answer begins here. the louisiana purchase. president jefferson made this purchase, and very soon a question arose, what about slavery in this new region? it wasn't until 1820 that got resolved in what is called the missouri compromise. offered by henry clay and establishes a line. the key word is line. the missouri compromise is a line 36 degrees 30 minutes, an extension give or take for surveying of the boundary from the leveraging and and kentucky. it said that no new state or territory north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes can have slavery with the exception of missouri. after that was established, four years later -- and this is the earliest i can find. it may have been years before that. i found a reference by john randolph, a congressman, virginia. the earliest reference i confined to the mason-dixon line as a line dividing free states from slave states. he said on the floor of the congress, we who belong to that unfortunate portion of this confederacy, which is south mason-dixon line and these to the allegheny mountains have to make up our minds to perish or resort to the measu

to london from jefferson davis in early 1865, right toward the end of the war in exchange for british recognition. the confederacy would promise to abolish slavery. was that a specific plan? >> very specific. a fascinating mission. the man who carried it who himself had been the largest slaveholder in the confederate congress. the fact that he had agreed to undertake this mission when a long way to persuading confederates, members of congress that they had to go along with the plan. obviously a last-ditch plan, but when the british could federates receive the plan and heard about it, he was appalled. in fact, he almost refused to get it amended. >> would not go see it. >> out for so long. he could not believe it. everything he could to sabotage the message until the very last. the prime minister. you could see it coming a mile away. the proposal. no. not about slavery. just to shut them up. >> the u.s. did sign a treaty with britain to suppress the african slave trade. the clinton administration agreed. this was sort of taken as a straw in the wind. emancipation was coming. th

with jefferson. he founded what was then called the republican party but is now the democratic party. >> john sherer, you publish both basic books and nation books. we've talked about two conservative authors and nation books would tend to be on the liberal side, i guess. >> that's right. >> is that -- what's that like, being the publisher for thomas sowell and nation books? >> it's rewarding. we tend to be agnostic politically. we want authors who are idea-driven, and you actually find that the publicity is very similar. as long as people are doing in the field of ideas, a very consistent kind of publishing actually. >> when it comes to the so-called transition that publishing is in now with e-books, etc., how does that affect your day-to-day life? >> it's been, i think it's been interesting. the publishing business was very stable for the first 15 years that i was in it, but mostly it's been useful. i think it helps us to keep the supply chain of books more readily available, and i think in general it's a very good thing. >> basic books, nation books. john sherer is the publisher.

jefferson memorial in washington. it's a kind of funny side light on franklin roosevelt personally. he as a good democrat, of course, always paid o bee sense to thomas jefferson, and i always thought fdr slightly overdid it a bit because all of his forebearers -- isaac roosevelt, old james roosevelt -- were all hamiltonians to the core. the roosevelts, in the time of jefferson, none of the roosevelts thought very much of jefferson. so fdr kind of overdid this. and, once again, i think there should be a monument to thomas jefferson in washington, but that nice neoclass call structure that you see along the tidallal basin, and i've always thought was fdr's taste, the memorial, i think, is very much a 1990s view of franklin roosevelt. and, um, i say this partly out of, from design conviction. and i don't think the structure is what he would have particularly liked. but, also, it's franklin roosevelt that we now think about historically, and that is the franklin roosevelt of the new deal. the fdr memorial in washington heavily concentrates on the depression, it concentrates on his domestic

, you know, about that story about john adams and thomas jefferson died on the same day, and it's the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence. it's july 4, 1826. if you put that in a novel, that would be so laughable. [laughter] but, you know, it is fact, and, therefore, it can be as plausible as possible. intimate, fiction. [laughter] >> i know i am a groupie and a pre-order everything you write, as soon as i hear it is coming out. >> thank you very much. >> however, this one -- >> where is this going? [laughter] speedup when it came out, with the title and content i had no idea what you're going to be writing about. and it's just like we're -- >> that's because i hate subtitles. go on. [laughter] >> what inspired you to use that title? >> oh, it is, it's a quotation from a letter written by one of the first hawaiian writers. his name is david, and he was almost 30 years old when the first missionaries arrived on maui, the odds were he lived at the time. antitoxin how to read and write. he was well schooled, but the missionaries from new england had to invent a written la

