n following the events in the newspapers give you a better idea from day-to-day helpings are unfolding when an event like this is happening. these are all just coverage of his first steps to fighting the clans and kansas -- kla and kansasn. the neck -- next major thing that happens in this case is that attorney general hawkins leaves office in 1922. attorney general haopkins files this petition in the supreme court of kansas. it has two counts. it says the klan should not be legally operating in kansas. they hit upon the idea that the klan is a chartered organization in georgia. therefore, a corporation. foreign corporations are not

allowed to operating kansas without also registering with the corporation board in kansas and getting permission to operate here. so it is kind of interesting. it is a tactic to show that the klan is operating under kansas state law without addressing the main issue. the main issue they are here merely to intimidate people as a terrorist organization. that is the second count in the case but that is a lot harder to prove. what the supreme court ended up saying was that yes, the klan was operating as a foreign corporation. that is the point when the klan's attorneys conceded. what they did in 1924 was start to try to influence elections so they could get people who are sympathetic to them elected to the offices of secretary of state and attorney general and

governor and hopes that they could get a charter. we go back to william allen white. in september, less than two months before the election that year he jumped in as the independent candidate for governor. this is a cartoon that was done by a cartoonist, rawlin kirby for the "new york world" newspaper. the caption is a real american goes hunting. we have a man carrying a rifle and chasing a bunch of klansmen wearing their sheets across the field. the name of the rifle is william allen white. he did not end up winning the election. but he got a quarter of the vote which is respectable. the republican party was furious because he'd been a longtime

supporter of the republican party. they were sure he was going to bomb their chances of winning the governor seat. holland did when the seat. what he accomplished was making the klan an issue in the campaign. it -- before, it was not an issue. he brought it to the forefront. all that remained was for the supreme court to give their opinion on the case. they came back in 1927 and said there was no issue of federal law in this case therefore the kansas decision was upheld. that meant that the klan could not legally operate in the state and kansas was the first state to have a legal ouster of the klan at that time. it took about five years. >> throughout the weekend american history tv is featuring topeka, kansas. our staff recently traveled

there to learn about its rich history. learn more about topeka and other stops on our tour at www.c-span.org/citiestour >> unable to anyone, 1865, president liggins buddy left on a funeral train on -- to illinois. one of the stops was baltimore maryland. we visited bno railroad museum where fritz klein portrays president lincoln. he talked about his struggle to protect the you can -- union. the major players in the south and north that played a role in the civil war and his plans for reconstruction. he also discusses his role of bringing in kentucky and his career. this is about 45 minutes. lincoln: ladies and gentlemen, my friends and fellow citizens i am very pleased to have this

opportunity to be with you this afternoon. and i am highly gratified that we can meet together this day not in sorrow, but with gladness of heart. surely, the evacuation of petersburg and richmond, the surrender of the principal insurgent armies, has given all of us hope that we are going to see a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous expression can hardly any longer be restrained. it was nearly a week after the signal news of the surrender at appomattox was received that i said to mrs. lincoln, finally, after all of these days, i am

beginning to feel like all this is over. we attended theater just before easter. but in the midst of all of the celebrations, certainly he from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. in fact the call for a national , thanksgiving has been prepared and will be duly promulgated. surely those whose harder part has given us cause for rejoicing must not be forgotten. you know that i myself was very near the front, shortly before the actual surrender, and i had the great pleasure of transmitting much of the recent good news to the people. but my friends, no part of the honor for plan or execution

belongs to me. it goes to general grant, to his brave men and skillful officers. it is to them it all belongs. i think it would be hard to say whether anything has been more bravely or well done than it at petersburg, antietam, murphysboro, and many fields of lesser note. and of course we cannot forget uncle sam's webbed feet. it seems that all the watery margins, not only out on the open sea or down the rapid river, or up the narrow muddy bayou, but wherever the ground was even a little damp, they have made their tracks. i was to tender my thanks to all for this great union, for the principle it lives by, thanks to

all. perhaps on this occasion i may be permitted to speak of some of some of my plans, our plans, for the future. after all of this for business is finally put aside. and if afterward you have occasion to tender a question to me, once i am concluded, i will be most happy to entertain those questions, so be thinking, children. my friends, i should say that having served four years in this great national peril, i am perhaps a bit surprised, because over the course of that time, i have repeatedly felt a pre-sentiment that i should not even outlast the rebellion, that once the war had closed, my work

