Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency Remembering George Was

CSPAN3 The Presidency Remembering George Washington July 12, 2024

Chose to be with us tonight. I would like to acknowledge some very important people who are with us this evening. Parents are here with us tonight and his wife, kristin, who is here tonight. In my book the two most important costellos are at home. Their wonderful kids. I would like to welcome the members of the board of directors. Stock and we will give her a hand. [applause] bob mcgee. [applause] mcbrideave two, anita and gail west, who will be a little late. Steve strong is the national cochair of our National Council on what has history. He and his wife are here tonight. This is one of our most important groups at the White House Historical association. Their support, encouragement, inspiration, really put the winds in the sales of so many sails of so many. The program tonight, dr. Matt costello will share about his brandnew book and this is the first time we are making it available. We are proud of him as one of our historians here. He has been with us how long has event . Dr. Costello three years. Moderator he makes quite the contribution to our work here at the association. Prior to coming here he contributed to the George Washington bibliography project, he was a fellow at mount vernon, and he is currently doing two things i am particularly proud of, one, teaching a course at American University on what has history. This is the first time this has ever been done anywhere and we hope to broaden that beyond American University so that classrooms across the country can join virtually and we can expand that impact. It is really a cuttingedge, first mover opportunity for us. He is also working on his next book which will be published by the White House Historical association instead a Kansas University press. We are very proud to have the opportunity to publish this next book which is on the renovation of the white house undertaken by president roosevelt. Remarks this podium will be moved away from the stage so everyone can have a clear view and he and i will have a conversation. A few probing questions i have about his book and we will open the floor to questions and you are invited to join us in the courtyard for refreshments following. Thank you very much for being here and i will turn it over to you. [applause] dr. Costello good evening and thank you for that wonderful introduction. It is truly a privilege to be here with you all. One of the most gratifying exercises about finishing the book is that you get to write acknowledgments. You get to take time and really think through the people and places that made this project possible. I am thrilled many of those people are in this room today, including my colleagues at the association. Thank you for your support, encouragement. We share this accomplishment together and in the spirit of that, sharing something collectively that is my segway im going to talk about the subject of the book. At is who ownsng history . I use washington and his tomb as a lens for trying to understand the process and how it unfolded in the 19th century. Now, this project began as an offshoot of research i was doing around the Washington Monument. As i was exploring different efforts by congress to build statues and memorials and monuments i was drawn to this particular incident in 1832. Members of congress were debating and voted in favor of removing George Washingtons body from mount vernon and into entombing it in the capitol rotunda. As i dug deeper, pun intended, this was one of many attempts to remove his body during the 19th century. I was also curious about what was happening at the gravesite and i found some fascinating stories. The tomb served as an intersection for tourism, race and class relations, religious expression, all things that were transformed by political democracy. These experiences illuminate how the democratic pulse transcended ulse transcended the present. Groupsuals and interacted with his final resting place and it was through these visits that citizens, politicians, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and enslaved storytellers remembered the collective memory of George Washington and creating this popularly held beliefs that he was indeed the property of the nation. In order to talk about the memory making process, unfortunately, we have to start with washingtons demise. On december 14, 1799 washington came down with what appeared to be a winter cold. It accelerated quickly and studies belief you probably suffered from the swelling of the larynx. Whether it was bacterial or viral we are not sure, but essentially the medical treatments at the time only accelerated his declining health. At nightn passed away and on december 18th he was interred in mount vernon. On Christmas Eve 1799 president john adams asked for marthas consent to move her husbands body to the capital. National murnin ourning period up until his birthday and they have detailed funeral processions. There were over 400 instances. There was an outpouring of National Grief that the country had never seen before. Itself letters of condolence streamed in, in particular to martha, but not all were sympathetic. Some of them were opportunistic. For example, a number of individuals were asking for locks of his hair which sounds strange to us, but was pretty common in the 18th and 19th centuries. There was one man who claimed he served with George Washington and asked martha if she could write a pardon on his behalf to the governor of pennsylvania because he had been accused of stealing a horse. They had been not been able had not been able to find the real thief. She did not reply. With this resolution to move washington in the future it opened the question of hero worship in early america. How would we venerate the memory of our past leaders . Would it be through things like education or would it be very public displays like statues, monuments, or even something that appears as antithetical to the revolution like