I wake up why wake up the other reporters and photographers. So what do you think i did . I had my 45 minutes with the president and nobody woke up the whole time. Bill clinton told the actual curiosity and saw his interest in policy and people in his engagement with people. He talked about the leaders he met on the trip and he talks about snorkeling the Great Barrier reef. The president is going to talk to the media on air force one. Clinton did at the father bush did. Theres a lot of difficulty in the relationship they have in the media. But you can see the president with their guard down and again i have a lot of stories in the book but for now i think that its a good one you can learn about president s on the plane. Anyone else . My next book topic i actually have a contract for a book for white house photographers is the ultimate insiders. These are the photographers of the white house pays to take pictures of the president and they are in the events that the beatles hits to go to. Sometimes they are alone with the president and if they do their jobs as well the president forgets that they are there and they have wonderful stories about what theyve learned about president s and the historical moment and so on and that book will lend itself to a lot of using a photography. So, its not news photographers but staff photographers comes about will come out in about two years. Anyway did you have something . I was hoping you could enlighten me a little bit about why theres usually something of substance that the leaders have to say why does the media take up so much from the lack of substance of some of the most outrageous things isnt just sensationalism [inaudible] i think you heard the question why does the media focus on the superficial or the inflammatory things rather than the substantial things and i think part of it is like anybody else, reporters being human beings sometimes the superficial stuff is more interesting. Sometimes it is not calculated and the feeling is maybe the superficial stuff will get more views or ratings or whatever, which in many cases is true. So why would journalists a lot of time its how gray obamas hair is getting instead of dealing with vladimir putin. One thing is more accessible and one thing is easier to cover frankly. You just sort of come up with a story and give your own opinion about it, which is a problem on its own but its basically a lot of it is driven by a what interests people and the dichotomy between the entertaining people and as a journalist educating them and also the entertainment part went out and i think that is what happens. Anyone else . Weve run out of time. We have some books to sell you in the corner. Thank you. [applause] [inaudible] president of the institute on religion and democracy talks about his book the piece that almost was to get it from this years fall for the book festival in fairfax virginia. Our guest tonight is the historian president of the institute on religion and democracy in washington, d. C. His writing has appeared in the wall street journal, the washington post, National Review online, the washington examiner, Chicago Tribune and christianity today. He also writes regularly for the American Spectator and Weekly Standard and outside of northern virginia. His new book the piece that almost was forgotten story of the 1861 washington peace conference and final attempt to avert a civil war was published in july of this year. The book brings the readers to the final day when the most important thing came together to try to prevent a disaster and failed. Please join me in welcoming mark. [applause] its great to be here with you all and have cspan in the room, so if you want to do an appearance and get their attention for something outrageous ask provocative commercial question and they will will enjoy that. My book as mentioned is about a relatively forgotten part of the history of the civil war and a typical book about the war to get a few give a few paragraphs but usually even the most wellinformed history buffs and civil war buffs dont know very much if anything about the washington peace conference of 1861. I met my publisher about a year and a half ago. I gave him about a dozen and i mentioned the washington peace conference. It is a plaque by the front door mentioning thats where they met there seems to be mysterious and often overlooked and my interest was further piqued by the debates iindia miss you this summer about what were the underlining causes. Their conversations will indicate what was the cause thats the topic he wanted me to write about and i noted there had been no book on the topic. It seemed timely although i was not able to finish the book in time before the end. The story takes place in february of 1861. Its a very intense time and statement to say Abraham Lincoln had been elected in november which led to the secession of the deep south state from the union after the election and in february during the peace conference in texas the other Southern States like virginia have been called the successor convention on this issue of whether or not to withdraw from the union and so union and so the whole country is now facing the question do we as a nation even have a future and if we do to solve as a country, will there be a turtle civil war and nobody had any particular remedy to avoid either unsavory possibility. Until the president stepped forward in late january and john tyler had been retired for 16 years on his wonderful plantation called Sherwood Forest which still exists today and still advertises itself as the longest in north america and you can visit it, a great place to take a look at. And he wrote an editorial for the richmond newspaper suggesting that in pursuit of preserving the union that would be the last attempt