everybody has that thought and it is interesting to find that was the last commentary on that. >> commitment so much to her that there really does does, across how much the conflict meant to these characters. thank you for being with us. [applause] todd brewster recounts the six months between when president lincoln announced the plans to free the slaves

and the signing of the "emancipation proclamation" and generate first-come 1863. the author reports contrary to popular belief lincoln struggled with his decision and spent quite a bit of time drafting the document as he dealt with self doubt and oppression. this is one hour. >> hello. thanks to those who are here this evening i am sure todd will sign them after the event but another program coming up october 1st historian and author will be here to talk about his new book, robert e. lee. that should be good. c-span is here tonight filming booktv so if they

miss tonight's program they can see it on c-span. i would like to welcome todd brewster who has spoken at the library before a member of the history faculty and u.s. military academy at west point. longtime journalist working with editors at time and life and senior producer for abc news. working with many publications and also the co-author with update peter jennings the century. he lives here in richfield with his wife and children and an avid baseball fan. that may be an understatement. [laughter] and was president of the leak for three years. george stephanopoulos called the book and a wonderful

study authority of the folks the strategy of the best president to change the civil war and thereby the destiny of the nation says ken burns. please welcome todd brewster [applause] >> thanks mark and leslie. starting of the book tour i was at the national archives early this week. i am going to use their francisco tomorrow and npr and this is the most intimidating right here. [laughter] my friends are in the audience so no difficult questions. [laughter] c-span is here so if you have a suggestion your up late one night you can watch reagin and again. i am delighted to be here.

i am delighted you took time out of your busy lives to come here tonight to listen to me talk about the 16th president. and it is sell wonderful place a wonderful town with wonderful people and very proud to be here and live here and thrilled to talk to you tonight. one of the first comments i get from people when i tell them is the road to a book about abraham lincoln and the response is really? he is the most written about person in america in history according to the on-line card catalog 22,274 books and second and third editions including the life of abraham lincoln told in words with one syllable.

[laughter] the personal finances of abraham lincoln. see you can check on the i.r.a.. abraham lincoln on the coming of the caterpillar tractor. [laughter] first published the physical thing can including the chapters guts scall muscles skin eyes, height, brain and the holiest man i ever saw. so what is left to say even the ups man paused as he was leaving my driveway one day and said this is great you are doing this if you're reading this book are you riding which has already been written again? does your version mean he survives the assassination? [laughter] i listened carefully and i said it off my property never to come back ever again. but the truth is he was

right there are no new facts :the new interpretations of what we have. so not a discovery of love lost letter or a telegram but my persistent feeling of the frustration of the storybook linkedin in my belief we have done him a great disservice. just it with you were interpretations but as the self-serving racist from easter weekend and skier the less noble aspects of characters the overt political nature of the obtuse am preference for a future well into the 20th century.=

stephen douglas the phase-out of slavery is the ultimate extension could take 100 years or more that men slavery through 1958 the time elvis presley and little rock and eisenhower and brown v. board of education. this is hard to imagine slavery was dying a slow death but think of the man recalls the great demand debaters speaking in such a way. who knows? it could be another example of what is described but still for the period of thist book is not the sharp bikaner of moral clarity but a man of many faces changeable moments to greet

the moment at hand for what he truly believes to get the good and the bad he was man flawed self-serving given to cowardice incompetence as well as billions -- billions but all this is acutely exhibited in the most turbulent in a tumultuous period of his life six months when centered around the issue around the emancipation and creation it is almost certainly the third most important documents in american history. that is the "emancipation proclamation".

