruled by social media. just as generals petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught. never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex, and media mix in washington. thank you. [applause] >> if there are any questions we have 10 minutes before we need to move on to the next session. >> i would love it if you would identify yourself. >> i'm norm, from akron, ohio. i will try to get down to a level. i asked this question of jean baker when she was here. i will ask this question of you. i'm not going to give you her response until you answer the question. i don't -- do you think mary was bipolar? >> i halved often said, and i will repeat, my doctorates in history, not in medicine, and i would suggest even if we brought mary onstage today, and she were examined, they would have divided views. i don't diagnose. i tried to lay out patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues, jean baker has written about her narcissism, jason emerson has written about his diagnosis. and we have some new work about concussions and what head trauma can do. so i very much welcome that speculation, but i myself try to contextualize and i believe i was most moved to believe she was not bipolar, but had medication problems and psychological problems. especially when i read the wonderful letters jason emerson dug up written while she was incarcerated, confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the 10th anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. [laughter] >> would you like to ask a question? >> mel. >> don't forget us over here. >> i'm sorry. i must go to the left first. yes, sir. >> i'm from buffalo, new york. grover cleveland territory. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland. >> anyway, my question, mary todd lincoln did not like grant too much. she liked his wife last, julia. my question, she called grant a butcher. in the 1870's, when grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary todd lincoln when she is struggling a little bit. >> you think grant was the one to secure her pension? >> that is what i found in the reading. >> i would check my last chapter. i believe it was a campaign on her part. there were congressional persons pushing it. it may have been granted, but i don't think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause dramatically. >> that is what i heard. i wonder if she ever thanked him for that. >> did marry ever think grant for advancing her political fortune? no. no. they had an interesting incident she was living abroad. it is a very small town, very springfield to like. a little capital in the south of france. you would go there for your health. british doctors would come. and the grants were visiting while she was in residence. i came across an exchange, a correspondence, which was very sincere, we are sorry, we had no idea you were here and now our schedule does not allow us to visit. i think they maintained polite, but his popularity was something that deeply disturbed marry because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death she never recovered from the long-term effect, was to campaign for her husband. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederick douglass, she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much and himself for a cause. so she and grant and julia grant, they were never going to really become, you know, but some buddies. >> where would you rank or on the list of great american first lady's? >> what about mel? what if that was his question? >> i don't care. [laughter] >> you get one. >> thank you. after the deaths mary lincoln experience. >> one died in the white house. >> what was the worker social rivals able to empathize and ease the sting of what was going on in their relationships, or did they empathize with lincoln and ignore her? >> after her child's death. that is what i was struck by in my biography. when i got to the 61, 62 period of her life, i was struck by how carping her critics were. she went through an amazing year of press surveillance, presses trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was under attack everywhere she went followed time reporters, and doris goodwin put me onto the notion if you want to attack the house, you set fire to the thatch. she was often scorched, burned, and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat. the whole notion of social rivals is something i did not really find, but she does get herself revved up again although she can dissolve, losing control of herself in front of reporters, friends, over this question. she is angry no one recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, except for neptune. i am blanking. his wife who had lost so many children, she wrote a note. so i do find some people coming in. many people rose to the occasion and wanted to publish good works about her. she was going to hospitals. they were trying to start press camping. she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman and did not want her name to the paper, which is why the scandal after she left the white house was a painful episode for her and her son. >> i'm dr. john will, i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist. i always thought she was bipolar. some of her behavior, her shopping and so forth. you may know this, the reason that ap hill broke up is because he had gonorrhea, which he had contracted at west point in new york. so he knew he had gonorrhea. he informed the family of the condition. >> thank you for that. [laughter] i do not do military history. [laughter] i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. >> good morning. i'm from chicago. in the last year, published in the journal of the abraham lincoln association, there has been speculation on mary lincoln's purchasing penny royal in springfield when she was pregnant. penny royal is used to rid dogs of fleas or induce an abortion. i was wondering if you had insights on this scholarship. >> i'm sorry. i can't comment on the scholarship. i have not read it. i recent move has meant moving a household from ireland was difficult. i have not looked at that. i would say from my readings, i would have no evidence from her letters or otherwise there would be any way i could comment or believe she was trying to not have a child. the lincolns were besoughted by their children, proud and devoted, that when she's suffered family tragedies, she became president -- became pregnant within the month. the idea of having two sons, and robert gone to school, was something that was in the minds of the lincolns. i look forward to it. >> i wish they would leave the poor woman alone. >> well, well. applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. i think it is good. i did take umbrage at the book that came out that proclaim she had syphilis. that was one of the ones, medically, i'm sure people can speculate, that was an interesting take. >> i mean bradner from washington d.c., the land of the president. you hinted at this a moment ago. can you talk about mary lincoln's work with the soldiers? she had empathy for the mothers and wives having had the loss of these children. it is my understanding she spent a lot of time in the hospitals writing letters home for the soldiers. and it seems to me all of these vicious attacks against her could have been blunted if she had allowed the reporters to write about that. why did she not want that? was it a secret? did people not understand? >> i do not think she advertised it on purpose. she was someone who went into pendants when her son died. one of the things, i told you about the grand all, her aspirations that was nice her son's illness became evident and she and the president kept checking in the bedroom. the lincoln library is a moving exhibit they have of going into the room. here was her social triumph, and within days, her beloved was dead. and i think, if you contrast her next trip to new york with 1864 you find she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature she was, and writing letters and taking care of the bonds between families during the wartime dislocation was something she very much did dedicate herself to. she took flowers from the white house, she was indeed serving the role, which she thought was political. lincoln did it as well. they made their way and when people came to her to try to publicize it, when people did mention it, she said don't. so we do know she was trying to keep that side of her charity. she wanted to be an anonymous donor to the soldiers' cause. that is her interest. >> hi. i appreciate the opportunity to ask a question. >> the last question. >> i'm thinking about the conversation we had last night about lincoln on film and i'm wondering what you think about the trail of mary lincoln on film. related to spielberg, anything else. >> i do have weaknesses because i do think, i have strong feelings about ann rutledge on film. nevertheless, mary on film is an interesting phenomenon and i do believe, for example, you can see in the portrait with sam waterston, the miniseries, mary tyler moore trying to show a woman with clear disturbances. that was powerful. i also felt the recent portrait by sally fields, which i regret, did not earn her an oscar, was nevertheless such an amazing inhabiting of that role. people can have differences of opinion about her problems, her flaws. that particular portrait captured her as a flawed, dynamic, intense character and she actually contributed to that in a way that i found amazing. i'm very regretful i can't name the actress who portrayed her in "lincoln the vampire slayer." however, you have to understand any scholar who has written a biography of harriet tubman that finds these characters taking guns to gettysburg to save the union is going to welcome this kind of pop cultural fantabulation. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> on c-span2 on book tvs afterwards, the pitfalls on group decision-making and what to do to avoid them and sunday afternoon, we talk with professors at john hopkins university on the influence on hip-hop on politics and the efforts to cur malariae. and on c-span3 on lectures in history, anderson university professor uses abraham lincoln to understand the views of white americans on race and slavery before and during the civil war and sunday afternoon, it is fresh and on birth control movement. find our complete schedule at c-span.org and let us know what you think. call us, e-mail us, or send us a tweet. join the conversation. like a son facebook. -- like us on facebook. >> real america brings you films from the 20th century. nine from -- "nine from little rock" is a film narrated by jefferson thomas, one of the nine african-american students who enrolled in the all-white central high school. the governor prevented the students from attending class until eisenhower sent army troops and federalized the arkansas national guard to restore order and enforce desegregation. in the film, mr. thomas and several others reflect on their experience and hopes for the future. the film won an academy award for documentary short subject. >> hatred is easier to organize. they brought hate to little rock in 1957. while we watched, the white children went to school, and we stood outside. we had been taught we were a nation under law, and the law of segregation was wrong. now we waited to see if this had meaning. or were just words in a book idle talk in a classroom. on september 27, 1950 seven, president eisenhower sent 1000 men of the army to kerry out the law. the supreme court of the united states had said the entire strength of the nation may be used to enforce the security of all rights and trusted by the constitution and that included my right and the rights of eight other negro americans who wanted to go to central high school in little rock, arkansas. we were terrence thelma, elizabeth, ernest greene carlotta and gloria ray. and we were going to school again. >> each week american history tv sits in on a lecture with one of the nation's college professors. you can watch the classes here every saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. next, anderson university professor brian dirck talks about abraham lincoln's life as a method of understanding white american's views on race and slavery both before and during the civil war.
according to dr. clinton, mary lincoln often drew criticism for keeping up appearances with lavish diplomatic dinners despite the civil war. this was part of a symposium at gettysburg. >> it's my pleasure to introduce your second speaker this morning, dr. catherine clinton. dr. clinton earned her bachelor's degree at harvard and ph.d. at princeton where she studied under dr. james mcpherson. she taught at the citadel, wesleyan wesleyan, brandeis, and queens university in belfast northern ireland. since august of 2014, she's been the denman endowed professor at american history at the university of texas at san antonio. so from northern ireland to texas, that's quite a journey. and 2016 she'll assume the presidency of the southern historical association. purpose tedious -- her prestigious post recognizing her standing in the field. she's the author or editor of two dozen books, many focusing on family, gender, or women's issues in the 19th century. i suspect many people in this room have read her 2009 biography of mary todd lincoln. her talk today is titled "teeming with rivals: women's parlor politics during the civil war." please help me welcome dr. clinton. [applause] >> well, thank you. it's so lovely to be here in gettysburg, and, yes, indeed the journey from northern ireland to texas, what would draw me into these arctic temperatures? but i want to credit certainly the quartet of very kind scholars in the field. i was first brought her by gabor and then thanks to harold holzer and chief frank, i have been back again and again, but thank you, jim, of course, for helping this needy student on her journey toward civil war history. a powerful woman was at the center of swirling political debates during a re-election campaign of the president. her influence over him, did she or did she not sway him? was a source of parlor games in that most murky of fir bowls washington, d.c. gossip and gender create puerful sparks and reverberations and for those who think such issues don't matter, recall the presidential ambitions of ed muskie, dissolved in the melting snow versus tears debate in february 1972. a well-educated woman with a track record of speaking her mind, a woman who did not mind bumping against the young, shiny palace guard at the white house. the capital remained agog anticipating her every misstep speculating on her motives with intensifying speculation as reporters tracked her every move. could it be 2012? or is it 1864? as i suggest in my recent biography of mrs. lincoln, a life, the storm enveloping lincoln's wife could not be matched until we had hillary clinton in the white house as the president's wife, and it was mrs. lincoln who first carvinged out a distinctive role for herself during her white house years. as much by necessity as by choice. several of mary lincoln's immediate family were engaged in military rebellion dedicated to the overthrow of her husband's government. she remained completely loyal to the union and went well beyond what was required having her mail incoming and outgoing read for her. lincoln's wife had perhaps the most challenging time as first lady, a term that was coined before she assumed the role, but became a label embraced by the press to designate the president's wife. due to mary's visibility and profile, she took advantage of this new role. as mary lincoln, the todd was only added later by descendants who actually wanted to link mary to her birth family, the todds and also to another president, and that is dolly todd madison was married to a todd, but in her own lifetime, the two-named mary lincoln felt herself at the center of a converging disaster in 1864. for three long years, she had weathered the political storms. she'd endured fearful threats against her husband in 1861, suffered the loss of a child in 1862, and she nearly died herself of an injury following the sabotage of the president's carriage in june 1863 which resulted in an accident intended to have a fatal effect on the president rather than the very severe head trauma it caused his wife. in the year 1864 it proved a severely challenged siege for the much maligned mrs. lincoln. rather than serenely reigning, she found her parlor teeming with rivals. mary had worked hard during her husband's first presidential campaign in the summer 1860. she made a favorable impression on john scripps, editor of the chicago tribune who suggested that the lincolns were not the country bumpkins the eastern establishment might expect especially as lincoln's wife was really educated, french speaking, an aristocratic daughter of the bluegrass. a new york herald reporter suggested lincoln's springfield residence resembled longfellow's abode in cambridge. another credited lincoln's wife who was an amiable and accomplished lady. these reports were meant to reassure voters along the eastern seaboard that they hadn't really had a wild westerner for a candidate. after lincoln's victory at the ballot box, he had an uphill battle when he arrived in washington, d.c. while the president-elect worked to organize his government, mary launched her own campaigns hosting family and friends greeting diplomats and statesmen, anticipating her new set of duties, and she sought to maneuver the treacherous shoals of secession. the coldness and snobbery of easterners was wearing her down. she confronted one of the most idiosyncratic of american institutions, washington society. at the heart of the city's bow monday, the toughened core of social arbiters were known as cave dwellers. their tenure and tenacity gave them influence over the parade of newcomers who straggled into the city at irregular but certainly every four-year intervals. the inner city of d.c. society was surrounded by the money bags whose rung on the ladder was bought, and then there were the high brows, whose station was secured by talent regardless of wealth although it was considered felicitous when the two went together. three outer rings applied steady social pressure jockeying for improved position, the diplomats, the army and navy crowd, and the politicos, but clearly it is the cave dwellers, particularly women like mary clemor and laura holloway who influenced the pecking order among the capital's society. fanny ems, mrs. charles, maintained an eclectic sunday salon at her 14th and 8th street home, while her sister marion campbell was embedded when -- within several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames reigned in d.c. and she would later befriend mary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. it would be difficult to could be receive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue, and as we just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were, of course, areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the fine estate of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle, a legendary beauty nearly 25 years his junior held equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began, was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of sonora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgian, but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan mural in the world. harriet lane, buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess, left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln lincoln resembled the irish door keeper. while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery, mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabeth keckley was a prominent mixed race seamstress favored by the washington elite. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was varina davis. assuming the role herself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslin palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight his wife stayed on dancing into the night. she surprised the washington snobs. they commented on her exquisite toilette. the new york herald weighed in again, that's the newspaper, not our harold, she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for the hoi polloi. like the proverbial cinderella after the ball she had wicked stepsisters with whom she had to contend, sometimes literally with confederate kin. the republicans were flocking into town in droves, but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee, daughter of frances presson blair suggested the women kind are giving mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder and the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created department rifts. -- deep rifts. washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s, who could forget bully brooks and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861, the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said, i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights. so church going even became a divided enterprise. lincoln's election, like andrew jackson's decades before represented a seismic social shift in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to but the cage was not exactly gilded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby, run down condition of the president's residence. the furnishing in the red room which the lincolns claims for private callers had pieces left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second rate hotel with its threadbare carpets and chopped up drapes. mary was determined to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month, the washington ladies had not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate hoping once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on ft. sumter and lincoln's call to arm, her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where, quote, under the gorgeous gas chandeliers, they disposed themselves in picturesque biv ouac on the brilliant patterned velvet carpet. a remarkable vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration, the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced lincoln's predecessor to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the cost would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she suggested they stop the customary state dinners. she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her husband was skeptical, but her arguments and i'm sure her persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries, john nicolet, proclaimed le wren has determined to abrogate dinners and she got her way. while sher husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln demonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levees will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainder of the session of congress. they were obligatory and staff found them wearying. nicolet confided they are both novel and pleasant to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to, quote, do washington, but for us who have to surf the infliction once -- suffer the infliction once a week, they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained to the president, looking more and more gaunt and care worn. to relieve the tedium, mrs. lincoln introduced the program of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion. lincoln's favorite singers actors, and others might be singled out for recognition when one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february of 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manners invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room, not only the labor required for such an event, but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln secretaries, who by now had nicknamed her hell cat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not, mr. and mrs. wade are and for that reason decline to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge quail, duck, turkey, foie gras beef, and the president's favorite, oysters, greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant spun sugar deserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year hoping to banish the memory of her predecessors reign in the white house. hair yet lane had been both a popular socialite and an impeccable style setter. mary clemor, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense, harmonious vitality. her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke, kindle with humor, or soften with tenderness. her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's gold when she took over the executive mansion focused on erasure of memories of when this blond younger model made washington society dance to her tune. clemor suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives, we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and mary lincoln made her jurn why i to -- journey to washington a triumphant passage. with all of mary's faults as margaret leech has argued, in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. mary's poor relations with the press form a mainstay of my by iographical treatment. she and her husband were unforgiving of what they felt was an abusive fourth estate. lincoln had his battles with journalists and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while on a carriage ride and the president was not so good humored nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip, and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and win over the public. her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign as fervently as a statesman wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's vacuum was filled by kate chase, the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house in the chase home at 6th and e. quite a good place this clara barton, mathew brady nexus. this contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john aller's new book, american queen, the rise and fall of kate chase sprague which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fascinating life. rumors in washington suggest that the chase/lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william dennison of ohio on february 13th, the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol and then they spent the eke being entertained, including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night, which, of course was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counter story was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance, but both fanciful tales seem manufactured, lylely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness in her rendition of the rivalry in later years particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and miry lincoln were introduced at the first white house levee in 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and a confidant of mrs. lincoln. this young, eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. anne richardson french, wife of sculptor daniel chester french described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow, deliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded both chase's striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared, people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns first state dinner on march 28th battle lines were clearly being drawn as the story is repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left, i shall be glad to see you anytime, miss chase, and chase allegedly replied, mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me anytime. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction, but i think we know that both parties were giving thinly veiled signals of the rough seas ahead. lincoln knew that the gauntlet had been thrown down. her white house receptions and levees were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure a coterie of power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1960 -- 1860, but kate was looking ahead to '64. jay cook was a frequent vil for and many other wealthy financier financiers financiers. she held receptions every wednesday afternoon. afternoon gathers would drift in evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about worming her way into lincoln's inner circle, attending the theater with john hey and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip, and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases. he stayed in the picture and was manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wunder kind william sprague who was by all accounts a bounder when he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, the youngest man elected at 29 to lead a state, sprague cut a dashing figure and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington, the president was extraordinarily kind, even solicitous of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife, but in any case she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spy glass to her during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with the delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth keckley repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception, something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook, including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known weakness for alcohol. chase did not care that sprague had more money than sense and was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife wrote inquisitively. you and miss kate are taking dinners out. is miss kate a very charming interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a new york tribune reporter, lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow one year kate chase's junior and a decade younger than garfield. as for kate, perhaps being scire squired in public was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work because thereafter they became involved and eventually engaged. sprague paid close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. kate's campaign to advance her father's career never wavered but once lincoln trumped with the emancipation proclamation it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln/chase contest has extended into the women's department. mrs. lincoln has a new french rig with all the posies costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6,000 arrangement, including a $3,000 shawl. go to it, greenbacks, while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. if you read a washington paper of the era, sarah austin chanced to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rivals. one called out the austin equipage contained a tub of guts. they were fined $2.50 each. newspapers might treat female rivalry satirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication, whether high brow or low brow, hi jinxes or low blows, all part of the washington merry go round. in 1864 kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863, had been hailed as the social event of the eason. -- the season. the bride was resplendent in a white velvet wedding dress sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire, part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln's spent over two hours to, quote, take the cuss off the meagerness of the presidential party as he put it. mrs. sprague, however, after her marriage did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed, within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated that she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864, although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless, when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage appointment on chase's behalf the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation, this time it was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house, i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also indulge in her shopping mania and the new york herald reported she reason sacked the treasures of dry good stores. maria clemor complained while her sisters scraped lint the wife of the president spent her time rolling to and fro between washington and new york. intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife, but we do know that, indeed, even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven barry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally locked the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some polliticians ghan to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. over the next two years he was dubbed the american napoleon and he found criticism no laughsing matter. -- no laughing matter. he wrote to his wife ellen when he received his first military promotion, i find myself at a new and strange position her president, cabinet, general scott, and all deferring to me. by some strange operation of magic, i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now, i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. i almost think if i were to win some small success now i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore, i won't be dictator. admirable self denial, and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship but their courtship was protracted and it was stymied by ellen's lack of enthusiasm. in 1854 mcclellan fell head over heels in love with the daughter of his former army commander randolphm arcy. her father encouraged this young soldier who had prospects and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military ellen's father threatened if she did not break off with him i fear my ardent affections will turn to hate. alen did eventually abandon hill who would later as we know serve the rebel cause and often faced mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. when the mek clelens were on a visit to chicago and she was 25, mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. they were married in may 1860 and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self promoter on his own achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34 consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when infield scott retired in november 1861 mcclenen insisted to lincoln i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mic time. by july of 1862, salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed, yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. antietam became mcclellan's final fountainfall despite his protestations to the opposite. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle 134re7b didly. one of these days history will i trust do me justice. lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he deflected vain and vaingloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party and held onto his military commission until election day november 8th. following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe, it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the ap probation of your excellency. mcclellan failed to carry even a majority of the soldiers' vote and forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all, the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marcie mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations last year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger blonder rivals? hairrriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush were sip tusly into mat ri moanal connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one although she lost her uncle, her husband, and both of her children, two sons, before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nette were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of '64. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring williams philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity, her involvement with new york 12340r roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alimony. after months of wrangling, the marriage was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife. she settled in the washington sue bauer ban home her father left her caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty, who was more than mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took his own life, which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was like her great rival mary lincoln suffused with personal loss. but much like the first lady, she so desperately hoped to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women in washington ruled not by proxy but by proximity. they did not win elections no matter how hard they worked to secure their own candidates' victory. instead, they were crowned and indeed shackled by convention rather than being able to take their place on a convention floor. chase did actually challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategies, perhaps even marrying like a royal princess in order to advance his future. the female domain remained a fiercely competitive space in washington in 1864, and one which just like today is ruled by social media. just as generals petraeus and politicians remembering representative weiner to make bipartisan selections have been so painfully taught. never underestimate what can happen when gossip, sex, and media mix in washington. thank you. [ applause ] >> if there are any questions we have maybe ten minutes or so before we need to move on to the next session. >> the question -- >> i'd love it if you'd identify yourself. do you mind? >> i'm norm. >> hi norm. >> i'm norm from akron ohio. originally lincoln, illinois. >> okay. hi. >> i'll try to get down to the level that most -- >> you're lincolnian. >> i ask this question of jean baker when she was here last and i'll ask the same question to you but i'm not going give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask a question. i can give an answer. we can't rehash history here. >> do you think mary was bipolar? >> i have often said, and i will repeat, that my doctorate is in history, not in medicine, and i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today and she were examined by people they would have very divided views. so i don't diagnose i try to lay out the patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues, jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary lincoln. jason emerson has written about his diagnosis exactly and we have new work coming out about concussions and what head trauma and injury can do. i very much welcome that speculation, but i myself try to contextualize and i believe i was ironically most moved to believe she was not bipolar but had medication problems and psychological problems, especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason emmerson dug up that were written while she was incarcerated confined by her son to an asylum during that very difficult period following the tenth anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> mel burger, boston, mass. >> don't forget us over here. >> i'm sorry, i'm sorry. >> you should -- >> i must go to the left first mel. do you mind? i'll take this and come right back to you. yes, sir, i'm sorry. >> i'm jim mcgrath, i'm from buffalo, new york. >> hi, jim. sorry. >> grover cleveland territory and fannie. