>> you can learn more about ford's theatre and take a virtual tour of their facilities at fordstheater.org. you can also visit the c-span video lie prbrary and searching american artifacts. this week on american artifacts we go across the street from ford's theatre where john wilkes booth shot president lincoln as he enjoyed the play "our american cousin." it's the newest addition on tenth street in washington where visitors can learn about the life, death and legacy of abraham lincoln. ford's theatre society director talks about the center's purpose and goals and curator tracey avant walks us through the exhibits. >> we are in the center for educational leadership.

directly across the historic ford's theatre in washington, d.c. behind me is the tower of books which is a concept that really started about five years ago to visualize and showcase the unending quest to learn more about abraham lincoln. so this tower of books represents as we all know that abraham lincoln is the most written about figure in world history next to jesus christ. >> over the past couple of years we have been working with the ford's theatre society in developing the new exhibits here at the ford's theatre center for education and leadership. public space in the lobby that has to be fireproof so all the books are actually made out of aluminum for weight and flammability purposes. we've got a structure that goes on to this column and then we're

building up with perforated aluminum shelving and we'll eventually work our way up to 35 feet. high temperature silicone and some mitered cuts, make sure that everything wraps well around this column. a lot of notches here and there that you won't be visible on the -- when the piece is finished. we have left spaces in here. we've got right now 200 unique titles. we have worked with over 55 publishers to use these books but we anticipate a lot of people coming forward after the piece is done and it's generating a lot of excitement so we have left spaces throughout the sculpture to add five to eight books a year of new titles and even books that aren't written yet. this is pretty unique. we do a lot of different

projects from natural history museums to cultural institutions like ford's theatre, but this is really a unique public art piece. >> we believe that this will become an iconic image in washington where people -- especially young people i think will come here and be able to see wow, there really were a lot of books written about that guy and that in and of itself is not so interesting. but that will spark them to say why? who was he? i want to know more about him. so this is really the as it stands at our entry point here something to really spark especially young people their imagination to say, do i need to read some of the books? i need to know more about this guy. this building will be the extendtion of the understanding of who lincoln is today. lincoln's legacy. >> my name is tracey avant and i'm the curator of exhibitions here at ford's theatre society.

and we are now standing in the entryway of the center for education and leadership which is the fourth act of our four act drama that we have set up for our entire campus. our first act is our museum across the street underneath the theater and that looks at president lincoln's time here in washington. our second act is in the theater itself and as the assassination of lincoln. the third act is the peterson house where lincoln's body was taken and he did die. so now we're just getting ready to open our center for education and leadership which looks at our fourth act. it looks at the aftermath of lincoln's assassination. and that includes the -- his death and the funeral train journey home to illinois and the manhunt for john wilkes booth and the conspirators. then the second part of the acts looks at the legacy of president lincoln and why he's so

important to us still today. let's take a look at what we've got. the mezzanine for the education and leadership, this is where visitors to the site will enter the center and take the elevator on the the fourth floor to experience the first exhibit. so people will come through the peterson house. across the back porch and to this area. and this way it's a continuous flow from that third act to that fourth act. so people will come here and they'll learn a little bit about what the center is. and then people will load on to the elevator and take the elevate tore the fourth floor which is what we're going to do right now. >> going up. >> we like to think of our elevator as time travel. as the elevator doors open, we step out on to the washington street, so april 15, 1865. and visitors get an opportunity to hear the street sounds of horses and carriages traveling along. tolling bells mourning lincoln's

loss. we also hear the telegraph sending out confirmation of abraham lincoln's death. >> president lincoln died at 22 minutes after 7:00. >> visitors have the opportunity to learn a little bit about what the newspapers were saying. and also just the general state of affairs here in washington, d.c. and that takes us the our next stage of the exhibition where we step on to a train platform and into the funeral car which is a replica of the funeral car that carried abraham lincoln to springfield, illinois, to be buried. we learn a little bit about the funeral and the staging of the funeral in washington and at the white house. and here we have items on display from the national park service. some items in this case have actually never been on display before. and the items range from things that were related to the funeral

