Feeling that this was unfinished business. Lbj deserves all the credit that he later claimed for piloting, navigating, guiding the civil rights bill to passage in july of 1964 when he signs it. But i think kennedy deserves credit as the kennedyjohnson bill. It had cleared the house of representatives by the day jfk was killed. Jfk had made alliance not with democrats but with midwestern republicans. He had reached out to them, and they were supporting it, particularly in the senate. He had gone to others. I think it would have gotten through. Eventually, it might have taken until 1965, kennedy would have gotten the civil rights act. But full credit to Lyndon Johnson for doing it the way he did, but i dont think he could have done it with the same success without the death of jfk. Thank you so much for joining us. The book is two days in june. It is a terrific read. I learned so much about it. By the way, it is beautifully written which is an extra bonus for people who like to read books that have a little bit of prose to themselves. Youre watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3, explore our nations past. Cspan3, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Weeknights this month, were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight a look at programs from the Kansas City Public Library in kansas city, missouri. We begin with a talk about the length of hollywood artist mill sent patrick, discussing her book the lady from the black lagoon. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Have you watched lectures in history lately . Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3, go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights, and u. S. Residents on 9 11. With most College Campuses closed due to impact of the coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Gorbachev did most of the work in the soviet union, but reagan met him halfway. Reagan encouraged him. Reagan supported him. Freedom of the press, madison called it freedom of the use of the press, and it is indeed freedom to print things and publish things. It is not a freedom for what we refer to as the press. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. U. S. Capital Historical Society chief historian William Chuck digiacomantonio discusses interactions between Thomas Jefferson and federalist members of the 7th congress, the first to have a new session in the capital of washington, d. C. He explains how political differences led them to politicize many aspects of daily life including food, socializing and science. The u. S. Capital Historical Society provided video of this event. Today is the inaugural scholar series, and we thought we would start with our very own chuck digiacomantonio. Chuck is really one of the nations finest scholars on the First Congress and that early period in the development of our country. We have been fortunate to have chuck as part of the uscs society team for five years. Prior to that, he was 27 years working on the First Congress program. And so he has put together a very imaginative presentation using primary sources, letters of the time where people wrote to one another about the science, the food, the culture, and the back and forth that made early days in washington. That being said, we invite you to stay with us for your questions and answers. Chuck will do his presentation, and i will work through the questions. And we have a couple of questions. We may be able to do a couple of questions during the presentation. But the majority of our questions will be at the conclusion of the presentation. So, please put your questions in, and ill try to work them through both at the end and as we move forward. Thank you very much, chuck, for the work youve done to put this together, and welcome to the platform. Welcome, everyone. Im really happy we can pull this off. Im going to, as jane said, tell a very imaginative story. So, just let your minds go. Its not a straightforward narrative. But were going to touch a lot of points. The point of departure for me came with the publication of my book, which ill show here. Some of you have seen it before. Its my book on george stature. The page you see is a picture of george stature. I edited a volume of his letters. And the point of departure for me was his attendance at the second session, the last session of the sixth congress. George stature was a member of congress through the confederation, last few years of the confederation period, the first six congresses under the federal government, under the u. S. Constitution. So, he comes to washington, d. C. When the federal government first moves here in november 1800. He arrives at the seat of government from maine with his fellow maine congressman wadsworth who was a portland merchant and revolutionary war veteran. This exposure to washington, d. C. Is their first exposure to rural slavery. Writing to his daughter a few days before the opening of that last session of the sixth congress, the first session to meet in washington, d. C. This is in late 1800. He writes, the ground as you approach georgetown is excellent for roads. Being red course gravel, but is in very bad repair by reason of many gullies and a great want of labor. Here was the precious effect of slavery, a soil impoverished by overtilling, scarcely subtled, retchedness and woah with here and there a land lord who speaks great pride of little money. He goes on, but the capital, what of the capital . Why, it is a high though magnificent pile, it is but one wing of the original design. The body and others yet only appear to the imagination from the view of foundation which is laid in stone and lime. You can see that in this illustration here. This is the capital that george stature and his roommate both appear at at the end of the century really. 