a mausoleum. This was proposed by the same architect who designed decatur house. This pyramid was supposed to be 100 by 100 feet which wouldve been one of the telestructures in the United States at the time tallest structures in the United States at the time. It would have been made of marble, which wouldve been very expensive at the time. Is this for a man or pharaoh . With the United States be different from other countries . There were comparisons with egypt, ancient rome, the into greeks, but ultimately this measure is defeated. Public opinion turns against the idea of creating a grandmotherly. They argue it is not what washington would have wanted. Grand mausoleum. They argue it is not what George Washington would have wanted. This issue of enterin putting ha new place never goes away. The nephew of George Washington is solicited by the virginia General Assembly and they propose moving washingtons body to richmond to be placed under a monument that is not been built yet. Another attempt, but this time by state government. Congress gets wind of it. They inquire about moving washington again to the capital. The capital has just been burned and they are rebuilding it, but theyre having these conversations. The nephew declines. The freemasons come along in the 1820s and propose raising money to essentially build a new tomb in honor of George Washington and his accomplishments. A number of lodges will actually propose putting together money raised at the different lodges and creating a National Lodge and have a attached to it. Part of what i argue is that in the 1820s you have to keep in mind freemasonry has taken a turn. We have the rise of the antimasionic party and americans are becoming suspicious. The freemasons are still visiting the grave. They are still attributing his memory to their own brotherhood saying, any criticism against us is criticizing washington himself. Ofy are a great example societal organizations using washington as a shield to guard against criticism and anything like that. Really where we see a major transition and how washington is perceived and how he is marketed and how people profit is with this gentleman. Privatetually the last of the mount vernon estate. He agrees to a contract in 1858 and formally vacates in 1860. Before then he really labors to turn mount vernon into americas first tourism destination. Venturesed in several publicto capitalize on interest. Steamboatshed a company so they could have access to mount vernon. They would come between alexandria and mount vernon. He authorizes the building of a wooden plank walkway, which you can see in this photograph, and charged it to the company. Probably the funnier thing i came across was that this land was so valuable that there was a ige whoed george pa arrived in 1851 and he said he owned part of the shoreline. Essentially the land he was claiming was technically underwater. It did not go well for george paige, but he also worked for the baltimore steam packet company. There were other agents operating on terms of bringing people to mount vernon who wanted access. He took a cut of ticket sales and you can see this is the advertisement. This went down several times a week and this is where we see the beginnings some of you might have been on the spirit of mount vernon making the estate more accessible and affordable to people. They started offering things like confectionery, liquor depending on the cruise, and they had music. It became this larger experience a lot of americans enjoyed. He was not only investing in this particular company, he was taking a cut of the sales, started buying stocks, and then he started selling wood from the estate. To idea behind it was package and sell pieces of washingtons world American Consumers could be more directly connected with the man. This was made by an english businessman. He is most famous for his installation of gas lighting at the capital, but he also had a business on the side manufacturing washington trinkets made of wood from the estate. Much accustomed to we are today when you get something that supposed to be authentic, you are going to need a certificate. You can prove to people that this is legitimate. You get some poetry, washingtons face, and a statement from the mayor of washington, d. C. Attesting to the character of the men and tell you where the wood came from. In the certificate he says it is from the same hill where George Washington is buried. I think that is particularly interesting because this was considered sacred to many. When i went through his farm outs and i tried to plot where he was taking this wood from it was not always from the hill. I think john was good at sales and this is what people wanted to hear. Some came from along the shoreline. George washington had called this hellhole because nothing could grow there. Whatever he tried he could not get anything to grow. Some of the wood came from hellhole. That is technically part of the hill, so we let that slide. M,th the mount vernon je 1886, john wasr selling things at mount vernon. Collecting sales enslaved gardeners were selling in the upper and Lower Gardens and also collecting any revenue when. Eople came in there were a number of different ways that were the forerunners to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association taking over. How can we capitalize on people who are drawn to mount vernon . Even though john was involved in the profiting of his great grand uncle it was the enslaved community that were the primary storytellers and keepers of the two. Tomb. These people were the onsite storytellers and interpreters. Iten he used that wr themselves into various legends. Several used in this position to extract tips from people who are not as knowledgeable about George Washington, and others were able to highlight washingtons treatment and, depending on the audience, is freeing of the slaves in his will which is an interesting conversation enslaved people are having. Where johne instance gets called out by liberators for selling slaves and the questions his