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland's white house. >> anyway my question is mary todd lincoln -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia, but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor but in the 1870s curiously enough when grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well, i would just check my last chapter because -- i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. >> that's what i heard. i just wondered if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her -- >> any actually had an interesting incident that she was living abroad and it's a very small town kind of very springfield-like, a little capital in the south of -- i think they always maintained quite polite, but as an ex-president, his popularity was something i think that -- deeply disturbed mary because her campaign from the moment she recovered from the immediate effects of his death -- she never i think recovered from the long-term effects of his death was to campaign for her husband very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederick douglass. she donated artifacts to african-americans. she very much championed her husband as someone who had very much sacrificed himself for a cause. so she and grant i don't think were ever going to -- and julia dent grant no they were never going to really become, you know -- >> bosom buddies. >> yeah. >> where would you rank her on the list of great american first ladies? i hope i didn't steal somebody's question? >> what about mel here? what if that was his question? >> i don't care. >> you get one. now it's mel's turn. >> thank you. so after the deaths of -- that mary lincoln experienced in the white house of her children -- >> only one died in the white house. >> okay. >> one died before. >> what was -- were her social rivals able to empathize and ease the stings of what was going on in their relationships or did they just really empathize with lincoln and totally ignore here? >> after her child's death? well, that what i was so struck by in my biography i had written thematically but when i got to the '61, '62 '63 period of her life i tried to write it chronologically because i was so struck by how carping her critics were. she just went through an amazing year of press surveillance. presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack everywhere she went followed by reporters, and doris goodwin put me on to the notion if you want to attack the house you set fire to the thatch and mary was the thatch. so she was often being scorched, burnt, during this particular period, and i think the death of her son caused her to turn inward somewhat looking. the whole notion of social rivals is something i didn't really find in particular but she does by '64 get herself revved up again although she can throughout the period '63-'64 dissolve completely losing total control of herself in front of reporters, in front of friends over this question. she's quite angry that, for example, no one really recognizes the one-year anniversary of the death of her son, willy except for neptune. i'm blanking -- >> gideon wells swells. >> gideon wells wife who had lost so many children of her own. there were many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her, that she was going to hospitals. they were trying to start press campaigns, but she said she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways and didn't want her name appearing in the paper which s of course why the old clothes scandal after she left the white house was such a painful episode for both her and her son. >> thank you. >> thank you, mel. >> i'm dr. john will and i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychiatrist, but i always thought she was bipolar, some of her behavior, her shopping behavior and so forth, but you may know this, but the reason that mcclellan -- or that a.p. hill and ellen marcie broke up is because a.p. hill had gonorrhea which he had contracted at west point during a weekend in new york with mcclellan. so mcclellan knew he had gonorrhea, and he informed the family, the marcie family of ample p. hill's condition. >> thank you for that. you see, i just don't do military history but i'm very pleased to be filled in this way. thank you so much. this gentleman and then -- >> yes. good morning. i'm david carroll from chicago. >> hi, david. >> hi. in the last year published in the journal of the abraham lincoln association there has been great speculation on mary lincoln purchasing penny royal at dill lard's drugstore in springfield when she was pregnant with tad who was born with a cleft palate. penny royal is used to rid dogs of fleas or induce abortion. do you have insight on this recent scholarship? >> i'm sorry. i can't comment on that. my recent move and dislocation of many of my books and pieces meant that i don't have the 41 -- of oh mary lincoln but moving from ireland was difficult. i would say from my reading i have no evidence from her letters or otherwise that there would be any way i could comment or believe she was trying to not have a fourth child. the lincolns were besoted by their children. they were very proud and devoted that when she suffered family tragedies and the death of oh little eddie she was pregnant within a month. indeed the idea of having two younger sons and robert already gone to school was something that was in the minds of the lincolns. i look forward to it. thanks. >> i wish they would leave the poor woman alone. that's all. >> oh well, well. >> congratulations. >> thank you. we'll applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. i think it's good. i did take great umbrage at the book that came out that said she definitely had syphilis. people can speculate. >> originally from ohio. the land of the presidents. can you talk more about mary lincoln's work. she spent time in the hospitals writing letters home for the soldiers. it seems to me that all of the vicious attacks against her could have been blunted if she had allowed the reporters to write about that. why did she not want that? and was it kept kind of a secret? did people not understand she was doing this? >> i don't think she advertised on purpose. thank you for that. she very much went into penitence when her son died. one of the things is i told you about the grand ball and her grand aspirations for dethroning harriet lane. that was the night her son's illness became evident. she and the president kept checking in the bedroom. if you go to the lincoln library, it is a moving exhibit they have of going into the room to check during the ball. here was her great social triumph. within days her beloved willie was dead. i think during that period if you contrast her next trip to new york with 64 i think you find she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature that she was. but also writing letterers and taking care of the bonds between families during the wartime dislocations was something she very much did dedicate herself to. she took flowerses from the white house. she took fruit. she was, indeed serving the role which she thought was a political role. we nolin con did it as well. they didn't go in as a couple. they went in separately and made tear way through the wards. when people came to her to try to publicize it, when someone mentioned it, she wrote to them saying please don't. we do know she was trying to keep that side of her charity. she wanted to be an anonymous donor to the soldiers' cause during that period. that's what i think was her interest at that time. yes? >> mary beth donnelly. i appreciate the opportunity to oh ask a question. >> i'm sorry. the last question. make it a good one. >> i'll try. >> i'm sorry. >> it's broad. i'm thinking of last night's conversation about lincoln on film. what do you think about the portrayal of oh mary lincoln on film. specifically related to spielberg or anything else. do you feel it's been fair? >> well, i do have weaknesses. i think that i have very strong feelings about ann rutledge on film which i won't share. nevertheless i think mary on film is a really interesting phenomenon. i do believe, for example you could see in the portrait with sam waterston with gore vidal and mary tyler moore trying to show a woman with clear disturbances. i thought that was powerful. but i felt that the recent portrait by sally field which i very much regret didn't earn her her third oscar, was nevertheless such an amazing inhabiting of the role. i think people can have differences of opinion about what were her problem ss. what were her flaws. i think that portrait captured her as a flawed do you thinkynamic, intense character. she contributed to that in a way that i found amazing. i'm regretful i can't name the actress who portrayed mary todd in "lincoln the vampire slayer." you have to understand that any scholar who has written a biography of harriet tubman and mary lincoln that finds these characters taking guns to gettysburg to save the union is going to welcome this kind of pop cultural fantabulation. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook @cspanhistory. >> this sunday, author dick lair talks about the landmark film "birth of a nation." >> partita of the movie which is after the war reconstruction is really the heart of the protest in the sense of this is where the blacks are just appalled by the betrayal of free slaves. and this is the scene showing what happens when you give former slaves the right to vote, be elected, to govern. this is the scene where the first and primary order of business is to pass a bill allowing for interracial marriage. in griffith's hands. black men are solely interested in producing -- pursuing white women. ♪ author dick lair on the controversial film "birth of a nation." >> each week,"reel america" brings you archival films. this film examines tensions following the creation of the state of israel. >> the most explosive of these the state of israel. israel was born a mid-turbulence and bloodshed. it became a separate nation after the british withdrew from palestine in 1940. it was immediately attacked by its neighboring states, who resented the new nation and contended its creation to be illegal. israel successfully beat off
spending wars, and hosting parties. according to mrs. clinton mary lincoln drew criticism for attempting to keep up appearances through lavish diplomatic dinners despite the ongoing civil war. this hour-long event was part of the lincoln forum symposium in gettys gettysburg, pennsylvania. >> it's my pleasure to introduce your second speaker this morning, dr. catherine clinton. dr. clinton earned her bachelor's degree at harvard and ph.d. at princeton where she studied under dr. james mcpherson. she taught at the citadel, wesleyan wesleyan, brandeis, and queens university in belfast northern ireland. since august of 2014, she's been the denman endowed professor at -- in american history at the university of texas at san antonio. so from northern ireland to texas, that's quite a journey. and 2016 she'll assume the presidency of the southern historical association. her prestigious post recognizing her standing in the field. she's the author or editor of two dozen books, many focusing on family, gender, or women's issues in the 19th century. i suspect many people in this room have read her 2009 biography of mary todd lincoln. her talk today is titled "teeming with rivals: women's parlor politics during the civil war." please help me welcome dr. clinton. [ applause ] >> well, thank you. it's so lovely to be here in gettysburg, and, yes, indeed the journey from northern ireland to texas, what would draw me into these arctic temperatures? but i want to credit certainly the quartet of very kind scholars in the field. i was first brought her by gabor and then thanks to harold holzer and chief frank, i have been back again and again, but thank you, jim, of course, for helping this needy student on her journey toward civil war history. a powerful woman was at the center of swirling political debates during a re-election campaign of the president. her influence over him, did she or did she not sway him? was a source of parlor games in that most murky of fish bowls, washington, d.c. gossip and gender create puerful sparks and reverberations and for those who think such issues don't matter, recall the presidential ambitions of ed muskie, dissolved in the melting snow versus tears debate in february 1972. a well educated woman with a track record of speaking her mind, a woman who did not mind bumping against the young, shiny palace guard at the white house. the capital remained agog anticipating her every misstep speculating on her motives with intensifying speculation as reporters tracked her every move. could it be 2012? or is it 1864? as i suggest in my recent biography of mrs. lincoln, a life, the storm enveloping lincoln's wife could not be matched until we had hillary clinton in the white house as the president's wife and it was mrs. lincoln who first carvinged out -- 00carved out a distinctive role for herself during her white house years. as much by necessity as by choice. several of mary lincoln's immediate family were engaged in military rebellion dedicated to the overthrow of her husband's government. she remained completely loyal to the union and went well beyond what was required having her mail incoming and outgoing read for her. lincoln's wife had perhaps the most challenging time as first lady, a term that was coined before she assumed the role, but became a label embraced by the press to designate the president's wife. due to mary's visibility and profile, she took advantage of this new role. as mary lincoln, the todd was only added later by descendants who actually wanted to link mary to her birth family, the todds and also to another president, and that is dolly todd madison was married to a todd, but in her own lifetime, the two-named mary lincoln felt herself at the center of a converging disaster in 1864. for three long years she had weathered the political storms. she'd endured fearful threats against her husband in 1861, suffered the loss of a child in 1862, and she nearly died herself of an injury following the sabotage of the president's carriage in june 1863 which resulted in an accident intended to have a fatal effect on the president rather than the very severe head trauma it caused his wife. in the year 1864 it proved a severely challenged siege for the much maligned mrs. lincoln. rather than serenely reigning, she found her parlor teeming with rivals. mary had worked hard during her husband's first presidential campaign in the summer 1860. she made a favorable impression on john scripps, editor of the tribune, who suggested that the lincolns were not the country bump kins the eastern establishment might expect especially as lincoln's wife was really educated, french speaking, an aristocratic daughter of the bluegrass. a new york herald reporter suggested lincoln's springfield resident resembled longfellow's abode in cambridge. another credited lincoln's wife who was an amiable and accomplished lady. these reports were meant to reassure voters along the eastern seaboard that they hadn't really had a wild westerner for a candidate. after lincoln's victory at the ballot box, he had an uphill battle when he arrived in washington, d.c. while the president-elect worked to organize his government, mary launched her own campaigns hosting family and friends greeting diplomats and statesmen, anticipating her new set of duties, and she sought to maneuver the treacherous shoals of secession. the coldness and snobbery of easterners was wearing her down. she confronted one of the most idiosyncratic of american institutions, washington society. at the heart of the city's bow monday, the toughened core of social arbiters were known as cave dwellers. their tenure and tenacity gave them influence over the parade of newcomers who straggled into the city at irregular but certainly every four-year intervals. the inner city of d.c. society was surrounded by the money bags whose rung on the ladder was bought, and then there were the high brows, whose station was secured by talent regardless of wealth although it was considered felicitous when the two went together. three outer rings applied steady i social pressure. jockeying for improved position, the diplomats, the army and navy crowd, and the politicos, but clearly it is the cave dwellers, particularly women like mary clemor and laura holloway who influenced the pecking order among the capital's society. fanny ems, mrs. charles, maintained an eclectic sunday salon at her 14th and 8th and street salon while her learn sister marion campbell was embedded when several -- within several knickerbocker circles. mrs. eames in d.c. and she would later befriend mary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. it would be difficult to could -- to conceive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue, and as we just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were, of course, areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the finest aide of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle a legendary beauty, nearly 25 years his junior held court. equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began, was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of son nora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the retiring president james buchanan supplemented his white house entertainment budget with personal funds as he needed more than his salary to keep up with demands. the buchanan white house had undergone extensive renovations and run with great efficiencies. ten servants took care of the household needs. the butler was belgian but all other servants were irish or british because buchanan believed that british-trained servants were preferable. by the way, he was an ulsterman. you can go to belfast and find the only i believe james buchanan memorial in the world. harriet lane, buchanan's niece who assumed the role of white house hostess, left the lincolns a very detailed list on how to manage the executive mansion. she met with mrs. lincoln in advance and arranged a meal for the newcomers on inaugural day. but she was not impressed, and she wrote cattily that lincoln resembled the irish door keeper, while mrs. lincoln is awfully western and loud and unrefined. araving into town with such rigid social snobbery, mrs. lincoln immediately placed a addressmaking order with mrs. keckley. elizabeth keckley was a prominent mixed race seamstress favored by the washington elite. it was perhaps no accident that one of her former clients was varina davis. assuming the role herself soon of first lady of the confederacy. however, mary lincoln's first battleground would be the inaugural ball. this invitational ball was held in a large tent dubbed the white muslin palace of aladdin where 5,000 would be on hand to rub shoulders and inspect the lincoln entourage. mrs. lincoln glided into view wearing silk bedecked with gold and diamonds and pearls while lincoln left at midnight his wife stayed on dancing into the night. she surprised the washington snobs. they commented on her exquisite toilette. the new york herald weighed in again, that's the newspaper, not our harold, she is more self-possessed than lincoln and is accommodated more readily than her taller half to the exalted station to which she has so strangely advanced from the simple social life of the little inland capital of illinois. she wore the pearls that her husband had bought her at tiffany's that night and shortly thereafter we find copies being made by washington jewelers for an the hoi polloi. like the proverbial cinderella after the ball she had wicked step sisters with whom she had and to contend, sometimes will to contend, sometimes literally with confederate kin. the republicans were flocking into town in droves, but they were slow to roll out the welcome wagon. elizabeth blair lee, daughter frances presson blair, suggested the women kind are give mrs. lincoln the cold shoulder and the republicans ought to rally. developments in southern states created department rifts. -- deep rifts washingtonians had weathered many crises, particularly during the 1850s, who could forget bully brooks and sumner's empty seat in the senate well. however, by april 1861, the atmosphere was intense and in the extreme. one society lady said, i went to early service at st. john's to avoid my many friends who do not think as i do about states' rights so church going even became a divided enterprise. lincoln's election, like andrew jackson's decades before represented a seismic social shift in the district of columbia. mainline washington elites treated the lincolns like pariahs and one observer complained both the president and his wife were mercilessly lampooned, yet mrs. lincoln was the peer of any woman in washington in education and character. mary might have likened herself to a bird in a gilded cage denied the social butterfly role that she had long aspired to that the cage was not exactly gilded. visitors were quite shocked by the shabby, run down condition of the president's residence. the furnishings in the red room which the lincolns claim for private callers had pieces left over from the madison era. there were only ten matching place settings in the white house china collection. springfield friends commented that the executive mansion really resembled a second rate hotel with its threadbare carpets and chopped up drapes. mary was determined to set a very high standard and prove her refinement to the washington social arbiters. her increasing isolation might have hastened her plans. london journalist william howard russell discovered that even after a month, the washington ladies had not yet made up their minds that mrs. lincoln is the fashion. they missed their southern friends and constantly draw comparisons between them and the vulgar yankee women who are now in power. mary decided she would have to make a splash to prove herself and was looking forward to the summer when she might regroup and redecorate, hoping once congress recessed, the crowd will be gradually leaving the city and we may hope for more leisure. but events intervened. and following the attack on ft. sumter and lincoln's call to arm, her new home became the nerve center of the divided nation. white house drawing rooms were open to soldiers who marched into the east room where, quote, under the gorgeous gas chandeliers, they disposed themselves and picturesque bivouac on the brilliant patterned velvet carpet. a remarkable vortex of events kept the lincoln white house under the microscope and within crosshairs. mary wanted to serve her husband's cause by allowing the white house to maintain business as usual. in the past, especially during the buchanan administration, the white house offered weekly dinners with 40 or more guests which forced lincoln's predecessor to dip into his own pocket. once mrs. lincoln saw what the cost would be to maintain the elegant style to which she aspired, she decided to revise protocol. she suggested they stop the customary state dinners. she suggested they substitute large receptions because it would be more in keeping with the institutions of our country. when she first broached the subject, her husband was skeptical, but her arguments and i'm sure her persuasive nagging won out. one of lincoln's secretaries, john nicolet, proclaimed le wren has determined to abrogate dinners and she got her way. while her husband concentrated on holding the union together, mary lincoln demonstrated that the united states remained open for business despite the rebellion. she would continue her own at homes on saturday afternoons and the newspapers announced levees will be held in the mansion every tuesday evening during the remainedder of the session of congress. these social occasions were obligatory and staff found them wearying. nicolet confided they are both novel and pleasant to the hundreds of mere passersby who linger a day or two to, quote, do washington, but for us who have to surf the infliction once -- suffer the infliction once a week, they get to be intolerable bores. a congressional wife complained to the president looking more and more gaunt and care worn. to relieve the tedium, mrs. lincoln introduced the program of bringing artists and performers into the executive mansion. lincoln's favorite singers actors, and others might be singled out for recognition when one of p.t. barnum's most famous acts colonel tom thumb would be extended an invitation as mrs. lincoln recognized the power of a white house request. first lady decided to throw a very large ball in february of 1862 and was in the thick of her plans by the end of january. her lavish gestures and grand manners invited criticism. mary decided to issue 700 invitations and planned to funnel all these guests into the east room, not only the labor required for such an event, but the worries associated with such an enterprise became immediate and acute to the lincoln secretaries who by now had nicknamed her hell cat. while the president they dubbed the tycoon. mary was firmly convinced that diversion was an absolute necessity. she ignored senator benjamin wade who wrote indignantly, are the president and mrs. lincoln aware that there is a civil war? if they are not, mr. and mrs. wade are and for that reason decline to participate in dancing and feasting. but feast they did. as heaping plates of partridge quail, duck, turkey, foie gras beef, and the president's favorite, oysters, greeted guests as well as an elegantly appointed abraham lincoln with his wife mary at his side. a cake in the shape of a fort as well as elegant spun sugar deserts amused the throng. the marine band played mary lincoln's polka and the washington star pronounced it the most superb affair of its kind ever seen. mary had taken nearly a year hoping to banish the memory of her predecessors reign in the white house. harriet lane had been both a popular socialite and an impeccable style setter. mary clemor, one of the dragon ladies of d.c., gave lane very high marks and remarked her superb physique gave the impression of intense, harmonious vitality. her eyes of deep violet shed a constant steady light as they could flash with rebuke, kindle with humor, or soften with tenderness. her classic head was crowned with masses of golden hair. mary's goal when she took over the executive mansion focused on erasing the memories of when this blond younger model made washington society dance to her tune. clemor suggested that mary had an impossible task to fulfill and further she was doomed at the outset. in reviewing the character of presidents' wives, we shall see that there was never one who entered the white house with such a feeling of self-satisfaction. to her it was the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and mary lincoln made her journey to washington a triumphant passage. with all of mary's faults as margaret leech has argued, in her first years in the white house, mrs. lincoln received more personal publicity in the northern press than the president. and most of it was unfavorable. mary's poor relations with the press form a mainstay of my by graphical treatment. she and her husband were unforgiving of what they felt was an abusive fourth estate. lincoln had his battles with journalists and these contests considerably cooled white house press relations. william howard russell of "the times" recalled running into the couple while on a carriage ride and the president was not so good humored nor mrs. lincoln affable. my unpopularity is spreading because i will not bow my knee to the degraded creatures who have made the very name of a free press odious to honorable men. mrs. lincoln claimed to be immune to newspaper attacks but she was acutely aware of the power of political gossip, and the washington pecking order. she longed to rule uncontested and win over the public. her social ambitions were at best extravagant, at worst ludicrous. but she carried on her parlor campaign and fervently as a statesman wheeling in and out of her husband's office. she felt frustrated when harriet lane's exit created a vacuum was filled by kate chase, the devoted daughter of lincoln's republican rival. the senator from ohio was appointed secretary of the treasury, yet his daughter continued to harbor presidential ambitions for her father. she set up a rival court just ten blocks from the white house in the chase home at 6th and e. quite a good place this clara barton, mathew brady nexus. this contest began even before lincoln's assumption of office and the two women sparred dramatically throughout wartime washington. more of kate's story can be gleaned from john aller's new book, american queen, the rise and fall of kate chase sprague which tells us as much about society in 19th century america as it does about this woman's fascinating life. rumors in washington suggest that the chase/lincoln feud had its roots in the earliest days of the lincoln administration. the lincolns made their way slowly to washington via train in the early weeks of 1861. the couple visited at the home of governor william dennison of ohio on february 13th, the day after lincoln's 52nd birthday. the president-elect enjoyed a speech at the capitol and then they spent the evening being entertained, including a military ball. some have suggested the ohio stopover initiated this battle between the women as rumors circulated that mrs. lincoln was angered by her husband's dancing with a beguiling 20-year-old beauty that night, which, of course was impossible because she wasn't in town. and so the counter story was that mary lincoln was angry that the chases were not in attendance, but both fanciful tales seem manufactured, lylely likely -- likely in retrospect and for effect. chase certainly played on mary lincoln's vindictiveness in her rendition of the rivalry in later years particularly when mrs. lincoln's unpopularity peaked in the post-war years. kate chase and miry lincoln were -- mary lincoln were introduced at the first white house levee in 1861. kate was escorted by charles sumner who later became a favorite and a confidant of mrs. lincoln. this young, eligible daughter of a wealthy cabinet member enjoyed a wide circle of admirers. anne richardson french, wife of sculptor daniel chester french described kate as a professional beauty. she was tall and slim with an unusually long white neck and a slow, dibeliberate way of turning it when she glanced about. french concluded both chase's striking appearance and her distinctive manner demanded that when she appeared, people dropped back in order to watch her. when she returned to the white house for the lincolns' first state dinner on march 28th battle lines were clearly being drawn as the story is repeated that mrs. lincoln said to her as she left, i shall be glad to see you anytime, miss chase, and chase allegedly replied, mrs. lincoln, i shall be glad to have you call on me anytime. this might be mistaken as a polite or genteel interaction, but i think we know that both parties were giving thinly veiled signals of the rough seas ahead. mrs. lincoln knew that the gauntlet had been thrown down. her white house receptions and levees were by tradition open to the public. meanwhile, kate chase hosted exclusive breakfasts four or five times a week to lure a coterie of power brokers to keep her father's reputation in the forefront. mr. lincoln may have won in 1960 but kate was looking ahead to 1864. jay cook was a frequent vil for and many other wealthy financier financiers financiers. she held receptions every wednesday afternoon. afternoon gathers would drift in evening meals and entertainments to lure and lull the wheeler dealers who might advance her father's career. kate chase's charm offensive targeted several eligible bachelors as she flirted with the unattached ambassador from england, apparently leading him on a very merry chase. and she was not shy about worming her way into lincoln's inner circle attending the theater with john hey and extending him invitations to pry out of him lincoln office gossip, and he could report back all the lavish parties going on at the chases. hey stayed in the picture and was manipulated by kate after her marriage to the political wunder kind william sprague who was by all accounts a bounder when he clamped his eyes on kate. but as one of the richest men in america, the youngest man elected at 29 to lead a state, sprague cut a dashing figure and these were his credentials before his house was -- his horse was shot out from under him at bull run and he became a war hero. sprague was a favorite of lincoln's and lincoln surmised kate chase was a worthy challenger to his wife's title as most likely to commit mayhem to ruthlessly advance her true love's career. [laughter] trying to keep the peace in the parlor politics of washington, the president was extraordinarily kind, even solicitous of kate. this was to acknowledge her influence as chase's daughter or perhaps as sprague's future wife, but in any case, she remained a force with which to contend. lincoln would demonstrate his spy glass to her during washington receptions. he even invited her to meet with the delegation of american indians coming to the white house. mrs. lincoln was so irritated by these attentions that elizabeth keckley repeated in her memoir that mary forbade her husband to speak to kate at a white house reception, something to which he did not accede her wishes. as the reigning belle of d.c. society, kate indulged in her passion for finery, accepting perhaps inappropriate gifts from jay cook, including a handsome coach which set the tongues wagging. when she was romanced by william sprague, salmon p. chase at first disapproved as sprague was rumored to be a libertine with a well-known weakness for alcohol. chase did not care that sprague had more money than sense and was pleased when the courtship cooled after many months of speculation. when chase's protege james garfield came to washington from ohio in the autumn of 1862, he stayed with the chases and became a stimulating companion for kate. he escorted her everywhere, so much so that back in ohio lucretia crete garfield his wife wrote inquisitively you and miss , kate are taking dinners out. is miss kate a very charming interesting young lady? i may be jealous if she is. garfield's wife was right to be suspicious because whether or not he crossed the line with kate chase during this period we have evidence he was involved in an extramarital affair with a new york tribune reporter, lucia gilbert calhoun, a widow one year kate chase's junior and a decade younger than garfield. as for kate, perhaps being scire -- squired in public was meant to spark jealousy in sprague which seemed to work because thereafter they became involved and eventually engaged. sprague paid close attention to the extravagance his fiancee craved and overspent to satisfy her girlish gluttony. in $18,000 paris down was part of her bridal wardrobe. kate's campaign to advance her father's career never wavered but once lincoln trumped with the emancipation proclamation it was hard for kate to use the abolitionist card within washington political circles. at the same time the rivalry between chase and lincoln became notorious. one ohio paper lampooned, the lincoln/chase contest has extended into the women's department. linchas a new french rig with mrs. lincoln a new french rig with all the posies costing $4,000. miss kate chase sees her and goes her one better by ordering her a nice little $6,000 arrangement, including a $3,000 shawl. go to it green banks while it is yet today. who knew carriage wars were all the rage. if you read a washington paper of the era, sarah austin chanced to drive alongside a carriage which had two professional rivals. one called out the austin equipage contained a tub of guts. they were hauled before justice and they were fined $2.50 each. newspaper's might treat female rivalry sa tirically while in reality chase and lincoln worked with deadly dedication whether high brow or low brow, hi jinxes or low blows, all part of the washington merry go round. in 1864 kate chase feverishly hoped her father's talents could replace lincoln at the helm of the party. her marriage to sprague on the 12th of november, 1863, had been hailed as the social event of the season. the bride was replen accident in a white velvet wedding dress sporting a beautiful diamond solitaire, part of the steady stream of wedding gifts estimated to be worth anywhere between $60,000 and $100,000. the president arrived alone at the chase/sprague reception and presented the bride with a small fan as his wife refused to attend. lincoln's spent over two hours to, quote, take the cuss off the meagerness of the presidential party as he put it. mrs. sprague, however, after her marriage did not diminish her political ambitions. indeed, within a month the chase for president committee had been formed. mary lincoln was so infuriated that she crossed chase off the list for the state dinner in january 1864, although chase and his daughter were both brought back by lincoln himself. nevertheless, when the party nominated lincoln and lincoln refused to make a patronage appointment on chase's behalf the secretary of the treasury who regularly submitted his letter of resignation this time it was accepted and he found himself out of a job. chase's resignation and kate sprague's pained response to her father's being put out to pasture were two very bright spots during a very bleak summer for mary lincoln. she was beset by worries by her creditors having run up her debts to nearly $25,000. her husband's entire annual salary. her greatest fear was that lincoln might lose and she'd have to reveal her financial embarrassment. but she went to new york and knew it was a city ripe for patronage and corrupt bargains and she waded into the muck suggesting, quote, i will be clever to them until after the election, and then if we remain in the white house, i will drop every one of them and let them know very plainly i only made tools of them. they are an unprincipled set and i don't mind doing a little double dealing with them. unfortunately, she would also indulge in her shopping mania and the new york herald reported , she reason sacked the treasures of dry good stores. mary clemor complained while sher sisters scraped lint the wife of the president spent her time rolling to and fro between washington and new york. intent on extravagant purchases for herself and the white house. an election year revved up her critics, and mrs. lincoln's relationship with credit and spending contributed to her notorious downfall. ironically, kate sprague's lavish spending was just tabloid fodder and was given a pass as a millionaire's wife, but we do know that, indeed, even after mrs. lincoln avoided the embarrassment of having to reveal her debts to her husband, she continued throughout the rest of her white house days and her life to suffer from what my good friend and colleague steven barry has called financial bulimia. by 1864 both the chases and the lincolns were disgusted with general george mcclellan. kate and mary shared an enemy in mcclellan although they were no united front but had very different reasons. mcclellan had been the subject of intense scrutiny from the day he showed up with his wife for the white house ball in february 1862. during the festivities, the servant had accidentally lock the door to the dining room and there was a search for the key. some polliticians ghan to lampoon a speech made by mcclellan which found the union general forced into laughing at himself. over the next two years he was dubbed the american napoleon found criticism no laughsing matter. he wrote to his wife ellen when he received his first military promotion, i find myself at a new and strange position her president, cabinet, general scott, and all deferring to me. by some strange operation of magic, i seem to have become the power of the land. i almost think if i were to win some small success now, i could become dictator or anything else that might please me. but nothing of that kind would please me. therefore, i won't be dictator. admirable self denial, and you can read the letters as he wrote to ellen almost daily when they were apart to find out more about his fascinating inner world. the mcclellans clearly had a loving relationship but their courtship was protracted and it was stymied by ellen's lack of enthusiasm. in 1854 mcclellan fell head over heels in love with the daughter of his former army commander randolph marcy. her father encouraged this young soldier who had prospects and mcclellan wrote to ellen's mother he was determined to win her if i can. however, ellen was in love with another army officer, lieutenant ambrose powell hill. because hill had no financial prospects outside the military ellen's father threatened if she did not break off with him, i fear my ardent affections will turn to hate. ellen did eventually abandon hill who would later as we know serve the rebel cause and often faced mcclellan on the battlefield. general a.p. hill would die in battle shortly before appomattox but ellen's break with hill did not advance the courtship with mcclellan as we find mcclellan nearly a decade older and a few inches shorter was actually one of nine suitors ellen turned down during the 1850s. george left the army and worked his way up as head of the ohio and mississippi railroad. and when the mcclellans were on a visit to chicago and she was 25, mcclellan asked ellen for her hand and was accepted. they were married in may 1860 and by all accounts remained devoted. however, ellen's temperament did not include the need to advertise and promote her husband's talents. she knew he was quite a self promoter on his own achieving the rank of major general by the age of 34, consolidating power by becoming the first commander of the army of the potomac in july 1861. when winfield scott retired in november 1861, mcclenen insisted to lincoln i can do it all. within months it became clear that he could not, and his contempt for lincoln became exaggerated as in private he berated his commander in chief as nothing more than a well-meaning baboon. which very much reminds us of how political campaigns in the 19th century are perhaps not so different from the 21st. open mic time. by july of 1862, salmon chase and his daughter were campaigning actively to have mcclellan removed, yet lincoln offered the general yet another chance to prove himself. antietam became mcclellan's final downfall despite his protestations to the opposite. while the rivers ran red with blood and lincoln grew darker each day at the failure to pursue and crush the enemy. lincoln took the opportunity to claim victory. the purpose of his claim was to revolutionize the war by releasing the preliminary emancipation proclamation. mcclellan claimed military success to continue his climb up the ladder. ellen may have believed her husband's claim, i have fought the battle splendidly. one of these days history will i trust do me justice. yet, lincoln replaced mcclellan with burnside. mcclellan's version of the facts notwithstanding, he deflected blame and vaingloriously accepted the nomination of the democratic party and held onto his military commission until election day november 8th. following his decisive defeat, mcclellan wrote to lincoln as he sailed off to europe, it would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that i still retained the approbation of your excellency. mcclellan failed to carry even a majority of the soldiers' vote and