For sale in the corner. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much for coming. Please remember to fill out the survey here to help us know how to find programs like this [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] next up on booktv, mark tooley, president of the institute on religion and democracy, talks about his book, the peace that almost was. Its from this years fall for the book festival in fairfield, virginia. Our guest tonight is historian mark tooley. Mark tooley is the president of the institute on religion and democracy in washington d. C. His writing has appeared in National Review online, the Chicago Tribune and christianity today. He also writes regularly for the Weekly Standard asklies outside of northern and lives outside of northern virginia. His new book, the peace that almost was, was published in july of this this year. The book brings readers to the final days in d. C. When some of the most important men in the nation came together to try and prevent disaster and failed. Please join me in welcoming mark tooley. [applause] well, its great to be here with you all and great to have cspan in the room, so if any of you want to do want to appear on cspan and get their anticipation, do something outrageous or ask a provocative, the controversial question at the end, and they will enjoy that. My book, as mention ld, is about a relatively forgotten and unacknowledged part of the history, the prehistory of the civil war and a typical book about the war may give it a few of paragraphs. Usually even the most well informed history buffs and civil war buffs dont know very much, if anything, about the washington peace conference of 1861. When i met my publisher about a year and a half ago or two years ago, he said give me some book topics or some proposals. I gave him about a dozen, and just as an afterthought, i mentioned the washington peace conference never having read a book about it, just walking by the Willett Hotel in downtown d. C. , theres a plaque mentioning thats to where they met. But it seemed very mysterious and often overlooked. And my interest was further piqued by debates still ongoing even this year, this summer about what were the underlying causes or cause of the civil war, and is so i thought surely this whole peace conference whose whole objective was to avert the civil war, their conversations will indicate to us what was the cause or what was the chief point of contention that led to the civil war. So i accepted i was surprised, pleasantly, when the publisher said thats the topic he wants me to write about. And i noted thered been no book on this topic since the 1950s, and wed just gotten through the saw 0th 150th anniversary of the civil warp. So it seemed timely. The interest that persists, hopefully. With, the story takes place in february of 1861, ands it is a very tense time. Its an understatement to say. Of course, Abraham Lincoln had been elected in november which led to the secession of six deep south states from the union after the election, and in february during the peace conference the seventh, texas, would withdraw. The upper Southern States like virginia have called Secession Conventions and are planning on this issue of whether or not to withdraw from the union. So the whole country is facing the question do we as a nation even have a future, and the if we do dissolve as a country, will there be a terrible civil war, and no one had any particular remedy to avoid either unsavory possibility. Until an elderly former president stepped forward in hate january in late january named john tyler who had been retired for 16 years on his wonderful james river plantation called Sherwood Forest which still exists today and still advertises itself as the longest frame house in north america. You can visit it. Its a great place to take a look at. He wrote an editorial for a richmond newspaper suggesting that in pursuit of preserving the union, that there be a last attempt of a convention of thiess the upper south and lower at least the upper south and lower north to work out some possible concord that might bring the country back together. The legislature of virginia quickly latched on to that idea enforced by virginias governor and so, essentially, virginia as at least the most important Southern State invited, sort of ignoring john tylers suggestion that it be limited just to the border states, virginia invited all of the states of the union to come together to work out a possible compromise over avoiding the catastrophe to come. Well, of course, the six stated that seceded were not going to come, and neither was texas, and arkansas never really organized or decided. But 21 states did come. California and oregon, of course, were too far away to get there in time. But after each debate almost all the northern states came, although they were concerned this was an idea coming from virginia, it was some sort of southern or proslavery or democratic plot to effectively overturn the results of the 1860 election in which the Republican Party had come to power for the first time. The exceptions are the upper midwest which were very, very republican wisconsin, minnesota and michigan declined to come for that reason. But even very republican new england by and large decided even if there is a plot to overturn the election, we want tock there to stop it. Been there to to stop it. Even by then the muchstoried Willett Hotel, essentially located in Downtown Washington on pennsylvania avenue, of course, still there today although a different building, and 13 be 1 delegates 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 then just as it doesnt now [laughter] but somehow many of the delegates wandered in, and if