1800 its november 1800 when they convene. They actually meet here. I show this because not many people get to see this image. This is obviously a blueprint of the main floor of the capital at that time when the Congress First moves in. The senate was down below where the Old Supreme Court chamber is below. The gallery is depicted here. The house of representatives is actually meeting where the library of congress was going to eventually be meeting. In the Third Session sorry, there is no Third Session. In the seventh congress, he decides hes the only congressman to be reelected as much as he was up to that point in congressional history. But he decides his family is better served by him serving as Supreme Court justice in massachusetts. Maine was part of massachusetts at that time. He gives up his seat in congress, and his old roommate is now representing maine or massachusetts rather with nathan reed. You see nathan reed on the right here. Nathan reed was a scientist from salem, massachusetts. He starts out as apothecary, but hes really interested in steam engines. He applies for patents from congress before hes elected there in 1800. He only serves one session. And he and thatcher and wadsworth reside in a boardinghouse. The seventh congress meets and thatcher is gone. Wadsworth finds other housing. And reeds roommate now is a guy reverend cutler. Hes from northern massachusetts. Hes kind of an every man. Hes a lawyer. Hes a merchant. Hes the subject of many of you might know him as the subject on the latest book on the development of the ohio country because hes one of the main lobbyists through the ohio company who promotes settlement to the ohio river valley. From now on, most of the letters, most of the voices, the primary voices youre going to hear from nathan reed and ma nasa cutler. They left their writings mostly up in salem, massachusetts. And theyre also besides being colleagues in terms of the documentary record they left behind, theyre colleagues spatially. They actual lynn habit tly inha boardinghouse room. Here i dont know if you can see my cursor. But its right here, and its where the library of congress, jefferson building, sits now. Those of you who know d. C. Know this is carol row. They occupied the southern most thats this one here on the far right. Its a boarding house run by jo sigh yas king. This is the way that cutler describes it to his daughter, betsy. This is the first session now of the 7th congress. So, this is the first entire congress that is calling washington, d. C. Home. And cutler writes about life on carol row and kings boardinghouse, it is situated east of the capital on the highest ground in the city. Mr. Reed, nathan reed, and myself have i think the pleasantest room in the house or indeed the whole city. It is the third story demacommag a view of the capitol, the river, and the city of alexandria. I can just imagine how beautiful that must have been. I must add i am exceedingly happy with mr. Reed. I would have made my choice among all members of congress for one to have lived in the same chamber with me. All things considered, i should have chosen mr. Reed. I am not much pleased with the capital. It is a huge pile built indeed with handsome stone, very heavy in appearance, not very pleasant within. They were literally looking out their window towards the capitol, this is what they would be seeing, the senate north chamber on the right side. The left, that odd structure, is called the oven. Some of you might have seen images of it before. None of them would have been contemporary. These are all reconstructed images because we dont know exactly what it looked like except from verbal descriptions. But theyre connected where the central part of the building is now, the rotunda area, by the walkways and stairways to the gallery leading up to the top of the oven. They stayed there through the 7th congress up through the first session of the 8th congress in 1804. So, from now on, as i said, ill be using the words of these three men, wadsworth, nathan reed, and cutler. Cutler and reed are roommates, remember. At some point ill be throwing in some words by william plumber, who was a senator from new hampshire. He came a year later to fill a vacated seat. He shows up in december 1802. So, again, all these things are spin offs of my book on thatcher. I was curious once thatcher leaves congress what happened afterwards, what happened to the federalist congressman from massachusetts, new hampshire, the other New England States primarily, who were left behind to carry on the federalist fight . I called this talk experiencing the feet. Its Christopher Hills famous book the experience oof defeat. It looks at how parliamentarians distinguished the war. I wanted to see how they dealt with defeat. And from that chronological episode, if you will, i teased out four themes. And they all cover its kind of like microhistory. I tease them out of their records of just three or four days, the first three or four days of 1802 during the first session of the congress. I began to realize what theyre talking about is basically the plit si zags of everything. Were talking about socialbility, food, science and historical memory. Those are the four themes im going to be teasing out of here. The first one, sociability. Well, the social life in washington probably then is now to some extent revolves around the white house. The white houses new occupant at this point was Thomas Jefferson. He had been inaugurated in march 1801. And we all know from jeffersons famous first inaugural where he says we are all federalists, we are all republicans. Hes trying to conciliate all parties. What he really meant was were all republicans. The federalists just dont know it yet. So, he decides i mean, hes not naive. He realizes the federalists need special treatment. So, one way he does this is to use one of the greatest informal resources at his disposal which is the white houses social life. Right away it sets up a contrast with his