train itself. a handle to the coffin, to mourning ribbons. a ticket to the funeral at the white house. and even things like the tools that were used to seal abraham lincoln's coffin for the final time before he was buried in springfield, illinois. the people who rode in the funeral car were security guards actually and they did disinter the body of his son, willie. so willie and lincoln's coffins were in this particular car. now, the funeral train itself was many cars long and all sorts of dignitaries and the other people related to the train and the funeral train. there were morticians. president lincoln was the first president ever to be embalmed which is what really made the funeral train journey possible because he was embalmed and so

they did have an open casket in 14 days in all of the cities and the gentlemen rode along to touch him up along the way. robert lincoln rode on the train from washington to baltimore and then he returned to washington to be with his mother. and he then later came out to springfield for the funeral. mary never rode the train and she did not attend his funeral. she was just too distraught with grief to be a part of the ceremonies. the flag is interesting in that it only has 34 stars even though there were 36 states in the union by the time of abraham lincoln's death. so we think -- obviously it was an older flag, but we think it came from a fort somewhere or a garrison. it was one of many flags that draped his coffin along the way. as we step out of the train we're stepping back on to our train platform where we come to the first interactive which is a really great opportunity for visitors to look in depth at this funeral train journey.

and to try to get a better understanding of why something like this, nothing like this had ever happened. of course the president had never been assassinated before. but a morning train journey like this had never happened. a lot of historians posit that the reason that the whole united states took such an interest in this is not only because of the unusual circles of the assassination of abraham lincoln, but also because it was way for them to mourn the tremendous losses that had taken place in the civil war. so many people never saw their loved ones again. bodies were not necessarily returned from the battlefields and this was a way that they could come to terms with that grief openly in a period where that wasn't always necessarily the case. what is interesting about this is you get to look at some of the major cities along the route. and there are cards that talk briefly about what happened in each city and how each city

might have mourned lincoln's passing. it talks a little bit about the journey along the train where this train did not stop in cities. there were still crowds of hundreds of people along the tracks at all hours of nights with bonfires, with bands. wanting the opportunity to see the president's funeral train pass. and one thing that our interactive gives which i think is really interesting it gives the date and the population of the cities, but it gives you the number of the people who attended the funeral. the further away you get from the east coast and the closer you get to the land of lincoln, the greater the crowds are compared to the numbers. so you have a small up to like cleveland where the population was only 43,000 people roughly. 150,000 people came to view lincoln's coffin and remains. so it was a tremendous outpouring that people experienced and they had to set up special pavilions in industries just to accommodate

the crowds. the rest of off gallery is dedicated to the hunt for john wilkes booth and the capture and trial of the conspirators. both sides deal with that. we start with john wilkes both here and learn a little bit about him. we come to the second object case. in this case we have two items that were actually on booth's body when he was captured. a set of keys and a map that he was carrying with him which was a travel map. very much like the maps that we carry today. and it folded up in the nice little book. so these two items were on his body and the national park service was able to loan that to us. as we move forward we come to a map that traces that escape from washington that john wilkes booth and david harold made. by pushing the light up button we get to follow the pathway that booth took and his stops at the tavern to pick up weapons.

his stop at dr. mudd's house where his leg was set, and the first attempted cross of the potomac river, where they were lost. the second attempt and their journey through virginia, and eventually ending up at the garrett farm where of course john wilkes booth and david harold were caught and capture and john wilkes booth was ultimately killed there. because he was captured in a tobacco barn, our last exhibit lets the visitors take a look at the final moments and take a part of john wilkes booth's capture. we have recreated the tobacco barn, and visitors will be able to look into the barn and hear a soundtrack that -- where union soldiers come to capture booth and booth refuses to srurrender. they'll get to see the barn lit

on fire and then boston corbett shooting john wilkes booth and john wilkes booth's final words to his mother. >> let me have a moment. if you'll take your men 50 yards from the door i'll come out and fight you. give me a chance for my life. >> we did not come here to fight you. we came to make you a prisoner. >> well, my brave boys, prepare a stretcher for me. >> fire the barn.