you can picture that scene, the Willett Hotel is already packed full of Office Seekers and stylish women in the lobby and lots of cigar smoke and multiple orders for mint view lends which was sort of juleps of the hotel. The main part of the hotel on 14th facing pennsylvania avenue, but in the back on f street where, which is now the entrance to the garage. But at that point there had been an Old Presbyterian Church that looked like a greek temple, and just the year before the willard brothers had bought the Presbyterian Church and turned it into a concert hall and conference space for the hotel. So it was outfitted for the delegates, and a big portrait of George Washington was placed up front, and Washington Police were stationed outside to prevent intruders from interrupting and so off they were on that late monday morning. In trying to recall to you who the major characters, who were there as delegates, its a little bit difficult because these were big people in their day who almost entirely have been forgotten in that, their legacy and their memory, of course, were quickly overshadowed by what was to happen over the next four years. But it was former governors, former senators, former congressmen, former judges, generals. It really was the elite of prewar leadership in america. But ill share a few of them and try to make connections so that maybe theyre a little wit recognizable to you. Of course theres president john tyler himself, nearly 71 years old. He had been the first president to take office upon the death of his predecessor, so sometimes he had been sarcastically called his accident city. He had been elected from the whig party which he disavowed after he became president. He had been a democrat who had run as a Vice President on the whig, with the whig party with William Henry harrison but then ended up from their perspective betraying the whig party. So he was effectively a man without a party, and he styled himself as a person of great independence sort of like robin hood, helps, he lived in hence, he lived in Sherwood Forest down on the james river. Although elderly by the standards of the day, still pretty robust and energized by this event where he would be elected president of the conference and preside over the proceedings over the next three and a half week. The leading republican at the Washington Peace Convention is someone who should be recognizable to most civil war buffs, and thats an ohio statesman named salmon chase who had been governor of ohio. He had just been elect today the u. S. Senate by ohio, and he had been a candidate for president at the Republican Convention against abe hall lincoln Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln would shortly appoint him to be treasury secretary and, of course, he played a leading role in lincolns cabinet throughout most of the war. Early on in the conference, the republican delegates decide that they need to have their own caucus that meets after hours in somebodys room upstairs in the hotel, and so salmon chase hosts or convenes those Republican Caucus gatherings late in the evening. Someone else who was there who was characteristic of old statesmen who predominate at this event and, in fact, the newspapers early on began labeling this get together as the old gentlemens convention because it was so disproportionately made up of literally old statesmen who had been in power decades before and had literally been the leadership generation who had succeeded the founding generation and had run the country, essentially, for the last 30 and 40 years. And one of those old gentlemen was a former u. S. Attorney general from ohio named thomas you wing whom ewing who im sure almost none of you have heard of except he had a soninlaw who would become famous as a general, and his name was william sherman. So thomas ewing was there from the old now virtually dissolved whig party. Theres a character from virginia who was pronounced by some as the most forceful orrer the of this conference orator of this this conference named james sedden. Hes a bigtime slave owner. Usually, the virginians are fairly refined in terms of how they address the slavery issue, but because sedden also happens large Land Holdings in louisiana, he almost seems to represent the views of the very deep south on the slavery issue, very fierily. And in appearance hes very small and skinny and aesthetic with a thin black beard and moustache and thin black hair but very dark, fiery eyes. Looks almost like a jesuit missionary from the 1600s. But almost barely alive behind his pallid skin. Once he spoke be, everyone heeded him. He would go on to become the war secretary of the confederacy for part of the civil war. Theres another old gentleman, former naval officer, a senator from new jersey named stockton whom ill well, ill tell you right now what is, all of these old gentlemen have connections to each other that date back a decade, and stocktons interconnection among many others was john tyler during his presidency, his wife had died, and during his widowhood, he was onboard a u. S. War vessel in the Potomac River that was out for sort of a pleasure excursion to which most of official washington had been invited on a weekend afternoon going back to mount vernon and back, and there was a new artillery piece on that ship called the peacemaker, and it was fired off several times to the delight of the crowd. And before the ship returns, members of the crowd plea for one more firing of the peacemaker to which they accede, and it backfires, and the shrapnel explodes across the surface of the ship. Several prominent washingtonians are killed, including the war secretary, including a new york congressman whose young 20somethingyearold