forfeited the confidence and kind feeling of his former commander in chief. even if lincoln had hoped to maintain charity toward all, the parlor politics of washington would not allow mcclellan's rehabilitation. ellen marcie mcclellan did not exactly retreat from the field. she never even took up arms. she was outperformed, outplayed by old hands at the washington party politics game. mary lincoln's sad fate will doubtless be a part of the lincoln forum's commemorations next year as her widowhood in 1865 was as defining of her life as her marriage in 1842. but what about her younger blonder rivals? hairrriet lane had heeded her uncle's advice to not rush were -- precipitously into matrimonial connections and only married at the age of 36 in 1866. her union was a happy one although she lost her uncle, her husband, and both of her children, two sons, before she reached the age of 60. she died in her early 70s donating her considerable art collection to the smithsonian and endowing a home for children at the johns hopkins hospital where the harriet lane pediatric facilities continue to serve the clinical needs of children today. according to her white house biography. poor kate chase sprague never got a white house biography as mary lincoln and harriet lane did, even though she spent most of her adulthood discouraging her father from any remarriage and encouraging him to run for president. kate and her sister nette were two of the seven women and the many hundred men who attended lincoln's white house funeral while mary lincoln pleaded she was too ill to attend. later that year kate gave birth to her first child, a son, and she and sprague had three additional children, three daughters over the next ten years. she revived her father's hopes for the presidency as he campaigned from the bench of the supreme court, an appointment lincoln had graciously granted him in december of 1864. the chases switched parties with kate working the democratic convention of 1872 trying to secure her father's candidacy, another failed campaign. things went downhill for kate when her father died in may 1873. four months later the sprague fortune was wiped out by black friday. after years of living apart with kate enduring williams philandering and alcoholism she sued her husband for divorce. it was supremely difficult as kate's own infidelity, her involvement with new york senator roscoe conklin had become public knowledge which weakened her custody bid and any hopes for alimony. after months of wrangling, the marriage was dissolved in 1882. sprague kept custody of his 16-year-old son but relinquished the three daughters to his ex-wife. she would return to the use of her maiden name, kate chase. she settled in the washington suburban home her father left her caring for her three daughters, particularly her second daughter, kitty, who was mentally challenged. in 1890 her 25-year-old son took , his own life, which plunged kate chase, impoverished reclusive into further isolation. she buried her son next to her father and lived out a relatively meager existence until her death at 59 in 1899. rather than being labeled a woman ruled by passion, she might be regarded as a woman supremely committed to politics. her tragic life was like her greatrival, mary lincoln, diffuse by personal loss. like the first lady who she wanted to dethrone, she was a worthy opponent. women did not win elections no matter how hard they worked. instead, they were crowned, and indeed, shackled by convention, rather than be able to take their place. chase challenge the world order and tried to be a part of her father's political strategy. perhaps, even marrying like a royal princess to advance his future. the female domain remained as competitive space in washington in 1884. and one that,, just like today, is ruled by social media. just like general petreaus, and bipartisan elections have never been taught. you can never underestimate what will happen when gossip, sex, and media mix in washington. [applause] >> if there are any questions, we have about 10 minutes or so until the next session. >> i would love it if you would identify yourself. >> i am norm. from akron, ohio. but originally from lincoln, illinois. i asked this question of jean baker when she was here last. i will ask the same question to you. i will not give you her response until you answer the question. >> you can ask the question, i can give the answer. >> do you think mary was bipolar? >> i have often said, and i will repeat, i am a doctorate in history and not medicine. i would suggest that even if we brought mary out on stage today, and she were examined, they would have very divided views. i do not diagnose. i tried to lay out patterns of behavior. i very much respect my colleagues. jean baker has written about the narcissism of mary. we have some new work coming out about concussions and white head trauma can do. i very much welcome that speculation. i, myself, tried to contextualize. i believe that ironically i was most moved to believe that she was not bipolar, but had medication problems and psychological problems. especially when i read the wonderful letters that jason anderson dug up when she was incarcerated. during a difficult period following the 10th anniversary of her husband's death. >> absolutely not. >> would you like to ask a question? >> don't forget us over here. >> i'm sorry. we will take this and then come back to you. >> my name is jim mcgrath. i am from new york. >> quite a bit of gossip around grover cleveland. >> anyway, my question is __ mary lincoln did not like graham too much. she liked his wife less, julia. my question is __ she called him a butcher after cold harbor. in the 1870's, grant became presidents and secured some kind of pension for mary lincoln when she was financially struggling. >> you think grant was the one to secure the pension? >> that is what i found. >> check my last chapter. i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say they were congressional people pushing it more so than grant. it may have been granted during grants., but he is not someone i will line up and say was advancing the cause to dramatically. >> that is what i heard. >> did marry ever think grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. actually, they had an interesting incident when she was living abroad. it is a very small town. bay __ berry springfield_like, in the south of france. interestingly, the grants were visiting there when she was in residence. i came across an exchange. it was very sincere saying, we are so sorry, we do not know the you are here, and now our schedule does not allow us to visit you. as an ex_president, his popularity was something that deeply disturbed mary. her campaign from the moment that she recovered from the immediate effects of his death __ i think she never recovered in a long_term __ was to campaign for her husband, very strategically. he was the writer of the emancipation proclamation. she gave a cane to frederick douglass. she gave artifacts to african_americans. she very much champion her husband as someone who would sacrifice very much for his cause. she and grant, and juliet, no, they were never going to become __ bosom buddies. >> where would you rank her on the list of great american first lady's? would she be in your top five? >> what about his question? >> i don't care. >> you __ now is his turn. >> after the experience that mary lincoln had of her children's death in the white house. >> one died in the white house. >> what about her social rivals? were they able to ease the sting of what was going on in their relationships. >> after her child's death? in my biography, i had written about this __ when i got to the 61, 62. of her life, i tried to write chronologically. i was struck by how her critics were. presses were trying to send spies into the white house to find out what was going on. she was constantly under attack __ everywhere she went to is followed by reporters. doris goodwin put me on the notion that if you want to put fire on the house, you have to ignite the thatch. mary was the thatch. i think the death of her son led her to look inward. the notion of social rivals is not something i found. by 64, she was brought up again. through out the period, she was losing control over herself over this question. she was quite angry that no one recognized the one_year anniversary of the death of her son, willie. except for neptune __ i'mm blanking. i do find that some people come in. there are many people who rose to the occasion and said they wanted to publish good works about her. she was going to hospitals. they wanted to start a press campaign. she said that she refused. she was a very victorian woman in some ways, and did not want her name appearing in the paper. of course, that is why the old close scandal, after she left the white house for __ after such a painful episode. >> i am a medical doctor. i'm an infectious disease specialist, not a psychologist. i always thought she was bipolar. you may know this __ the reason that ap hill and marcy broke up was because ap hill had gonorrhea. he had contracted it in west point with mcclellan. he knew that he had gonorrhea, and he formed the family of ap health. >> thank you for that. i just do not do military history, but i am pleased to be filled in. >> good morning, i am from chicago. in the last year, published in the journal of the abraham lincoln association, there has been great speculation on mary lincoln purchasing penny royal when she was pregnant with tad. penny royal is used to read.the fleas or to induce an abortion. >> i'm sorry, i cannot comment on the scholarship. my recent books have meant that i do not have the drugs they __ that mary lincoln had. from my estimation from that period, i would have no evidence from her letters or otherwise that there would be any way that i could comment or believe that she was trying to not have the child. the lincolns were very proud and devoted. when she suffered family tragedies in the death of eddie, she became pregnant within one month. indeed, the idea of having two younger sons and robert already off to school was something that was in their minds. i look forward to it. >> congratulations. >> thank you. we will applaud for raising these controversial questions and keeping it up. she definitely had syphilis __ that was one of the ones that medically people speculate, but it was interesting. >> from washington, d.c., originally from ohio. you hinted at this a moment ago. what about mary lincoln's work with the soldiers. she had great empathy for the mothers and wives, having had the loss of these children. it is my understanding that she spent a lot of time in the hospital's writing letters home for the soldiers. it seems to me that all of these vicious attacks against her could have been blunted had she allowed the reporters to talk __ to write about that. why did she not want that? was it kept kind of a secret? did people not understand? >> i do not think that she advertised on purpose. i think she was someone who went into penitents when her son died. one of the things was __ i told you about her grand aspirations for d.c. droning harriet lane. that was around the time that her son's illness became evident. she and the president kept checking in the bedroom and __ if you go to the lincoln library, there is a great exhibit about how they kept going in the room during the ball. within days, her beloved willie was dead. if you contrast her next trip to new york with 64, you find that she was trying to find her way back to being the social creature that she was. also, writing letters and taking care of the bond between families in the wartime dislocation was something that she very much did dedicate itself to. she took flowers from the white house. she took fruit. she was serving the role which she thought was a political role. lincoln did it as well. they did not go in as a couple, they went separately. when someone did mention it, she wrote to them saying, please don't. we do know that she was trying to keep that side of her charity __ she wanted to be an anonymous donor to the soldiers cause during that period. that's what i think was her interest at the time. >> hi, mary beth donnelly. >> this is the last question, so make it a good one. >> it is kind of broad, but i'm thinking of the conversation we had last night of lincoln on film. i just wanted to know that what you think of the portrayal of mary lincoln on film. >> i do have weaknesses. i think that __ i have very strong feelings about and rutledge on film. nevertheless, i think that mary on film is an interesting phenomenon. i do believe that you can see in the portrait was sam watters, mary tyler moore trying to show a woman with clear disturbances __ i thought that was powerful. i do feel that this recent portrait by sally fields, which i very much regret, did not earn her her third oscar, was an amazing inhabiting of that role. i think people can have differences of opinion as to her problems are flaws. i think that particular portrait captured her as a flawed, dynamic, intense character. she contributed to that in a way that i found amazing. i'm very regretful that i cannot name the actual spec played mary lincoln in lincoln the vampire slayer, however, you have to understand that any scholar who has written a biography about harriet tubman and mary lincoln finding these two characters taking guns to gettysburg will very much while come this pop_culture representation. thank you very much [applause] >> with light coverage of the senate and house, here on c_span 3, we complement that coverage. on weekends, c_span 3 is home to "american history tv" with programs that tell our nation's history. american artifacts, 20 museums and u. s. sites. history bookshelf with the best_known american history writers. lectures in history with top college professors delving into our nation's past. our newest series, reel america with archival footage. c_span 3, created by the cable industry and funded by your local providers. >> each week, "american history tv"'s reel america brings archival films the health of the story of the 20th century. ♪ >>in a gathering of 10,000 before the memorial of the great emancipator, president truman strongly advocates freedom and equality for all u. s. citizens. >> recent events have made us realize that it is more important today than ever before to ensure that all americans enjoy these rights. [applause] when i say all americans, i mean all americans. [applause] our immediate past is to remove the remnants of the barriers which stand between millions of our citizens and their birthright. there is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry or religion, or race, or color. [applause] ♪ >> next, anderson university prof. brian dirck look for abraham
trembling earth and we're so excited to have her with us today. so before i turn it over to her just a quick note we have sent out an email to everyone this morning that had just a great list of resources like a bibliography that megan had put together so you all should have received that by now. if not that link is posted in the chat. so that please join me in welcoming megan kate nelson. hi everyone. thank you so much. thank you nicole for that lovely introduction and to the smithsonian associates for the invitation to be with you tonight. i would also like to thank harmony and ellen and steve and anna and liz for running this show and to helping me get all the the tech straight. i cannot think of a better place for me to talk about saving yellowstone then at the smithsonian as you will learn tonight, the institution played a really important role in both the exploration and the preservation of this iconic national landscape. so, thank you all for being with me tonight as nicole noted. there will be a q&a after the talk, so please. i feel free to ask questions along the way and we'll get to as many of those questions as we can by the end. so in mid july. 1871 a 22 year old university of pennsylvania graduate student named robert adams scrambled down from the rim of the grand canyon of the yellowstone to the precipice of the lower falls. creeping to the edge of an overhanging cliff adams wrote later to the philadelphia inquirer. we gazed below till dizziness made us withdraw. oh it was grand sublime a site. never to be forgotten. on his climb back up to the rim adams pulled a handful of drummond's rush out of the ground a common site along river banks in alpine areas of the mountain west this flowering plant grew in large clusters. it's a brown yellow and purple red flowers waving in the breeze. adams was the botanist on the yellowstone expedition of 1871 and he had been collecting plants and flowers throughout the team's trip from omaha, nebraska to the middle of the yellowstone basin. when he got back to camp from the lower falls adams pressed the stems of the drummonds rush between sheets of paper and pulled a label out of his satchel on it. he wrote out of he wrote out the name of the specimen the date he collected it and the location and then he signed it. he placed the sheets with the label attached in a box with hundreds of other botanical specimens to be sent first by wagon then by train to the smithsonian institution in washington, dc. the samples of drummonds rush, which you see here on the slide now sit in a folder stacked in a cabinet at the national museum of natural history. they are fragments of the us western flora that are archived in the east they are also material evidence of ferdinand hayden's expedition of 1871 the first scientific exploration of yellowstone, which led to the passage of the yellowstone act in 1872 creating the first national park in the world 150 years ago. in my new book saving yellowstone. i tell the story of hayden's expedition and i interweave this story with two other narratives the narrative of capital investment in the white settlement of the west and the story of indigenous resistance to those efforts of government officials us soldiers businessmen and scientists to take their homelands from them. so in this moment in 1871 72 yellowstone really became an iconic landsc. in america, it also became a metaphor for the nation itself a place. that was both beautiful and terrible. so the question that i always get are always want to ask of people in the audience is when did you go first to yellowstone or have you been there? so we have a quiz for you an audience poll. i'm interested to see how many of you have have actually been there and if you have visited the park, when was your trip, did you go as a child? did you go as an adult with your own children? was it recently or was it really really long ago as you can see from these slides my first trip was long ago in july of 1982 almost 40 years ago. now these are pictures from our family trip when i started to write the book. i i had my father go into the garage and dig out the slides from that trip and i sent them off to be converted to jpegs and it was great fun to look at them when they arrived so, you know this family vac. in was pretty incredible. yellowstone was really our first stop. we went there from glacier and then to calgary and came all the way back around over the course of two weeks and you know, these family trips we started taking these two-week summer vacations and they really shaped me as a historian of american landscapes. so here we have the results of the poll. so 96% of you have been there that's amazing. that is a really large number because even today yellowstone is quite hard to get to and so you really have to try you you can't just be wandering by on the way to somewhere else. so that's really great and it looks like an even share of people who went as children went as adults and looks like about a third of you have been in the past five years. so that's great. that's great. this was my first trip and actually my second trip was just this past september i was supposed to go in may of 20. a for my first research trip for the book. and of course the pandemic scuttled those plans, unfortunately, and and this was really a bummer for me because i like to go to the places that i study and that i research i'd like to be in the landscape not necessarily to kind of feel a sense of history or anything like that but to actually see the landscape and experience it as people in the past may have experienced it even though of course there has been natural change over time. it is not exactly the same but i like to be there so that i can understand what the people i'm writing about kind of saw and what they experienced and and these family trips. we're really important to me too. they i learned to love history by moving through space finding us finding us on maps bound into the rand mcnally road atlas if those are people in the audience who remember that i love a good road atlas and tracking us as as we drove along. so it really isn't a surprise that when i became a historian, i was really drawn to environmental history and to landscape studies. so when i really started thinking about yellowstone when i was writing the three corner war. um, which was my previous book there is a protagonist in that book who is a surveyor general of new mexico. territory guy named john clark who's a friend of lincoln's the republican appointee in the 1860s, and this led me to some background research in the history of surveying in america and i ran across the hayden expedition of 1871 and i remembered it because i'd actually studied it and graduate school in a class in art history and we'll see why a little bit later in the talk why that would have been something that i would have studied in that context. i realized and this was about 2018. i realized we were coming up on the 150th anniversary of both the expedition and the passage of the yellowstone act which was a direct result of that expedition and you know for historians and i think for a lot of us anniversaries are really important moments for us to really take stock events and a places. why events occurred why places became important in the way that they did in the past and then how they're important today and really kind of reckon with that and with the place that these places hold in our society, so so that was an important element and so i started to kind of look around and see what had been written on hayden's expedition and you know, a lot of great books have been written about it and written about that survey written about the other great surveys that were out at the time which i'll talk about in a second a lot of great books have also been published about the long history of yellowstone. particularly aubrey haynes's magisterial two volume history, and if i know i sent out a list of sources for you to look at but there's also a full bibliography in the book itself. so if you pick up the book, there's a whole list of sources that you can look at both primary documents and also secondary sources that can give you a better sense of this per said but it really surprised me that no one had really looked in-depth at the effort to explore and preserve yellowstone in its historical context because what i also realized is that this survey and the passage of the yellowstone actor happening in 1871 and 72 which are right in the middle of reconstruction. which is not a period that we think of as you know taking place in the west or having anything to do with the west so that became really interesting to me. and so i just you know, i had just written a book that. looked at the the civil war from a really unexpected place the far west and so i began to think well what if i looked at reconstruction from yellowstone, would i come to know reconstruction differently, would i learn something new about it by looking at it from the geyser basins and the lower falls or from the grand prismatic spring as in this slide, which will be familiar to almost all of you as you have been there and would i learned something new about yellowstone itself, but thinking about it in the context of reconstruction. so first before i get to the the kind of nitty-gritty of hayden and his expedition i wanted to give you just a little bit of background and reconstruction history because this is a period it's getting a little more attention today. but really, i mean i know when i was in school we kind of went through it really quickly on the way from the civil war to the gilded age and didn't really study it a lot in depth and it really is an important informative moment in our nation's history and it deserves more attention. so after the civil war you know there were many challenges facing the us government and all americans. you know, how does a nation recover from four years of violent conflict of just incalculable loss of life of farms and cities and railroads how to form million people transition from a life of enslavement to a life of freedom. so there were so many challenges that were economic challenges political challenges and of course cultural challenges in this moment one of the challenges of course was stabilizing the national economy in the south many of the factories and the railroad railroad lines have been destroyed and had to be rebuilt this required really northern capital investment because most of the base of southern capital from before the war which constituted which was constituted by enslaved human beings did not exist anymore emancipation created an entirely new system of free labor and agriculture. and there was a whole turn in that context to sharecropping to debt p&h a whole system of indebtedness that really sustained cycles of poverty for black southerners and some white southerners in the years after the war and for the years to come. the north was in a little better shape as was the west manufacturing and agriculture had really boomed during the war but still did not regain really pre-war pace of output until the mid 1870s. so there was that big challenge of how do we get the economy back on track? how do we get people into professions and earning money and supporting their families again after this destructive civil war? another challenge was how to bring the former confederate states back into the union. the reconstruction congress had passed a series of laws requiring revamped state constitutions for re-entry. the states had to pass depending on when they were applying to return the 13th the 14th and ultimately the 15th amendments each state had to hold free and fair elections to bring their new representatives to washington dc to be seated in congress and by 1870. this process was mostly complete all the former confederate states were back in the union. they had seeded members in congress on the majority of them were republicans because former confederates who are often democrats, we're not allowed to hold office during this period all of these programs faced resistance from a lot of different areas from andrew johnson who had taken over the presidency after the assassination of abraham lincoln. he expressed his objections pretty early on and his desire to implement a kind of kinder and gentler reconstruction in the south. he used his veto power to try to derail radical reconstruction projects, and he did not succeed and his resistance led to his impeachment trial in the spring of 1868. there was also a widespread resistance from many white southerners who almost immediately upon their return from the battlefields and the return to peace tried to reassert their power over black americans through the passage of black codes, which restricted behavior and labor and other repressive measures as well as vigilante violence through organizations, like the ku klux klan which really emerged in a strong way in 1868 and the years afterward. there's also a great a great deal of resistance from democrats from across the nation. it's important to remember that in this period democrats and republicans have the sort of opposite ideologies as they have today democrats were opposed to the republican parties use of federal power to secure black rights, although they were more amenable to using this power to expand white settlement into the west and we'll get into to more of that later. so things began to change a little bit when ulysses s grant was elected in 1868. grant had been a career military man who quit the army in the years before the civil war floundered around a bit trying to find his way before rejoining the military during the civil war and here he found his real talent, which was planning military campaigns and leading men into battle after the war. he served as the general of the armies for johnson profoundly disagreed with johnson on most matters involving reconstruction and really wanted to honor abraham lincoln who is a friend of his and whose vision for the future of the south for black equality and black voting. he did support. he also wanted to honor the sacrifice of so many of the us soldiers who had fought for the union, you know, who he had led into battle and who had died under his watch. he was having none of it from the white southerners. he was had very little tolerance for them. very little sympathy for them. he saw their resistance to federal measures and to the 14th and 15th amendments as a renewed rebellion against the federal government and that shaped really his response, but he was elected with this campaign slogan, which you can see on this commemorative handkerchief here. let us have peace and he really did want to bring the south back into the nation, but he did want to ensure that all the citizens of the south were equal in that effort. he also uh meant let us have peace to apply to the west. so this was an interesting sort of two-pronged approach that he and his administration took supported by congress during this period, you know one big question for grant was how to provide and protect civil rights for more than four million freed people across the south how to make sure that states were protecting their citizens and protecting their their 14th and 15th amendment rights, particularly the 14th amendment which was passed in june of 1866 ratified in 1868 and affirming the citizenship citizen citizenship status and civil rights of all people born or naturalized in the united states. there was a qualifier to that though, that becomes really important during this period we have a parenthetical there that says accept indians on taxed. that's the quote and that is an important omission because most white americans including ulysses s. grant did not believe that native people were citizens or really could be citizens if they continue to live in their traditional ways, so in this moment there is interest in both the south and the west and to this end grant made two, very interesting and progressive appointments in his first term. the first was the appointment of ely parker as commissioner of indian affairs. some of you may be familiar with parker if you know a fair bit about the civil war he was on grant's staff. he is he's a seneca man of great education and experience had come to know grant in galena before the war and grant really appreciated his intelligence and also his penmanship. he was the one who wrote out the surrender documents for grant and lee at appomattox. so grant really wanted to bring elie parker in to the bureau of indian affairs, and he did so in 1869. he also appointed amos ackerman as his attorney general. ackerman was a really interesting figure. he was a georgian. he was a former confederate officer, but he was a man who having returned from the war actually embraced radical reconstruction believed that the south needed to kind of move into the future and provide equality for all citizens, and he came into the grant administration in 1870. so both grant and congress made decisions in this period to exert federal power in the south and the west helped by ely parker and amos ackerman in the south ackerman directed a newly created department of justice effort to prosecute the ku klux klan in south carolina in the fall of 18 and 71 and he really encouraged grant toward taking very strong action particularly the in south carolina where kkk violence was very bad. probably the worst in the nation. so in october of 1871, but the power given to him by the kkk act passed by congress in the spring grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus in multiple counties in south carolina, so that officials could arrest clan members immediately and keep them in jail until they were prosecuted and from november 1871 to april 1872 us attorneys tried hundreds of clan members. charging them with conspiracy to violate the 14th and 15th amendment rights of black southerners most of these cases were successful and many clan members were sent to jail now. i should know that most of these members were the rank and file the leadership of the kkk the minute that grant started making noise. about potential arrests fled the country or flood the state and they could not be found and arrested. so the kkk trials were really a high-water mark for republicans and for the federal government during reconstruction and in the 19th century in asserting federal supremacy to really protect the rights of the nation's most vulnerable citizens black americans would not receive this kind of protection from the federal government again until the 1960s. in the west ely parker had sort of an interesting vision for native citizenship and representation that he shared with grant and sort of pushed him to embrace and grant was pretty amenable parker was an assimilationist which meant that he argued for the abandonment of indigenous traditions and the embrace of christianity the english language individual land ownership and other markers of american civilization, but he also imagined gathering indigenous peoples into one or two large reservations. that would become territories and then admitted to the union as states. so that indigenous peoples would have consistent representation in congress. this was a completely novel idea at the time and i think in the years since then as well grant was on board until parker resigned in the summer of 1871 and kind of stopped pushing him toward this goal. there was no congressional support among republicans or democrats for this vision for ely parker himself the 14th amendment as i noted before denied the rights of citizens citizenship to most native peoples during this period and it really was at this point in the early 1870s that federal indian policy began to shift in march of 1871 congress inserted a writer into an indian appropriation act. basically stating that there would be no more treaties made between the federal government and native nations that congress would abide by the treaties already made up to that point a particularly the fort laramie treaty was very big treaty of the 1868. however from this point forward they would no longer actually establish treaty relations, which meant that they would no longer recognize native sovereignty. they would try to make peace agreements, but from this point forward the government would use military force as a first resort and stuck instead of a second or third resort and this is a moment where we really see us army campaigns against native peoples start to escalate in order to pave the way in the west for white settlement. the goal was to force native peoples on to reservations and then reduce the size of those reservations to sell the remaining land off to white settlers. so there were other national projects that were underway at this time that had this same goal to establish white settlers in the west and bring the west more fully into the union politically economically and culturally one of those was the transcontinental railroad, which was actually a civil war action that was passed in 1862 a completed in 1869 and you can see this very famous photo here of the moment when the the two lines which were being built from either end the west in the east connected in utah, and this was seen as a grand technological achievement that would unite the nation americans had been dreaming about a transcontinental line since the 1840s and saw it as the basis for american manifest destiny also included in this vision were the great surveys of the 18 late 1860s and early 1970s now the federal government had been launching surveys of its land since its creation in the 18th century and especially after lewis and clark's expedition to the pacific in 1804 through 1806. many of these are loose survey teams were led by us military officials, but there was a turn in the 1850s the late 1850s after great land sessions. of america's war of conquest in mexico and then after the civil war to a civilian leadership of surveys with military protection. surveyors in this time period were really kind of freelance operators. they went every year in the winter to congress lobbied them for money to take teams out in the spring and summer they were instructed to evaluate the lands from the pacific to the missouri river and to determine their potential use for agriculture for ranching for mining and other forms of development and when they returned they had to report everything that they had found along these lines produce maps and publisher report for the federal government. so these surveys were really meant as engines of conquest and the white settlement of the west they were not in this moment focused on land preservation. but at this time too americans were really searching for iconic landscapes to feel good about the country to convince them of the countries exceptionalism. and i think this is is quite a common instinct, especially either in the midst or in the wake of kind of very chaotic and destructive moments in our american history. i was writing about this very issue just as the mars perseverance project was happening and the rover landed successfully on mars in february of 2021 and i felt like that was a similar situation, you know in the middle of the pandemic or just having a terrible time and here is this amazing scientific achievement. here is a moment where people have engaged in this pursuit that actually succeeded and now we have a rover on mars and i just remember feeling really uplifted by that and americans were searching for that feeling in this moment. and so this is the great era of kind of the emergence of illustrated magazines that are producing content for middle class americans, you know, helping them to understand the country and to feel good about it. this is also are of the great american landscape painters albert bierstadt frederick edwin church. we'll talk about thomas moran here in a minute producing these really huge landscape paintings of the american west of niagara falls helping to create a sense that america was really nature's nation. maybe, you know america didn't have the ruins of european civilization to show its long long history, but america had niagara and yosemite and now yellowstone amazing natural wonders that prove that the united states had a long and distinguished history. so this was the context in which ferdinand hayden organized his scientific expedition to yellowstone. so here is a photograph of him here born into poverty a child of divorce unlike many scientists of the period who came from elite families hayden really lived a hard scrabble life and it made him really scrappy. he was ambitious. he was competitive sometimes so much so that that his colleagues really came to dislike him, but his family could have figured out that he was really smart and managed to send him to oberlin college and that's where he discovered a love of science in the early 1850s. he also discovered that he had a talent for collecting and identifying fossils. and this was really interesting to me that you would have such a talent, but apparently it is quite hard to go and kind of look at a rocky outcropping spot fossils in it and immediately understand how significant they are to geologists in answering some of the most important questions of the day, which were about how old the earth really was and how it actually evolved and the fossil record was helping scientists in this moment to determine that so hayden found out he had a talent for it. plus he really relished the idea of being in on all of these big conversations about the earth and it's evolution. so he joined several military-led expeditions in the 1850s and 1860s. finally led his own survey as a civilian in 1867 for the new state of nebraska and he began to envision for himself. not just a future as a collector of specimens but a future as a scientist explorer and perhaps he hoped, you know, one of the most prominent and most famous scientific explorers in america. so in the early phase of his career hayden's mentor was spencer fullerton baird who you see here the assistant secretary of the smithsonian institution in 1848 spencer baird was actually the first recipient of a smithsonian grant for the purpose of exploration and natural history collecting. he took a trip and in southern pennsylvania with that grant he was then appointed in 1850 to be assistant secretary four years after the smithsonian establishment he brought with him two entire railroad cars of specimens including 4,000 bird skins that he had collected himself during his early life and this really served as the basis of the smithsonian's collections in this early period he was a tremendous logistical manager and networker his greatest talent was identifying and collecting scientists. hayden