. >> absolutely. that along with jefferson fathering the children with his slave girls. those two were the first two scandals in the beginning with the towning fathers. >> host: can you tell us more? >> in the case of hamilton, they discovered that hamilton had a unique financial agement with a man named james reynolds who hamilton was paying for the rights to sleep with his wife maria reynolds. and the democratic republican found out about this and proceeded to try to defame hamilton and derail his plan to create the national bank by exposing the sex scandal. but the thing -- opening up the sex discussion, boomeranged on jefferson. because the federalist dragged out the story and that jefferson was fathering his own slave children. what we see here is that the founding fathers themselves were not above using each other's sex scandals to score political points. in fact, it's part of the long tradition of american politics. >> go back to your -- your thought of if we weren't so focused on this, we would spend more time on the important issues. seems that we've had important issues throughou

he a sleeping giant that was allowed to slumber too long by jefferson davis? >> well, no, i don't think so because lee's experience in the first year of the war had been a succession of failure. after he had helped immobilize the virginia troops and then had joined the confederacy when virginia finally did join the confederacy, he had been sent out to deal with the problem in the western part of virginia which became west virginia where mcclelland actually had overseen successful union occupation of much of that area. then mcclelland was called to washington in july, and lee was sent out to western virginia to try to recover that area. in august of 1861. and every effort he made turned out to be a failure. he came into, came under all kinds of criticism from the richmond newspapers, he was called granny lee, as you suggest. then in november of 1861 jefferson davis sent him to the south atlantic coast to charleston just in time for lee to witness the capture of port royal by the union navy and the occupation of the south carolina and the georgia sea islands by union forces, another

so john porter was able to get out of richmond on a train of left behind president jefferson tayler and davis' wife in the entire confederate cabinet. and he went all the way into north carolina and actually tried to go back into richmond but then turned around and went back into north carolina. he met up with members of the command in north carolina but they all told him to go on, the war is over for us and he fought for a moment with some of the fellows that he was with that maybe we could keep going the west and find a confederate army that is still in the field in louisiana or the trends mississippi. but what they did is they wander all the way into georgia and they wound up in that beautiful little town and the reason he went there and she had an ongoing living there. his name was john watson porter. a railroad man, a banker, and he showed up at john watson porter's house and this is in may of 1865, and john watson porter took him in and no sooner than john porter took up the quarters there three of his cousins show up all of them have been in morgan's command and all of whom h

to get out of richmond on a train right behind president jefferson davis and his wife and the entire confederate cabinet. and he went all the way into north carolina, actually tried to go back into richmond but turned around and went back to north carolina. he actually met up with many members of his old command in north carolina. but they all told him to go on. war is over. he thought for a moment with some of the fellows he was with maybe we can keep going west and find a confederate army that is still in the field in louisiana or mississippi. what they did was they wandered all the way into georgia and wound up in the beautiful town of madison. the reason he went there was he had an uncle named john watson porter. railroad man and a banker. he showed up at john watson porter's house. this was in may of 1865. john watson porter took him in. no suitor did john porter take a quarter there's an three of his cousins show up, all of whom had ridden in morgan's command and just surrendered on the tenth of may in washington, georgia. these fellows were edward lowe hines, john heinz and ja

collapsed. and so john porter was able to get out of richmond on a train right behind president jefferson davis and davis' wife and the entire confederate cabinet. he went all the way into north carolina. actually tried to go back into richmond, but then turned around and went back into north carolina. he actually met up with many members of his only command? north carolina. but they all told him to go on. the war is over for us. he thought with some of the fellas that he was with, maybe he can keep going west and find a confederate army that's still in the field in loosen transmississippi. what they did, they wardennered all the way into georgia and wound out in the beautiful little town of madison, georgia. the reason that he went there was that he had an uncle living there who was name was john watson porter, very wealthy man, railroad man, banker. he shows up at john watson porter's house in may of 1865. and john watson porter took him in and no sooner did john porter take up quarters there than three of his dozens show up. all of whom had ridden in morgan's command with him, and all

passionate speech about a young man who had served the public, starting with thomas jefferson and coming right on through. [laughter] it turned the tide. only two people voted against me. i was joined irised president johnson, one of the many that person to support hubert humphrey's as his running mate. seen as more conservative. such a man of passion. he was the most prolific was a letter of the 20th-century. more acts, more bills than any other single man in the course of the history. he was a great, great man. and because he went along, as everyone in the white house administration did with the present escalation of the war, he got trapped. he did not believe in it, even though he had been a cold warrior a decade earlier. he was way behind. and we talked about this. called me after i came back from the peace talks. he said he had to come out against the war. he did five days before the election. the gap between nixon and humphrey closed just like that. another day. no doubt. another day and his switching opinion on the war would have carried him into the white house. the whole