predecessors with the federalist republican court. This is a highly exaggerated mid19th century view of the artists imagination of what one of Martha Washingtons levies looked like. Jeffersons were more democratic. Ranks cutler to his soninlaw just a couple of days into the session. He writes, under the new order of things, there are no levies, nothing like this. But the members are invited to dine with the president. I include this also for information for people who havent seen this. This is the blueprint for jeffersons white house. And the dining room you can see in the upper left was where these events would have taken place. He continues, what, if strange, is that only federalists or only democrats are uninvited at the same time. The number in a day is generally 8 and when the federalists are invited, there is one of the heads of the departments which make nine. Mr. Reed and myself and wadsworth among others were honored with the early invitation. We received and entertained. Now, jefferson wanted to create this idea, and succeeded, of having a very informal white house. The best image i could think to illustrate this is one of these wonderful portraits by peter weidel, who is now artist and resident in georgetown. But he depicted jeffersons study here. Its the Southwest Corner of what is today the state dining room. And you can see its phillfilleh paraphernalia of scientific interest and studies. Jefferson hates conflict. Hes very much in conflict avoidance. No politics were to be discussed at his dinner table. My friend and colleague from mass historical wrote about this. By trying to diffuse the small conflicts that might erupt with members of both parties at the same table, he may have fostered a deeper division. One should note that jeffersons invitations to dinner were sent out under Thomas Jefferson, not president of the United States. The idea being that he wanted to create this image that it was more democratic. It was just a gathering of friends, not a political meeting in any way. But in fact, inviting people under his own name rather than in the name of his office of president was an excuse for him to invite who he wished. And that is why he ends up inviting just federalists all at a time or just democrats. Eventually as time goes by, we learn he uses his dinner invitations as a way to punish members, primarily federalists. We know this from the words of william plumber i told you about, the guy from new hampshire. Plumber quoting again, plumber decided that jefferson used good food and conversation the to divide them from one another. In his own words, i have myself no doubt of this being the true ground of his apresident doing the present form. In the last session there were gentleman who, though they called on him, were not invited to dine with him. And here plumber names some high flying federalests. It is true these gentleman reamed against some of the measures and made the arguments appear rather ridiculous. This manly conduct is styled by him abuse. It discovers a mind unworthy of the president of the United States. As president , he ought never to act towards an individual as if he knew what was said for or against him or his measures on the floor of the house. Plumber, i realize that jeffersons behavior at least in the way he dulled out dinner invitations to his white house. Politicization in food. Im sure some of you tuned in just to see what this meant. We pick up with cutlers journal. He writes although the president has no levies, a number of federalists agreed to go to the coaches of the president s house and weight upon him with the compliments of the season. We were received with politeness. The mammoth cheese presented this morning, the president invited us to go, quote to, the mammoth room and see the mammoth cheese. We viewed this monument of human weakness and folly as long as we pleased. And then we returned home. The cheese or the mammoth cheese as it was called, was a gift to jefferson from the largely Baptist Community of massachusetts to thank jefferson for his work promoting religious freedom. This would have been important to baptists who are a minority in most of the country at this point, certainly in new england. The cheese itself was four feet wide, 15 inches high, and weighed 1,230 pounds yochlt an image of the cheese. There is no contemporary image or any image that i know of the cheese, but we have one in a famous painting by weidel. This shows the big cheese given to andrew jackson. There is something of a tradition at this point of giving president s a cheese they can host with. This was the big cheese presented to jackson in 1835. And it was there for people to munch on for a couple of years. It looks ridiculous, i think, right . But this cheese is, in fact, at least to federalists thinking really a symbol of jeffersonianism. Its gauche. Its impractical. The idea is driven by folly. Its a case that the ideology doesnt play out in the reality. It doesnt help at all that the cheese the presented by the leader of the Baptist Community. Writing to his soninlaw a few days after the presentation of the mammoth cheese. Last sunday, the cheese monger, poor illiterate clownish preacher, to the place of his destination was introduced as the preacher to both houses of congress. The president , contrary to all former practice, made one of the audience. Such a performance i have never heard before and i hope never shall hear again. Horrid tones, frightful grimaces and extravagant gestures was never heard by any descent auditory before. This is the guy who presented the cheese. Whatever glamour the cheese added to the white house soon began to lose its luster. One year later on 1803, cutler writes again after we left the levy room as we were passing through the great hall, i happened to think of the mammoth cheese. And one of excuse me. And i happened to think of the mammoth cheese, and i asked one