had actually written to baird in 1853 very early on in his career asking for advice and for funding for a fossil collecting trip to the upper, missouri river badlands, which geologists were already calling the boneyard for it's just amazing collection of fossils and distribution across the fossil record these of course were lakota lands, which we will talk about a little bit later but spencer baird wrote him back immediately sent him some money and some advice about how to collect and pack fossils and then of course in return asked for several of the specimens for the smithsonian's collections and this began a multi decade friendship and partnership hayden was establishing himself as a scientist during this period in the 1850s and 60s. and baird was establishing the smithsonian as a world-class scientific institution. so both men took a little bit time off during the civil war hayden didn't really want to go to war but sort of with forced into it in 1862 and served as a physician because he had a medical degree because that's how you actually did the coursework that would enable you to become a geologist during this period of time so he went off to the war came back in 1865 and then started as i noted to lead to surveys on his own. at this point yellowstone really was one of the only unmapped places in the nation. as i noted before when we had the poll yellowstone is hard to get to now it was even harder to get to thanally before 1869 with a completion of the transcontinental railroad. there were some amateur explorers who were getting in there though. there had been some scouts and some trappers who had gone into yellowstone and came out with stories of you know exploding geysers and bubbling upon bubbling streams and mud volcanoes and cliffs made of glass and nobody believed them right because scouts and trappers were known to be in better at liars. and so who you know, they were always telling tall tales around the fire. so who was them but the white population of montana was growing during this period and there were some some amateurs from montana who decided that they wanted to go check out yellowstone for themselves to see if these rumors were true. so there was one small group that went in 1869 then another more prominent and more famous group in 1870 led by nathaniel langford who was a civil official turned montana booster had come to montana during the gold rush of 1863 and now kind of brought together a group of of men who held positions in montana's territorial government or who were about to rotate out gathered together a team got a military escort from the second cavalry for posted at fort ellis in bozeman and entered yellowstone basin in the summer of 1870. this expedition was notable for producing two very prominent articles that were published in scribner's monthly and then also a lecture tour by nathaniel langford and hayden actually saw langford's talk in washington dc in the winter of 7172 and this is what commenced him that he needed to get to yellowstone right away because he wanted to keep it out of the hands of amateurs. he wanted to claim it for science, and he wanted to go he didn't want to miss this chance to make his mark and to claim yellowstone for professional scientists and for the nation. so he began to lobby congress for funding in the kind of late winter early spring of 1871 and they gave him $40,000 which is a lot of money that's close to in. today's money about a million dollars to take a group a rather large group a larger team than hayden had ever brought together before and to get them out to yellowstone and back in the summer of 1871. so the goal was to explore yellowstone not to preserve it. this was never part of hayden's plan from the beginning. he never even really thought about it until later. he was supposed to as most surveys were to evaluate yellowstone for development. hayden's personal goal also was to establish himself. as the nation's foremost explorer scientist and really make his reputation in yellowstone and spencer baird encouraged him in this he thought that yellowstone would be the perfect place for hayden to do this that any kind of bigger survey would just be more general and not as interesting that yellowstone was where he would make his mark so as i noted on march 3rd congress appropriated the $40,000 between that point and may hayden was recruiting scientists and organizing his supplies with the help of spencer baird and the smithsonian coffers, basically and such a baird was also suggesting scientists to him he very forcibly suggests that hayden take a young man named frederick hughes who was an ornithologist who bared really believed in hayden came to regret that choice. he didn't like he was very much and never used him again. but like the men who had given him money. he was very much invested in making spencer baird happy so he took he was a long he also, you know kind of thrust an imperied with a lot of people who were writing to try and join the expedition ended up with a fairly large scientific team, and then also a group of people i call in the book the political boys who were the sons of congressman who hayden needed on his side so all of these people gathered together in late may in omaha, nebraska where they boarded union pacific trains to ogden utah made a pit stop in in cheyenne, wyoming gathered supplies. most notably army horses and then made their way west. they spent a little bit of time in utah exploring ogden exploring salt lake city where they also got supplies salt lake city was a very important stop on the major road between california and colorado and and they were also quite interested in the what they would have considered the more curious aspects of salt lake city. it's founding in mormonism and bringing bring him young it's president. so they spend a little time there kind of looking around and then left on june 10th for the real start of the expedition moving northward along a stage road from ogden to virginia city montana, which was an old mining town there. they had wagons they had forces with them bringing all of their supplies by july 13th. they arrived at fort ellis in montana. just outside bozeman where they picked up their second cavalry escort and by july 15th, they were at butler's ranch, which was a ranching concern run by a pair of german brothers in the yellowstone river valley if you have flown into bozeman and driven to yellowstone that way through the northern entrance. then you have actually driven by butler's ranch road, which is the site of that former ranch right there on the yellowstone river. this was the perfect place. to set off for yellowstone. they followed the river down to where it meets the gardener, but they really did only take horses and meals with them because they knew from reports that they weren't going to be able to get any wagons through any of the narrow canyons into yellowstone. so they really jumped off on july 20th, 1871 and spent a couple of months exploring the park here is a map you can see them at the very top of the map kind of coming down. along the yellowstone river making a diversion up the gardener a little ways where they saw for the first time the white what they called the white mountain, which we now call mammoth hot springs and langford's team has had not discovered this particular feature of yellowstone's grant geothermal basins and so hayden really considered that this was an iconic moment in his survey. he emphasized it a lot in all of his written reports because he wanted to claim it kind of as his own discovery, even though right at the base along the gardener river. they actually ran into some minors who were already taking the waters for various illnesses. so clearly they were not the first ones there and of course indigenous peoples had been there for thousands of years and in fact, you know hayden's expedition could not have happened without a couple of things to transcontinental railroad supply depots in cities and towns support from the the us military and then also the kind of trails of the indigenous peoples throughout the basin who had been using yellowstone as a thoroughfare as a camping site and a hunting ground for thousands of years. so, you know as they're moving along hayden is is noting in his reports and and writing later. so that they were the first ones to see this they were jumping off into a wilderness and then he would just very unironically say and then we followed the path. on the side of the structure up to the top of the white mountain so clearly people had been there before had been there many times before to pound out pathways and they basically followed past that had already been laid out in this counterclockwise route where they came down. came along the river ended up at the lower falls in the upper falls of the yellowstone climbed mount wash what they called mount washburn and then went to yellowstone lake camp there for a little bit then made a big diversion to the west to go. see the geyser basins then return to yellowstone lake came around the eastern side and then decided that they really needed to head back to fort ellis in bozeman and at least butler's ranch by the bean beginning of september because i don't know if those of you who have been to yellowstone. what time of year you went, but he knew hayden knew from reports that the big snowstorms were going to start rolling in in early september and in fact when i went when my husband and i went just this last kind of mid-september two yellowstone. we did get snowed on during that trip, so that still happens for hayden. it would have been a disaster his men would have been cut out with not very many supplies and totally exposed to the elements. so he needed to get his team out of there as quickly as possible and to to have a successful survey and they really did they made a very complete survey of most of the features that we know and recognize in yellowstone. most importantly he was able to really get a sense of the geothermal regions and even though the lower falls would become kind of the most spectacular visual iconic reference for yellowstone after this survey, but it was the geothermal regions that saved it as a national park and hayden understood this hayden knew once he saw that the lower and the upper guys are basins once he saw old faithful which had already been named by the way in that 1870 survey. he knew that this place was special he knew it was iconic and he knew it was unique in all the world because you know, they i scientists had already kind of discovered and explored a little bit the icelandic geysers and also some guys are basins in new zealand. but they were nothing compared to this in terms of the size and the number of features and the diversity of features. so it was really kind of incredible, you know a couple of men left the survey fairly early due to health reasons, but the survey proceeded without a hitch and when hayden wrote to spencer baird at the end of it, he almost couldn't believe his luck that it had gone so very well. and partly that was due to hayden's talents. he was an excellent scientist, but he was also even more so a really great leader of a survey. he allowed the men to create their own collecting teams. he gave them instructions about collecting and he expected them to work hard. he made it pretty clear to the political boys that if they did not pull their weight, they would be jettisoned from the survey, but he really didn't crack down on them. he gave them a lot of lead and a lot of leeway and they ended up collecting just a huge amount of special specimens 45 boxes that they sent back to the smithsonian institution for analysis and collection. he was also quite a good writer. he understood the power of language of travel narratives in particular in shaping the way people understand science. so he really played a very interesting role in the development of the genre of popular science writing and you can see here. i've included the title page from his scribner's monthly. piece about the hayden expeditions journeys into the yellowstone. this illustration of course is based on thomas moran's very famous painting which we'll talk about in a minute, but this piece and i i included a link to it. in the sheet that you got. because it really is a remarkable piece of writing kind of takes you along on their journey and explains the science to you and very accessible language. so his job he had many things to write after he got back from the yellowstone. he was writing this piece for scriveners who was writing a more technical piece for a scientific journal and then he was also writing a huge report many hundreds of pages for congress. so he had a lot on his plate. he was also sending out specimens for scientists to analyze so that they would send in his reports try to ride heard kind of on everyone. he understood in this moment. he actually asked william henry jackson to come back with him the photographer to help him to organize the images for the report because he knew not only was the written word important but visual images were vital to conveying the meaning of science in this period and the meaning and the significance of landscapes. so i just mentioned william henry jackson. this is a self-portrait of his here on the left and then two of his images from the survey the top at butler's ranch so you can see sort of the extent of that infrastructure there along the yellowstone river and then his iconic photo which i'm sure you have seen of the white mountain or mammoth hot springs and that's actually thomas moran there who is posing on the structure itself, which seems a little dangerous to us. now, of course, we're not allowed to clamber on over there and i wonder how close we came to losing moran into the depths of the white mountain would have lost one of the most amazing landscape painters in our country's history, but william henry jackson and hayden developed a very close relationship jackson had grown up in vermont. he took to photography just as hayden had taken to fossil hunting he went west with a wagon train in the late 1860s after the civil war after serving in the civil war. then he started a photographic gallery and studio in omaha, nebraska. he got a big commission in 1869, which was to take photographs along the union pacific line and it was and when he was engaging in that project in cheyenne, wyoming that he met ferdinand hayden in a brothel, which was an encounter that he remembered vividly, but hayden never wrote about and you can imagine why but the two of them met then became friends when hayden recruited him for an 1870 survey. he was leading to southern wyoming and just really loved jackson's photographs felt like he had a great sense of place that he knew where to place the camera that he understood how to create a mobile studio pack in onto the back of the mule and actually, you know, come through with intact last negatives. i mean in this in this time, it was pretty extraordinary, so he came along and he really had an important role to play because hayden felton, you know people during this period really believe that photographs. conveyed reality, you know now we know with instagram and everything that you can manipulate photographs and they can tell whatever story that you want them to tell but in this period photography was still relatively new had sort of burst onto the scene mostly during the civil war although had been invented before that and in in this time the the photographs really served as evidence. they certain that all of these features were here. i mean who else who was gonna believe descriptions of the white mountain without this visual image here that perfectly represented it? you know, but they were also proof that hayden had been there and that the team had been there and then had come back with these images. so hayden understood the power of these he wanted jackson with him for the creation of the congressional report, and he also used a lot of his images, but later to lobby congress for the passage of the yellowstone act. also along although not at hayden's invitation was thomas moran landscape painter who's family had emigrated from england before the civil war a moran was born there came to the united states grew up in philadelphia in a family of artists showed his talent for landscape painting pretty early on but was just emerging as a major painter on the scene in 1871. he was also working as an illustrator for scribner's magazine and had created the woodcut illustrations for nathaniel langford's yellowstone account that was published in may of 1871. so moran interestingly kind of had already envisioned yellowstone before he had actually gone there in the summer of 1871. he was recruited by jay cooke an investment banker who had an interest in the northern pacific railroad and wanted yellowstone documented for reasons. i will about in a second. he helped to fund thomas moran's trip as did scribner's. and moran really wanted to render. yellowstone and full color because of course, this is the advantage that painting has over photography. jackson's photographs could give you a really good sense of the rich detail, you know, the sharp lines of all of these elements of yellowstones amazing natural structures, but moran could give you the color right? so here are two of his watercolor sketches that he made he made both pencil sketches and watercolors kind of in the moment and then he went back after the survey to produce versions of some of these in oil some of them that were actually going to go directly to jay cook to help pay him back. so moran was really captivated by captivated by a lot of the sides and yellowstone, but particularly the view of the lower falls from the canyon rim. he and jackson spent several days on the rim sketching and taking photographs and moran even was so excited to start on this painting which he called the big picture that he returned home early from the expedition to get to his studio into a new newark, new jersey and get started on this just eight by twelve foot. humongous image of the lower falls of the yellowstone again, probably the most iconic image of yellowstone national park. he finished it in late april of 1872. he exhibited it in new york city to great fanfare and the you know, the critics really loved the painting they especially loved the color that he achieved with the gold along the sides of the canyon and for those of you know, you guys have been there you have seen this exact scene and in fact, the national park has a great kind of way-finding placard that shows you the painting kind of right as you were looking at the scene itself, which is a kind of wonderful sort of layering in the summer and spring and summer of 1872. moran was lobbying members of the library committee who were the ones who purchased books and artworks for the library of congress and he was lobbying them to buy grand canyon of the yellowstone. and he really wanted them to buy it for $10,000 and the reason that he wanted that some is that the most expensive painting ever sold had or in the united states by an american painter had been frederick edwin churches niagara, which had sold for $10,000 and so he wanted to match that or or get more than that, but he got 10,000 which was an amazing amount of money and the painting after it was sold went on a little bit of a tour of the east coast was shown in the smithsonian alongside. so some of george catlin's native paintings that he had executed in the 1830s and 40s and then by the fall of 1872, it was hanging in the halls of congress both jackson's and moran's artwork help to make the case for the yellowstone act hayden actually created a little exhibit in the rotunda while he was lobbying for the yellowstone act. that included some of jackson's photos and some of moran's sketches and then also mineral specimens fossil specimens and other items from the expedition. so speaking of the yellowstone act this was in a kind of amazing moment in the winter of 1871 and 1872. there had been ideas about parks obviously and about natural spaces that belong to the people the colonies had commons for centuries, but the idea that people needed green spaces where they could go and sort of as you would say kind of either recreate or recreate themselves right was an idea that really emerged in the context of industrialization rural cemeteries, and then city parks began to provide these spaces in the 1830s and 1840s in 1832. congress actually did pass an andrew jackson signed legislation setting aside lands at arkansas hot springs as a federal reservation. so historians of conservation usually point to that is kind of this first moment where the government is taking control of a landscape for the people. um in 1884 george catlin who had been on a trip to the missouri river had suggested keeping all the lands from there to the pacific as a permanent national park. that was not an idea that was widespread or really taken up in any sort of way. the department of the interior was created in 1849 began to fund geological and geographical surveys. also took over the general land office which surveyed and sold public lands so their work was not really about preservation or conservation in this moment in encompassed really all potential land uses. so the real precedent for the yellowstone act was the yosemite act of 1864 another war time measure that gave the lands of yosemite and mariposa grove to the state of california to manage for the benefit of the people for public resort and recreation. the yellowstone act though as imagined was a different kind of land taking here the government the federal government was suggesting that they would take land from the territories and give it to the department of the interior to manage and this was a new idea. this was a precedent setting idea because as you will see some people had problems with this kind of idea as opposed to the idea of the yosemite act. so when hayden returned from yellowstone in late october 1871, he received a note from the pr man for j cook of the net of the northern pacific railroad and investment banker who was raising money for the northern pacific who's tracks. he hoped would run just north of the yellowstone basin and the the letter suggested that hayden advocate for the creation of a national park in his piece for scriveners and in report to congress. now hayden had not lobbed this idea around he had not even really thought of it before this point. but immediately he took it up. he understood how important it would be. he understood how amazing it would be for scientists to have this land preserved for the nation and to keep it out of private hands. so in november and december he began to lobby along with his scientific team with members of congress to pass a yellowstone act along with a group of montana boosters. and then also jay cook and his brother henry who knew ulysses s grant personally and kind of got him on the side of the bill. it was introduced in both the senate and the house on december 18th it to find the new the boundaries of a new national park at that time around 1700 square miles, which is about half as large as it is now and suggested taking those lands from wyoming and idaho and montana again giving those lands to the department of the interior for the benefit and the enjoyment of the people so really creating this democratic landscape of tourism, which was a new idea. um the bill was sent to each body's committee on public lands for review and recommendation and hayden consulted with those committees and help them to write their very positive reports. on january 30th 1872 the senate debated they had two major issues one was federal overreach. this was the contentious issue that brought about one of the contentious issues that brought about the american civil war and was not resolved in that conflict. again, the only congressional precedent was the federal government giving land to a state democrats were very concerned about this issue, especially in the context of reconstruction a period in american history when the federal government really exerted itself an unprecedented ways to protect the rights of citizens and provide things for them. republicans, of course, you know most of them although a group of moderate republicans started to voice their opposition to this federal overreach as well. but most of them had no problem with it part of their their party platform was federal supremacy and they were interested in supporting and defending it. the second objection was that such an act would violate white settler rights, which had been affirmed most recently in the 1862 homestead act and was a central component of the american dream right that white americans had the right to take or buy whatever lands they wanted to farm to ranch or mine both democrats and republicans most of them from the midwest and the west upheld settler rights. they sort of called upon this long tradition, but this objection was not strong enough in the senate to derail the bill. we don't know what the senate vote actually was. there was not a roll call. we cannot be sure who voted in what way but the measure passed by all reports easily. although very likely it was not unanimous. it took about a month for the house. to really bring up the bill for the debate. there were the same concerns expressed there as had been concerned expressed in the senate and also there was an interesting moment when a republican representative from nebraska named john taft asked about lakota land claims in the area and whether or not yellow whether or not yellowstone was encompassed in their territory laid out in the 1868 portland army treaty for the most part. this concern was completely dismissed particularly by henry dawes a massachusetts congressman who would later author the 1887 several tea act that took millions of acres of negotiated treating lands away from indigenous nations to sell to white americans what he said to taft was the indians can know no more live there than they can upon the precipitous side of the yosemite valley. so does, you know had always supported hayden surveys? he was one of the people that hayden lobby directly. he was one of the most powerful men in the house. his son chester had joined hayden in yellowstone. he was one of the political boys. so on that day february 27th, the vote was called 89% of republicans voted. yes on the yellowstone act 70% of democrats voted. no, so this was not unanimous clearly the ones who were the kind of outliers. there was no real regional breakdown people were voting for and against from all different regions. it was just breaking down i think on those issues of white settler rights and federal overreach the republicans strong majority in the house, though meant that the yellowstone act which was bipartisan, but certainly not unanimous had passed and on march first 1871 the bill landed on president ulysses grant's desk and he signed it really without any fanfare. most newspapers reported on it reported on its passage where we're pretty much positive about it as we can see here in this squib from the new york herald which was often taken and reprinted in newspapers across the nation. they saw it as something that was good for the country. good for summer travelers that it was a wonderful place that the united states needed to keep and to protect and they saw the national park movement really as something that could only happen in america as some of them expressed directly. so the passage of the bill was great news for jay cooke who of course had had lobbied for it cook along with hayden is one of the major protagonists of my book he grew up in ohio. he started working as a clerk in a bank while still in his teens. he was quick with numbers. he really grasped the complexities of business and banking and by the civil war he had opened up his own investment bank called jay cooking company. he made his reputation and his fortune during the civil war selling war bonds to support the us government and the union army effort and in the years afterwards. he was really casting about for a project that would give him that same sense of patriotism. that would give him a sense of purpose and would also make him money and what he came upon was the northern pacific railroad, which was a national project that was intended to be the second transcontinental line. it was actually called the centennial line was supposed to be finished in 1876 to celebrate the n anniversary his brother henry believed that if they could pull this off the northern pacific would be quote the grandest achievement of our lives. so cook took control of fundraising for the northern pacific in 1870. but from the start, it was really a disaster railroads. we're in our kind of volatile investments. nobody wanted a piece of it in the us or in europe, but cook was determined. he was obstinate. he thought that with enough advertising and promotion the northern pacific could build its track and be as success and he saw hayden's yellowstone expedition and the national park that yellowstone became as a boon to his project. he was wrong about that. he did not anticipate that another figure of the period would be working against him in the region. and this is just sorry i should have gone to this slide. this is this these are two examples of the way that cook was using advertising and newspapers to really gin up some enthusiasm and some bond sales for the northern pacific in 1871. now the man standing in his way was tatanka iyotake sitting bull the hung papalo coated chief. born in the 1830s along the upper, missouri river to a family of war chiefs and community leaders sitting bull was a member of the hung popup band of the lakota who were themselves one part of the ochetti shakawin the seven council fires known at the time as the sioux he grew up to be a widely respected leader of the hung papah establishing himself by the 1850s and 1860s and fights not only against the lakota's a traditional enemies like the crow, but also in fights against us soldiers he began to appear in us official documents in the late 1860s as indian agents and army officers and civil officials were beginning to take note of his leadership and his growing power during this period he consistently asserted his people's rights to their homelands along the yellowstone river valley and their sovereignty as a people in both diplomacy and island action against white americans who were trying to cross lakota homelands sitting bull does came to class with jay cooks northern pacific railroad surveyors who wanted to lay track right through his country which extended in this period from the missouri river to the yellowstone basin. um in the fall of 1871, his people pushed a group of surveyors out of the yellowstone valley and back to missouri and then in the summer of 1872 the lakota fought two battles against us troops that were protecting northern pacific surveyors moving from both the missouri river in the east and then also from the west from bozeman and fort ellis in august on the 14th and the 22nd. they fought the battle of arrow creek and the battle of o'fallon creek and once again sitting both succeeded in pushing the surveyors out and delaying the northern pacific railroad project the next year in june of 1873 sitting bill and his people met george armstrong custer for the first time as that officer led a northern pacific expedition west along the yellowstone. there was another fight and the the americans once again retreated and really what i came to see about the these moments is that they're really leading the lakota and the us army on a direct path to the battle of little bighorn to greasy grass in 1876. so it's really here in the defense of his homelands along the yellowstone river. that's sitting bull really starts on that road that victory that the lakota had. and they're cheyenne and arapaho allies at little bighorn was tremendous, but it also brought the full weight of the us army down on the lakota afterward ulysses s grant, you know ordered and was fully in support of those campaigns many lakota surrendered others followed sitting bull to canada in the moment though their actions delayed and finally scuttled the northern pacific railroads plans brought about the panic and depression of 1873, which is an interesting moment here because jay cook had been so obsessed with this plan that he had actually loaned money from his own investment bank to the northern pacific and in september of 1873 in the middle of a very unstable chaotic economy. his investors came calling and he had no money to give them and his bank closed and launched the panic and depression lakota actions also presented tourist traffic and scientific explorations of the yellowstone. after 1873 until after 1877 the lakota though. we're not the only tribal nations lane claim to yellowstone, so i wanted to be sure to show you this map of the major groups that were moving in and around this area and using yellowstone to move back and forth not only to get at the great bison herds of southern wyoming and nebraska, but also to get it one another to fight one another in their traditional battles. so these indigenous groups as i noted before have been using yellowstone their paths were already there. going by all the features they knew all about them. they also hunted and fished within. yellowstone itself explorers like hayden, not only followed their paths, but found their campsites and so, you know, we have this proof that these communities were moving through and using yellowstone in some interesting ways and had been stewards of this land for thousands of years. i just wanted to know that, you know during this 150th anniversary year the officials at yellowstone national park are making a concerted effort to highlight these indigenous histories of yellowstone and to really bring in indigenous voices to the park itself not only in a series of displays, but also in the native history center, so i'm really hopeful that people. you know just moving through the park and expecting really to see only natural wonders are going to see a little bit more of its history moving forward. so what came of all of this the passage of the yellowstone act? well, it's legacy was not immediate congress did not provide much funding for infrastructure for the first decade again, it was still difficult to get to until 1883 when the northern pacific line was finally completed up until that point yellowstone really only had about 500 to a thousand visitors a year. and congress did not pass major preservation legislation until 1890 when they once again had control of all the branches of government. they had a republican president and benjamin harrison and they controlled the house and the senate and in that year. they created yosemite and sequoia and general grant national parks, but then again there was another gap another lag until teddy roosevelt during his presidency really became the iconic conservation president using the 1906 antiquities act which gave him the power to create executive action to really make proclamations that any site of public interest could be a national monument and during his presidency congress created another five national parks all of them in the west including mesa verde in colorado. what's also interesting though? is that yellowstone's preservation led to the creation of one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems in the world and this area of which yellowstone is sort of the center. it's a very large area in montana and idaho parts of wyoming is given scientists a huge laboratory for experiments and studies and in fact a group of scientists. just did a climate study. they published that report in july of 2021 as you might expect the news is not good and but the preservation of yellowstone has allowed scientists to actually study this and actually bring this really important information to us and ultimately of course yellowstone did set the precedent for the creation of national parks and their management under the federal government. unfortunately also it's at a precedent for native land dispossession in this context. so just to wrap up here. my book saving yellowstone tells all of these stories that the exploration and preservation of this iconic landscape through the experiences of hayden and sitting bull and cook and some of the other figures i've mentioned here tonight. through them and looking at reconstruction from yellowstone and yellowstone in the context of reconstruction. i think we can see how reconstruction was a political and an economic and a social project the focus not only on the south but also on the west that it was a effort on the part of the federal government to unite the country from coast to coast through a variety of projects, including the exploration and preservation of yellowstone. it also shows us that 1871 and 72 was a moment, which the government really reached for a higher purpose before unfortunately abandoning it soon afterwards politicians would not use federal supremacy to protect black civil rights again for almost a century congress did not create any more substantial national parks until 1890 and of course preserve lands continue to be the targets of conservative efforts to withdraw their status and turn them toward production seeing reconstruction from yellowstone also allows us to see how the effort to explore and preserve yellowstone rested again on native land dispossession, but that indigenous people's fought this effort every step of the line and that they survived and they persisted and they continue to defend their lands against commercial and federal development. and finally this angle of vision, i think really reveals yellowstone itself as not only the world's kind of first national park in this kind of amazing geothermal field unique and all the world. but also a perfect metaphor for the country at this moment in 1871 and possibly even today a place that is both beautiful and terrible both fragile and powerful and a place where what lies just beneath the surface is always threatening to explode. so, thank you so much. i will end there and i think we have some time for questions. all right. thank you so much megan. that was a great story. that was a really great story. um, and and thank you to everyone in the audience today and if you have any questions, feel free to go ahead and submit them now, but let's go ahead and jump into some of the questions that have come in. okay, and some of these are maybe a little more general history, but i think with your background you could possibly know the answers to some but feel free to pass on any of them. but okay, so one of the first questions that came in is is is the clause in the 14th amendment limiting citizenship of native americans still enforce? it is not. no, i believe it in in 1924. i believe the federal government gave full citizenship rights to indigenous people. of course, you know, i mean that it's a long period of time right? it is fairly recent. but yes that that no longer applies. thank you. another question, why did lincoln imprison 10,000 navajo in some apaches in fort sumner, new mexico beginning in 1863? $3,000 died either a sumner or on the forced move inconsistent with how former slaves were treated. absolutely. yes, um if you're interested in this topic, this is a major component of my previous book the three corner war which many of the chapters take place on the long walk and at bosque redondo, which is the name of that reservation. yes, this is one of the biggest human rights disasters in the civil war almost completely the fault of james henry carlton, who is the commander of the us army and the department of and the department of new mexico in that region the us army had kind of pushed the confederates from new mexico in the summer of 1862, and then they turned the full force of their military power on chirakawa apaches on mescalero apaches and on the navajo people and it was carlton's intent again, and you can see the relationship here. he really started to particulate this new kind of federal indian policy where there would be no treaty agreements and the first move would be active warfare with the intent of removing native people to reservations. so they would be out of the way of white settlers moving west kind of during the civil war and then in the years after that and bosque redondo has a really fascinating history. i mean, of course it is terrible at 25% mortality rate both on the long walk and at bosque redondo and really more people need to know about it because it really was a unique kind of prisoner of war camp, but also needs to be discussed in that context with places like andersonville and in this place can actually see that contradiction which also lies that the heart of saving yellowstone, which is that the federal government on the one hand is preserving and protecting the rights of black southerners emancipating them, you know trying to help them in a transition out of enslavement and into freedom. yet they are also embracing the possible extermination of and then also the removal and the incarceration of native people and i think today we think that's really contradictory. but in the moment both of those projects went toward the republican effort to bring the south and the west back into the nation to exert control over both of those regions and to create in the west. a kind of a land of free labor a land of freedom in their view that were would require removing