>> mother, i died for my country. >> so it's just kind of a -- an interactive way like our street scene to take people into, you know, 1865 and give them sort of an emotional connection with all of this material. this display case here we have items that are related to the trial and capture and imprisonment of the conspirators. some of the items in this case have also never been on display. including this wheel of the montaulk where several of the prisoners were held until they came to trial. we have passes to the military prison, to visit the prisoners and for the trial itself. and we have keys to the jail cells of mary surat and dr. mudd along with some shackles he wore on his journey where he was imprisoned before he was pardoned by president andrew johnson. and the rest looks at the trial

and looking at how the trial was conducted as a military tribune. a little about why it was conducted that way and the outcomes that might have been different if it had gone to a normal court as well as looking at why they were imprisoned. one of the hoods that all of the conspiriters except for mary surat and dr. mudd had to wear at some point in time. between lincoln's funeral train and john willinkes booth, it wa entertaining. people were riveted by what happened by the reports of this chase and what was going to happen to him. so it was sensational. as soon as it was realized that he was the person that was responsible, all sorts of information started coming out. that this wasn't an isolated incident. that it was a conspiracy. i think it was hard for people

to sort of understand why he had done this. and it was such a drastic act. nothing like this had really happened in the history of the united states yet. the fact that he was killed and not brought to trial was i think a disappointment for the federal government. they wanted to make sure that -- they wanted to make an example of him like they did with the other conspirators. so that nothing like this would happen again. so as we step out into the atrium, we have sort of our final scene for the hunt for the con -- and trial of the conspirators. and there's the mural of the conspirators prior to their hanging. it was almost -- i think it was 3 1/2 years before those bodies were released to the respective families and allowed to be buried in their private cemeteries. edwin stanton did not want these people to be made martyrs of. d.c. was a southern city and so

close to virginia. he was worried if the bodies were returned to their families that they become martyrs and their graves would become the sites of contributribute and he want that to happen. he wanted an example to be made of them and the country to move on soft that wraps up this level. of course, mary surat was the first woman to ever be executed by the federal government. and to this day, there's a lot of controversy over how guilty or innocent she was. so after the assassination of abraham lincoln, mary had a long and difficult journey before she finally made it to springfield, illinois, where she lived with her sister until her death. initially she stayed in the white house. actually, longer than she should have. she just wasn't ready to move and andrew johnson was very understanding and forgiving of this and just waited until she was ready to move out of the white house. she was very worried about not having enough money to live on. and so she tried to sell some of

her dresses which led to a lot of public criticism. and it was a while before the money that was due to her from lincoln's presidency as a leader was given to her. but eventually, she lived in chicago for a while. she and tad went to europe shortly after she sort of moved out of the white house. they went to europe for a while and spent several years over there. unfortunately it was a period of time where she really didn't recover from her grieving and robert actually had her committed to an asylum for about 12 weeks. but eventually, she did manage to move to springfield where she did retire from public life and lived with her sister until her death. so as we make our way to the third floor, we look at reconstruction and the challenges of reconstruction

without abraham lincoln. we look at how it happened without andrew johnson. things still happened like the passing of the 13th amendment, but there was a lot of back sliding that happened because he was in charge and didn't have the same philosophy that abraham lincoln did. as we move through the construction, we walk into the third floor gallery which is about the memorialization and legacy that abraham lincoln has left us. so our exhibit starts really looking at how lincoln's image changed very quickly after his assassination. he was a president that was loved by a lot of people, but he was also despised by a lot of people. even people who were faithful to the union were very frustrated with abraham lincoln at times during his presidency. as soon as he was assassinated he became a martyr, and you started seeing images like this. this combination of lincoln and washington. washington made our country and lincoln saved our country.

and even images like -- we have an apotheosis of apotheosis of washington. some of these things would have never been put together. but because of the effect it had on the country, all of his misgives, at least for a short time were forgotten. and the memorialization of abraham lincoln really started with this martyrdom. we look briefly at just a few of the memorials and statues that have been erected to abraham lincoln. and we also look at some of the celebrations like the first celebration of his birth in 1909. and we look at the positive and negative sides. we look at how many of the things he set in motion with emancipation were unfortunately not fully realized by 1909 when celebrations were held.