no great phrases are etched into the consciousness by the second inaugural address. no identifiable all elements that all men are created equal or the constitution but instead carefully written document phrased in the language was all poetry of a bill of lading. [laughter] my book "lincoln's gamble" begins with a carriage rideñ 1862 when lincoln first mentions the "emancipation proclamation" to secretary of state seward and secretary of the navy wells a to netiquette citizen it hands sighting of the proclamation 1863. in between you watch him at work on his first draft sitting in the telegraph office in this is from the

scenes of the movie lincoln. paper with a little water mark it wased known as the foolscap with the dunce cap with the spiders crawling in the window of the telegraph office. we witness the first reading but the members of his cabinet that they felt bad before the union urging him to put it away to issue upon the next union victory whenever that might be. then paradoxically we see teetoo -- lincoln the delegation of black leaders encouraging them to be in a migration out of america back to africa or to panama or in south america where you and me are different races even when you cease to

be slaves your far removed and it is better for us both to be separated. and then listen to them go every bit farther that is just cleaning tens of thousands but then without us there could be no war to which frederick douglass said is like blaming a horse thief leaving the presence of a horse. rediscover lincoln in agnostic or scientific rationalist in a spiritual crisis where he begins to doubt the power of reason to affect outcomes and turns to a guide with this serious and unallowable ways for god wills these contests that it shall not and get. we watch them denied the

"emancipation proclamation" even as the doctor it lies in hise- desk drawer then he goes further insisting emancipation would not only be wrong but a foolish act a reference to 15th century. you all know him. seeing that the operation of haley's comet to issue the ticket to condemn or excommunicate it. with antietam we see him get his long-awaited victory. september 17, 1862, today is the anniversary the worst day at war with 23,000 casualties twice as many deaths with the entire mexican war, four times the american losses of the

invasion of ormandy and all that in one day. as he promised the cabinet he issues the documen[ he promises only as a threat they he will emancipate the slaves if theater states do not put down the arms to return to the union but if they do and they'll be granted the opportunity for a gradual compensated phase out with no condition for a time limits months or years or decades and of course, that all efforts would continue to colonize persons of african descent to other volumes. watching the mid term support to mclellan to discover the replacement is more incompetent than mcclellan was disloyal. he begins to step to a more unforgiving rule attacking

civil society ensure that freeing by the slaves cannot legitimately be seen as part of the battle. men december 1862 the annual address reverses his approach again never mentioning the proclamation but instead his constitutional amendments guaranteeing compensation to those that agree and extend the year 1900 and if they take such advantage to we adopt slavery all they have to do is give back the money they received. who is this man? [laughter] to be fair there were considerable obstacles. there were constitutional could the slaves be freed and if so under what power of congress? they were property in a legal sense even if the

constitution protected that for the government taking. if not for an act of congress how will that emancipation be realized? that was beyond the powers of the president but is not if was the executive for power and that is what he chose. the "emancipation proclamation" was to be written with great care and this power alone that the irony is rich if you free the slaves of military necessity the justification was strategic nothing about the evils one man serving as a master to another. the military strategies by definition are provisional once it is completed but it could only be temporary.

slaves could only be done for the confederate south and the states in rebellion since there was no dietary necessity for those that were not or even the parts were the confederacy already surrendered no slaves would be left in shackles on touched by the proclamation. this meant if he sat working in the telegraph office a man admired for his profession to alter a document freedom for a time only and only for some and not for all. there is more. the idea that somehow after centuries of slavery the black-and-white to raise with live in harmony was wishful thinking. he personally was not optimistic. has convinced that ending

slavery was the right to thing to do but it could lead to servile insurrection of the slaves turning on former slaves org/ in pure genocide vice versa in the aforementioned meeting he urges black leaders to lead allow mass migration away from america he believes the state of slavery can never be erased but is always in the history that blacks and whites have to contend. this is the impulse for colonization and the future there was no violation for future of america. but there are serious issues the emancipation and proclamation was a wise military move for social move. northern democrats for opposition building midterm elections already had the dangers inherent to take

away the jobs of the northern whites. how would the border states react? for what lincoln had in mind responding to the emancipation and proclamation with renewed enthusiasm. what is a response with the troops? were they ready to fight to end slavery? at the' thought of what is considered to be an inferior race progressed much as the investigation proclamation for lincoln and the war up until this time it was the clash of our reasons given to patients proclamation to is introducing it as a clash of society's. this is not simply soldiers but against the entire civil structure. institutions.