native people and putting them on reservations, so they did not interfere with white settler rights. so those are two very connected. programs and campaigns and in that way, i think actually saving yellowstone is i think you can see it as a sequel to the three cornered war because there are many connections and many causal, you know sort of cause and effect relationships. all right. thank you, michael for that question. right, so another one and i'm not sure how they mean this so i'm gonna kind of guess at it. what what are the chances that management of yellowstone will be turned over to the native tribes to handle. mm-hmm. and that's current or what are the chances that it could have happened that i mean imagine. it's currently yeah. i think this is a current question and it's related to the land back movement, which is a movement on behalf of indigenous people is to return all native parklands. if not all many other kinds of lands two indigenous stewardship and ownership. um, i think the chances are probably small that yellowstone will be turned over one of the interesting things about yellowstone, is that it actually because it was a thoroughfare if you if you remember the slide of all of those groups that are involved and and, you know, yellowstone national park has established relationships 26 tribal nations with connection. to yellowstone there's not just one group and so it's not like one. indigenous nation ceded that entire land or had it taken from them by the us government. it was a shared space. so it actually wasn't covered by any kind of treaty making so the federal government just you know, there was nothing standing in their way, right and but there was a kind of shared ownership and i think what will happen instead and i'm and i'm very hopeful about this actually because of the way that the park is is handling the 150th and increasing its attention to indigenous presence in history. is that members of those tribal nations will get more of a say that they will be they'll get a seat at the table. they'll get to kind of talk about the park moving forward talk about how to integrate indigenous histories into this into this landscape and into the tourist experience of the park. i mean one of the things that we've been talking about i'm a i'm helping a group out of the university of michigan to develop a plan to kind of track. new effort at indigenous history integration and one of the things we thought would be so cool is what if you were driving through on one of the loop roads, which i know you all know and it would just you know, if you signed up for an app it would just kind of ping your phone when you passed a site with important indigenous history that you could get out and look at or you could just experience or it could say right now you're driving right along the route of the bannock trail, which was a very heavily used migration trail, but for all kinds of tribal nations, and then you just become more aware of your surroundings more aware of yellowstone's history and it's indigenous presence both in the past and also in the present perfect project all right. another question was yellowstone the first national park in the world. do you know and did any other countries set aside land for parks before yellowstone? countries had been setting aside parklands in cities and you know, of course the idea of the commons was very old the whole idea that you would preserve something like central park was quite new. i mean that was an idea that emerged in the in the 1840s but really the idea of a national the government would take from the people and keep out of development and then kind of organize and structure for tourism. that was a completely new idea. so yes, i think we can safely say that yellowstone was the first national park in the world and then there are still you know, there are some countries that don't even really have it now, but then others that do and and lots of places that have parks that are dedicated to wildlife, you know, obviously what i didn't talk about very much in this talk were the charismatic megafauna of yellowstone the bison and the elk and the wolves in particular bears. and the reason for that is that that hayden really didn't comment on them. and that animal life when they were there was not present in such large numbers that they were noting them and and talking about their preservation. they became important later and the superintendents who followed were taking notes particularly of bison populations, because those were depleting be in this period and so there was some talk of either breeding bison and bringing them into the park and and actually creating almost like a zoo type atmosphere in yellowstone and that of course has changed over time and now the park still manages that wildlife and manages the herd size, but they don't have it contained in that in that zoo like atmosphere and but there are all kinds of different types of parks and reserves and you know in other countries they have different government structures, so it's kind of hard to to have a an parallel type of experience. right. thank you. so another question when they were developing the boundaries. someone asked what was the purpose of including the narrow strips of land in montana and idaho idaho within the park boundaries? do not i think that was just a matter. it was probably to gain the entrances and the rights of way because they it was very important particularly in the northern entrance. they needed that area just north of the park which montana was claiming and in fact the montana boosters when they were arguing for the parks creation. actually, we're trying to get them to give all of yellowstone yellowstone over to montana first. and then take the land so they wanted to actually expand into wyoming to take up that land because at that point that northern entrance was really the only way in no one had really discovered the other possible entrances it seemed you know, when they when they saw the tetons they're like, what are we supposed to do with this? how are we going to get over those? right? so they the the montanans in particular saw the park as theirs and so they've just taken little pieces and i think they probably have to do with mountain ranges and also waterways that were important areas of access for the park itself. right, that makes sense. all right, so i think we're gonna ask one more question. maybe we have time for two, but did general sheridan have a role in protecting, yellowstone? that's a great question sheridan who was one of the commanders in this region of the us army actually did send a another exploring team that was explicitly military and they kind of hooked on to hayden's survey who's a little annoyed by that. it was led by a guy named john barlow and hayden was a little annoyed because he didn't want to have to share any credit if anyone discovered any part of yellowstone and so so he wasn't very happy about that, but he was very much invested in keeping sheridan happy because he needed that support from the us military in terms of supplies and also military support and protection phil sheridan was also someone he did want to know he and actually the the initial title of the book was this strange country and that was a quote from sheridan himself who said, you know, i think we need to know more about this strange country of the yellowstone and it seemed like such an you know, that's such a great evocative phrase and perfectly described, you know, all of the lands in the in the basin and you know, sheridan was a military official he was a friend of grants and he was committed to implementing all of the federal government's measures in this region. no matter what they would be. oh, sorry about that. all right, so i'm i'm gonna ask two more questions and then i think we'll finish up. so this one i think it's is so let me ask it. why does teddy get credit for establishing yellowstone when it was really president grants. yes. yeah, this is one of i think the fascinating things roosevelt visited the park. um when they were laying the cornerstone of the arch that is in gardner and so they named the arch after him and they named also parts of the park after him and this leads people to think that roosevelt was the one to create yellowstone national park because it really does i mean the the arch itself is not very clear and and if you're not really sure kind of when roosevelt was president if you're thinking maybe it was possible. it was 1872 then. then there are very good reasons for thinking that he was the one who established it and you know roosevelt kind of sucks up all of the information and national park all of the attention about national park so poor grant, you know who signs this but grant was also not very good at bragging about this at all. i mean, he never really made any speeches about it. he was totally fine with it, but he didn't try to take credit for anything either. so that was part of it, too. all righty. thank you. all right last last question, and then we'll close if you were to recommend a season to visit yellowstone. what would it be? i think it would be i think it would be september. i mean when we went in september first of all, the the trees were changing color. it was gorgeous. there were fewer people there, which was nice. also. it was kind of glorious to be there when it snowed on us. we got to see, you know herds of bison walking through the driving snow. we got to walk up around the mud volcanoes as the snow was coming down, you know, it was a little cold. it was a it was a little, you know adventurous, but i actually really liked it. i thought it was a really beautiful time of year to be there. excellent someone commented this evening that smithsonian journeys has a trip to yellowstone in september of this year and they're going so perfect excellence. okay, please post lots of pictures and report you see exactly. all right. well, that's about all the time we have for today. thank you megan for your wonderful presentation and thank you to all of our viewers for joining us today and for the great questions that came through if you enjoyed today's program, please consider becoming a member or making a donation to support educational programs like this and definitely check out our other upcoming programs. and again, we encourage you to fill out the survey when you exit this evening. we do want to hear from you. thank you so much everyone and enjoy the remainder of your evening. posts. name is jose. francisco barro's joe barrows i am president of tropical audubon society. we are the local chapter of audubon here in miami-dade county. and we have a mission and that is to rest conserve and restore south florida's ecosystem focusing on birds other wildlife and their habitats. we are proud to be the south south florida's voice of conservation and this year we're celebrating our 75th anniversary anniversary as an audubon chapter being established in 1947. we've fought against development in the everglades big
writer and historian living in lincoln, massachusetts. she has written about civil war us western history and american culture for the new york times the washington post smithsonian magazine preservation magazine and civil war monitor nelson earned her va in history and literature from the harvard university from harvard university and her phd in american studies from the university of iowa, and she has taught at texas tech university cal state fullerton harvard and brown nelson is the author of saving yellowstone three cornered war ruin nation and trembling earth and we're so excited to have her with us today. so before i turn it over to her just a quick note we have sent out an email to everyone this morning that had just a great list of resources like a bibliography that megan had put together so you all should have received that by now. if not that link is posted in the chat. so that please join me in welcoming megan kate nelson. hi everyone. thank you so much. thank you nicole for that lovely introduction and to the smithsonian associates for the invitation to be with you tonight. i would also like to thank harmony and ellen and steve and anna and liz for running this show and to helping me get all the the tech straight. i cannot think of a better place for me to talk about saving yellowstone then at the smithsonian as you will learn tonight, the institution played a really important role in both the exploration and the preservation of this iconic national landscape. so, thank you all for being with me tonight as nicole noted. there will be a q&a after the talk, so please. i feel free to ask questions along the way and we'll get to as many of those questions as we can by the end. so in mid july. 1871 a 22 year old university of pennsylvania graduate student named robert adams scrambled down from the rim of the grand canyon of the yellowstone to the precipice of the lower falls. creeping to the edge of an overhanging cliff adams wrote later to the philadelphia inquirer. we gazed below till dizziness made us withdraw. oh it was grand sublime a site. never to be forgotten. on his climb back up to the rim adams pulled a handful of drummond's rush out of the ground a common site along river banks in alpine areas of the mountain west this flowering plant grew in large clusters. it's a brown yellow and purple red flowers waving in the breeze. adams was the botanist on the yellowstone expedition of 1871 and he had been collecting plants and flowers throughout the team's trip from omaha, nebraska to the middle of the yellowstone basin. when he got back to camp from the lower falls adams pressed the stems of the drummonds rush between sheets of paper and pulled a label out of his satchel on it. he wrote out of he wrote out the name of the specimen the date he collected it and the location and then he signed it. he placed the sheets with the label attached in a box with hundreds of other botanical specimens to be sent first by wagon then by train to the smithsonian institution in washington, dc. the samples of drummonds rush, which you see here on the slide now sit in a folder stacked in a cabinet at the national museum of natural history. they are fragments of the us western flora that are archived in the east they are also material evidence of ferdinand hayden's expedition of 1871 the first scientific exploration of yellowstone, which led to the passage of the yellowstone act in 1872 creating the first national park in the world 150 years ago. in my new book saving yellowstone. i tell the story of hayden's expedition and i interweave this story with two other narratives the narrative of capital investment in the white settlement of the west and the story of indigenous resistance to those efforts of government officials us soldiers businessmen and scientists to take their homelands from them. so in this moment in 1871 72 yellowstone really became an iconic landsc. in america, it also became a metaphor for the nation itself a place. that was both beautiful and terrible. so the question that i always get are always want to ask of people in the audience is when did you go first to yellowstone or have you been there? so we have a quiz for you an audience poll. i'm interested to see how many of you have have actually been there and if you have visited the park, when was your trip, did you go as a child? did you go as an adult with your own children? was it recently or was it really really long ago as you can see from these slides my first trip was long ago in july of 1982 almost 40 years ago. now these are pictures from our family trip when i started to write the book. i i had my father go into the garage and dig out the slides from that trip and i sent them off to be converted to jpegs and it was great fun to look at them when they arrived so, you know this family vac. in was pretty incredible. yellowstone was really our first stop. we went there from glacier and then to calgary and came all the way back around over the course of two weeks and you know, these family trips we started taking these two-week summer vacations and they really shaped me as a historian of american landscapes. so here we have the results of the poll. so 96% of you have been there that's amazing. that is a really large number because even today yellowstone is quite hard to get to and so you really have to try you you can't just be wandering by on the way to somewhere else. so that's really great and it looks like an even share of people who went as children went as adults and looks like about a third of you have been in the past five years. so that's great. that's great. this was my first trip and actually my second trip was just this past september i was supposed to go in may of 20. a for my first research trip for the book. and of course the pandemic scuttled those plans, unfortunately, and and this was really a bummer for me because i like to go to the places that i study and that i research i'd like to be in the landscape not necessarily to kind of feel a sense of history or anything like that but to actually see the landscape and experience it as people in the past may have experienced it even though of course there has been natural change over time. it is not exactly the same but i like to be there so that i can understand what the people i'm writing about kind of saw and what they experienced and and these family trips. we're really important to me too. they i learned to love history by moving through space finding us finding us on maps bound into the rand mcnally road atlas if those are people in the audience who remember that i love a good road atlas and tracking us as as we drove along. so it really isn't a surprise that when i became a historian, i was really drawn to environmental history and to landscape studies. so when i really started thinking about yellowstone when i was writing the three corner war. um, which was my previous book there is a protagonist in that book who is a surveyor general of new mexico. territory guy named john clark who's a friend of lincoln's the republican appointee in the 1860s, and this led me to some background research in the history of surveying in america and i ran across the hayden expedition of 1871 and i remembered it because i'd actually studied it and graduate school in a class in art history and we'll see why a little bit later in the talk why that would have been something that i would have studied in that context. i realized and this was about 2018. i realized we were coming up on the 150th anniversary of both the expedition and the passage of the yellowstone act which was a direct result of that expedition and you know for historians and i think for a lot of us anniversaries are really important moments for us to really take stock events and a places. why events occurred why places became important in the way that they did in the past and then how they're important today and really kind of reckon with that and with the place that these places hold in our society, so so that was an important element and so i started to kind of look around and see what had been written on hayden's expedition and you know, a lot of great books have been written about it and written about that survey written about the other great surveys that were out at the time which i'll talk about in a second a lot of great books have also been published about the long history of yellowstone. particularly aubrey haynes's magisterial two volume history, and if i know i sent out a list of sources for you to look at but there's also a full bibliography in the book itself. so if you pick up the book, there's a whole list of sources that you can look at both primary documents and also secondary sources that can give you a better sense of this per said but it really surprised me that no one had really looked in-depth at the effort to explore and preserve yellowstone in its historical context because what i also realized is that this survey and the passage of the yellowstone actor happening in 1871 and 72 which are right in the middle of reconstruction. which is not a period that we think of as you know taking place in the west or having anything to do with the west so that became really interesting to me. and so i just you know, i had just written a book that. looked at the the civil war from a really unexpected place the far west and so i began to think well what if i looked at reconstruction from yellowstone, would i come to know reconstruction differently, would i learn something new about it by looking at it from the geyser basins and the lower falls or from the grand prismatic spring as in this slide, which will be familiar to almost all of you as you have been there and would i learned something new about yellowstone itself, but thinking about it in the context of reconstruction. so first before i get to the the kind of nitty-gritty of hayden and his expedition i wanted to give you just a little bit of background and reconstruction history because this is a period it's getting a little more attention today. but really, i mean i know when i was in school we kind of went through it really quickly on the way from the civil war to the gilded age and didn't really study it a lot in depth and it really is an important informative moment in our nation's history and it deserves more attention. so after the civil war you know there were many challenges facing the us government and all americans. you know, how does a nation recover from four years of violent conflict of just incalculable loss of life of farms and cities and railroads how to form million people transition from a life of enslavement to a life of freedom. so there were so many challenges that were economic challenges political challenges and of course cultural challenges in this moment one of the challenges of course was stabilizing the national economy in the south many of the factories and the railroad railroad lines have been destroyed and had to be rebuilt this required really northern capital investment because most of the base of southern capital from before the war which constituted which was constituted by enslaved human beings did not exist anymore emancipation created an entirely new system of free labor and agriculture. and there was a whole turn in that context to sharecropping to debt p&h a whole system of indebtedness that really sustained cycles of poverty for black southerners and some white southerners in the years after the war and for the years to come. the north was in a little better shape as was the west manufacturing and agriculture had really boomed during the war but still did not regain really pre-war pace of output until the mid 1870s. so there was that big challenge of how do we get the economy back on track? how do we get people into professions and earning money and supporting their families again after this destructive civil war? another challenge was how to bring the former confederate states back into the union. the reconstruction congress had passed a series of laws requiring revamped state constitutions for re-entry. the states had to pass depending on when they were applying to return the 13th the 14th and ultimately the 15th amendments each state had to hold free and fair elections to bring their new representatives to washington dc to be seated in congress and by 1870. this process was mostly complete all the former confederate states were back in the union. they had seeded members in congress on the majority of them were republicans because former confederates who are often democrats, we're not allowed to hold office during this period all of these programs faced resistance from a lot of different areas from andrew johnson who had taken over the presidency after the assassination of abraham lincoln. he expressed his objections pretty early on and his desire to implement a kind of kinder and gentler reconstruction in the south. he used his veto power to try to derail radical reconstruction projects, and he did not succeed and his resistance led to his impeachment trial in the spring of 1868. there was also a widespread resistance from many white southerners who almost immediately upon their return from the battlefields and the return to peace tried to reassert their power over black americans through the passage of black codes, which restricted behavior and labor and other repressive measures as well as vigilante violence through organizations, like the ku klux klan which really emerged in a strong way in 1868 and the years afterward. there's also a great a great deal of resistance from democrats from across the nation. it's important to remember that in this period democrats and republicans have the sort of opposite ideologies as they have today democrats were opposed to the republican parties use of federal power to secure black rights, although they were more amenable to using this power to expand white settlement into the west and we'll get into to more of that later. so things began to change a little bit when ulysses s grant was elected in 1868. grant had been a career military man who quit the army in the years before the civil war floundered around a bit trying to find his way before rejoining the military during the civil war and here he found his real talent, which was planning military campaigns and leading men into battle after the war. he served as the general of the armies for johnson profoundly disagreed with johnson on most matters involving reconstruction and really wanted to honor abraham lincoln who is a friend of his and whose vision for the future of the south for black equality and black voting. he did support. he also wanted to honor the sacrifice of so many of the us soldiers who had fought for the union, you know, who he had led into battle and who had died under his watch. he was having none of it from the white southerners. he was had very little tolerance for them. very little sympathy for them. he saw their resistance to federal measures and to the 14th and 15th amendments as a renewed rebellion against the federal government and that shaped really his response, but he was elected with this campaign slogan, which you can see on this commemorative handkerchief here. let us have peace and he really did want to bring the south back into the nation, but he did want to ensure that all the citizens of the south were equal in that effort. he also uh meant let us have peace to apply to the west. so this was an interesting sort of two-pronged approach that he and his administration took supported by congress during this period, you know one big question for grant was how to provide and protect civil rights for more than four million freed people across the south how to make sure that states were protecting their citizens and protecting their their 14th and 15th amendment rights, particularly the 14th amendment which was passed in june of 1866 ratified in 1868 and affirming the citizenship citizen citizenship status and civil rights of all people born or naturalized in the united states. there was a qualifier to that though, that becomes really important during this period we have a parenthetical there that says accept indians on taxed. that's the quote and that is an important omission because most white americans including ulysses s. grant did not believe that native people were citizens or really could be citizens if they continue to live in their traditional ways, so in this moment there is interest in both the south and the west and to this end grant made two, very interesting and progressive appointments in his first term. the first was the appointment of ely parker as commissioner of indian affairs. some of you may be familiar with parker if you know a fair bit about the civil war he was on grant's staff. he is he's a seneca man of great education and experience had come to know grant in galena before the war and grant really appreciated his intelligence and also his penmanship. he was the one who wrote out the surrender documents for grant and lee at appomattox. so grant really wanted to bring elie parker in to the bureau of indian affairs, and he did so in 1869. he also appointed amos ackerman as his attorney general. ackerman was a really interesting figure. he was a georgian. he was a former confederate officer, but he was a man who having returned from the war actually embraced radical reconstruction believed that the south needed to kind of move into the future and provide equality for all citizens, and he came into the grant administration in 1870. so both grant and congress made decisions in this period to exert federal power in the south and the west helped by ely parker and amos ackerman in the south ackerman directed a newly created department of justice effort to prosecute the ku klux klan in south carolina in the fall of 18 and 71 and he really encouraged grant toward taking very strong action particularly the in south carolina where kkk violence was very bad. probably the worst in the nation. so in october of 1871, but the power given to him by the kkk act passed by congress in the spring grant suspended the writ of habeas corpus in multiple counties in south carolina, so that officials could arrest clan members immediately and keep them in jail until they were prosecuted and from november 1871 to april 1872 us attorneys tried hundreds of clan members. charging them with conspiracy to violate the 14th and 15th amendment rights of black southerners most of these cases were successful and many clan members were sent to jail now. i should know that most of these members were the rank and file the leadership of the kkk the minute that grant started making noise. about potential arrests fled the country or flood the state and they could not be found and arrested. so the kkk trials were really a high-water mark for republicans and for the federal government during reconstruction and in the 19th century in asserting federal supremacy to really protect the rights of the nation's most vulnerable citizens black americans would not receive this kind of protection from the federal government again until the 1960s. in the west ely parker had sort of an interesting vision for native citizenship and representation that he shared with grant and sort of pushed him to embrace and grant was pretty amenable parker was an assimilationist which meant that he argued for the abandonment of indigenous traditions and the embrace of christianity the english language individual land ownership and other markers of american civilization, but he also imagined gathering indigenous peoples into one or two large reservations. that would become territories and then admitted to the union as states. so that indigenous peoples would have consistent representation in congress. this was a completely novel idea at the time and i think in the years since then as well grant was on board until parker resigned in the summer of 1871 and kind of stopped pushing him toward this goal. there was no congressional support among republicans or democrats for this vision for ely parker himself the 14th amendment as i noted before denied the rights of citizens citizenship to most native peoples during this period and it really was at this point in the early 1870s that federal indian policy began to shift in march of 1871 congress inserted a writer into an indian appropriation act. basically stating that there would be no more treaties made between the federal government and native nations that congress would abide by the treaties already made up to that point a particularly the fort laramie treaty was very big treaty of the 1868. however from this point forward they would no longer actually establish treaty relations, which meant that they would no longer recognize native sovereignty. they would try to make peace agreements, but from this point forward the government would use military force as a first resort and stuck instead of a second or third resort and this is a moment where we really see us army campaigns against native peoples start to escalate in order to pave the way in the west for white settlement. the goal was to force native peoples on to reservations and then reduce the size of those reservations to sell the remaining land off to white settlers. so there were other national projects that were underway at this time that had this same goal to establish white settlers in the west and bring the west more fully into the union politically economically and culturally one of those was the transcontinental railroad, which was actually a civil war action that was passed in 1862 a completed in 1869 and you can see this very famous photo here of the moment when the the two lines which were being built from either end the west in the east connected in utah, and this was seen as a grand technological achievement that would unite the nation americans had been dreaming about a transcontinental line since the 1840s and saw it as the basis for american manifest destiny also included in this vision were the great surveys of the 18 late 1860s and early 1970s now the federal government had been launching surveys of its land since its creation in the 18th century and especially after lewis and clark's expedition to the pacific in 1804 through 1806. many of these are loose survey teams were led by us military officials, but there was a turn in the 1850s the late 1850s after great land sessions. of america's war of conquest in mexico and then after the civil war to a civilian leadership of surveys with military protection. surveyors in this time period were really kind of freelance operators. they went every year in the winter to congress lobbied them for money to take teams out in the spring and summer they were instructed to evaluate the lands from the pacific to the missouri river and to determine their potential use for agriculture for ranching for mining and other forms of development and when they returned they had to report everything that they had found along these lines produce maps and publisher report for the federal government. so these surveys were really meant as engines of conquest and the white settlement of the west they were not in this moment focused on land preservation. but at this time too americans were really searching for iconic landscapes to feel good about the country to convince them of the countries exceptionalism. and i think this is is quite a common instinct, especially either in the midst or in the wake of kind of very chaotic and destructive moments in our american history. i was writing about this very issue just as the mars perseverance project was happening and the rover landed successfully on mars in february of 2021 and i felt like that was a similar situation, you know in the middle of the pandemic or just having a terrible time and here is this amazing scientific achievement. here is a moment where people have engaged in this pursuit that actually succeeded and now we have a rover on mars and i just remember feeling really uplifted by that and americans were searching for that feeling in this moment. and so this is the great era of kind of the emergence of illustrated magazines that are producing content for middle class americans, you know, helping them to understand the country and to feel good about it. this is also are of the great american landscape painters albert bierstadt frederick edwin church. we'll talk about thomas moran here in a minute producing these really huge landscape paintings of the american west of niagara falls helping to create a sense that america was really nature's nation. maybe, you know america didn't have the ruins of european civilization to show its long long history, but america had niagara and yosemite and now yellowstone amazing natural wonders that prove that the united states had a long and distinguished history. so this was the context in which ferdinand hayden organized his scientific expedition to yellowstone. so here is a photograph of him here born into poverty a child of divorce unlike many scientists of the period who came from elite families hayden really lived a hard scrabble life and it made him really scrappy. he was ambitious. he was competitive sometimes so much so that that his colleagues really came to dislike him, but his family could have figured out that he was really smart and managed to send him to oberlin college and that's where he discovered a love of science in the early 1850s. he also discovered that he had a talent for collecting and identifying fossils. and this was really interesting to me that you would have such a talent, but apparently it is quite hard to go and kind of look at a rocky outcropping spot fossils in it and immediately understand how significant they are to geologists in answering some of the most important questions of the day, which were about how old the earth really was and how it actually evolved and the fossil record was helping scientists in this moment to determine that so hayden found out he had a talent for it. plus he really relished the idea of being in on all of these big conversations about the earth and it's evolution. so he joined several military-led expeditions in the 1850s and 1860s. finally led his own survey as a civilian in 1867 for the new state of nebraska and he began to envision for himself. not just a future as a collector of specimens but a future as a scientist explorer and perhaps he hoped, you know, one of the most prominent and most famous scientific explorers in america. so in the early phase of his career hayden's mentor was spencer fullerton baird who you see here the assistant secretary of the smithsonian institution in 1848 spencer baird was actually the first recipient of a smithsonian grant for the purpose of exploration and natural history collecting. he took a trip and in southern pennsylvania with that grant he was then appointed in 1850 to be assistant secretary four years after the smithsonian establishment he brought with him two entire railroad cars of specimens including 4,000 bird skins that he had collected himself during his early life and this really served as the basis of the smithsonian's collections in this early period he was a tremendous logistical manager and networker his greatest talent was identifying and collecting scientists. hayden had actually written to baird in 1853 very early on in his career asking for advice and for funding for a fossil collecting trip to the upper, missouri river badlands, which geologists were already calling the boneyard for it's just amazing collection of fossils and distribution across the fossil record these of course were lakota lands, which we will talk about a little bit later but spencer baird wrote him back immediately sent him some money and some advice about how to collect and pack fossils and then of course in return asked for several of the specimens for the smithsonian's collections and this began a multi decade friendship and partnership hayden was establishing himself as a scientist during this period in the 1850s and 60s. and baird was establishing the smithsonian as a world-class scientific institution. so both men took a little bit time off during the civil war hayden didn't really want to go to war but sort of with forced into it in 1862 and served as a physician because he had a medical degree because that's how you actually did the coursework that would enable you to become a geologist during this period of time so he went off to the war came back in 1865 and then started as i noted to lead to surveys on his own. at this point yellowstone really was one of the only unmapped places in the nation. as i noted before when we had the poll yellowstone is hard to get to now it was even harder to get to thanally before 1869 with a completion of the transcontinental railroad. there were some amateur explorers who were getting in there though. there had been some scouts and some trappers who had gone into yellowstone and came out with stories of you know exploding geysers and bubbling upon bubbling streams and mud volcanoes and cliffs made of glass and nobody believed them right because scouts and trappers were known to be in better at liars. and so who you know, they were always telling tall tales around the fire. so who was them but the white population of montana was growing during this period and there were some some amateurs from montana who decided that they wanted to go check out yellowstone for themselves to see if these rumors were true. so there was one small group that went in 1869 then another more prominent and more famous group in 1870 led by nathaniel langford who was a civil official turned montana booster had come to montana during the gold rush of 1863 and now kind of brought together a group of of men who held positions in montana's territorial government or who were about to rotate out gathered together a team got a military escort from the second cavalry for posted at fort ellis in bozeman and entered yellowstone basin in the summer of 1870. this expedition was notable for producing two very prominent articles that were published in scribner's monthly and then also a lecture tour by nathaniel langford and hayden actually saw langford's talk in washington dc in the winter of 7172 and this is what commenced him that he needed to get to yellowstone right away because he wanted to keep it out of the hands of amateurs. he wanted to claim it for science, and he wanted to go he didn't want to miss this chance to make his mark and to claim yellowstone for professional scientists and for the nation. so he began to