it is about 1:15. good evening, everybody. i would look to thank diane and her colleagues at umkc for inviting me here tonight to speak to this symposium. 151 years ago, last december, a group of south carolina politicians finally pulled off something they had been trying to do for years, they called a convention of what they called the people, and they voted themselves out of the union. within six weeks, i m sorry, within weeks, six more deep south states had joined them in their bid for national independence. theirs was a gamble of massive proportions and as we know it changed the course of history. standing on the brink of war, no one in the american south could have known what lay ahead. the scale of war, the demands of waging it, the level, level of mobilization it would require, the dominion of death it ushered in. all this was unimaginable in december 1860. still, southerners knew it was a dangerous, even reckless undertaking. so especially now as we engage the cente
group of south carolina politicians finally pulled off something they had been trying to do for years, they called a convention of what they called the people, and they voted themselves out of the union. within six weeks, i m sorry, within weeks, six more deep south states had joined them in their bid for national independence. theirs was a gamble of massive proportions and as we know it changed the course of history. standing on the brink of war, no one in the american south could have known what lay ahead. the scale of war, the demands of waging it, the level, level of mobilization it would require, the dominion of death it ushered in. all this was unimaginable in december 1860. still, southerners knew it was a dangerous, even reckless undertaking. so especially now as we engage the centennial of the american civil war, i think there s one question above all that we aught to ask and answer. why did they risk it? it s not enough to stop at abstract questions about the consti
did conquer canada, we would keep it. among those was clay in 1813. even though he conceded at the same time that canada was a means rather than the end. sure. there were those who wanted to keep canada. and this really increased in 1813 after successful campaign in the old northwest. you have newspapers saying expended so much blood and treasure we can t give canada back once we conquer it. yes, sir. were there any myths about john paul jones and the battle of lake eerie? he was a revolutionary war figure. it was perry. any myths? those images that show perry standing in his boat as he s move frg one ship to another, probably not. probably sitting. mostly though, i think the conventional account of perry s performance in the battle is pretty accurate. anything, you mentioned at the beginning about the mchenry flag at smithsonian institution. any myths surrounding that always been my understanding, that was the original flag made by mary pickers at the direction o