with such forms of fighting which is of a precursor to the 20th century was unchristian uncivilized or of becoming a very great people although opinion polls. no studies he had to work from his gut this man that was so good to build the case there is a remarkable scene in august when stewing over the proclamation in fights his friend to come to the white house. he asked him to sit with him while he reads from letters containing all matters of arguments. lincoln loved to read aloud for when i read aloud i hear what is ready and i see it there by catching the ada by two senses. isn't that great? the friend responded each allowed each argument for and against but his reaction

was sought nor provided the elevator it seem to be an instance of stating conclusions out loud not that they might convince another but lincoln might see for himself how they looked when taken out of the region and embodied by words. his approach was so careful injudicious and absent of any will to persuade more as a witness to the operation. i and on and on its wit. lincoln debating with himself and others who would only could be the greatest gamble of his life in the nation's life. , like to read to exurbs the first reni key issues the a preliminary emancipation and proclamation there are three

versions the first is that lincoln goes on the telegraph office and brings it to a cab meeting, and tb!qj5iq)e he is told by some word the best idea is put in your pocket wait for at a victory then issue it he puts it in his pocket and works on it and gives it attention privately and the telegraph office then in september as he nears the end of the month with the battle of antietam he goes off to the soldiers home in washington a cottage reserved for the soldiers and works on the second draft. then he brings that to the cabinet after antietam patsy issues the preliminary "emancipation proclamation".

>> hoodoo of the subtleties of the preliminary proclamation with the authoritarian rhythms to moral purpose will be recognized and appreciated? that mystery to beak despised as if he was hiding something behind his prose. linkedin was speaking against slavery for decades in just mentioned a proclamation without the most forceful reason for doing it because it was the right thing to do. just inside he written a proclamation to remove 4 million people from bondage but his greatest concern is he not be seen as acting and democratically to force his will on others if there is no denying that he was acting and democratically and this was

the same man in peoria had quoted the declaration of independence and only for expression of equality but for the expression that governments derive the just powers from the consent of the governed.p4 poll situation was a russian nesting dolls the irony encased within another inside one more. and it was possible no irony. it is hard to believe that 1862 date as reference before and then to argue to reduce the ambitions to a simple recognition that god wills the contest in addition, india. is that so unusual that this was not his act but of by god.

and by the almighty this point of view is not moral at all but could only be a bore measure as a way for that contest to continue as he would will it to end. those in a room with him seem to recognize we witness the historic moment of the second american revolution. this proclamation was as a brave gesture of those that inspired it no one knew what would happen next with this bold expression could be the saving of union leading to its destruction for heroes and the and when to reduce of authority. many thought it unlikely if

anything that might link than in a little probability the rebels would except the terms and cease but now the mission is well liked so many in the south as so many in the north provided emancipation to the slaves. the matter the odds vacation the density of the legal prose it was now the central issue. handing the amended proclamation to sioux word in turn pass it off to the private secretary then turning that over to the assistant secretary william stoddard whose job was to make copies by he and for the house and the senate. years later he would describe what was going to his mind as he considered the of germany of the simple task.

linkedin own hand the proclamation read it carefully before you take up your pan and think of what it means for the future of your country and the mint said it liberates purple you try you cannot. you're not nervous but you spoil a sheet of paper no wonder. but you cannot think,m of breaking. outside the lighthouse on the evening of the twenty-four's of group serenaded lincoln hearing news of the proclamation had gathered up pennsylvania avenue playing music and abruptly stopping in the portico of the executive mansion standing boosted during the architecture of the dream. the crowd would flow in to fill every quarter of the grand entrance as molten

metal fills a mold and lincoln startled the verge he said what i did i did after a full deliberation and enter a very heavy responsibility and i can only trust that i made no mistake. he begged off any further dialogue. subject in my position i have difficulties. they're scarcely so great as those who are on the battlefield to purchase with their blood and their lives and future happiness and prosperity of this country country, let us never forget the crowd burst water dash dispersed and going to the town house on the quarter, the there the abolitionist crusaders cassius clay so long a critic of linkedin appeared