lobby congress for funding in the kind of late winter early spring of 1871 and they gave him $40,000 which is a lot of money that's close to in. today's money about a million dollars to take a group a rather large group a larger team than hayden had ever brought together before and to get them out to yellowstone and back in the summer of 1871. so the goal was to explore yellowstone not to preserve it. this was never part of hayden's plan from the beginning. he never even really thought about it until later. he was supposed to as most surveys were to evaluate yellowstone for development. hayden's personal goal also was to establish himself. as the nation's foremost explorer scientist and really make his reputation in yellowstone and spencer baird encouraged him in this he thought that yellowstone would be the perfect place for hayden to do this that any kind of bigger survey would just be more general and not as interesting that yellowstone was where he would make his mark so as i noted on march 3rd congress appropriated the $40,000 between that point and may hayden was recruiting scientists and organizing his supplies with the help of spencer baird and the smithsonian coffers, basically and such a baird was also suggesting scientists to him he very forcibly suggests that hayden take a young man named frederick hughes who was an ornithologist who bared really believed in hayden came to regret that choice. he didn't like he was very much and never used him again. but like the men who had given him money. he was very much invested in making spencer baird happy so he took he was a long he also, you know kind of thrust an imperied with a lot of people who were writing to try and join the expedition ended up with a fairly large scientific team, and then also a group of people i call in the book the political boys who were the sons of congressman who hayden needed on his side so all of these people gathered together in late may in omaha, nebraska where they boarded union pacific trains to ogden utah made a pit stop in in cheyenne, wyoming gathered supplies. most notably army horses and then made their way west. they spent a little bit of time in utah exploring ogden exploring salt lake city where they also got supplies salt lake city was a very important stop on the major road between california and colorado and and they were also quite interested in the what they would have considered the more curious aspects of salt lake city. it's founding in mormonism and bringing bring him young it's president. so they spend a little time there kind of looking around and then left on june 10th for the real start of the expedition moving northward along a stage road from ogden to virginia city montana, which was an old mining town there. they had wagons they had forces with them bringing all of their supplies by july 13th. they arrived at fort ellis in montana. just outside bozeman where they picked up their second cavalry escort and by july 15th, they were at butler's ranch, which was a ranching concern run by a pair of german brothers in the yellowstone river valley if you have flown into bozeman and driven to yellowstone that way through the northern entrance. then you have actually driven by butler's ranch road, which is the site of that former ranch right there on the yellowstone river. this was the perfect place. to set off for yellowstone. they followed the river down to where it meets the gardener, but they really did only take horses and meals with them because they knew from reports that they weren't going to be able to get any wagons through any of the narrow canyons into yellowstone. so they really jumped off on july 20th, 1871 and spent a couple of months exploring the park here is a map you can see them at the very top of the map kind of coming down. along the yellowstone river making a diversion up the gardener a little ways where they saw for the first time the white what they called the white mountain, which we now call mammoth hot springs and langford's team has had not discovered this particular feature of yellowstone's grant geothermal basins and so hayden really considered that this was an iconic moment in his survey. he emphasized it a lot in all of his written reports because he wanted to claim it kind of as his own discovery, even though right at the base along the gardener river. they actually ran into some minors who were already taking the waters for various illnesses. so clearly they were not the first ones there and of course indigenous peoples had been there for thousands of years and in fact, you know hayden's expedition could not have happened without a couple of things to transcontinental railroad supply depots in cities and towns support from the the us military and then also the kind of trails of the indigenous peoples throughout the basin who had been using yellowstone as a thoroughfare as a camping site and a hunting ground for thousands of years. so, you know as they're moving along hayden is is noting in his reports and and writing later. so that they were the first ones to see this they were jumping off into a wilderness and then he would just very unironically say and then we followed the path. on the side of the structure up to the top of the white mountain so clearly people had been there before had been there many times before to pound out pathways and they basically followed past that had already been laid out in this counterclockwise route where they came down. came along the river ended up at the lower falls in the upper falls of the yellowstone climbed mount wash what they called mount washburn and then went to yellowstone lake camp there for a little bit then made a big diversion to the west to go. see the geyser basins then return to yellowstone lake came around the eastern side and then decided that they really needed to head back to fort ellis in bozeman and at least butler's ranch by the bean beginning of september because i don't know if those of you who have been to yellowstone. what time of year you went, but he knew hayden knew from reports that the big snowstorms were going to start rolling in in early september and in fact when i went when my husband and i went just this last kind of mid-september two yellowstone. we did get snowed on during that trip, so that still happens for hayden. it would have been a disaster his men would have been cut out with not very many supplies and totally exposed to the elements. so he needed to get his team out of there as quickly as possible and to to have a successful survey and they really did they made a very complete survey of most of the features that we know and recognize in yellowstone. most importantly he was able to really get a sense of the geothermal regions and even though the lower falls would become kind of the most spectacular visual iconic reference for yellowstone after this survey, but it was the geothermal regions that saved it as a national park and hayden understood this hayden knew once he saw that the lower and the upper guys are basins once he saw old faithful which had already been named by the way in that 1870 survey. he knew that this place was special he knew it was iconic and he knew it was unique in all the world because you know, they i scientists had already kind of discovered and explored a little bit the icelandic geysers and also some guys are basins in new zealand. but they were nothing compared to this in terms of the size and the number of features and the diversity of features. so it was really kind of incredible, you know a couple of men left the survey fairly early due to health reasons, but the survey proceeded without a hitch and when hayden wrote to spencer baird at the end of it, he almost couldn't believe his luck that it had gone so very well. and partly that was due to hayden's talents. he was an excellent scientist, but he was also even more so a really great leader of a survey. he allowed the men to create their own collecting teams. he gave them instructions about collecting and he expected them to work hard. he made it pretty clear to the political boys that if they did not pull their weight, they would be jettisoned from the survey, but he really didn't crack down on them. he gave them a lot of lead and a lot of leeway and they ended up collecting just a huge amount of special specimens 45 boxes that they sent back to the smithsonian institution for analysis and collection. he was also quite a good writer. he understood the power of language of travel narratives in particular in shaping the way people understand science. so he really played a very interesting role in the development of the genre of popular science writing and you can see here. i've included the title page from his scribner's monthly. piece about the hayden expeditions journeys into the yellowstone. this illustration of course is based on thomas moran's very famous painting which we'll talk about in a minute, but this piece and i i included a link to it. in the sheet that you got. because it really is a remarkable piece of writing kind of takes you along on their journey and explains the science to you and very accessible language. so his job he had many things to write after he got back from the yellowstone. he was writing this piece for scriveners who was writing a more technical piece for a scientific journal and then he was also writing a huge report many hundreds of pages for congress. so he had a lot on his plate. he was also sending out specimens for scientists to analyze so that they would send in his reports try to ride heard kind of on everyone. he understood in this moment. he actually asked william henry jackson to come back with him the photographer to help him to organize the images for the report because he knew not only was the written word important but visual images were vital to conveying the meaning of science in this period and the meaning and the significance of landscapes. so i just mentioned william henry jackson. this is a self-portrait of his here on the left and then two of his images from the survey the top at butler's ranch so you can see sort of the extent of that infrastructure there along the yellowstone river and then his iconic photo which i'm sure you have seen of the white mountain or mammoth hot springs and that's actually thomas moran there who is posing on the structure itself, which seems a little dangerous to us. now, of course, we're not allowed to clamber on over there and i wonder how close we came to losing moran into the depths of the white mountain would have lost one of the most amazing landscape painters in our country's history, but william henry jackson and hayden developed a very close relationship jackson had grown up in vermont. he took to photography just as hayden had taken to fossil hunting he went west with a wagon train in the late 1860s after the civil war after serving in the civil war. then he started a photographic gallery and studio in omaha, nebraska. he got a big commission in 1869, which was to take photographs along the union pacific line and it was and when he was engaging in that project in cheyenne, wyoming that he met ferdinand hayden in a brothel, which was an encounter that he remembered vividly, but hayden never wrote about and you can imagine why but the two of them met then became friends when hayden recruited him for an 1870 survey. he was leading to southern wyoming and just really loved jackson's photographs felt like he had a great sense of place that he knew where to place the camera that he understood how to create a mobile studio pack in onto the back of the mule and actually, you know, come through with intact last negatives. i mean in this in this time, it was pretty extraordinary, so he came along and he really had an important role to play because hayden felton, you know people during this period really believe that photographs. conveyed reality, you know now we know with instagram and everything that you can manipulate photographs and they can tell whatever story that you want them to tell but in this period photography was still relatively new had sort of burst onto the scene mostly during the civil war although had been invented before that and in in this time the the photographs really served as evidence. they certain that all of these features were here. i mean who else who was gonna believe descriptions of the white mountain without this visual image here that perfectly represented it? you know, but they were also proof that hayden had been there and that the team had been there and then had come back with these images. so hayden understood the power of these he wanted jackson with him for the creation of the congressional report, and he also used a lot of his images, but later to lobby congress for the passage of the yellowstone act. also along although not at hayden's invitation was thomas moran landscape painter who's family had emigrated from england before the civil war a moran was born there came to the united states grew up in philadelphia in a family of artists showed his talent for landscape painting pretty early on but was just emerging as a major painter on the scene in 1871. he was also working as an illustrator for scribner's magazine and had created the woodcut illustrations for nathaniel langford's yellowstone account that was published in may of 1871. so moran interestingly kind of had already envisioned yellowstone before he had actually gone there in the summer of 1871. he was recruited by jay cooke an investment banker who had an interest in the northern pacific railroad and wanted yellowstone documented for reasons. i will about in a second. he helped to fund thomas moran's trip as did scribner's. and moran really wanted to render. yellowstone and full color because of course, this is the advantage that painting has over photography. jackson's photographs could give you a really good sense of the rich detail, you know, the sharp lines of all of these elements of yellowstones amazing natural structures, but moran could give you the color right? so here are two of his watercolor sketches that he made he made both pencil sketches and watercolors kind of in the moment and then he went back after the survey to produce versions of some of these in oil some of them that were actually going to go directly to jay cook to help pay him back. so moran was really captivated by captivated by a lot of the sides and yellowstone, but particularly the view of the lower falls from the canyon rim. he and jackson spent several days on the rim sketching and taking photographs and moran even was so excited to start on this painting which he called the big picture that he returned home early from the expedition to get to his studio into a new newark, new jersey and get started on this just eight by twelve foot. humongous image of the lower falls of the yellowstone again, probably the most iconic image of yellowstone national park. he finished it in late april of 1872. he exhibited it in new york city to great fanfare and the you know, the critics really loved the painting they especially loved the color that he achieved with the gold along the sides of the canyon and for those of you know, you guys have been there you have seen this exact scene and in fact, the national park has a great kind of way-finding placard that shows you the painting kind of right as you were looking at the scene itself, which is a kind of wonderful sort of layering in the summer and spring and summer of 1872. moran was lobbying members of the library committee who were the ones who purchased books and artworks for the library of congress and he was lobbying them to buy grand canyon of the yellowstone. and he really wanted them to buy it for $10,000 and the reason that he wanted that some is that the most expensive painting ever sold had or in the united states by an american painter had been frederick edwin churches niagara, which had sold for $10,000 and so he wanted to match that or or get more than that, but he got 10,000 which was an amazing amount of money and the painting after it was sold went on a little bit of a tour of the east coast was shown in the smithsonian alongside. so some of george catlin's native paintings that he had executed in the 1830s and 40s and then by the fall of 1872, it was hanging in the halls of congress both jackson's and moran's artwork help to make the case for the yellowstone act hayden actually created a little exhibit in the rotunda while he was lobbying for the yellowstone act. that included some of jackson's photos and some of moran's sketches and then also mineral specimens fossil specimens and other items from the expedition. so speaking of the yellowstone act this was in a kind of amazing moment in the winter of 1871 and 1872. there had been ideas about parks obviously and about natural spaces that belong to the people the colonies had commons for centuries, but the idea that people needed green spaces where they could go and sort of as you would say kind of either recreate or recreate themselves right was an idea that really emerged in the context of industrialization rural cemeteries, and then city parks began to provide these spaces in the 1830s and 1840s in 1832. congress actually did pass an andrew jackson signed legislation setting aside lands at arkansas hot springs as a federal reservation. so historians of conservation usually point to that is kind of this first moment where the government is taking control of a landscape for the people. um in 1884 george catlin who had been on a trip to the missouri river had suggested keeping all the lands from there to the pacific as a permanent national park. that was not an idea that was widespread or really taken up in any sort of way. the department of the interior was created in 1849 began to fund geological and geographical surveys. also took over the general land office which surveyed and sold public lands so their work was not really about preservation or conservation in this moment in encompassed really all potential land uses. so the real precedent for the yellowstone act was the yosemite act of 1864 another war time measure that gave the lands of yosemite and mariposa grove to the state of california to manage for the benefit of the people for public resort and recreation. the yellowstone act though as imagined was a different kind of land taking here the government the federal government was suggesting that they would take land from the territories and give it to the department of the interior to manage and this was a new idea. this was a precedent setting idea because as you will see some people had problems with this kind of idea as opposed to the idea of the yosemite act. so when hayden returned from yellowstone in late october 1871, he received a note from the pr man for j cook of the net of the northern pacific railroad and investment banker who was raising money for the northern pacific who's tracks. he hoped would run just north of the yellowstone basin and the the letter suggested that hayden advocate for the creation of a national park in his piece for scriveners and in report to congress. now hayden had not lobbed this idea around he had not even really thought of it before this point. but immediately he took it up. he understood how important it would be. he understood how amazing it would be for scientists to have this land preserved for the nation and to keep it out of private hands. so in november and december he began to lobby along with his scientific team with members of congress to pass a yellowstone act along with a group of montana boosters. and then also jay cook and his brother henry who knew ulysses s grant personally and kind of got him on the side of the bill. it was introduced in both the senate and the house on december 18th it to find the new the boundaries of a new national park at that time around 1700 square miles, which is about half as large as it is now and suggested taking those lands from wyoming and idaho and montana again giving those lands to the department of the interior for the benefit and the enjoyment of the people so really creating this democratic landscape of tourism, which was a new idea. um the bill was sent to each body's committee on public lands for review and recommendation and hayden consulted with those committees and help them to write their very positive reports. on january 30th 1872 the senate debated they had two major issues one was federal overreach. this was the contentious issue that brought about one of the contentious issues that brought about the american civil war and was not resolved in that conflict. again, the only congressional precedent was the federal government giving land to a state democrats were very concerned about this issue, especially in the context of reconstruction a period in american history when the federal government really exerted itself an unprecedented ways to protect the rights of citizens and provide things for them. republicans, of course, you know most of them although a group of moderate republicans started to voice their opposition to this federal overreach as well. but most of them had no problem with it part of their their party platform was federal supremacy and they were interested in supporting and defending it. the second objection was that such an act would violate white settler rights, which had been affirmed most recently in the 1862 homestead act and was a central component of the american dream right that white americans had the right to take or buy whatever lands they wanted to farm to ranch or mine both democrats and republicans most of them from the midwest and the west upheld settler rights. they sort of called upon this long tradition, but this objection was not strong enough in the senate to derail the bill. we don't know what the senate vote actually was. there was not a roll call. we cannot be sure who voted in what way but the measure passed by all reports easily. although very likely it was not unanimous. it took about a month for the house. to really bring up the bill for the debate. there were the same concerns expressed there as had been concerned expressed in the senate and also there was an interesting moment when a republican representative from nebraska named john taft asked about lakota land claims in the area and whether or not yellow whether or not yellowstone was encompassed in their territory laid out in the 1868 portland army treaty for the most part. this concern was completely dismissed particularly by henry dawes a massachusetts congressman who would later author the 1887 several tea act that took millions of acres of negotiated treating lands away from indigenous nations to sell to white americans what he said to taft was the indians can know no more live there than they can upon the precipitous side of the yosemite valley. so does, you know had always supported hayden surveys? he was one of the people that hayden lobby directly. he was one of the most powerful men in the house. his son chester had joined hayden in yellowstone. he was one of the political boys. so on that day february 27th, the vote was called 89% of republicans voted. yes on the yellowstone act 70% of democrats voted. no, so this was not unanimous clearly the ones who were the kind of outliers. there was no real regional breakdown people were voting for and against from all different regions. it was just breaking down i think on those issues of white settler rights and federal overreach the republicans strong majority in the house, though meant that the yellowstone act which was bipartisan, but certainly not unanimous had passed and on march first 1871 the bill landed on president ulysses grant's desk and he signed it really without any fanfare. most newspapers reported on it reported on its passage where we're pretty much positive about it as we can see here in this squib from the new york herald which was often taken and reprinted in newspapers across the nation. they saw it as something that was good for the country. good for summer travelers that it was a wonderful place that the united states needed to keep and to protect and they saw the national park movement really as something that could only happen in america as some of them expressed directly. so the passage of the bill was great news for jay cooke who of course had had lobbied for it cook along with hayden is one of the major protagonists of my book he grew up in ohio. he started working as a clerk in a bank while still in his teens. he was quick with numbers. he really grasped the complexities of business and banking and by the civil war he had opened up his own investment bank called jay cooking company. he made his reputation and his fortune during the civil war selling war bonds to support the us government and the union army effort and in the years afterwards. he was really casting about for a project that would give him that same sense of patriotism. that would give him a sense of purpose and would also make him money and what he came upon was the northern pacific railroad, which was a national project that was intended to be the second transcontinental line. it was actually called the centennial line was supposed to be finished in 1876 to celebrate the n anniversary his brother henry believed that if they could pull this off the northern pacific would be quote the grandest achievement of our lives. so cook took control of fundraising for the northern pacific in 1870. but from the start, it was really a disaster railroads. we're in our kind of volatile investments. nobody wanted a piece of it in the us or in europe, but cook was determined. he was obstinate. he thought that with enough advertising and promotion the northern pacific could build its track and be as success and he saw hayden's yellowstone expedition and the national park that yellowstone became as a boon to his project. he was wrong about that. he did not anticipate that another figure of the period would be working against him in the region. and this is just sorry i should have gone to this slide. this is this these are two examples of the way that cook was using advertising and newspapers to really gin up some enthusiasm and some bond sales for the northern pacific in 1871. now the man standing in his way was tatanka iyotake sitting bull the hung papalo coated chief. born in the 1830s along the upper, missouri river to a family of war chiefs and community leaders sitting bull was a member of the hung popup band of the lakota who were themselves one part of the ochetti shakawin the seven council fires known at the time as the sioux he grew up to be a widely respected leader of the hung papah establishing himself by the 1850s and 1860s and fights not only against the lakota's a traditional enemies like the crow, but also in fights against us soldiers he began to appear in us official documents in the late 1860s as indian agents and army officers and civil officials were beginning to take note of his leadership and his growing power during this period he consistently asserted his people's rights to their homelands along the yellowstone river valley and their sovereignty as a people in both diplomacy and island action against white americans who were trying to cross lakota homelands sitting bull does came to class with jay cooks northern pacific railroad surveyors who wanted to lay track right through his country which extended in this period from the missouri river to the yellowstone basin. um in the fall of 1871, his people pushed a group of surveyors out of the yellowstone valley and back to missouri and then in the summer of 1872 the lakota fought two battles against us troops that were protecting northern pacific surveyors moving from both the missouri river in the east and then also from the west from bozeman and fort ellis in august on the 14th and the 22nd. they fought the battle of arrow creek and the battle of o'fallon creek and once again sitting both succeeded in pushing the surveyors out and delaying the northern pacific railroad project the next year in june of 1873 sitting bill and his people met george armstrong custer for the first time as that officer led a northern pacific expedition west along the yellowstone. there was another fight and the the americans once again retreated and really what i came to see about the these moments is that they're really leading the lakota and the us army on a direct path to the battle of little bighorn to greasy grass in 1876. so it's really here in the defense of his homelands along the yellowstone river. that's sitting bull really starts on that road that victory that the lakota had. and they're cheyenne and arapaho allies at little bighorn was tremendous, but it also brought the full weight of the us army down on the lakota afterward ulysses s grant, you know ordered and was fully in support of those campaigns many lakota surrendered others followed sitting bull to canada in the moment though their actions delayed and finally scuttled the northern pacific railroads plans brought about the panic and depression of 1873, which is an interesting moment here because jay cook had been so obsessed with this plan that he had actually loaned money from his own investment bank to the northern pacific and in september of 1873 in the middle of a very unstable chaotic economy. his investors came calling and he had no money to give them and his bank closed and launched the panic and depression lakota actions also presented tourist traffic and scientific explorations of the yellowstone. after 1873 until after 1877 the lakota though. we're not the only tribal nations lane claim to yellowstone, so i wanted to be sure to show you this map of the major groups that were moving in and around this area and using yellowstone to move back and forth not only to get at the great bison herds of southern wyoming and nebraska, but also to get it one another to fight one another in their traditional battles. so these indigenous groups as i noted before have been using yellowstone their paths were already there. going by all the features they knew all about them. they also hunted and fished within. yellowstone itself explorers like hayden, not only followed their paths, but found their campsites and so, you know, we have this proof that these communities were moving through and using yellowstone in some interesting ways and had been stewards of this land for thousands of years. i just wanted to know that, you know during this 150th anniversary year the officials at yellowstone national park are making a concerted effort to highlight these indigenous histories of yellowstone and to really bring in indigenous voices to the park itself not only in a series of displays, but also in the native history center, so i'm really hopeful that people. you know just moving through the park and expecting really to see only natural wonders are going to see a little bit more of its history moving forward. so what came of all of this the passage of the yellowstone act? well, it's legacy was not immediate congress did not provide much funding for infrastructure for the first decade again, it was still difficult to get to until 1883 when the northern pacific line was finally completed up until that point yellowstone really only had about 500 to a thousand visitors a year. and congress did not pass major preservation legislation until 1890 when they once again had control of all the branches of government. they had a republican president and benjamin harrison and they controlled the house and the senate and in that year. they created yosemite and sequoia and general grant national parks, but then again there was another gap another lag until teddy roosevelt during his presidency really became the iconic conservation president using the 1906 antiquities act which gave him the power to create executive action to really make proclamations that any site of public interest could be a national monument and during his presidency congress created another five national parks all of them in the west including mesa verde in colorado. what's also interesting though? is that yellowstone's preservation led to the creation of one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems in the world and this area of which yellowstone is sort of the center. it's a very large area in montana and idaho parts of wyoming is given scientists a huge laboratory for experiments and studies and in fact a group of scientists. just did a climate study. they published that report in july of 2021 as you might expect the news is not good and but the preservation of yellowstone has allowed scientists to actually study this and actually bring this really important information to us and ultimately of course yellowstone did set the precedent for the creation of national parks and their management under the federal government. unfortunately also it's at a precedent for native land dispossession in this context. so just to wrap up here. my book saving yellowstone tells all of these stories that the exploration and preservation of this iconic landscape through the experiences of hayden and sitting bull and cook and some of the other figures i've mentioned here tonight. through them and looking at reconstruction from yellowstone and yellowstone in the context of reconstruction. i think we can see how reconstruction was a political and an economic and a social project the focus not only on the south but also on the west that it was a effort on the part of the federal government to unite the country from coast to coast through a variety of projects, including the exploration and preservation of yellowstone. it also shows us that 1871 and 72 was a moment, which the government really reached for a higher purpose before unfortunately abandoning it soon afterwards politicians would not use federal supremacy to protect black civil rights again for almost a century congress did not create any more substantial national parks until 1890 and of course preserve lands continue to be the targets of conservative efforts to withdraw their status and turn them toward production seeing reconstruction from yellowstone also allows us to see how the effort to explore and preserve yellowstone rested again on native land dispossession, but that indigenous people's fought this effort every step of the line and that they survived and they persisted and they continue to defend their lands against commercial and federal development. and finally this angle of vision, i think really reveals yellowstone itself as not only the world's kind of first national park in this kind of amazing geothermal field unique and all the world. but also a perfect metaphor for the country at this moment in 1871 and possibly even today a place that is both beautiful and terrible both fragile and powerful and a place where what lies just beneath the surface is always threatening to explode. so, thank you so much. i will end there and i think we have some time for questions. all right. thank you so much megan. that was a great story. that was a really great story. um, and and thank you to everyone in the audience today and if you have any questions, feel free to go ahead and submit them now, but let's go ahead and jump into some of the questions that have come in. okay, and some of these are maybe a little more general history, but i think with your background you could possibly know the answers to some but feel free to pass on any of them. but okay, so one of the first questions that came in is is is the clause in the 14th amendment limiting citizenship of native americans still enforce? it is not. no, i believe it in in 1924. i believe the federal government gave full citizenship rights to indigenous people. of course, you know, i mean that it's a long period of time right? it is fairly recent. but yes that that no longer applies. thank you. another question, why did lincoln imprison 10,000 navajo in some apaches in fort sumner, new mexico beginning in 1863? $3,000 died either a sumner or on the forced move inconsistent with how former slaves were treated. absolutely. yes, um if you're interested in this topic, this is a major component of my previous book the three corner war which many of the chapters take place on the long walk and at bosque redondo, which is the name of that reservation. yes, this is one of the biggest human rights disasters in the civil war almost completely the fault of james henry carlton, who is the commander of the us army and the department of and the department of new mexico in that region the us army had kind of pushed the confederates from new mexico in the summer of 1862, and then they turned the full force of their military power on chirakawa apaches on mescalero apaches and on the navajo people and it was carlton's intent again, and you can see the relationship here. he really started to particulate this new kind of federal indian policy where there would be no treaty agreements and the first move would be active warfare with the intent of removing native people to reservations. so they would be out of the way of white settlers moving west kind of during the civil war and then in the years after that and bosque redondo has a really fascinating history. i mean, of course it is terrible at 25% mortality rate both on the long walk and at bosque redondo and really more people need to know about it because it really was a unique kind of prisoner of war camp, but also needs to be discussed in that context with places like andersonville and in this place can actually see that contradiction which also lies that the heart of saving yellowstone, which is that the federal government on the one hand is preserving and protecting the rights of black southerners emancipating them, you know trying to help them in a transition out of enslavement and into freedom. yet they are also embracing the possible extermination of and then also the removal and the incarceration of native people and i think today we think that's really contradictory. but in the moment both of those projects went toward the republican effort to bring the south and the west back into the nation to exert control over both of those regions and to create in the west. a kind of a land of free labor a land of freedom in their view that were would require removing native people and putting them on reservations, so they did not interfere with white settler rights. so those are two very connected. programs and campaigns and in that way, i think actually saving yellowstone is i think you can see it as a sequel to the three cornered war because there are many connections and many causal, you know sort of cause and effect relationships. all right. thank you, michael for that question. right, so another one and i'm not sure how they mean this so i'm gonna kind of guess at it. what what are the chances that management of yellowstone will be turned over to the native tribes to handle. mm-hmm. and that's current or what are the chances that it could have happened that i mean imagine. it's currently yeah. i think this is a current question and it's related to the land back movement, which is a movement on behalf of indigenous people is to return all native parklands. if not all many other kinds of lands two indigenous stewardship and ownership. um, i think the chances are probably small that yellowstone will be turned over one of the interesting things about yellowstone, is that it actually because it was a thoroughfare if you if you remember the slide of all of those groups that are involved and and, you know, yellowstone national park has established relationships 26 tribal nations with connection. to yellowstone there's not just one group and so it's not like one. indigenous nation ceded that entire land or had it taken from them by the us government. it was a shared space. so it actually wasn't covered by any kind of treaty making so the federal government just you know, there was nothing standing in their way, right and but there was a kind of shared ownership and i think what will happen instead and i'm and i'm very hopeful about this actually because of the way that the park is is handling the 150th and increasing its attention to indigenous presence in history. is that members of those tribal nations will get more of a say that they will be they'll get a seat at the table. they'll get to kind of talk about the park moving forward talk about how to integrate indigenous histories into this into this landscape and into the tourist experience of the park. i mean one of the things that we've been talking about i'm a i'm helping a group out of the university of michigan to develop a plan to kind of track. new effort at indigenous history integration and one of the things we thought would be so cool is what if you were driving through on one of the loop roads, which i know you all know and it would just you know, if you signed up for an app it would just kind of ping your phone when you passed a site with important indigenous history that you could get out and look at or you could just experience or it could say right now you're driving right along the route of the bannock trail, which was a very heavily used migration trail, but for all kinds of tribal nations, and then you just become more aware of your surroundings more aware of yellowstone's history and it's indigenous presence both in the past and also in the present perfect project all right. another question was yellowstone the first national park in the world. do you know and did any other countries set aside land for parks before yellowstone? countries