at the convention of at least the upper south and the north to look out of some kind of a possible concorde that might bring the country back together. The legislature in virginia quickly latched onto that idea endorsed by the governor and so essentially virginia at least as the most important Southern State invited sort of ignoring the suggestion that would be limited just to the border states. Virginia invited all of the states in the union to come together to work out a possible compromise over avoiding the catastrophe to come. Of course the six States Associated that were not good to come and neither was texas and arkansas never really organizer decided. But the 21 states did come, california and oregon were too close together to get there in time. But after much debate almost all of the northern northern states came although they were concerned that this was a idea coming from virginia and it was some sort of a Southern Coast slavery or democratic plot to effectively overturn the results of the 1860 election in which the party came to power for the first time. The exceptions are the upper midwest, which were very republican wisconsin and minnesota and michigan declined for that reason. But even for republican in england decided by and large even if there was a plot to overturn the election we wanted to be there to try to stop it, this will send delegates as did the upper south and the states met at even by then the hotel is centrally located in Downtown Washington on pennsylvania avenue. And of course still there today although in a different building. And 131 delegates start arriving on this monday late morning in early february, 1861. Its cold, theres been a dusting of snow in washington and i speculate that washington could not handle snow very well just as it does now but that somehow many of the delegates wandered in and if you could picture that scene at the hotel is packed full of Office Seekers into stylish seekers in the lobby and lots of cigar smoke and multiple orders for the sort of official drink of the hotel. The delegates themselves back in the main part of the hotel on 14 and facing pennsylvania avenue. But in the back on the entrance to the garage but at that point there had been an Old Presbyterian Church that looked like a greek temple and just a year before the willard brothers had bought the Presbyterian Church and turned it into the concert hall and conference space for the hotel. It was outfitted for the delegates and George Washington was placed upfront and Washington Police were stationed outside to prevent the intruders from interrupting and so off they were to Police Monday morning. Trying to recall to use the major characters that were there as a delegate is a little bit difficult because they were big people in their day is date almost entirely had been forgotten in their legacy and memory that overshadowed what was to happen over the next four years but it was the former governors, former senators, former congressman, former judges and it was to delete of the leadership in america. But i will share a few of them to make connections so they are a little recognizable to you. But of course theres president john tyler himself, hes 71yearsold. Hed been the first president to take office upon the death of his predecessor and sometimes he even sarcastically called the accident scene. And he had been elected from the whig party which he effectively disavowed as he became president he had any democrat who would run as a Vice President on the wake of the party but then ended up betraying the party so he was without it he titled himself as a person with independent sort of like robin hood and schemas in Sherwood Forest on the james river and ultimately by the standards of the day still pretty robust and energized. The leading republican at the Washington Peace Convention is someone who should be recognizable to most of the civil war buffs and that is good in ohio, they had been governor of ohio, was an antisleeting slavery by msn and by ohio and he had been a candidate for president at the Republican Convention against Abraham Lincoln. And he would appoint him to be the treasury secretary and of course he played a leading role throughout most of the war and early on in the conference, the republican delegates decide they need to have their own caucus in the after hours at the hotel and so sam chase would host or convened the Republican Caucus gatherings late in the evening. Nelson was there as a characteristic of the old statesman who predominate the newspapers very early on begin labeling this gettogether is the old gentleman of the convention said disproportionately made up of literally old statesman who had been in power and in having a leadership generation who had succeeded the founding generation and have run the country essentially for the past 30 to 40 years and one of those old gentleman was a former u. S. Attorney general from ohio who made sure none of you have heard of except for his soninlaw who at west point graduate very soon to become famous as a general and then was William Sherman and thomas was there from the old virtually dissolved party. There is a character from virginia who was pronounced as being the most forceful orator of the conference named james a a. Former virginia congressman and a bigtime slaveowner and usually virginia is very refined how they address the issue is because he actually has a large land holding in louisiana and only issue very fiery but very dark fire ei is almost like a missionary. Theres another figure. The senator from new jersey who might well. And a stocked in interconnected john tyler during his presidency his wife had died and turning his widowhood, he was on board a u. S. War vessel for the pleasure excursion and a official washington overjoyed