daughter is below deck, and when she gets word her father had been killed, supposedly fainted into the arms of the then widower president john tyler who carried her off the ship and married her some months later. He had a half dozen children who were young adults, he has a half dozen more children with his second wife and, in fact, he brings her to the peace conference, and they Stay Together not at the willard, but at the browns hotel down sort of where the Canadian Embassy is now on pennsylvania avenue, and she brings with her their youngest child whos still a baby. Shes about 40, and hes about 71. Another major figure is a man not recognizable to you until i describe his role a little bit, Roger Sherman baldwin, a thenfamous antislavery figure, a former senator from connecticut. His father was very famous, Roger Sherman, one of the Founding Fathers present at the Constitutional Convention that drafted the declaration of independence x he was present at the Constitutional Convention. One of the major figures in americas founding. Baldwin himself is a famous, or was famous in his time as a very expert lawyer and, in fact, is recruited along with former president John Quincy Adams to represent the escaped slaves of the amistad if you remember that about 20 years before, a spanish slave ship in which the slaves rebelled against the crew and the ship wandered into american custody, and the big issue of the day was are these slaves now free now that theyre in america, and it went all the way to the u. S. Supreme court, and thanks to Roger Sherman baldwin and John Quincy Adams, the Supreme Court declared they were free persons. If you saw the movie, Roger Sherman baldwin is played by matthew mcconaughey, so just picture that when i mention his name. Another figure whos one of the younger men at the old gentlemens convention and the younger men tended to be the republicans because thats the rising new party and his name is Lucius Chittenden from vermont, and hes important because the conference early on said no media, this is a closed event, and were not evening going to keep our own detailed journal or minutes because we want everyone to speak, presumably, candidly. Chit pden decided in his mind that this was a hugely important event on the scale of the Constitutional Convention, and he compared himself to James Madison who kept notes, and he said im going to be declare myself the notetaker and journal maker of this event, and to his credit, announced that rather than doing it quietly, announced that to the conference early on. Several objected vociferously, but old john tyler who was presiding, who was always very concerned about propriety said, no, this assembly has no control or authority what its individual members to and say. So, mr. Chittenden, you may proceed. He kept very detailed notes of what everybody said, and thanks to him, we know what happened behind those closed doors. And finally, ill mention another figure from virginia who sort of embodies this very august assembly, another forgotten figure who was a big deal in his day, senator william california bell reeves who was a member of the gentry out in the piedmont out towards charlottesville although suffering financially a little bit and just a year before had sold over a hundred of his slaves to james sedden who i just mentioned earlier as another virginia delegate. And the reason reeves had been senator, diplomat to france during the 1830s, and just to give you an idea of the tall company he ran in, i learned from reeves great brand son that reeves daughter once boasted her parents were very, very particular about who could be the god children of their parents. For example, her one brothers godfather was robert e. Lee, and her other brothers god father was the marquis de lafayette, and her godmother was the queen of france. So very lofty asemblage that they ran with, clearly. My book doesnt just focus on the proceedings of the peace conference, it also talks a lot about whats going on outside the halls of the Willard Hotel and how they affect whats going on inside. Some of the major characters whom i talk about are, of course, the president of the United States himself, james buchanan, whos heaving office shortly leaving office shortly, in the month of march, and is desperate that the peace conference you can seed. Hes, of course, against dissolving the union. He thinks the states have no right to secede, but he also proclaims that he has no right to stop them. So hes kind of in a bond, and his last chance as he sees it is for the peace conference to succeed in some way, and hes cajoling them behind the scenes to make sure that happens. Because hes a bachelor, his first lady at the white house is his niece, harriet lane, and shes hosting social events to which the peace delegates are coming at the white house. And shes distinguished and important in that she sort of held washington together socially when Everything Else is falling apart politically. Theres general general winfiel, youll recognize hes one of the great figures of that age having been a general dating back to the war of 1812, so over 45 years. Hes now ancient himself and very fat but very imposing. Supposedly he was 64 and wore lots of braids and end lets and plumage and feathers. And supposedly when he met you, he would sweep his hat down to the floor, and the death earns would sweep the floor. So he was a gentleman of the old school. And although from virginia, is not only against slavery, but very exitcommitted to the union. Theres a famous quote that comes out of, during the peace conference. One of the delegates goes to see him at his office. He was headquartered on 17th building which is still there across from the white hous