had been setting aside parklands in cities and you know, of course the idea of the commons was very old the whole idea that you would preserve something like central park was quite new. i mean that was an idea that emerged in the in the 1840s but really the idea of a national the government would take from the people and keep out of development and then kind of organize and structure for tourism. that was a completely new idea. so yes, i think we can safely say that yellowstone was the first national park in the world and then there are still you know, there are some countries that don't even really have it now, but then others that do and and lots of places that have parks that are dedicated to wildlife, you know, obviously what i didn't talk about very much in this talk were the charismatic megafauna of yellowstone the bison and the elk and the wolves in particular bears. and the reason for that is that that hayden really didn't comment on them. and that animal life when they were there was not present in such large numbers that they were noting them and and talking about their preservation. they became important later and the superintendents who followed were taking notes particularly of bison populations, because those were depleting be in this period and so there was some talk of either breeding bison and bringing them into the park and and actually creating almost like a zoo type atmosphere in yellowstone and that of course has changed over time and now the park still manages that wildlife and manages the herd size, but they don't have it contained in that in that zoo like atmosphere and but there are all kinds of different types of parks and reserves and you know in other countries they have different government structures, so it's kind of hard to to have a an parallel type of experience. right. thank you. so another question when they were developing the boundaries. someone asked what was the purpose of including the narrow strips of land in montana and idaho idaho within the park boundaries? do not i think that was just a matter. it was probably to gain the entrances and the rights of way because they it was very important particularly in the northern entrance. they needed that area just north of the park which montana was claiming and in fact the montana boosters when they were arguing for the parks creation. actually, we're trying to get them to give all of yellowstone yellowstone over to montana first. and then take the land so they wanted to actually expand into wyoming to take up that land because at that point that northern entrance was really the only way in no one had really discovered the other possible entrances it seemed you know, when they when they saw the tetons they're like, what are we supposed to do with this? how are we going to get over those? right? so they the the montanans in particular saw the park as theirs and so they've just taken little pieces and i think they probably have to do with mountain ranges and also waterways that were important areas of access for the park itself. right, that makes sense. all right, so i think we're gonna ask one more question. maybe we have time for two, but did general sheridan have a role in protecting, yellowstone? that's a great question sheridan who was one of the commanders in this region of the us army actually did send a another exploring team that was explicitly military and they kind of hooked on to hayden's survey who's a little annoyed by that. it was led by a guy named john barlow and hayden was a little annoyed because he didn't want to have to share any credit if anyone discovered any part of yellowstone and so so he wasn't very happy about that, but he was very much invested in keeping sheridan happy because he needed that support from the us military in terms of supplies and also military support and protection phil sheridan was also someone he did want to know he and actually the the initial title of the book was this strange country and that was a quote from sheridan himself who said, you know, i think we need to know more about this strange country of the yellowstone and it seemed like such an you know, that's such a great evocative phrase and perfectly described, you know, all of the lands in the in the basin and you know, sheridan was a military official he was a friend of grants and he was committed to implementing all of the federal government's measures in this region. no matter what they would be. oh, sorry about that. all right, so i'm i'm gonna ask two more questions and then i think we'll finish up. so this one i think it's is so let me ask it. why does teddy get credit for establishing yellowstone when it was really president grants. yes. yeah, this is one of i think the fascinating things roosevelt visited the park. um when they were laying the cornerstone of the arch that is in gardner and so they named the arch after him and they named also parts of the park after him and this leads people to think that roosevelt was the one to create yellowstone national park because it really does i mean the the arch itself is not very clear and and if you're not really sure kind of when roosevelt was president if you're thinking maybe it was possible. it was 1872 then. then there are very good reasons for thinking that he was the one who established it and you know roosevelt kind of sucks up all of the information and national park all of the attention about national park so poor grant, you know who signs this but grant was also not very good at bragging about this at all. i mean, he never really made any speeches about it. he was totally fine with it, but he didn't try to take credit for anything either. so that was part of it, too. all righty. thank you. all right last last question, and then we'll close if you were to recommend a season to visit yellowstone. what would it be? i think it would be i think it would be september. i mean when we went in september first of all, the the trees were changing color. it was gorgeous. there were fewer people there, which was nice. also. it was kind of glorious to be there when it snowed on us. we got to see, you know herds of bison walking through the driving snow. we got to walk up around the mud volcanoes as the snow was coming down, you know, it was a little cold. it was a it was a little, you know adventurous, but i actually really liked it. i thought it was a really beautiful time of year to be there. excellent someone commented this evening that smithsonian journeys has a trip to yellowstone in september of this year and they're going so perfect excellence. okay, please post lots of pictures and report you see exactly. all right. well, that's about all the time we have for today. thank you megan for your wonderful presentation and thank you to all of our viewers for joining us today and for the great questions that came through if you enjoyed today's program, please consider becoming a member or making a donation to support educational programs like this and definitely check out our other upcoming programs. and again, we encourage you to fill out the survey when you exit this evening. we do want to hear from you. thank you so much everyone and enjoy the remainder of your evening. posts. name is jose. francisco barro's joe barrows i am president of tropical audubon society. we are the local chapter of audubon here in miami-dade county. and we have a mission and that is to rest conserve and restore south florida's ecosystem focusing on birds other wildlife and their habitats. we are proud to be the south south florida's voice of conservation and this year we're celebrating our 75th anniversary anniversary
magazine, presentation magazine, and civil war monitor. nelson her and her b. a. in history literature from the harvard university, and our ph. d. american studies from the university of iowa. she has taught at texas tech university, cal state, fullerton, harvard, brown. nelson is the author of saving yellowstone, ruin nation, trembling earth. we're so excited to have her with us today. before i turn it over to her, just a quick note, we have sent out an email to everyone this morning that had just a great list of resources like a bibliography that meghan had put together. you all should've received that by now. if not, that link is posted in the chat. with that, please join me in welcoming meghan kate nelson. >> hi everyone. thank you so much. thank you, nicole, for that lovely introduction. and to the smithsonian associates for the invitation to be with you tonight. i would also like to think harmony, ellen, steve, anna, liz for running this show and to help me get all the tech straight. i cannot think a better place for me to talk about saving yellowstone then at the smithsonian. as you will learn tonight, the institution played a really important role in both the exploration and the preservation of this iconic national landscape. thank you all for being with me tonight. as nikole noted, there will be a q&a after the talk. please feel free to ask questions along the way. we'll get to as many of those questions as we can by the end. in mid july, 1871, a 22-year-old university of pennsylvania graduate student named robert adams scrambled down from the rim of the grand canyon of the yellowstone to the precipice of the lower falls. creeping to the edge of an overhanging cliff, adams wrote later, to the philadelphia inquirer, we gaze below until dizziness made us withdraw. oh, it was grand, sublime, a site never to be forgotten. on his climb back up to the rim, adams pulled a handful of drumans rushed out of the ground. a common sight along river banks in alpine areas of the mountain west, this flowering plant grew in large clusters. it is brown, yellow, purple red flowers waiting in the breeze. adams was the botanist on the yellowstone expedition of 1871. he had been collecting plants and flowers throughout the team's trip from omaha, nebraska to the middle of the yellowstone basin. when he got back into camp from the lower falls, adams pressed the stems of the drummonds rush between sheets of paper and pulled a label out of his satchel. on it, he wrote out the name of the specimen, the day he collected, it the location, and then he signed it. he placed the sheets with the label attached in a box with hundreds of other botanical specimens to be sent first by wagon, then by train, to the smithsonian institution in washington d. c.. the samples of drummonds rush, which you see here, on the slide, now sit in a folder stacked in a cabinet at the national museum of natural history. they are fragments of the u.s. western flora that are archived in the east. they are also material evidence of fernand hayden's expodition of 1871. the first scientific exploration of yellowstone with led to the passage of the yellowstone act in 1872 getting the first national park in the world, 150 years ago. in my new book, saving yellowstone, i tell the story of hayden's expedition. i interviewed the story with two other narratives. the narrative of capital investment and the white settlement of the west. and the story of indigenous resistance to those efforts of government officials, u.s. soldiers, businessman and scientists to take their homelands from them. in this moment, in 1871-1872, yellowstone really became an iconic landscape in america. it also became a metaphor for the nation itself. a place that was both beautiful and terrible. the question that i always get, always want to ask of people in the audience, when did you go first to yellowstone? have you've been there? we have a quiz for you, in the audience, a pole just to see how many of you have actually been there. if you have visited the park, when was your trip? did you go as a child? did you go as an adult with your own children. was it recently? was it really, really long ago? as you can see, from the slides, my first trip was long ago, in july of 1982. almost 40 years ago now. these are pictures from our family trip when i started to write the book i had my father go into the garage, dig out the slides from that trip. i sent them off to be converted to jpegs. it was great fun to look at them when they arrived. this family vacation was pretty incredible. yellowstone is really our first stop we went there from glacier, calgary, came all the way back around. over the course of two weeks. these family trips, we started taking these two-week summer vacations. they really shaped me as a historian of american landscapes. so, here we have the results of the poll. 96% of you have been there. that is amazing. that is a really large number. even today, yellowstone is quite hard to get to. you really have to try. you can't just be wandering by on the way to somewhere else. that is really great. it looks like an even share of people who went as children, went as adults, it looks like about a third of you have been in the past five years. that's great, that's great. this is my first trip, my second trip was just this past september. i was supposed to go in may of 2020 for my first research trip for the book. of course, the pandemic skuddled those planned. this was really a bummer for me, i like to go to the places that i study and that i research, i like to be in the landscape, not necessarily for sense of history, to actually see the landscape and experience it as people in the past may have experienced it. even though, of course, there has been natural change over time, it is not exactly the same. i like to be there so i can understand what the people saw and experienced. these family trips were really important to me too. i learn to love history. finding us on maps bound into the road atlas, if there are people who remember that. i love a good road atlas. tracking us as we drove along. it really isn't a surprise that when i became a historian, i was really drawn to environmental history, to landscape studies. when i really started thinking about yellowstone, when i was writing the three cornered war. that was my previous book. there is a protagonist in that book who is a surveyor general of new mexico territory, a guy named john clark, a friend of lincoln's, a republican appointee in the 1860s. this led me to some background research in the history of surveying in america. i ran across that hayden expedition of 1871. i had actually studied it in graduate school, in a class in our history. we'll see why in a little bit in the talk, why that would have been something that i would have studied in that context. i realized, this was about 2018, i realize we're coming up on the 150th anniversary of both the expedition and the passage of the yellowstone act. which was a direct result of that expedition. for historians, i think for a lot of us, anniversaries are really important moments for us to really take stock of events, of places, why events occur, why places became important and the way that they did. how they're important today. really, reckon with that. the place that these places hold in our society. that was an important element. i started to look around and see what had been written on hayden's expedition. a lot of great books have been written about it. written about that survey, written about the other great surveys that were out at the time. which i will talk about in a second. a lot of great books have also been published about the long history of yellowstone. marjorie hands magisterial two volume history. i i know i said the sources for you to look at, there is a full bibliography in the book itself. there's a whole list of sources that you can look at, primary documents, and also secondary sources that can give you a better sense of this period. it really surprise me that nobody had looked in-depth at the effort to explore and preserve yellowstone in its historical context. i also realized, this survey, the passage of the yellowstone act are happening in 1871 and 72. which are right in the middle of reconstruction. which is not a period that we think of as taking place in the west, having anything to do with the west. that became really interesting to me. so, i just written a book that looked at the civil war from a really unexpected place, the far west. i began to think, well, when i look at reconstruction from yellowstone? when i come to know reconstruction differently? when i learned something new about it by looking at it from the geyser basin, the lower falls, the grand prismadic spring, as in the slide. as you have been there. when i learned something new about yellowstone itself by thinking about it in the context of reconstruction? first, before i get to the nitty-gritty of hayden and his expedition, i wanted to give you a background in reconstruction history. this is a period that's getting a little more attention today. really, i know when i was in school, we kind of went through it really quickly on the way from the civil war to the gilded age. we didn't really study it a lot in-depth. it really is an important, and formative moment in our nation's history. it deserves more attention. after the civil war, there are many challenges facing the u.s. government, all americans. how does a nation recover from four years of violent conflict? just incalculable loss of life, of farms, of cities, of railroads. how do four million people transition from a life of enslavement to a life of freedom? there were so many challenges, there was economic challenges, political challenges, of course, cultural challenges in this moment. one of the challenges of course was stabilizing the national economy in the south. many of the factories, the railroads had been destroyed. they had to be rebuilt. this required really northern capital investment. most of the base of southern capital from before the war, which constituted, which was constituted by enslaved human beings, did not exist anymore. emancipation ended free labor in agriculture. there was a whole turn in that context to share cropping, a whole system of indebtedness that really sustained cycles of poverty for black southerners, from might southerners in the years after the war. and for the years to come. that north was in a little better shape, as was the west. manufacturing and agriculture had really boomed during the war, but still did not regain the prewar case of out put until the mid 18 70s so there was that big challenge of how do we get the economy back on track and how do we get people into professions and earning money and supporting their families again after the destructive civil war? another challenge was how to bring the former confederate states back into the union. the reconstruction congress had passed a series of laws requiring revamped state constitutions for reentry. there's a states had to pass depending on where they were applying to return, the 13th, the 14th, and ultimately the 15th amendments. each state had to hold free and fair elections to bring their new representatives to washington d. c. to be seated in congress. and by 1870, this process was mostly complete. all the former confederate states where back in the union, they had seated members in congress, majority of them were republicans. because former confederates who were often democrats were not allowed to hold office during this period. all of these programs faced resistance from a lot of different areas from andrew johnson, who had taken over the presidency after the assassination of abraham lincoln. he expressed his objections pretty early on and his desire to implement a kind of kinder and gentler reconstruction in the south. he used his veto power to try to derail radical reconstruction projects, and he did not succeed. in his resistance, led to his impeachment trial in the spring of 1868. there was also widespread resistance from many white southerners who almost immediately upon their return from the battlefields and the return to peace tried to reassert their power over black americans through the passage of black codes, which restricted behavior and labor, and other repressive measures, as well as a vigilante violence through organizations like the ku klux klan, which really emerged in a strong way in 1868 and the years afterward. there's also a great deal of resistance from democrats from across the nation. it's important to remember that in this period democrats and republicans had to sort of opposite ideologies as they have today. democrats were opposed to the republican party's use of federal power to secure black rights, although they were more amenable to using this power to expand white settlement into the west, and we'll get into more of that later. so things began to change a little bit when ulysses s grant was elected in 1868. grant had been a career military man who quit the army in the years before the civil war, floundered around a bit, trying to find his way before rejoining the military during the civil war, and here he found his real talent, which was fighting military campaigns and leading men into battle. after the war he served as the general of the armies for johnson, profoundly disagreed with johnson on most matters involving reconstruction, and really wanted to honor abraham lincoln, who was a friend of his, and who's vision for the future of the south, for black equality and black voting, he did support. he also wanted to honor the sacrifice of so many u.s. soldiers who had fought for the union, you know, who he had led to battle and who had died under his watch. he was having none of it from the white southerners. he had very little tolerance for them, very little sympathy for them. he saw their resistance to federal measures and to the 14th and 15th amendments as a renewed rebellion against the federal government. and that shaped, really, his response. but he was elected with this campaign slogan, which you can see on this commemorative handkerchief ear, let us have peace. and he really did want to bring the south back into the nation, but he did want to ensure that all the citizens of the south were equal in that effort. he also meant let us have peace to apply to the west. so this was an interesting, sort of, two-pronged approach that he and his administration took, supported by congress during this period. you know, one big question for grant was how to provide and protect civil rights for more than 4 million freed people across the south, how to make sure that states where protecting their citizens and protecting their 14th and 15th amendment rights. particularly the 14th amendment, which was passed in june of 1866, ratified in 1868, and affirming the citizenship status and civil rights of all people born or naturalized in the united states. there was a qualifier to it though that becomes important during this period. we have a parenthetical to it that says, except indians untaxed. and that's the quote. and that is an important omission, because most white americans, including ulysses s grant, did not believe that native people were citizens or really could be citizens if they continued to live in their traditional ways. so, in this moment, there is interest in both the south and the west, and to this and, grant made two very interesting and progressive appointments in his first term in. the first was the appointment of ely parker as commissioner of indian affairs. some of you may be familiar with parker, if you know a fair bit about the civil war. he was on grant's staff. he is a seneca man of great education and experience, had come to know grant in galina before the war, and grant really appreciated his intelligence and also his penmanship. he was the one who wrote out the surrender documents for grant and lee at appomattox so he really wanted to bring ely parker into the bureau of indian affairs and he did so in 1869. he also appointed amos akerman as his attorney general. akerman was a really interesting figure. he was a georgian, he was a former confederate officer, but he was a man who having returned from the war actually embraced radical reconstruction, believed that the south needed to kind of move into the future and provide equality for all citizens, and he came into the grant administration in 1870. so both grant and congresswoman decisions during this period to exert federal power in the south and the west, helped by the ely parker and amos akerman. in the south, akerman directed a newly created a department of justice effort to prosecute the ku klux klan in south carolina in the fall of 1871. and he really encouraged grant toward taking various strong action, particularly in south carolina, where kkk violence was very bad, the worst of the nation. so in october of 1871, with the power given to him by the kkk act, passed by the congress in the spring, grant suspended the rite of habeas corpus in multiple counties in south carolina so that officials could arrest clan members immediately and keep them in jail until they were prosecuted. and from november 1871 to april 1872, u.s. attorneys tried hundreds of clan members, charging them with conspiracy to violate the 14th and 15th amendment rights of black southerners, most of these cases were successful, and many clan members were sent to jail. now, i should note that most of these members where the rank and file. the leadership of the kkk, the minute that grant started making noise about potential arrests, fled the country or fled the state, and they could not be found and arrested. so, the kkk trials were really a high water mark for republicans and for the federal government. during reconstruction, and during the 19th century, in asserting federal supremacy to really protect the rights of the nation's most vulnerable citizens. black americans would not receive this kind of protection from the federal government again until the 1960s. in the west, ely parker and sort of an interesting vision for the native citizenship and representation that he shared with grant and sort of pushed him to embrace, and grant was pretty amenable. parker was and asimilationist, which meant that he argued for the abandonment of indigenous traditions and the embrace of christianity, english language, individual land ownership and other workers of american civilization. but he also imagined gathering indigenous peoples into one or two large reservations that would become territories and is then admitted to the union as states so that indigenous peoples would have consistent representation in congress. this was a completely novel idea at the time and i think in the years since then as well. grant was on board and so until parker resigned in the summer of 1871 and kind of stopped pushing him toward this goal. there was no congressional support among republicans or democrats for this vision, for ely parker himself the. 14 amendment, as i noted before, denied the rights of citizenship to most native peoples during this period, and it really was at this point in the early 1870s that federal indian policy began to shift. in march of 1871, congress inserted a rider into an indian appropriations act basically stating that there would be no more treaties made between the federal government and native nations, that congress would abide by the treaty's already made up to that point, particularly the fort and there will be treaty, which was a very big treaty of 1868. however, from this point forward, they would no longer actually establish treaty relations, which meant that they would no longer recognize native sovereignty. they would try to make peace agreements, but from this point forward, the government would use military force as a first resort instead of a second or third resort, and this is a moment where we really see u. s. army campaigns against native peoples start to escalate in order to pave the way in the west for white settlement. the goal was to force native peoples on to reservations and then reduce the size of those reservations to sell the remaining land off to white settlers. so there were other national projects that were underway at this time that had this same goal, to establish white settlers in the west and bring the west more fully into the union, politically, economically, and culturally. one of those was the transcontinental railroad, which was actually a civil war action that was passed in 1862, completed in 1869, and you could see this very famous photo here of the moment when the two lines which were being built from either end, the west and the east, connected in utah. and this was seen as a grand technological achievement that would unite the nation. americans had been dreaming about a transcontinental line since the 18 40s and saw it as the basis for american manifest destiny. also included in this vision where the great surveys of the late 18 60s and early 1870s. now, the federal government had been launching the surveys of its land since its creation in the 18th century, and especially after lewis and clark's expedition to the pacific in 1804, through 1806. many of these early survey teams were led by u.s. military officials and there was a turn in the 1850s, the late 1850s, after the great land sessions of america's war of conquest in mexico and then after the civil war to a civilian leadership of surveys with military protection. so surveyers in this time period were really kind of freelance operators and they went every year in the winter to congress and lobby them for money to take teams out in the spring and summer. they were instructed to evaluate the lands from the pacific to the missouri river, and to determine their potential worth for agriculture, for ranching, for mining and other forms of development. and where they returned, they had to report everything that they had found along these lines, produce maps, and publish a report for the federal government. so these surveys were really meant as hundreds of conquest, and the white settlement of the best. there were not in this moment focused on land preservation. but at this time, americans were really searching for iconic landscapes to feel good about the country and to convince them of the country's exceptionalism. and i think this is quite a common instinct, especially either in the midst or in the wake of, kind of, very chaotic and destructive moments in our american history. i was writing about this very issue just as the mars perseverance project was happening and the rover landed successfully on mars in february of 2021 and i felt like i was it was a similar situation, you know it. the middle of the pandemic, we're just having a terrible time, and here is this amazing scientific achievement, here is a moment where people have engaged in this pursuit that actually succeeded and now we have a rover on mars and i just remember feeling really uplifted by that. and americans were searching for that feeling in this moment. this is the era that are producing content for middle class americans. helping them to understand the country, to feel good about it. this is also the era of the great american landscape painters. albert beerstot, frederik andrew church, we will talk about thomas moran and a minute. producing these really huge landscape paintings of the american west, of niagara falls, helping to create a sense that america was really nature's -- america didn't have the ruins of european civilization to show its long, long history. but america had niagara and yosemite. and now yellowstone. amazing natural wonders that prove that the united states had a long and distinguished history. this was the contexts on which ferdinand hayden organized his scientific expedition to yellowstone. here is a photograph of him here, born into poverty, a child of divorce. unlike many scientist of the period who came from a elite family, hayden led a hard life. it made him really scrappy. he was ambitious, he was competitive, sometimes so much so that his colleagues really came to dislike him. his family figured out he was really smart and managed to send him to oberlin college. that is where he discovered a love of science in the early 18 50s. he also discovered that he had a talent for collecting and identifying fossils. this was really interesting to me, that you would have such a talent. apparently, it is quite hard to go and look at a rocky outcropping, spot fossils in it, and immediately understand how significant they are to geologists. in answering some of the most important questions of the day, which were about how old the earth really was. and how it was evolved. the fossil record was helping scientists in this moment to determine that. hayden finally had a talent for. it he really relish the idea of being in on all of these conversations about the earth and its evolution. he joined several military led expeditions in the 1850s and 1860s, finally lead his own survey as a civilian in 1867 for the new state of nebraska. he began to envision for himself not just a feature as a collector of specimens, but a future as a scientist explorer. perhaps, he hoped, one of the most prominent and most famous scientific explorers in america. so in the early phase of his career hayden's mentor was spencer fullerton baird, we see here. the assistant secretary of the smithsonian institution. an 1848, spencer baird was the first recipient of a smithsonian grant for the purpose of exploration and natural history collecting. he took a trip in southern pennsylvania. he was then appointed in 1850 to be assistant secretary. four years after the smithsonian's establishment. he brought with him to entire railroad cars of specimens, including 4000 bird skins that he had collected himself during his early life. this served as the basis of the smithsonian's collections in this early period. he was a tremendous logistical manager and networker. his greatest talent was identifying and collecting scientists. hayden had written to baird in 1853, very early on in his career, asking for advice and for funding for a fossil collecting trip to the upper missouri river badlands, which geologist were already calling the bone yard for it's amazing collection of fossils and distribution across the fossil record. these of course were lakota lands. we will talk about that a little bit later. spencer baird wrote him back immediately, sent him some money and some advice about how to collect and pack fossils. of course, in return asked for several of the specimens for the smithsonian's collections. this began a multi decade friendship and partnership, hayden was establishing himself as a scientist during this period in the 1850s and 60s. baird was establishing the mid smithsonian as a world-class scientific institution. both men took a little bit of time off during the civil war. hayden didn't really want to go to war, but sort of was forced into it in 1862. and served as a physician because he had a medical degree. that's how you actually did the course work that would enable you to become a geologist during this period of time. he went off to the war, came back in 1865. and then started, as i noted, to lead surveys on his own. at this point, yellowstone really was one of the only unmapped places in the nation. as i noted before, when we had the poll, yellowstone is hard to get to now. it was even harder to get to then, especially with 1869 with the completion of the transcontinental railroad, there were some amateur explorers who were getting in there though. there had been some scouts and some trappers who had gone into yellowstone and came out with stories, exploding geysers, bubbling streams, mud volcanoes, cliffs made of glass, nobody believed them. scouts and trappers were known to be liars. they were always telling tall tales around the fire. who is going to believe them? the white population of montana was growing during this period. there were some amateurs from montana who decided that they wanted to go check out yellowstone for themselves to see if these rumors were true. there was one small group that went in 1869. then another more prominent and more famous group in 1870 led by nathanael langford, who was official turned montana booster who came to montana during the gold rush 1863. now brought together a group of man who helped positions in montana's territorial government. who are about to rotate out. they gather together a team, got a military escort from the second calvary, posted for ellis and bozeman and entered yellowstone basin in the summer of 1870. this expedition was notable for producing two very prominent articles that were published in springer's monthly. also a lecture tour by langford. hayden actually saw langford's talk in washington d. c. in the winter of 71-72. this is what convinced him he needed to get to yellowstone right away. he wanted to keep it out of the hands of amateurs. he wanted to claim it for science and he wanted to go, he did not want to miss the chance to make his mark and claim yellowstone for professional scientists and for the nation. he began to lobby congress for funding in the late winter early spring of 1871. they gave him $40,000. which is a lot of money, it is close to, in today's money, about 1 million dollars to take a group, a rather large group, a larger team than hayden had ever brought together before and to get them to yellowstone and back in the summer of 1871. the goal was to explore yellowstone. not to preserve it, this was never part of hayden's plan from the beginning. he never even really thought about it until later. he was supposed to, as most surveys were, to evaluate yellowstone for development. hayden's personal goal also is to establish himself as the nation's foremost explore scientists. really make his reputation in yellowstone. spencer baird encouraged him in this. he thought that yellowstone would be the perfect place for hayden to do this. any kind a bigger survey would just be more general and not as interesting. yellowstone was where he would make his mark. as i noted on march 3rd, congress appropriated the $40,000. between that point and may, hayden was recruiting scientists and organizing his supplies with the help of spencer baird. and the smithsonian coffers, basically baird was also suggesting scientist to him. he very forcefully suggested that hate and take a young man in rhetoric he was he was an ornithologist who baird believed in. hayden regretted that choice, he did not like hughes and never used him again. like the man who had given him money, he was very much invested in making spencer baird happy. he took hues along. he also -- who are writing to try to join the expedition, ended up with a fairly large scientific team. also a group of people i called in the book, the political boys, the sons of congressman, you needed on his side. all these people gather together and late may and omaha, nebraska. where they boarded union pacific trains to august, in utah. they made a pit stop in cheyenne, wyoming. they gathered supplies, most notably horses. and then made their way west. they spent a little bit of time in utah exploring haugen, exploring salt lake city, where they also got supplies. salt lake city was a very important stop on the major road between california and colorado. they're also quite interested in what they would've considered the more curious aspects of salt lake city. its founding in mormonism, brigham young, it's presidents he spent a lot of time looking around their. they left on june 10th. for the real start of the expedition. moving northward along a stage road from of denver but antenna, there they had wagons, they had horses with them bringing all their supplies. by july 13th, they arrived at fort ellis in montana, just outside of bozeman. where they picked up their second calvary escort. by july 15th, the rat bottler's ranch, which was a ranting place run by german brothers in the yellowstone river valley. if you have one gone to bozeman, driven to yellowstone that way, driven through that enters, you have driven by bottler's ranch road. which is the sight of that former ranch right there on the yellowstone river. you set off for yellowstone. they follow the river down. to where it meets the gardener. they really did only take horses and mules with them, they knew from reports that they weren't going to be able to get any wagons through any of the narrow canyons into yellowstone. they really jumped off on july 20th, 1871. and spent a couple of months exploring the park. here is a map, you can see them at the very top of the map coming down along the yellowstone river, making a diversion up the gardener a little ways, where they saw for the first time what they called the white mountain. which we now call, mammoth hot springs. langford's team had not discovered this particular feature of yellowstone's great geothermal basins. hayden really consider that this was an iconic moment in his survey. he emphasized it a lot in all of his written reports. he wanted to claim it as his own discovery. even though right at the base along the gardner river, they actually ran into some minors who are already taking the waters for various illnesses. clearly, they were not the first ones there. of course, indigenous peoples had been there for thousands of years. hayden's expedition could not have happened without a couple of things, the transcontinental railroad, supply depots, cities and towns, support from the u.s. military and then also the trails of the indigenous peoples throughout the basin who had been using yellowstone as a thoroughfare, as a camping site, and a hunting ground for thousands of years. as they're moving along, hayden is noting in his reports and writing later that they were the first ones to see this. they were jumping off into the wilderness. and