chess moves ahead of jefferson davis in this situation, and may even with that sort of master stroke has ended up -- i won't say winning the war, but keeping the confederacy from winning the war in the crucial moment. my lincoln is a lincoln who goes from this sort of uncertain and in some ways bumbling guy to by the end of the book a few months into the presidency becoming well on his way to the great leader, the great president that we think of today. >> and was it unfair question -- was it union or slavery? >> for lincoln? >> yeah. >> i think for lincoln, union and slavery were sort of inseparable causes because the reason that the south was succeeding was because of slavery. it was a stand southerners were taking, welcome g -- willing to yield no further to what they called the slave power. this result was decreed by a national election in 1861, and so lincoln recognized that if he were to orchestrate some sort of a compromise, and he played his hands very interesting, candidly and a bit ambivalently during the crisis, but ultimately realized if the south were allowed to b

jefferson davis in early 1865. i mean, right toward the end of the war. that in exchange for british recognition, the confederacy would promise to abolish slavery? i mean, was that a very specific plan? is. >> guest: it was very specific, and it's a fascinating mission called the duncan mission after the man who carried it who himself had been the large slave holder in the southern, in the confederate congress. so the fact that he had agreed to undertake this mission went a long way to persuading confederate members of congress. but they had to go along with the plan. it was, obviously, a last ditch plan. >> host: right. >> guest: but when the british confederates, especially the confederate ambassador james mason, received the land and heard about duncan kenner, he was appalled. in fact, he almost refused to -- >> host: right. he wouldn't let kenner go and see the foreign secretary about it. >> guest: no. he'd been out of the south for so long, he just couldn't believe it and did everything he could to sabotage the message until the very last second when he, you know, hinted to it t

and that is an entire lack of real cynicism. he was thomas jefferson's air, the foremost champion of personal liberty and this time. when he was a boy i darrow like to say the hired man had dignity. he would dine with the family of the employer. he shared their pew on sunday and he would court the bosses daughter. there were new banks, no stores and very little money. nobody had a monopoly of riches or poverty. the community was truly democratic but the nation's founding principles were stretched beyond recognition in their warped the industrial age. a shrewd and lucky few made great fortunes. carnegie and steel, morgan and finance rockefeller in oil and it it should be to their success to god, hard work and plucky and they find it in the writings of herbert spencer the comfort of an assurance that the poor deserve their life. is natures way of furthering the race by weeding out the week. the order the managers to lower costs and when workers organize unions private armies and local militias were summoned to break up the strikes and demonstrations often with volleys of rifle fire. co

jefferson and madison. julian assange may not know that our constitution was written in complete secrecy in philadelphia behind closed doors guarded by sentries and there were no leaks. some think of julian assange as a character from a steve larsen thriller, heyman who could be either a hero or villain in one of those swedish stories that makes hacker counterculture with high-level conspiracy and sex. he has become one of the most famous people in the world. there are four movies in production about julian assange. he is a fast-moving target. he moves through the country when he can. he is eccentric, volatile, an expert computer hacker turned anti secrecy crusaders. bill keller of the new york times said julian assange runs, quote, a secretive cadre of and try it secrecy vigilantes'. he is currently in england fighting extradition to sweden where he is wanted for investigation on charges of sexual assault. his two accusers say he had sex with them at first consentual the but again without using a condom as he promised. he was sent to jail. he was arrested in the u.k. and put in

plan or proposal that was carried to london from jefferson daifers in early -- davis in early 1865 to the end of the war in exchange for british recognition, the confederacy promised to abolish slavery. was that a specific plan? >> guest: it's very specific and a fascinating mission named after the man who carried it. himself, the largest slave holder in the con confederate congress. the fact he agreed to undertake the mission went a long way to persuading confederate members of congress they had to go along with the plan. it was a lost hitch plan, but when the british confederates and especially the confederate ambassador received the plan and heard about it, he was appalled. in fact, he almost refused to deliver the message. >> host: right. he wouldn't let him see the secretary about it. >> guest: he was out of the south so long, that he doesn't believe it and did everything he could to sabotage the message until the last second where he hinted about it to the prime minister. you could see it coming a mile away this was the proposal, and they said, oh, no, no, it's not about slavery