Historian, David Mccullough. I am also very happy to ie,roduce his wife rosal because i said to david is she coming to the lecture . And he said, i cant go anywhere without adult supervision. [laughter] awesome, she is to david what Abigail Adams was to john adams. She is the fabulous [applause] fabulous,the. Ndispensable life partner she is not only beautiful inside and out, but she told me last davidand she met mccullough she was only 17, and the first time they went to a together, party they danced until 7 00 in the morning. She had to put her heels back on to sleep, because her beats were bent and that shape. They cared deeply about each other, and each others wellbeing, and they take advice from each other. Readsld me she often davids books to him and because he would like to see where he could be boring. When you google David Mccullough you will be blown away by the his lifeof productivity. I wont give you a list of everything, but all of you google it. He has had an extraordinary number of prizes, honors, and honorary degrees during his lifetime. But twoeceived not one, of the coveted pulitzer prizes. Let me tell you a little bit more about what i know of david. He has achieved success in every aspect of his life. Greatnot only a historian, writer, and lecturer, he is a great husband and father, and grandfather. He is a great man and a good man. And you know, i think goodness counts in life. [applause] he said last week we had a dear friend and he is blind. Gordon said to stanley and me that i listen to books on tape and rely on them. He said, i would rather listen to David Mccullough reading than anyone else. When i listen to the wright said no reader is as good as David Mccullough. When i was the region at mount opened the exceptional orientation center, education center, and museum. There was only one man i wanted to deliver the keynote speech, and that was David Mccullough. I was beyond thrilled when he accepted as was everyone at mount vernon. Delivered a memorable speech and it meant the world to me, and we were launched. That night at the ball, i watched david and rosalie dance, and i will tell you write a stair and Ginger Rogers fred aire and Ginger Rogers, move over. I hosted another events, many patriots were there. David and rosalie were there, and david stood up and said ladies and gentlemen, this is hollowed ground. Just think of where we are sitting, and that we see a view across the potomac to maryland, and there are no highrises, no thanksgs, and no lights to the Mount VernonsLadies Association who have protected the view. It looks almost exactly as it did in the 18th century. And then he said, this is where George Washington and martha entertained, hamilton, lafayette , adams, madison. He said we are sitting in the same place, and everybody stood up to toast. All of us were misty eyed and had goosebumps. David is it true you do all of your typing on a typewriter, he said, absolutely. I write on a 1940 world standard royal standard. I asked him why he never changed to a computer. I understand my typewriter and i dont understand computers, and also with a twinkle in his eye he said i like to hear the ping at the end of a sentence. Me wherever he goes, that typewriter is with them, and all he has ever had do is change the ribbon eight you times a few times. Also told me he is a line painter, and she paints, too. Will have an exhibit someday soon. After reading john adams, which david wrote at marthas vineyard, i said how do get your mind into the 18th century. He said i go out the back door after breakfast, leaving behind the 21st century and i go to a stonewall and a and im leaving the 20th century. And then i walk through another gate in a stone fence, and i get to my cabin. 18th century,e and everything will book in the room is either an 18th century copy or about the 18th century. He said nobody is ever allowed to interrupt me ever except the people who are not as tall as the gate. He said they are not really coming to see me, they are coming to see that old typewriter. Excuse me. I always go home for lunch, he said, and then back to work. He said, but i am not ever working on a book, i am working inside the subject. The good news is that means they are still being read, and that is his book when i asked him, what is your greatest accomplishment, he said, i dont know, but i am proud of the fact that all of my books are still in print. Books are still being read. On april 18 this year, his newest book the american spirit will be coming out. It is a collection of speeches and talks in the past 25 years. All of us in this audience are going to love it. It includes his talk at the 200 celebration of congress, and the 200 celebration of the white house. It also includes, he said, the hardest speech he ever had to give in his life, which was at the Memorial Service or our assassinated president , john kennedy and dallas in pouring rain and cold. He said the United StatesNaval Academy course was singing battle hymn of the republic and everybody was sobbing, but that speech will be in the book. And also, a speech he did at lafayette college. Stanley and i went to hear that, i think it was 2007, it was all about the ties that bind about lafayette and frances relationship with united the. With the United States. With daviding lunch and rosalie when i told him about my dream of having this series. He said, gay, thats a wonderful idea. He said go for it. He gave me lots of advice. But i had an idea and needed speakers. And i had the most amazing positive support from chairman patrick henry, president david brenneman, and head of the with this would not have happened. We are here. Thank you all for coming. Give david a warm palm beach welcome. [applause] think you thank you. Thank you very much. Morning and thank you very much. Dear, for all that you said and all that you have done for your country. Particularly, what you did for your country and the work you did year after year at mount vernon. There are very few sites in the much ofat harkin as what is important in our story as the people of mount vernon. Also a perfect example of someone who understands that the only