Judging presidents, past and present

the expression time will tell may strike you was a bit of a cliche but that doesn't mean it isn't true which brings us to the respected historians our Mo Rocca has been talking to now this is an executive order this is the mother of all executive orders visit Washington's National Archives with Pulitzer prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and you'll see just how excited she gets by the past I've never seen it before you just jumped up and down that's awesome this is the Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln's Civil War order freeing slaves held in Confederate States Abraham Lincoln was worried because that morning he had shaken hundreds of hands so when he went to sign his name his own hand was numb and shaking he put down the pen he said if ever my soul were in an act it is in this act but if I sign with a shaking hand posterity will say he hesitated so he waited and waited and look at that hand it is a very bold clear he's very steady of course these days steady doesn't exactly describe the nation's mood people will come up to me and say can you please tell me that these are not the worst of times people do want to have some history and I can assure them that we've been through far worse times before what person or period would you recommend that people read about for context well I think the best context to what's happening now and really what produced Trump's election is to look back at the turn of the 20th century what you had then so much like we have now you had an industrial revolution that shook up the economy much as globalization the tech revolution have done today this hobby would put on display at the Patent Office for years I'm not a historian I'm not a great scholar I'm not a scholar at all the roam through the archives with David Rubenstein and he turns into a veritable tour guide does anybody have a question for David Rubenstein about the Declaration of Independence that is the original you're kidding that is it and which way did the Magna Carta the billionaire financier is right at home here yes that's his name on the gallery housing his personal copy of the Magna Carta the 13th century English Charter establishing the principle that everyone is subject to the law and guaranteeing rights to individuals we want the right of habeas corpus we want the right to trial by jury it's on permanent loan at the archives this is the only copy in the United States and I thought it was important because it was the inspiration for the declaration independence and many of the things that we've stand for in our country Rubenstein the co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group has cut checks for more than 200 million dollars not just for historic documents but to preserve sites like Jefferson's Monticello and to restore the Washington Monument after it was damaged in a 2011 earthquake I'm now in a position to give back to my country and that's what I've tried to do through what I call patriotic philanthropy try to remind people of the history and heritage of our country the good and the bad Rubenstein is now sharing his love of American history with the women and men who have the power to change it members of Congress over the last six years he's invited lawmakers to the Library of Congress to hear him interview eminent historians about great leaders and we get between 250 and 300 people coming each time we have one of these events but half of those are members of Congress that's a lot of members of Congress yes some of the talks are featured in Rubenstein's new book published by Simon & Schuster an affiliate of CBS what we've learned over thousands of years is that history repeats itself and if you can find the solutions that people came up with or the mistakes they made in trying to deal with these problems you're probably going to avoid some of the mistakes that people made in the past honor was very important it's in our basic documents we don't talk much about honor anymore what is it that's a good question I'd say it's doing what we know is right for the betterment of our country historian David McCullough has one Pulitzers writing about two presidents he sees as exemplars of Honor Harry Truman and John Adams it must help you was a writer to move through the spaces absolutely you have to just strolling through New York's Mount Vernon Hotel Museum a property once owned by Adams daughter brought out the song-and-dance man in McCulloch Adams is still still underrated still underappreciated there's no statue no memorial to John Adams in Washington first founding father who became president who never owned a slave never on purpose right that's a big deal right bet it is Adams wasn't perfect for one thing he signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts some of the harshest anti-immigrant and censorship measures in the nation's history but our historians say the tendency to fixate on the flaws of past leaders is blinding us to their larger accomplishments we can look back at Abraham Lincoln and say he didn't believe in intermarriage or he didn't believe that blacks should have the right to vote and of course you wish he didn't believe that way but he also did the Emancipation Proclamation we can look at FDR and say there will be forever a stain on his legacy about not letting more Jewish refugees into the country incarcerated the japanese-americans and yet he won the Allied victory in world war two he got us through the depression we're so anxious to see the imperfections of the past that we're forgetting the good things in the past and then they no longer can teach us anything to use modern parlance you can't cancel the past you can't cancel the past as for the present David McCullough says it's not too soon to evaluate the current commander-in-chief how do you think history is gonna judge President Trump very badly is self-evident in our own time we don't have to wait for esri it's the most disappointing and grotesque image of the presidency in our whole story our whole history never have we had more right to be very concerned but David Rubenstein isn't ready to render a verdict on President Trump I think it's too early to say how any president will be judged because you got the way to their term is over looking at the current field of democratic challengers Doris Kearns Goodwin is concerned with how we choose the next president one of the things that Lincoln said even though he was good at the debates and he could speak extemporaneously once he got to be President he hardly ever wanted to speak spontaneously he only wanted to wait to be prepared because he said words matter when you're president your words carry weight let me play the cynic for one minute here you know and saying you know what anyone who runs for president must have a mighty high opinion of himself got to be a narcissist by definition no they can feel the responsibility if no one else is stepping up and saying what needs to be said for doing what needs to be done I'll do it that's the person you want that's the person I would male female black white asian you name it that doesn't matter and for all of his concerns David McCullough remains in optimist and we're just getting started that's the way I feel 200 years is nothing

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 319,048

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, Mo Rocca, historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, David Rubenstein, The American Story, presidential leadership

Id: 2GJELSIIsAE

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 27 2019