before them. someone call for a gaslight that all that was needed is 780 from this great act. in it was the dawn of a new era when baptized by blood. klay added a few words of his own been doing to buy the other diplomats their retired inside with they enjoy a wine and conversation. is this the folders stayed in the union they may have kept the life sounding like a man that was already a joy in victory. it was a new ending sybaritic life. the president's proclamation would feed them and greet them as they call themselves abolitionist and seemed to enjoy to appropriate that

once we're pulled the same. that is a wonderful description of the scene. can you imagine? not knowing what would happen next lincoln issued the preliminary "emancipation proclamation" in september this south had until june reversed some accusative of lying and that provisions for a gradual emancipation play and could have been committed this back to the union? lincoln stopped referring by the time he gets to his annual message she does not mention it at all and many are worried he will not fulfil the task or do the final act. but here he is december 31st, 1862.

>> along with making the final edits on the proclamation spending new year's day eve he signed the billáí admitting 48 counties in to the union. . .

that his father stayed up this entire night. while he waited decades to reveal that fact is unknown but if it is true, one suggests especially from the vantage point of 150 years in history there is lincoln, whoever that may be alone in his cold dark study what was likely the first time in a long time when he could permit himself the luxury of concentration. we do not know for certain about this particular night usually fell asleep in his father's study and eventually he would pick him up and carry him to bed. but once he was alone and settled into the silence what went through his mind?

robert langdon said his mother before tiring repeated her opposition to the but he hasn't revealed his intentions. he simply paste pausing once in a while to read verses from the bible and to gaze through the white house window at the night sky. the six months preceding this had been transformative for him. he built a career on reason and argument on the powers of human agency to effect change. his entire life was an example of the enlightenment and creed a self educated backwoodsman of questionable birth whose literary and political leaders brought him to the greatest of heights. yet the exasperating task of ending slavery had reawakened him for what he did not know and what he could not know. it was uncanny the same sort of tiffany occurred through all the challenges of his life. he awarded those that in

artillery with slide rules and diagrams get they had failed and now in the light of their failure he leaned towards a more muscular less cerebral war that permitted any act deemed to be a military necessity any act that further to the intended end the war. he believes a gradual p. shuttlecraft -- peaceful pact -- yet here he was hours away from freeing the slaves not by the construction of the measured the measure planned by the legislative process, but by the presidential fiat announced from the barrel of a gun. ironically for someone accused of such a bald-faced power, lincoln tried to privately moved to the will of something greater than himself. lincoln may describe the force

as the almighty god and intended the references indeed to the divine being divine being increased as the conditions in the war and his presidency got worse but it was the same that he contemplated in the september meditation of the divine will. he's a force of inevitability and cause and effect of the working out process only. his philosophy wrote his partner of the source of the legendary grace and humility. if men are mere tools in the hands of fate made as they are by conditions committed to praise them or blame them was pure folly. this philosophy stressed to quality ironically the president upon whom so many great men series for the conditions of the world of the next because all were helpless to change events as directed above.

when they arrived in the morning asking what he had decided the president looked up and answered i am a man under orders i cannot do otherwise. thank you very much. [applause] i will take questions from anybody. >> hell do you think that lincoln would be viewed in today's political spectrum liberal, conservative, democrat, republican. >> that is a loaded question. >> low, certainly people describe the civil war as a

turning point for american history with respect but before the civil war the united states is a plural noun afterwards it is a singular noun. it is meaning that the federal government obtains a certain level of supremacy with the board that it didn't have you could argue that the fights that we see going on day in and day out about the supremacy of the federal government versus the power of the states, the movement towards the federal government derives from that point in this point in american history he was asserting that the moral and governmental secrecy of the federal government of the entire country as a single unit and remember the arguments about the secession are the key for this because he believed the secession was unconstitutional. denying in some respects you could imagine some element of democracy because of course if the state of north carolina wants to secede and has a authority that wishes to secede he says that's unconstitutional