way to get something of consequence accomplished is to work together. Very little is ever accomplished unless it is a joint effort. Thank you very much. [applause] i also appreciate your reference to my mellifluous voice. You never know where problems can come from in life. One of them happened to me in boston two or three years ago when we had that horrific blizzard that followed another. We had a cumulative snowfall of five feet. It was a disaster. Subways were not running. You could not use your card. Try to get to the market to get provisions to survive the next last of snow. Rosalie and i made up a list. I went to the nearest supermarket to get everything on the list. I was doing fine. The whole place was a madhouse. Was like the russians were on the horizon or something. I had everything on the list except the cashews. You cannot survive without cashews. , i saidlow going by excuse me could you tell me where i might find the cashews . He said follow me. We went around a few turns and he pointed it out. He went his way. 10 minutes later i was checking out at the cash register. He came up to me and said excuse me, that voice. Review by any chance the narrator of the series on the civil war . I said yes, i was. He said i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. When that series first came on the air, i was suffering terribly from insomnia. [laughter] he said i would hear you talk and go right out. It is also a very great privilege for me to take a part in this series with so many other distinguished historians and friends. It is really a lineup. I wish i have been able to attend their lectures. I admire each and everyone, and i know each and everyone has fulfilled a void that needs filling in our understanding of our history and our story. To thank her and others for what they have said about rosalie. Rosalie and i have been married for 63 years. We have 19 grandchildren, five children. She is mission control. She is secretary of the treasury. She is chair of the ethics committee. I ithe star ice cube steer by. This. F the great has said it is very helpful for anyone who wants to write something that has any value. To get someone to read it aloud to you because you hear things that you not necessarily see. Beingar certain words repeated more often than necessary. You hear certain sentence structure that gets tiresome. Most important you hear when you become boring. You want to cut back or permit back. Back. M it chaptersften read three or four times over 50 years now. My first book, the johnson flied. She was reading the next last chapter of mornings on horseback. Ide she suddenly stopped and said something is wrong that citizens. I said read it again. She read it again. I said nothing is wrong with that sentence. She said yes there is. This is not one of my better moments. I read it aloud. She said something is wrong. I said go on. The chapter was finished. The book was finished. We sent it to the publisher. It came out. It was reviewed, and it got a very nice review. Toward the end of the review, he said sometimes he does not write so well. This into this sentence listen to this sentence. Rosalie, where are you, sweetheart . Stand up. [applause] i feel very strongly that education is one of the most important aspects of life. Not just in preparation to take part in life, but to appreciate and enjoy life. Education is one of the foundations of greatest importance to our old american way of life. One of the reasons the revolutionary hero, the war, will spirit of the revolution are so important, remain so important is because of the emphasis in that time, by those the civic people, on the importance of education. Jefferson said it perfectly. He said any nation that expects to the ignorant and free, expects what never was and what never will be. All of them, each and every one of them either was an example of the importance of education because he or she had education or because they did it themselves. George washington being a prime example. Abigail adams being another prime example of self educated people. Ways, ins was in many his childhood and youth, living under the same circumstances as abraham lincoln. He grew up on a farm where they had no money come his mother was couldrate, his father sign his name, maybe could read. Day fromed hard every childhood on. Because he got a scholarship to this Little College in cambridge called harvard, and as he said discovered books and read forever, he became the john adams who helped change the world. Question about it. When he was 80 years old, he was embarking on a 16 boeing history of france and french, which he had taught himself. Become theis way to representative in paris, and trying to get the french to help us win the revolutionary war. Knowing no french, he decided to teach himself. He taught himself on the way over on the ship. Adams read everything. He never went anywhere without a book. One of his most memorable lines to his son, john quincy, was you will never be alone with a poet in your pocket. He would carry a small volume of poetry in his pocket. Emphasis on education also included libraries. ,ne of the most emblematic Historic Sites in america in this respect is Carpenters Hall in philadelphia. Most people when they go to philadelphia walk right by next door hall, right to independence hall. It is an exquisite little building. Upstairs in that building was a library created by Benjamin Franklin stop in many ways, it was a Public Library. Great trees from acorns grow. That is one of the lessons from our story. The whole population of our country in some 76 was 2,500,000 people. 