would be concluded. and here i am now, reelected with the election and the inauguration behind me. so perhaps i can breathe a sigh of relief. but i do view this call to a second term in no way more flattering to myself than simply as a public expression of a judgment made that perhaps i might finish this most difficult work, in which i have been laboring from the very first better than anyone else less severely schooled than i have been. so with this view and with an absurd reliance on the almighty, who has so graciously sustained us thus far, and certainly with an increased sense of gratitude to this most generous people

who has again tendered their confidence in me, i accept their your -- i accept your renewed trust, with its onerous and yet very perplexing responsibilities. i think back four years ago, my friends. all looked towards the possibility of an impending civil war. all of us dreaded it. i think all sought to avert it. in fact, while my first inaugural was being delivered in washington city, devoted altogether to saving this union without war, there were already insurgent agents operating within the city, devoted altogether to destroying the union, without any war, to simply divide by negotiation.

well, both parties deprecated war, but one would rather make war than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. and the war came. approximately 1/8 of the whole population were colored slaves not delivered through the entirety of the union, but located primarily in the southern part of it. and all knew that this was a powerful interest, and all new -- and all knew that this interest was somehow the cause for which these insurgents would rend the union, while this government claimed no right other than to simply restrict the territorial enlargement of it.

strengthening, perpetuating, and extending this interest was the cause for which these insurgents would rend the union. neither party expected for this war -- the magnitude, the duration which it obtained. neither supposed that the very cause of the conflict would cease with or even before the conflict itself ceased. both rad the same bible, prayed to the same god. each invoked his aid against the other. not it may seem strange to watch, that anyone would dare to ask a just god's assistance in

bringing -- ringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, lest we also be judged. the prayers of both would not be answered. that of neither has been answered fully. the almighty has had his own purposes. lo unto the world because of offenses. for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe unto that man by whom the offense cometh. my friends, if we shall suppose that american slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of god, must needs have come, and which having continued through his appointed time, he now will remove, and

that he gives to both north and south this terrible war, as the woe due unto those by whom the offense came, shall we assume therein any departure from which any divine attributes that believers in a living god have always ascribed to him? fondly have we hoped and fervently have we prayed that this mighty scourge of war should speedily pass away. but, my friends, if god had willed that it continue until all of the wealth piled by the bondman's 200 years of unrequited toil shall have been sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the last shall be

-- drawn by the lash shall be repaid by another, drawn by the sword, nevertheless it would be said, as was said some 3000 years ago, the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether. now let me say here that i -- i am not possessed of any particular prejudice against southern people. i frankly think they are just what we would have been, had we been born in their circumstances. you know, if slavery had not already existed amongst them, i do not believe they would have introduced it. and if it had already existed amongst us, we would not have just instantly gotten rid of it either. this i have always believed of the people.

sell as well as north. and doubtless there were people on both sides who would have never owned a slave under any circumstances. and i can assure you that there are those now among us who would gladly see it reintroduced, if they could but find means. so far as i'm concerned, however, i wish to reiterate what i said before i was reelected, that while i remain in this position, i have no intention of revoking or modifying the promise of emancipation, nor shall i return to slavery any of the persons that have been freed by the terms of that document. now if the people should, by whatever motor means, have made it an executive duty to re-enslave those persons, then i am afraid some other, not myself, would have to become

their instrument to perform that. and in saying these things, i do not attempt, believe me, any complement to my own wisdom or sagacity. i do not even claim to have controlled events. i confess plainly, events have controlled me. now, at the end of this struggle, this nation's condition is not what either party, nor any man alone devised or expected. god alone can claim it. and so with high hope for the future, no predictions will be made today restricting it. my friends, the passage through congress last january of a constitutional amendment for the

abolishment of slavery in all of the civil states is certainly an occasion for congratulations to this country, to you, to the world. and as much as we may triumph in this, we must remember that there remains yet a task for us as well. that passage, that noble act by congress, must yet be ratified in all of the several states, at least 27 of the 36 states must confirm it. we yet have a task to do. clearly, the emancipation proclamation fell far short of what this amendment, once it is fully consummated, can do. there are and were many objections as to the legality,

the applicability of the proclamation to those who have not fled their bonds in the south, or to the children born to them later. but this amendment, my friends is the king's cure. it ends -- it consummates -- all of the evils. let me repeat my congratulations to you, this people, for your support of that great moral victory. now, as to the future, certainly with the recent successes and victories, the re-inauguration of the national authority reconstruction, which frankly has had a large share of my thought from the very beginning, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. and it is fraught with difficulties.