character question his character. Using enslaved people as tour guides was not a new idea. He was shocked when he found out his enslaved storytellers were telling them things about what was happening on the estate. They were not bound by the same etiquette. Sources, and other here is a posterboard picture, the African Americans are very much involved. We can see in other sources which is difficult trying to track voices down was they played a prominent role in sharing accounts with people. But even an example like this. This is sheet music. There were many musical scores about washington, but this one in particular, the images striking. You can see there is an africanamerican man sitting next to the tomb and he is ready to sell walking sticks. Canes became very popular as it tied them to the estate and was a sign of affluence. We see enslaved people selling them, or marketing these walking sticks, or making them for people while theyre on the estate. They are peddling these trinkets, but apparently this was much more successful. These enslaved storytellers selling these things up through the civil war. No matter how you look at it, whether it was their role cutting the wood for the boardslaying the from the wharf to the tomb, or selling things africanamericans were very involved in perpetuating legends and writing themselves into it. But also challenging the thoughts about how washington felt about things like emancipation. One of my favorite stories, because often times they would make comments about whether they gratuity, where a gentleman was not able to give anything to a elderly enslaved woman. She asked for a pinch of tobacco. It just goes to show you it was not always about money. Sometimes it was whatever the visitor might have on them. There was an expectation there would be an exchange for a service and africanamericans were a vital part of that. Border on things that seem a little bit more unorthodox or strange. Starting from the 1830s onward we see this trope of the last servant of George Washington. That gets repeated a lot. 1830s, 1840s, and i found at least five last servant, but when you unpack that it tells you more about why does that claim have meaning . Onward the30s founding generation is mostly gone. Americans are looking to the next generation of political leaders and contemplating how will the country survive without that leadership . Association it did carry some type of social weight. We see this time and time again. Some of my favorites, there was a man named john kerry who said he was 113 years old and seeking pension from congress in 1843. He claimed he had served the french and indian war and american revolution. He deserves twice the pension. It does not go anywhere, but it is interesting there are people making that claim and that it was moved to committee and got tabled. It was believable to an extent. This continues post of a wa civl war. This is james mitchell. You can see even though the civil wars ended, that africanamericans are still taking up these roles, but doing it on behalf of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. You can see behind him a series of walking sticks. They would have been the primary storytellers but also selling items from the estate. Time we have congress and the virginia General Assembly arguing about where washington should be buried, we have enslaved storytellers at mount vernon delivering different types of the washington experience. We also have this group of writers and poets and artists who are sharing bits and pieces of washington lore either through poetry, biography, or visual artwork. They also play a major role in this memory forming process because most americans will not get to mount vernon in the 19th century. They are going to rely on things like visuals to fill in the gaps. His adoptedally grandson. Publicista washington and spokesperson. He gave speeches, traveled the rote plays,il w but most important were his recollections that affirmed a lot of myths and legends. Mason,ot forget about the most influential person when it came to making washington popular. Washington life of was in the 40th edition. He added more material based on folklore, which most historians regard as probably not accurate, but it was a Washington People want to do here about. He was relatable. He seemed more ordinary and had worked really hard at improving himself and getting to the point where he needed to. Mason does not talk about how washington made his money. A big part of it was his marriage to martha. That is where the fortune came from, but again, putting out this different image of washington as being more humble resonated with more americans in the 19th century. Then we start to see these visuals where the old tomb, the new tomb coincide with the hudson river school. School ofat the artistic expression was getting at was highlighting the bounty and discovered richness of the american landscape. You will probably see you can house,mples at the white but washingtons tomb became a place artists continuously captured whether it was for engravings or actual pieces of art. It kind of always fits that same framework. You see a rustic setting, the tomb, and you see a humble abode. This is where the remains of George Washington are. Engraving, but again things have shifted. We have the new tomb which is pointed toward the river and you can see the mansion, maryland in the background. Here is another example. The thing coinciding with this is the artists are not formally trained. When we talk about democratizing washingtons memory more and more people are not necessarily trained, but they are also claiming washington for themselves because they are the ones capturing his tomb and gravesite. Those who could afford not afford to make the trip, this along with poetry and musical scores made the final resting place a part of american Popular Culture. While these representations worked well with a more democratic washington there were many visitors who found the tomb unaccep

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