then he would just very unironically say, and then we followed the path on the side of the structure up to the top of the white mountain. clearly, people had been there before. had been there many times before to pound out pathways. they basically followed paths that had been laid out in this counter clockwise route, where they came down, came along the river, ended up at the lower falls, the upper falls of the yellowstone, climbed mount washburn, what they called mount washburn, went to yellowstone lake, when they're a little bit animated big diversion to the west to go see the geyser basins. and they decided they really needed to get back, headed to fort ellis, in bozeman and then [inaudible] went by the beginning of september. because i don't know if those of you have been to yellowstone, what time of year you went, but he knew, hayden knew from reports that the big snow storms we're going to start rolling in in early september. and in fact, when i went, when my husband and i went just this last kind of late september, to yellowstone, we did get snowed on during that trip. so that still happens. for hayden it would have been disaster, his men would have been caught out with not many supplies and totally exposed to the elements. so he needed to get his team out of there as quickly as possible, and to have a successful survey. and they really did, they make a really complete survey of most of the features that we know and recognize in yellowstone. most importantly, he was able to really get a sense of the geothermal regions. and even though the lower falls would become, kind of, the most spectacular visual iconic reference for yellowstone, after the survey, but it was the geothermal regions that saved it as a national park. and hayden understood this. hayden knew once he saw that the lower and the upper geyser basins, once he saw old faithful, which had already been named, by the way, in that 1870 survey, he knew that this place was special. he knew it was iconic and he knew it was unique in all the world. because you know, scientists had already kind of discovered and explored a little bit the icelandic geysers and also some geyser basins in new zealand, but they were nothing compared to this in terms of the size and the number of features and the diversity of features. so it was really kind of incredible, you know, a couple of minutes left the survey fairly early due to health reasons, but the survey proceeded without a hitch and when hayden wrote to spencer baird at the end of it he almost couldn't busy belief is like that it had gone so very well. and currently, that was due to hayden's talents. he was an excellent scientist but he was also even, more so, a really great and leader of the survey. he allowed the men to create their own collecting teams, he give them instructions about collecting, and he expected them to work hard you. made it pretty clear to the political boys that if they did not pull their weight they would be jettisoned from the survey. he really didn't crack down on them. he gave them a lot of lead and a lot of leeway. and they ended up collecting just a huge amount of specimens, 45 boxes, that they sent back to the smithsonian institution for analysis and collection. he was also quite a good writer. he understood the power of language, of travel narratives in particular, in shaping the way people understand science. so he really played a very interesting role in the development of the genre of popular science writing. and you can see here i've included the title page from his scribner's monthly piece about the hayden expedition's journeys into the yellowstone. this illustration of course is based on thomas moran's very famous paintings that will talk about in a minute. but these peace, and i included a link in it to the sheet that you got, because it is really a remarkable piece of writing, kind of takes your long on their journey and explains the science to you in very accessible language. so his job, he had many things to right after he got back from the yellowstone he. was writing his piece for scribner's, was writing more technical piece for a scientific journal, and he was also writing a huge report, many hundreds of pages, for congress. so he had a lot on his plate here. it's also sending a specimens for scientists to analyze so that they would say to these reports, trying to ride herd, kind of, on everyone. he understood in this moment he actually asked winds william henry jackson to come back with him, a photographer, to help to organize the images for the report. because he knew not only was the written word important, but visual images were vital to conveying the meaning of a science in this period and the meaning and the significance of landscapes. so i just mentioned william henry jackson. this is a self portrait of his here on the left, and then two of his images from the survey, the top of bottler's ranch so you can see the extent of that infrastructure there along the yellowstone river. and then his iconic photo, which i'm sure you have seen, of the white mountain, or mammoth hot springs. that's actually thomas moran their, who is posing on the structure itself, which seems a little dangerous to us now. of course we're not allowed to clamber on over there and i wonder how close we came to losing moran into the depths of the white mountain. we would have lost one of the most amazing landscape painters in our country's history. but william henry jackson and hayden developed a very close relationship. jackson had grown up in vermont, he took to photography just as hayden had taken to fossil hunting. he went west with a wagon train in the late 18 60s, after the civil war, after serving in the civil war. then he started a photographic gallery and studio in omaha, nebraska. he got a big commission in 1869, which was to take photographs along the union pacific line, and it was when he was engaging in that project in cheyenne, wyoming, that he met ferdinand hayden in a brothel. which was an encounter that he remembered vividly, but hayden never wrote about, and you can imagine why. but the two of them met then, became friends when he didn't recruited him for an 1870 survey he was leading to southern wyoming, and just really loved jackson's photographs. felt like he had a great sense of place, that he knew where to place the camera, that he understood how to create a mobile studio, pack it on to the back of a buell, and actually, you know, come through with intact and glass negatives. in this time, it was pretty extraordinary. so he came along, and he really had an important role to play because hate and felt, people during this period really believed that photographs conveyed reality. you know, now we know, with instagram and everything, that you can manipulate photographs and i can tell whatever story that you want them to tell. but in this period, photography was still relatively new, had burst on to the scene most fully during the civil war, although it had been invented before that, and in this time the photographs really served as evidence that all of these features were here. i mean, who's going to believe descriptions of the white mountain without this visual image here that perfectly represented it? you know, but they were also proof that he didn't have been there, and that the team had been there and then had come back with these images. so hayden understood the power of these here. wanted jackson with him for the creation of the congressional report and, he also used a lot of his image a bit later to lobby congress for the passage of the yellowstone act. also along although not at hayden's invitation was thomas moran. a landscape painter whose family had immigrated from england before the civil war. was moran born there, came to the united states, grew up in philadelphia, in a family of artists, showed his talent for landscape painting very early on, but was just emerging at a major painter on the scene in 1871. he was also working as an illustrator for scribner's magazine and had created the woodcut illustrations for nathanael langford's yellowstone account that was published in 1871. so, interestingly, had already envisioned yellowstone before he had actually gone there. in the summer of 1871, he was recruited by jay cooke, an investment banker who had an interest in the northern pacific railroad and wanted yellowstone documented for reasons all talk about in a second. he helped to fund thomas's trip as did scribner's and moran really wanted to render yellowstone in full color because of course this is the advantage that painting has over photography. jacksons photographs can give you a really good sense of the rich detail you, know the shop lines of all of these elements of yellowstone to missing natural structures, but moran could give you the color, right? here are two of his water color sketches that he made. he made both pencil sketches and water colors, kind of in the moment. and then he went back after the survey to produce versions of some of these illinois and some of them that would go directly to jay cooke tell pay him back. so moran was captivated by some of the sites in yellowstone, particularly the view of the lower falls from the canyon rim. he and jackson spent several days on the rim sketching and taking photographs, and moran even was so excited to start on this painting, which he called the big picture, that he returned home early from the expedition to get to his studio in newark, new jersey, and get started on what became this just eight by 12 foot, humongous image of the lower falls of the yellowstone. again, probably the most iconic image of yellowstone national park. he finished it in late april of 1872, he exhibited it in new york city to great fanfare and, you know, the critics really loved the painting, they especially loved the color that he achieved with the gold along the sides of the canyon. and for those, you guys have been there, you have seen this exact scene and in fact the national park has a great kind of we finding placard that shows you the painting, kind of, right as you were looking at the scene itself, which is kind of a wonderful sort of layering. in the summer of, in the spring and summer of 1872, moran was lobbying members of the library committee who were the ones who purchased books and artworks for the library of congress and he was lobbying them to buy grand canyon of the yellowstone. and he really wanted them to buy it for $10,000 and the reason that he wanted that sum is that the most expensive painting ever sold in the united states by an american pitcher had been frederick edmund churches niagara which sold for $10,000. so he wanted to match that or get more than that. but he got 10,000 which was an amazing amount of money and the painting after it was sold went on a bit of a tour of the east coast, was shown in the smithsonian along side some of george catlin's native paintings that he had executed in the 1830s and 40s, and then by the fall of 1872, it was hanging in the halls of congress. both jackson and's marine's armor helped to make the case for the yellowstone act. he did actually create a little exhibit in the rotunda while he was a login lobbying for the others don't act. that included some of jackson's photos and some of moran's sketches and also mineral specimens, fossil specimens, and other items from the expedition. so speaking of the yellowstone act, this was any kind of amazing moment in the winter of 1871, and 1872. there had been ideas about parks, obviously, and about natural spaces that belonged to the people. the colonies had comments for centuries, but the idea that people needed green spaces where they could go and sort of, as you would say, either recreate or re-create themselves, right? wasn't idea that really emerged in the context of industrialization. rural cemeteries and then city parks began to provide these spaces in the 1830s and 1840s. in 1832, congress actually did pass and andrew jackson signed legislation setting aside lands at arkansas hot springs as a federal reservation. so historians of conservation usually point to that as kind of this first moment where the government is taking control of the landscape for the people. in 1884, george catlin, who had been a trip to the missouri river suggested keeping all the lands from there to the pacific as a permanent national park that was not an idea that was widespread or had been taken up in any sort of way. the department of the interior was created in 1849, began to fund geological in geographic surveys, also took over the general land office, which surveillance of public lands. so their work was not really about preservation of conservation in this moment. it's encompassed really all of potential land uses. so the real precedent for the yellowstone act was the yosemite act of 1864. another wartime measure that gave the lands of yosemite and mariposa grove to the state of california to manage for the benefit of the people for public use, resort, and recreation. the yellowstone act, though, as imagined, was a different kind of land taking. here, federal government was suggesting that they would take land from the territories and give it to the department of the interior to manage. and this was a new idea and this was a precedent setting idea because as you will see, some people had problems with this kind of idea as opposed to the idea of the yosemite act. when meghan returned to the yellowstone, he received a note from the pr man for jay cook of the northern pacific railroad, an investment banker who was raising money for the northern pacific. whose tracks, he hoped, would run just north of the yellowstone basin. the letters suggested that hayden advocated for the creation of the national park in his piece for scribners and his report to congress. hayden had not lob this idea, he had not even thought of it before this point. immediately he took it up. he understood how important it would be. he understood how amazing would be for scientists to have this land preserved for the nation. and to keep it out of private hands. in november and december, he began to lobby, along with his scientific team, with members of congress to pass a yellowstone act. along with a group of montana boosters. also jay koch and his brother henry who knew ulysses s grant personally and got him on the side of the bill. it was introduced in both the senate and the house on december 18th. it defined the boundaries of a new national park at that time. around 1700 square miles, which is about half as large as it is now. suggested taking those lands from wyoming and idaho and montana. again, giving those lands to the department of the interior for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. really creating this democratic landscape of tourism which was a new idea. the bill was sent to each bodies committee on public lands for review and recommendation. hayden consulted with those committees and help them to write their very positive reports. on january 30th, 1872, the senate debated, they had two major issues, one was federal overreach this was the contentious issue. it brought up about the american civil war. it was not resolved in that conflict. again, the only congressional precedent was the federal government giving land to a state. democrats were very especially in the context of reconstruction in a period of american history with the federal government exerted itself in unprecedented ways to protect the rights of citizens and provide things for them republicans, of course, most of them although a group of moderate republicans started to voice their opposition to this federal overreach as well, but most of them had no problem with us, most of their party platform was federal supremacy and they were interested in supporting and defending it the second objection was that such an action would violate white settler rights which had been affirmed most recently in the 1862 homestead act and was a central component of the american dream. that white americans had the right to take or buy whatever lands they wanted, to farm, ranch, or mine. both democrats and republicans, most of them from the midwest and the west upheld settler rights. they called upon this long tradition. but, this objection was not strong enough in the senate to derail the bell. we do not know what the senate vote actually was, there was not a roll call. we cannot be sure who voted, or in what way but the measure passed. by all reports, easily. although very likely it was not unanimous. it's a book about a month for the house to really bring up the bill for the debate. there were the same concerns expressed their as had been expressed in the senate. and, also, there was an interesting moment where a republican representative from nebraska named john taft asked about lakota land claims in the area. and whether or not yellowstone was encompassed in their territory laid out in the 1868 fort laramie treaty. for the most part this concern was completely dismissed, particularly by henry dawes, a massachusetts congressman who would later author the 1887 severalty act that took millions of acres of negotiated tree lands away from indigenous nations to sell to white americans, what he said was to taft was the indians can no more live there than they can on the precipitous sides of the yosemite valley. dogs had always supported the surveys, he was one of the people that lobby directly, he was the most powerful man in the house and his son had joined hayden in yellowstone, it was one of the political boys. so, on that day, february 27th the vote was called, 89% of republicans voted yes on the yellowstone act, 70% of democrats voted no, so this was not unanimous, clearly. they ones who were the outliers, there was no real regional breakdown, people were voting for and against from all different regions. it was just breaking down, i think on those issues of white settler rights and federal overreach, the republicans drawn majority in the house meant that the yellowstone act, that was bipartisan and certainly not unanimous had bad past. on march 1st 1861 the bill landed on the presidents task and he signed it without any fanfare. most newspapers reported on it, reported on his passage were pretty much positive about it, as we can say in this clip from the new york herald which was often taken and reprinted in newspapers across the nation. they saw it as something that was good for the country, good for summer travelers, that it was a wonderful place that the united states need to keep and protect, and, they saw the national park movement as really something that could only happen in america, as some of them expressed directly. so, the passage of the bill was great news for jay cook, who had lobbied for it, cook, along with hayden is one of the major protagonists of my book, he grew up in ohio and started working as a clerk in a bank while still in his teams he was quick with numbers, he really grasp the complexities of business and banking, and by the civil war he had opened up his own investment bank called jay cook and company. he made his reputation and his fortune during the civil war selling war bonds to support the u.s. government and the union army efforts and in the years afterwards he was really casting about for a project that would give him that same sense of patriotism that would give him the sense of purpose, that would also make him money, and when he came upon was the northern pacific railroad which was a national project that was intended to be the second constant trench will line, he was actually called the centennial line and was supposed to be finished in 1876 to celebrate the nations anniversary. his brother, henry, believe that if they could pull this off, northern pacific would be, quote the grandest achievement of their lives. cook took control of fundraising for the northern pacific in 1870, but, from the start it was really a disaster, railroads were and are volatile investments, nobody wanted a piece of it in the u.s. or in europe, but he was determined, he was obstinate, he thought that with enough advertising and promotion the northern pacific could build its track and be a success, he saw hayden's yellowstone exposition and the national park that yellowstone became as a boon to his project. he was wrong about that. he did not anticipate that another figure of the period would be working against him in the region. this is just, sorry i should have gone to this slide, these are two examples of the way that koch was using advertising in newspapers to really generate some enthusiasm and bond sales for the northern pacific in 1871. now, the man standing in his way was sitting bowl the lakota chief born in the 1830s a lonely upper missouri river to a family of war chiefs and community leaders, sitting ball was a member of the -- band of the lakota. who were, themselves, one part of the seven counsel fires known at the time as the sioux. he grew up to be a widely respected leader of them establishing himself by the 18 50s and 60s and fights not only against the lakota's to divisional energies, but also in fights against u.s. soldiers. he began to appear in u.s. official documents in the late 18 60s as indian agents and army officers and several officials were beginning to take notes of his leadership, and his growing power during this period he consistently asserted his peoples rights to their homelands along the yellowstone river valley and their sovereignty as a people in both diplomacy, and in violent action against white americans who are trying to cross the code of lance sitting bull clumps to clash with the northern pacific railroad surveyors who wanted to lay track right through his country, which extended in this period from the missouri river to the yellowstone basin, in the fall of 1871 his people pushed a group of surveyors out of the yellowstone family valley and back to missouri and, in the summer of 1870 to the lakota of two battles against u.s. troops that were protecting northern pacific surveyors moving from both the missouri river and the east and also in the west from boozman and fort alice. in august, on the 14th and the 22nd, they fought the battle of arrow creek and the bottle of o'fallon creek, and, once again sitting bulks exceeded in pushing the surveyors out and delaying the northern pacific railroad project the next year in june of 1873 he met george armstrong customer for the first time. as that officer led a northern pacific expedition let west along the yellowstone there was another fight and the americans, once again, retreated. really, what i came to say about these moments is that they are very much leading the lakota and the u.s. army to a direct path to greasy grass in 1876. it is really here, in the defense of his homelands along the yellowstone river that sitting bull starts on that road that victory that they lakota had and they're cheyenne and aramco allies at little bighorn was tremendous but it also brought the full weight of the u.s. army down on the lakota afterward. ulysses s grant ordered and was fully in support of those campaigns many lakota surrendered others followed sitting bowl to canada in the moment, though, their actions delayed and finally scuttle the northern pacific railroads plans, brought about the panic and depression of 1873 which is an interesting moment because jay cook had been so obsessed with this plan that he had actually loaned money from his own investment bank to the northern pacific and, in september of 1873 in the middle of a very unstable chaotic economy his investors came calling and he had no money to give them. his bank closed and launched the panic and depression lakota actions also presented tourist traffic and scientific investigations of the yellowstone after 1873, until after 1877 the lakota were not the only tribal nations laying claim to yellowstone. i want to be sure to show you this map of the major groups that were moving in and around this area and using yellowstone to move back and forth not only to get at the great bison herds of southern wyoming and nebraska, but, also to get at and fight one another in their traditional battles these indigenous groups as i noted before had been using yellowstone their paths were already there, going by all the features they knew all about them. they also hunted and fished within yellowstone itself explorers lake painting not only follow their paths but found their campsites. so you know, we have this proof that these communities were moving through and using yellowstone and some interesting ways. and had been stewards of this land for thousands of years. i just wanted to know that during this 150th anniversary year, the officials at yellowstone national park are making a concerted effort to highlight these indigenous histories of yellowstone and really bring in indigenous voices to the park itself, not only in a series of displays but also in a native history center, so i am really hopeful that people moving through the park and expecting to only see natural wonders are going to see a little bit more of its history moving forward. so i came of all of this? the passage of the yellowstone acts? well, it's like a say was not immediate, congress did not provide much funding for infrastructure for the first decade, it was still difficult to get to and still 1883, when the northern pacific line was finally completed. up until that point yellowstone only had about 5002 or so visitors a year. congress did not pass major legislation until 1890 when they once again had control of all of the branches of government, a republican president and benjamin harrison and they control the house and the senate. in that year they created yosemite, sequoia, and general grant national parks, but then there was another gap. never like until teddy roosevelt, during his presidency, really became the iconic conservation presidents. using the 1906 antiquities act which gave him the power to create executive action to really make proclamations that any site of public interest could be a national monument. and there has president say they created another five national parks including one in colorado. what is also interesting is that yellowstone's preservation led to the creation of one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems in the world. this area of which yellowstone is the center, it is a very large area in montana, idaho, and parts of wyoming, has given scientists a huge laboratory for experiments studies, and a group of scientists just did a climate study, they published that report in july of 2021, as you might expect the news is not good but, the preservation of yellowstone has allowed scientists to actually study and bring this important information to us, and ultimately, of course yellowstone did set the precedent for the creation of national parks and their management under the federal government, unfortunately it also set a precedent for native land dispossession in this context. just to wrap up, here, my book tells all of these stories of the exploration and preservation of this iconic landscape through the experiences of hate and, sitting bull, cook, and some of the other figures i have mentioned here tonight, through them and looking at reconstruction in yellowstone, and yellowstone in the context of reconstruction, i think we can see how reconstruction was a political, economic, at a social project that focus not only on the south but also on the west, it was an effort on the part of the federal government to unite the country from coast to coast through a variety of projects, including the exploration and preservation of yellowstone,. it also shows us that 1871 and 72 was the moment where the government really reach for a prior purpose before abandoning it soon afterwards, politicians would not use federal supremacy to protect black civil rights again for almost a century, congress did not create any more substantial national parks until 1890, and, preserve plans continue to be the targets of conservative efforts to withdraw their status and turn them toward production. seeing we construction from yellowstone also allows us to see how the effort to explore and preserve yellowstone rested, again, on native land and dispossession, but, indigenous peoples fought this effort every step of the way. they survived, they persisted, and they continue to defend their lands against commercial and federal development, and, finally this angle of vision really reveals yellowstone itself as not only the world's first national park and this amazing geothermal field unique in all of the world, but, also a perfect metaphor for the country at this moment in 1871, and, possibly even today. a place that is about beautiful and terrible, fragile and powerful, and a place where what lashes beneath the surface is also threatening to explode. thank you so much, i will end there and i think we have some time for questions. >> all right, thank you so much, megan, that was a great story that was a very great story, and thank you to everyone in the audience today, and if you have any questions feel free to go ahead and submit them now, let's go ahead and jump into some of the questions that have come in. okay, some of these are maybe a little more general history about with your background i think you could possibly know the answers to some, feel free to pass on any of them. one of the first questions that came in is, is the clause in the 14th amendment limiting citizenship of native americans still in force? >> it is not, no, i believe in 1924 the federal government gave full citizenship rights to indigenous people, of course, that is a long period of time, right? it is fairly recent, but, yes, that no longer applies. >> okay, thank you. another question, why did lincoln imprisoned 10,000 navajo and sun apaches in fort sumter, new mexico, beginning in 1863? 3000 died either asunder or on the first move, inconsistent with how former slaves were treated. >> absolutely, yes, if you are interested in this topic this is a major component of my previous book, many of the chapters take place on the long walk and at the reservation. yes, this is one of the biggest human rights disasters in the civil war. almost completed the fault of james henry carlton, the commander of the u.s. army and the department of new mexico. in that region the u.s. army had pushed the confederates from new mexico in the summer of 1862, and then they turned the full force of their military power on apaches, and only navajo people. it was carleton's intent, and you can see the relationship, he really started to articulate this new kind of federal indian policy where there would be no treaty agreements and the first move would be active warfare with the intent of removing native people to reservations so they would be out of the way of white settlers moving last. during the civil war and then in the years after that. bosque redondo has a incredible history. it is terrible with a 25% mortality rate and more people need to know about it. it really was a unique kind of prisoner of war camp but also needs to be discussed in that context with places like andersonville. in this place we can actually see that contradiction which also lives at the heart of saving yellowstone that the federal government, on the one hand, is preserving and protecting the rights of black southerners and emancipating them. trying to help them in a transition out of enslavement and into freedom, yet, they are also embracing the possible extermination of and the removal and incarceration of native people. today we think that is very contradictory but in the moment both of those projects went toward the republican effort to bring the south and the west back into the nation. to exert control over both of those regions and to create, in the west, a land of free labor and freedom. in their view that would require moving native people and putting them on reservations so that they did not interfere with white settler rights. those are two very connected programs, and campaigns and, in that way i think saving yellowstone, you can see it as a sequel to the three quarter roar because there are many connections and cause and effect relationships. >> all right, thank you, michael, for that question. another one, i am not sure how they mean this so i'm going to guess at it, one of the chances that management of yellowstone will be turned over to the native tribes to handle? i do not know if that is current, or one of the chances that it could have happened? i imagine it is current. >> i think this is a current question, it is related to the land fast movement. which is a movement on behalf of indigenous peoples to remove return all native park lands, if not all many other kinds of lands to indigenous stewardship and ownership. i think these chances are probably small. chances that illicit and will be turned over. one of the interesting things about yellowstone is that it actually, because it was a thoroughfare, if you remember the slide of all of the groups that are involved in yellowstone national park. they have established relationships with 26 tribal nations with connections to yellowstone. there is not just one group and so it is not like one indigenous nations seated that entire land or had it taken from them by the u.s. government. it was a shared space, it was not covered by any kind of treaty making. there was nothing standing in the federal governments way. but there was a kind of shared ownership. i think what will happen instead should be hopeful the way that the park is handling the 150th, increasing its intention to indigenous presence and history, members of the struggle nations would get more of a say. if they can talk about the park moving forward. how to integrate indigenous histories and into the tourist experience of the park. one of the things we have been talking about, i am helping a group out of the university of michigan to develop a plan to track this new effort at indigenous history integration. one of the things that would be so coal is what if you are driving through i'm one of the loop roads, which i know you all know, and if you sign up for an app would pin your phone when you passed a site with important indigenous history that you could get out or look at, experience, or it could say right now you are driving right along the route of the manic trail. which was a very heavily used migration trail for all kinds of tribal nations. and then you become more aware of their surroundings, the history, surroundings in the past and any president. >> all right, any question. was yellowstone lee first national park in the world? did any other country citizens planned for parks before yellowstone? >> countries had been setting aside park lands in cities, of course, and the idea was very old. the whole idea that you would preserve something like central park was quite new, that was an idea that emerged in the 1840s. but, an idea of the national park, and that he would take from the people and keep out of development, and organized and structure for tourism. then there athat was a complet, yeah, so, i think we can safely say the yellowstone was the first national park in a world. and then, there are still some countries that do not really have it now. but, then, others that do and lots of places that have parks that are dedicated to wildlife. obviously when i did not talk about very much in this top where the charismatic megafauna of yellowstone. the bison, elk, worlds in particular bears. and the reason for that is that hayden did not really comment on them. that animal life when they were, there was not present in such large numbers that they were noting them and talking about the preservation. they became important later. the superintendents who followed were taking note of, particularly of bison populations. because those were depleting rapidly in this period. and so there was some talk of either breeding bison and bringing them into the park actually creating a kind of zoo type atmosphere in yellowstone. that, of course, has changed over time. the park still manages that wildlife and manage is the herd size. but, they do not have it contained in that zoo like atmosphere. there are all kinds of different types of parks, and reserves and in other countries they have different government structures. it is kind of hard to have an exactly parallel type of experience. >> thank you. >> another question, when they were developing the boundaries someone asked what was the purpose of including the narrow strips of land in montana and idaho within the park valleys? do you know? >> i think it was probably to gain the entrances and the rights of way. because it was very important, particularly in the northern entrance they needed that area, just north of the park that montana was claiming. in fact, the montana boosters when they were arguing for the perks creation, actually were trying to get them to give all of yellowstone over to montana first. and then take the land. so, they wanted to actually's expand into wyoming to take up that land. at that point the northern entrance was really the only way in. no one had discovered possible entrances, when i saw the tetons they were like huawei supposed to do at this, how do we get over those? so, the montanans, in particular, saw the park as there's. they have just taken little pieces, i think they probably have to do with mountain ranges and also waterways that were important to areas of access for the park itself. >> that makes sense, all right, so i think we are going to ask one more question, maybe we have time for two. did general sheridan have a role in protecting yellowstone? >> that is a great question, sheridan, who was one of the commanders and this region of the u.s. army, actually did send another exploring team that was explicitly military. they kind of hooked on to hayden's survey, he was a little annoyed by that, it was led by a guy named john barlow, and, hayden was a little annoyed because he didn't want to have to share any credit if anyone discovered any part of yellowstone. and so, he was not very happy about that. but, he was very invested in keeping sheridan happy, needed that support. supplies, military support and protection. he was someone who wanted to know, also the initial title of the book was this strange country, that was a quote from sheridan himself. who said, i think we need to know more about the strange country of the yellowstone. it seemed like such a great evocative phrase, perfectly describes. describes in the basin. teared and was a military official a friend of grants. he was committed to implementing all of the federal government's measures in this region. no matter what they would be. >> sorry about that. i'm going to ask two more questions. and then i think we'll finish up. this one, i think, so, let me ask it. why does teddy get credit for establishing yellowstone when it was really president grant? >> yeah, this is one of the fascinating things. roosevelt visited the park. when they were laying the cornerstone of the arch that it is in garden. are they named the arch after him. they named also parts of the park after him this leaves people to think that roosevelt was the one to create yellowstone national park. the arch itself is not very clear. if you are not sure when roosevelt was president if, you're thinking maybe it was possible is 1872, there are very good reasons for thinking he was the one who established it. roosevelt kind of sucks up all of the -- >> conservation, national finding? >> all the attention. poor grant. grant was also not very good at bragging about this at all. he never really made any speeches about it. he was totally fine with. that he didn't try to take credit for anything either. that was part of it too. >> all right, thank you. last question. then we will. close if you are to recommend a season to visit yellowstone, what's season would it be? >> i think would be september. when we went in september, first of, all the trees were changing color. it was gorgeous. there are fewer people there, which was nice. also, it was kind of glorious to be there when it snowed on us. we got to see herds of bison walking through the dark driving snow, we got to walk up around the mud volcanoes as the snow was coming down. it was a little cold. it was a little adventurous. i actually really liked it. i thought it was a really beautiful time of year to be there. >> someone commented this evening that smithsonian journey has a trip to yellowstone in september. this year, they are going. >> perfect, post lots of pictures! report! all right, that's about all the time we have for today. thank you, megan, for your wonderful presentations. thank you to all of our viewers for joining us today, and for the great questions that came through. if you enjoy today's program, please consider becoming a member or making a donation to support educational programs like this and definitely check out our other upcoming program. again, we encourage you to fill out the survey when you exit this evening. we do want to hear from you. thank you so much everyone. enjoy the remainder of your evening. >> thanks, everyone, thanks for coming. posts. name is jose. francisco barro's joe barrows i am president of tropical audubon society. >> my name is jose francisco barros, joe burrow's. i am the president of the tropical autobahn society. we are the local chapter of audubon, here in miami day county and we have a mission. that is to