let me simply address a few things here. it has come to my attention repeatedly that i have been censured and criticized for my participation in the support of the plan in louisiana, seeking to set up and sustain the new state government. my friends, i will admit that the amount of the constituency so-called, of this new government upon which it rests could well have been more. it would have been much more satisfactory, i think, to all, if we could of had the thousand or even 20,000, instead of the 12,000 that it does. and it is also unsatisfactory to many, including myself, in that the elective franchise, the

vote, was not extended to the colored man. i myself would have much preferred it was conferred upon those with education, those who had served in our cause as soldiers in the late war. in fact, it is very difficult for me to even conceive of how anyone professing christianity or even having ordinary perceptions of right and wrong could think otherwise, to read the bible, which says, "as you would that men should do, unto you, do ye also unto them, and and then tonight -- deny to a whole race, to me, is an insult to god and to his church. but as i said earlier, i must forbear. let us judge not lest we also be judged. but the question of louisiana is more a question of whether, as

it stands, is it all that is desirable? would it be wiser to take it as it is and help improve it, or to reject it and spurn it? well, in my estimation, if we spurn them in what they are now doing, we are doing our utmost to disorganize and destroy the good work which has thus far taken place. we are saying to the white man you are worthless. we will not help you, nor will we be helped by you. and to the black man, we are saying this cup of liberty which is being held to your lips by your former masters -- we now dash it to the ground and leave leave you to your desserts its spilled contents at any time and way you might.

but on the other hand, if we sustain this new government, the converse of all that is true. we encourage their hearts. we have the arms of 12,000 fight for it, to proselytize for it, to feed it, to grow it until it finally comes to a full consummation of all that we desire. and the colored man seemed all united for him will be inspired with vigilance and energy and daring, to the very same ends. granted that he desires the elective franchise and it was not yet given. would he obtain it sooner by saving what we have already done, or by backing across all of our tracks and destroying what we have done?

and what i am saying about louisiana could as well be said of the other states which must be brought back into their proper relation with the union. now, there are very great peculiarities pertaining to each of those several states. there are important and sometimes very sudden changes occurring in each of those states. and with all, the whole is so new to us as a case that i have personally believed that any exclusive or inflexible plan could not be safely prescribed for all of the states. such an inflexible plan, i think, would become an entanglement for us later. so, at present as the situation goes, so to say, it may be my duty to make an announcement to

the people of the south. and i am considering such. i will not fail in that, once i am satisfied that such action will be proper. now, on another hand, looking to the future, last december in my annual message to congress, it was recommended to them that our indian system be reformed. i believe that the bureau of indian affairs is a stupendous piece of wickedness, and that we -- as we as a people fear god, we must see to its reformation. and once some of these war issues have been put safely to rest, i intend to see that justice is done for the indian both to his and to my

satisfaction, above all other concerns. secondarily, it is my hope that with the return of domestic peace this country will once again resume the energy and enterprise and industry which we knew in aforetime. and it has been reassumed with great advantage, the great enterprise of connecting the atlantic with the pacific states by railways and by telegraph has already been undertaken with a vigor that gives us assurance that we are going to see its speedy consummation very soon. you know that the route, the railroad to the west, has already been determined for approximately 100 miles west of omaha city, out in nebraska. and on the other end, departing from sacramento, california to the great bend of the trekkie river in nevada.

and so we look to its final completion. on that same hand, the proposed telegraph lines between america and europe, by way of the bering straits, has been undertaken with alacrity. it was sanctioned by congress in the last session, and is now being undertaken under very favorable circumstances by a hopeful american country, with the approval of the russian government and the english government, and several of the south american states have also given their concurrence and high appreciation of this enterprise. their readiness to cooperate in constructing a line tributary to an electrical world communication.

i am also learning recently, with great satisfaction, that the former transatlantic cable which was severed before the war, will likely soon be reconnected, and from the east coast to england, we will soon once again have direct communication. finally, perhaps most importantly, the financial affairs of this government, due to mr. chase's conduct, have been exceedingly well done over these past four years. and i believe that the new national banking system has proved itself to be more than acceptable both to capitalists and the general people. so, what will the next four years actually bring?