washington had been invited on a weekend afternoon and it is a new there was a new technologically advanced artillery piece on the ship by the uss princeton. The artillery piece was called peacemaker and he was fired off several times as he delights to the crowd and before the ship returned to members of the crowds plead crowd plead for one more fighting at the peacemaker and to which it backfires the shrapnel exploded across the surface of the ship and several prominent washingtonians are killed, including the new york congressman whose a twentysomething year old daughter and gets word that her father had been killed supposedly feinted into the arms and who then carried her off the ship and married her some months later. He had a half dozen children and a half dozen more with his second wife was 30 years older and in fact he brings her to the peace conference and they Stay Together and not at the willard browns hotel back where the Canadian Embassy is now on pennsylvania avenue and she brings with her that her youngest child was still a baby, shes got 40 and he is of course almost 71. Another major figure of the peace conference is a man Roger Sherman baldwin who is a former senator from connecticut and his father was very famous. Roger sherman was the president at the Constitutional Convention that drafted the declaration of independence and he was president of the Constitutional Convention and one of the major figures in american founding. Baldwin himself is a was famous in his time as an expert lawyer and in fact is recruited along with the former president John Quincy Adams to represent the escaped slaves if you remember that about 20 years before the spanish slave ship that rebelled against the crew and the dictatorship. I went to the spin court and thanks to Roger Sherman baldwin and John Quincy Adams they were free persons. He sold a movie on a sob, Roger Sherman is played by matthew mcconaghy, just picture that when i mention his name. The younger men tended to be republicans. He is important because the convention we want to run a little bit to speak candidly this was a hugely important advance on the Constitutional Convention that he compared himself to james madison. Individual maker of this event so to his credit. But john tyler who was presiding and who was always very concerned about propriety had no control or authority over what the members demand a say. Finally mentioned another figure from virginia. This very august forgotten figure who was a big deal at his day senator william reed who was a wealthy member of afterwards charlottesville also suffering financially a little bit and just a year before have sold over 100 of his slaves as another virginia delegate and the reason that the senator and diplomat to france during one of its revolutions in the 1830s and an idea of the kind of company that he ran and learned that his daughter once boasted his parents are very particular to be the god of children of their parents and for example her one brothers called father was robert e. Lee and the other brothers called father was lafayette and the queen of france. A very lofty assembly. Well, my book doesnt just focus on the proceedings of the Police Conference but it also talks a lot about whats going on outside of the holes of the word hotel and how they affect whats going on inside and some of the major characters i talk about of course are the president of the United States himself coaching is buchanan whose leaving the office shortly at the month of march and desperate at the peace conference succeed and of course dissolving the union he begins facing the states that have no right to secede but also proclaims that he has no right to stop them so hes kind of in a bond and his last chance to succeed and he is come join them behind the scenes to meet sure that happens. The first lady at the white house is his niece and she is hosting social events at which the delegates are coming at the white house and shes distinguished and important and matching short of should have held washington together when they were together politically. General Winfield Scott the American History buff recognized as one of the great figures at that age and having been a general from 1812, so over 45 years. If theyve been down to the floor and feathers would sweep the floor. They were still there crossing the white house and they were very concerned about securing and general scott who was an elderly man but he pulls himself up to his full height to greet the young delegate from vermont and he pronounces that although from virginia he would rather that the hills in virginia or newer than the blood of her sons and they should be dissolved and they tend to speak and dramatic tones but he was committed to keep maintaining security during the peace conference and during lincolns arrival and his inauguration and beyond. There is other characters played about as i mentioned in the book. Stephen douglas, the farmer is still sitting senator from illinois who then defeated who has a house with his wife over the new square and hes with the delegates the delegates and William Seward the senator from new york. Lincoln had soon become the secretary of state and he has imaginations going on. Defeated by the election he will be presiding over what is presumably pro forma into the constitution because now a major events whether it will even take place and that the ratification of Abraham Lincolns Electoral College vote in the joint session of congress. And breckenridge himself defeated but presiding over the ratification of lincolns election and many whether or not he would carry through on that duty as he was called to do. And keep in mind that for a very short time comes he committee would soon become a general in the Confederate Army and in