on unacceptable and that is what he was fighting for to protect and defend the constitution of the united states with respect to these arguments over the super messy of the government versus the states i think that he would have come out on the side side that you would associate with the democratic party. of course he was a member of the republican party. i hesitate to apply modern issues more deeply than that simply because i think it is unfair to him probably and unfair to us to meet our own sense of what we have in front of us rather than to seek the heroes from the past to attach them one way or another. one of the interesting things about what happened in the scholarship immediately after his very tragic death was that everyone started grabbing onto the association with him so there were biography is written that he was a devout christian

but he wasn't coming with a man committee was a man of god that certain respects, but he was a first-inning man. he was not -- he couldn't be labeled as a traditional christian i don't think. >> his wall partner wrote a very controversial biology in which he talked about lincoln. so that informed how he decided to write his biography. much less it was people that wanted to claim him as a member of the party truly or another party truly and so, you had this sort of grab bag going on for the legacy. so everything under creation. the scholarship isn't the service in some respects i wanted to reclaim the humanity of lincoln and i'm looking to fight back here.

more questions? stack some time ago part of the reason for the emancipation proclamation was to keep england out of the war. >> yes. i didn't touch on the impact of the foreign relations. secretary stewart was very keen on making this point to the president. more about the recognition in the confederate states with recognition of course the confederacy would've gained a new would gain the new stature that lincoln didn't want it to have which raises another constitutional question for lincoln which was coming and this is a very familiar question and i will come back for a second here because while i would attach to the one party or another, the issues that were present in a lot of what was

going on our present today as well not only the competition between the federal government and the states, but think of this lincoln trying hard to define if it was a war or not. what have we been talking about the past few weeks? we've been talking about it ever since 9/11 with respect to the treatment of the detainees. is it a cry to the coat crime or an act of war? lincoln was dealing with the same thing. as the generals would say and refer to the south they would say it's not then it's us. don't refer to the south as something separate from the states in rebellion that we are not at war with them in the traditional sense of the foreign war. this created problems for him because the taking of personal property which he justified as an act of the war had only been

applied to the foreign war so he actually needed a set of db2 decision in the supreme court that shouldn't come until 1863 which allowed him to conduct the civil war according to the same terms it might be conducted so the definition of what is a war and what is a rebellion and what is crime and an act of the war this was part of the conversation in the 1860s just as it was a part of the conversation as to what was supreme the government with the power of the states. >> one of the things i thought about that kind of was an act of war. >> great britain, you mean. they could have, sure. but of course they didn't.

>> you spoke about the states that were not included in a position or proclamation. delaware, kentucky, maryland i believe it was. how did they assemble or deal with the freedom of the slaves because they were not included. what was the process and how did they get a rounded? >> this all leads up to the 13th amendment so they are freed by the amendment which is actually the story that i tell is the precursor to the story of the film which is the passage and you may remember he is very passionate about getting it done because he does not believe that the emancipation proclamation would be durable enough to have the freedom of the slaves adhere past the war.

the question that is raised if it was not freeing them in the territory of the federal government control, then how would a free anyone? and it didn't free anyone immediately. but the union army then became an army of liberation and wherever the army went it could liberate slaves. one of the key differences i just refer to the different versions of the emancipation proclamation, the difference, working very carefully with lincoln changing the language, trying to make it stronger and better only recognizes the freedom of the slaves but maintain it in other words defend it with the september proclamation he does that and in the january proclamation actually becomes law and he says encourage the enlistment of the slaves in the union army and so when hundred 80,000 to 200,000 soldiers emerge in the army at

the last years are very sick attempt to the conduct of the war. most of them are free sleeves that lost the south and returned. very key. >> did they not get get their freedom until the 13th amendment passed? >> yes that's right until the 13th amendment passed. >> others? >> did you notice in your research if lincoln or anybody thought about 20 slaves as three they didn't have education committee had a certain lifestyle that is horrible and all that now they are free. how howard they going to come up to speed with the rest of the population? was there in education and process? i read stories they couldn't read that they weren't allowed to read. is there something on the more personal thing that man or woman