no man knows. i did not expect to be reelected. not since jackson has one been given such a gift on the people twice. but i am thankful to god for the approval of this people. and, while grateful for your confidence in me, at least if i know my heart, i think my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. it has not been a pleasure for me to triumph over anyone. but i give thanks to god for this people's resolve to stand by free government and the principle it lives by. you see, my friends, i still believe that sentiment in our declaration of independence that

declares all men are created equal, remains the great fundamental principle upon which all of our future hopes and liberty rest. the question of this hour is cannot this government be reunited on that same principle? my friends, if it can, i will consider myself one of the happiest men alive if i can so help to see it. if it cannot, it will be awful. my friends, if this government cannot be reunited without giving up that principle, i -- i was about to say, i would rather be assassinated on this very

spot then to surrender that. well, i am loath to close. we are not enemies, but friends. friends, we must not be enemies. though a passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. surely, the mystic chords of memory, stretching over every battlefield to every living heart, and hearts all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of union. when touched, as surely we will be by the better angel of our natures. and so, with malice towards

none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as god gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish this work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations. if any of you wish to tender questions at this juncture, i think we have opportunity a few more moments. i do not know that i can answer them all, but i will certainly do my best. yes, sir?

>> as a young boy growing up in kentucky, how did you learn to read, and why was reading so important to you that you like to do it so much? lincoln: as a young boy growing up in kentucky, how did i learn to read? and why was it so important to me, and why did i enjoy it? is that the safe rendition of your question? well, my mother taught me my letters. she had an old dilworth speller and a bible, and i stood at her knee and struggled through it all. my stepmother could not read but my mother could. and then of course, she sent me to what we call abc schools, what we children called lab blab schools, and i learned to put them together. and my first schoolmaster was an old jesuit priest, former, zechariah. you know what he used to tell

us? he had a big stick. and he said, "licking and learning go together. if you don't get one, you get the other." [laughter] lincoln: that is why i learned. [laughter] lincoln: i lived in a very rough part of the country. there was almost nothing to excite any ambition for education. and yet it became something of a ticket for me. my father would literally, without any education -- he could only sign his own name. and largely because of that lost hundreds of acres of land -- that was one of the reasons we moved from kentucky. that was a period of my life

building a home in the virgin forest of indiana, probably harder than any other i have done, including these last four years. so i do not wish that upon anyone. i had any reason in the world to want to avoid it myself. but without an education, we as a people will never appreciate the history of this country. if you can read the history of this country, compare it with the history of other countries or read the bible or other religious works of a moral or religious nature, that is the foundation on which this free country rests. so, without that, we are in the hands of others. somebody else. yes? >> why did they put abraham lincoln in a train and not in

another transport? lincoln: why did they put me in a train and not in another what? >> another form of transportation. lincoln: another form of transportation? when i was a boy, the best form of transportation was the two feet god gave you. [laughter] the most reliable, anyway. maybe if you had a team of oxen or a horse, you could be cold in -- pulled in a wagon. but you know, the iron horse is the wonder of an age. i actually had my own special car given to me. that is why. welcome to a new, brave world, right? somebody else. yes? >> [indiscernible] lincoln: when did i know -- i never wanted to be a president. she said, when did you know you wanted to be a president?

[laughter] lincoln: i really wanted to be senator. i mentioned the government claimed no right rather than to restrict the territorial enlargement of slavery. that was the object of the republican party from the beginning. it was not to save or destroy slavery, but to restrict its territorial enlargement, which would result eventually in its ultimate destruction. the president has no power to change the laws. he simply swore to make sure they are faithfully executed. so i really wanted to be a senator. but sometimes you just have to settle for second best. [laughter] lincoln: yes sir, back there. i am sorry, ma'am. >> can you tell children today with all the internet -- what would you tell them today? what would you tell children

today? lincoln: what would i tell children today with -- >> internet. lincoln: internet? >> computers. lincoln: i don't know when you mean by that. [laughter] lincoln: is that a fishing device? >> what would you tell children? lincoln: i am not sure what i would, but it sounds dangerous to me. [laughter] lincoln: yes, ma'am. >> why do you think you were brave enough to do what you did, and the other presidents before you were not able to do what you did? lincoln: she says, why do i think i was brave enough to do what i did, when the other presidents before me were not able. you know, i am only the third president who was actually against slavery. the other two were the adamses and some people say they don't count. [laughter]