500,000 of those people were in slavery. Money. No when we went to war, we had no money, no army, navy. We had no officers with extensive experience in the military. Only about one third of the country were for the revolution. We forget that. Many were against that. Others were waiting to see here one who won. Yet they persisted. I do not think we can know. Nough about the founders we have to see them as human being. History is human. Human is the operative word. History is not about dates and memorizing quotations, it is about people. Beings, andhuman they are different from each other. They all have their thoughts, their feelings. None of them ever knew how it would turn out any more than we do. Theyut forced by talked about foresight. Medical history should be taught that is how history should be taught. I am not one who favors the view from the mountaintop, the wisest are the people who said they should have done this or that. Andyourself in their places then try to judge what they did or did not do. Dualst started to write a biography of jefferson and adams. I thought this is an amazing story. Configurationlass , if youre thinking about structure. These two very different men, from very different parts of the country, totally different backgrounds, come together in philadelphia, help create with others this miraculous achievement, the declaration of independence, and then when the story begins to develop beyond that, they go in this direction to the point where they become not only bibles but enemies. Makeup,ery end, the ofy are out of the out power and become friends again. It is a wonderful story. In ends. How it if i were going to do a novel about adams and jefferson and said it gets wet, they are going to die in the same day. Guess what, they are going to die on the same day and it will be the fourth of july. Of course not, that cannot happen in real life. Yet, that is exactly what happened in real life. I began reading about john adams. I knew very little. My first visit to a Historic Site was when i was 15 to charlottesville, to monticello. I came back thrilled to have seen that. There is nothing like taking your children or your grandchildren to a Historic Site to light the fire of interest in our story of the nation as a people. It works. Does not have to be monticello or gettysburg. It could be all sorts of things. Pardon me . Mount vernon. Monticello is the first place i went, the first i ever visited. When i went to monticello, things changed. When i started to read about adams, i thought what an amazing story. Ofn i began to get inside jeffersons life, there were roadblocks everywhere. You cannot get very far in the personal life. Jefferson destroyed every letter his wife ever wrote to him. He destroyed every letter he wrote to her. He would write friends of theirs, who might have received a letter from his wife, saying if you have any letters from my wife, i would love to have them. Then he would destroy them. Why he did that, we will never know. We dont even know what she looks like. The more i read about her, the i ami in impressed impressed. You cannot understand him without understanding her. The first seven president of the United States, john adams was the only one who never owned a slave. Not because hee, cannot afford one. Abigails feelings were even more strongly voiced than his. The next president to not own a slave was john quincy adams, his son. Talk about influence. Talk about setting an example. Talk about not being inconsistent. Them the utmost importance. Among many of the new englanders who fought in the revolutionary believe ind not slavery, who were strongly against slavery i am working on a book now on the settlement of the northwest territory, the territory ceded by britain after the revolution. Succeeded indams to feed all this territory northwest of the ohio cede all this territory northwest of the ohio river. As large as the 13 colonies, as large as friends. There was no settlement there. For revolutionary war era that bill through the northwest ordinance, through the congress before we even had a constant tension stop because of their feelings on slavery, they convinced the congress, before we had a constitution, that there would be no slavery in the northwest territory. Andnsely important influential. Had to do if only youre black, was to cross the ohio river and you are free. The underground railroad came into existence. Perpetrated and made effective by a group of people, who are convinced that this had to be done. And they would not give up. If there is a lesson to be learned from the revolutionary is that they would not give up. They persevered. The were willing to accept failures or flaws in others with whom they were working in order to accomplish this noble achievement. They did. They succeeded. Method ofcal approaching problems is a very strong american characteristic. You figure out what is going wrong, why you are not come fishing something and then you correct that and keep going until you do it. This is very different from the where theretaught is a specific way things are supposed to be handled and you do that until things are done. The building of the cammock now will stop the french engineers were the greatest engineers in the world at the time. You had to do everything a certain way. Our engineers came along where the french failed because they failed to see what the real problem was and failed to correct it. Many of our people had never been to engineering schools. They worked on railroads in bridges. They saw that if something is not working, you make an adjustment and try again. That is what was happening in the revolutionary war with our peaceful our people. War is toor the little understood. We had one of the worst depressions in the history of the country. Soldiers were being paid in worthless script. The government had no money. It had the land. Among the other things beyond there will be no slavery, there will be public support for public education. Hence, the state universities. We should never take this for granted. We think about our Public Library system, no other country has anything like it. Imagine, you can go into any Public Library in this country in theory or in fact and get a complete education for free. You do not have to pay anything. When you think of the importance of books in the development of minds, we should not just read what they wrote, but what they read. What they read had a huge impact. When of my favorite examples of all, i was reading one of john adams letters to abigail. Things were looking very dark. Chance we were going to succeed. Thisid we may not need in struggle. We may not achieve success in this struggle, bu