or child? >> i don't detect anything in his mind about it of course it's hard to not list off the horrors of slavery which are a multitude of them that yes they were literate. nevertheless we know little about the lives of the slaves because there was very little court information. nonetheless the message about the emancipation spread very quickly into the south to the slave community and before the slaveholders actually learned because the enthusiasm for the message was so great that he was being passed by word of mouth throughout the south. after the civil war there are some wonderful books about this. the history of the next 50 to 75 years within the community is an argument how to do the thing that you were saying, how to

establish education, jobs, he kind of foundation of the argument between booker t. washington and w. e. b. du boise of what is the best method to attack the whitehorse structure to get more favors from them and to repay them for the abuse that happened or to separate one's self out and create another society that blooms on its own and has its own foundation to respect, this is a big argument over the next community that is going on today still. in partial answer to the gentleman's question and maybe you can speak a little to his mind relocating the population back and in fact i was surprised to learn in your book three decades prior to the civil war, there were committees and most politicians, henry clay

included, who were when hundred% beyond this as you say for the ability to integrate back into the population was impossible. >> the feeling if it returned to the place they could start off on a better footing they would have a better chance of gaining a respectable life. so this movement for the colonization went back several decades before lincoln was introducing it into the argument in 1862. >> and it was a benevolent argument as well as a sinister one. frederick douglass takes them as blaming us for the war it's actually clear when you look at the context of the quote. but for this terrible situation that started you actually use

that image. it's slightly better said that way i think of and how it was heard. but it was towards the black race and we messed this up. in the back. >> there are the men that served in the union armies i think about 30 or 40 died in the war. many died after the emancipation proclamation was signed. prior to the war into the beginning of the war, they were fighting for the preservation of the union.

david emancipation not clarify for them that they were fighting for the abolition of the change of slavery clicks spinnaker think the question is whether the fighting men had the mission of the board clarified. is that what you're asking by the emancipation preparation? or the shift of it? to show you the question one more time, again, the mission of the war is so critical to its success, and we know that from our experience with recent war, that experience in the vietnam war and a well articulated mission is critical to the success of the fighting man in the battle theater. they established the established

the mission is the restoration of the union. the first version of july and second in september. it's the restoration of the union. but i believe the writing is clear that he linked to. the american idea started not with the constitution that was slavery constitution that was slavery protecting of course but with the declaration of independence. now, that is an argument. we can have that argument today. declaration of independence is not a legal document. it was a rebellious track and a statement of revolution. but he and many of his advisers

believe that the origin point of the destination is not of the cost edition. consideration. again, interesting for someone to argue as a lawyer because you might say that constitution being a document formally established the union. however, to him if he went back to that origin point and to the phrase from jefferson's pen of all men are created equal then you would attach slavery as an aspect of the national idea. and you all know that we are unique in world history in that we build our identity so much around the national idea. at the same time people in the confederacy would have argued all men are created equal the way that we might think of it today and what they might think is all men, white men and only men are created equal. and that that was their understanding and was driven as

alexander stephens, vice president of the confederacy made this clear in the speech that was driven by the new kind of scientific understanding that the races were on a hierarchy where the race was at the top and that the founders if they knew that they would have understood that all men are created equal could only mean that old white men are created equal. but, for lincoln with the preservation of the union wasn't a hard thing to do and i believe he felt that the two were linked. deeper into your question it's a subject that historians have gone over and over what do they think they were fighting for into this goes through every war. the cliché is they are fighting for the guy next to them they lose contact with anything having to do with the mission.

many books have been written about this. some of them articulate but the shift to the ending of slavery was a powerful motivating force for the fighting men and others say that it was not put up that it is a justification that the mission of fighting for preservation of the union after two years and some of its luster one dot what is going to be over quickly into that the energizing of it through the application of the end of slavery data for many people in the fighting force to give them a new energy and commitment. so, this is a subject for study. that is how i can reflect on it. other questions? yes. >> you mentioned that until the proclamation did was army against army and the emancipation proclamation changed the calculus so that it

became total war or at least a precursor. do you think from your work that that registered on lincoln that the implications of what he was doing in terms of the future potentially that registered in his mind click >> it's hard to say -- i don't know that he was thinking about the battle that left bring up the territory around your questioning that maybe we question and maybe we can get at that. >> lincoln arrives in office with no military experience. he makes fun that he had a short stint in the war that he mostly fought mosquitoes which he says. [laughter] and he arrives with a war in front of him. he was much more qualified in making the strategic decisions about the warfare.