but african-americans were not allowed into these celebrations, and how those kinds of things spurred the birth of organizations like naacp. we look at how presidents throughout time, and what we have is just a small example of how lincoln's words inspired them, how they turned to lincoln and his writings for inspiration in their own decisions. and even how presidents on op sides of political parties used the exact same quote to support arguments that were opposing arguments. we have that on this side. and then on this side we have what we call our global lincoln. this looks at two things. it looks at the world's response to the assassination of abraham lincoln. and how they grieved, and also sent their condolences to the united states. and then it also looks at how leaders and countries around the world have looked to lincoln for leadership and inspiration for

revolutions, how leaders from democracies to communist leaders have used lincoln's words to inspire the masses. and how everyday ordinary people have been inspired by lincoln to rise to great heights. this is immigrant pageant, american pageant. and the lady playing lady liberty is golda meir when she was just a young lady. it's a nice look that covers cultures and countries all over the world. and that leads into one of our final sections, which is our look at abraham lincoln sort of pop culture. abe somehow was used to sell things as diverse as smoking tobacco and emory books for polishing silver to bottles that could be turned into banks and items like lincoln logs, itemious can buy today, and

jewelry that was all bought online by our designers. there is something that people identify with him, and i guess the honesty of abe to sell these products. our product is the best because abe supports it. so our final piece looks at why abraham lincoln is still relevant today through his own words. so all the words you hear in this piece are actually pieces of text that have been taken from his speeches and from his writings and they're remixed. and the idea behind this was to give visitors a last impression of how lincoln's words are so relevant today, how the ideals that he believed in are also still relevant. and really to challenge the visitor with the idea that democracy is a work in progress, and it's our duty as american citizens to think about how we can continue that legacy further.

there is something about abraham lincoln and his words that allow people to connect with him and find some kind of meaning with him. lincoln is still here with us today, and there is a reason for that. and it has to do with the ideals that he believed in, and the principles that he followed. >> we believe that ford's theater is the location in washington, d.c. to learn about lincoln and his legacy. it's one of the things that we do better than anyone else. we are able to marry the concepts and the excellence that we bring to theatrical productions to the museum experience. we will teach our our education programs in this facility. we will use this facility to do our teacher training. all of those things are jumping off who lincoln was as such a brilliant leader. this center is what that is all

about. >> for more information about the ford's theater education and leadership center, visit their website at fordstheater.org. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. >> thank you, judge. i have a feeling if i say thank you, judge, i'll get a you're welcome from two-thirds of the audience. it's daunting. i've never spoken to a crowd of so many attorneys in my entire life. there are several that i want to acknowledge. my daughter, meg, who is an attorney is here today. my cousin, new york state inspector general ellen biben is here today. my old friend judge gene nardelli is here. we could go on forever. it's wonderful to see all of you.

one other person i want to mention because the subject for this evening is freedom of the press, as you know. there is someone in this room who is actually a living hero of the fight for freedom of the press. i want to formally introduce and someone you'll know, judith miller. i want to start with the end of the war, not the beginning with lincoln's second inaugural address. which is most famous, as you all know, for its closing words calling for malice toward none and charity for all. the speech was only about nine minutes long, but i would venture to say it ended so memorably that even after that brief time had elapsed, people had probably forgotten the beginning of the speech. and at the beginning of that address, lincoln launched into a recollection of his first inaugural appearance.

and not without a little malice of his own, at least towards some. this is what he said. "while the inaugural address was being delivered four years ago, devoted all together to saving the union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war. both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive. the other would accept war rather than let it perish. and the war came. in a way that recollection sets the stage for tonight's discussion because it sheds light on lincoln's thinking both at the beginning of the conflict and as he looked toward its conclusion. and in his mind, washington in 1861 was literally crawling with what he called insurgent agents. committed to destroying the union. his responsibility then and his

justification later is that anything he did to help the nation survive was justified. and sometimes that determination took extraordinary form. i know chief judge kay and chief judge litman will be amused i hope by this story. when roger taney, acting in his capacity as federal circuit judge challenged lincoln's suspension of the writ early in the war, the judge ignored him but had the chief arrested for interfering. during the war, the court did not again attempt to judge lincoln on the matter of arbitrary arrest, much less press suppression. but that's not the story for tonight, although clearly lincoln's use of the war power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus is relevant. and in his view, and i'll quote

him again, as the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency -- that is the part of the constitution that says it may be suspended -- it cannot be believed that the framers intended that the danger should run its course until congress could be called together, the very assembling of which might be prevented by the rebellion itself. the specific topic for tonight of course is the less ambition guarantee in the first amendment. congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. again, lincoln determined that in a case of rebellion, especially while congress was in recess, contingency trumped even the bill of rights. now he did call congress back into session, but not for four months, and not before the executive branch did abridge freedom of the press, and as some have maintained, without constitutional authority. let's look fly