first first of all he spent a lot of time studying the war theory. we don't know exactly what he read. you could imagine with respect he had that link in to cover for library congress and didn't return it for two years. as i say in the book it's either that he was so committed in studying it or as people in the library will know he might have put it someplace he couldn't find it again. [laughter] i'm going to oversimplify this because it is the only way that i know how to explain it not being a war theory scholar but

it was taught in the middle of the century he was french and had all of this idea about the war science you probably know that he was famous for his line or politics by other means i think that's right. they have not been translated to english yet, so we know that lincoln probably did not read him. there is a wonderful passage in the novel in which there is an exchange between lincoln and seward and the says that he says politics by other means and being a very brilliant writer he is something to the fact that the john hay, the secretary to lincoln did read german and maybe had whispered to what he

had read in the original form. it probably happens more organically that you saw the application of the series in america not working and combined with the fact that as lincoln described mcclellan having a case because he wouldn't move and he could train the army really well and execute as a fighting force and lincoln's frustration both with the fact he wasn't getting results. a lot of people believed in that in the end he became quite a sophisticated war strategist and that he did form the basis you know this from grant and sherman and the march to the 20th century in what we now refer to a brutal and there was a fascinating book called the lieberman code that came out about the story who was a

political scientist and the aid to lincoln who was very much a proponent of this hard war. he believed if you didn't stand up to the opponent and stamp them out to the plaintiff utility that like a five year it would catch again into the rebellion would return and he was very key as an advisor to henry and lincoln and established the code about warfare and what was acceptable and unacceptable that included a much wider territory that was acceptable in terms of the civil society, the freeing of slaves and of private property, the attack upon civilians under certain circumstances. and he was a very important person to the history of the rest of the war. so there is a lot to be read into that. i don't think that lincoln was

looking ahead to what would happen after. he had a lot in the war at hand, so i doubt that he was thinking about the historical perspective going forward. but it's interesting to contemplate. maybe one more question. >> when the proclamation was issued what was the nature subsequently in congress particularly with regards to the legal and constitutional issues that lincoln was working over in the previous six months? >> i'm not sure that i know enough to speak about the debates that went from the 1863 it wasn't in the period that i was studying. but the key elements that have happened in 1862 that changed

the chances for the proclamation of the legal document is that he gained control of the supreme court. roger who was the chief justice famous for the dred scott decision who was the author of the trick scott decision had been a big enemy of lincoln and had really win when lincoln suspended habeas corpus, he rules that it is unconstitutional and the president doesn't have the power to do that. he is a bitter opponent of lincoln. but he makes several appointments to change the complexion of the court said that by the time you get to the prius cases and 63 that declared the civil war could be conducted under the same rules as a foreign war, he now has a majority in the court in favor of his policies.

with some of the legal questions in the emancipation. one more? wait for the microphone. >> right here. the tall distinguished gentlemen in the second row. >> i wanted to thank you for an interesting talk. it was fantastic. if there is one central message that you hope is taken from your book what would be quick >> i could have planted you here for that one could and i? [laughter] he's also the godfather of my children so it could have happened. i would say the fragility and loneliness of leadership and how we tend to think about the

decisions having arrived with little consternation and little uncertainty making this down for history when in fact, there are a lot of things competing for those choices and history turns on making the right decision at a moment that it could have gone either way and that if we understand first and foremost great men and women are men and women that their humanity is the essential element of there being and that we share that with them if he gives it gives a much deeper appreciation of history. take away all the halos. and look upon them as real people and we will be inspired by then i think much more keenly thank you all very much. [applause]