for the contracts, the amount of , the, the worker safety political relationships. bands -- mazer -- masur speaks on lincoln's legacy. this lecture took place at ford's theatre in washington, d.c. and is about 15 minutes. on a rainy night of april 11 1865, president lincoln addressed a crowd for the last time. this speech was remarkable less for its oratorical qualities, stylistically, it was far from his best.

than for the fact with the conflict all but behind him, lincoln was looking forward in more ways than one to human a war-torn nation. three days later, the president would fall to an assassin's bullet and the promise of a gentler reconstruction would go unfulfilled. in his current work titled, "lincoln's last speech: wartime reconstruction and the crisis of reunion," dr. lewis masur performs skillful surgery on mr. lincoln's final address. he analyzes reconstruction in all of its conceptual iterations from the earliest days of the war to the end of lincoln's presidency and his life. then, in his epilogue, he cites, no less a person than frederick douglass stating how reconstruction would have evolved, had lincoln lived.

it is a what if situation pondered by ackerman dish and -- medicians, but seldom in such a reader-friendly context. i was remembering when the late professor william lee miller, who was never a fan of what if's, talked about the time during the civil rights era when a student approached him and said, professor miller, what you think lincoln would have had to say about busing? bill miller looked at him and said, i believe mr. lincoln would have said, what is a bus? [laughter] nonetheless, dr. masur does it right and he has the credentials to support his hypotheses.

he is the author of eight books, the distinguished presse for -- professor at rutgers, and elected member of the society of historians and the massachusetts historical society. he is the recipient of fellowships from the mellon foundation and the national endowment for humanities. he has earned the trustees award for faculty excellence from trinity, the john prize for excellence in teaching from harvard, and the outstanding teacher award from the city university of new york. and he is very tall. , [laughter] and three years ago, i was honored to present him with our annual abraham lincoln book award for his excellent "lincoln: 100 days."

please welcome louis masur. [applause] dr. masur: my thanks to ron for that wonderful introduction. and thank you for hosting this occasion, and allowing me to speak with you today. evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. that is the line with which lincoln opened what would turn out to be his last speech. it had taken him a couple of days to write that line and in many ways, it was a classic lincoln line, not in sorrow. he had known so much sorrow, personal sorrow, the death of his son in the white house. the sorrow he took upon himself with the many deaths during the civil war. and he certainly had, as many had it noted melancholic , tendencies. what is not emphasized the other

side of his personality, the gladness of heart. the sense of joy, sense of hopelessness, an attitude, as he said when he left springfield, let us hope that all will yet be well. he always looked ahead that way. tohink often of the wetter mccullough in december. he stopped to write the grieving daughter of his friends, you are sure to be happy again. here on 11th, lincoln delivers that line to open. he had only just returned to washington two days earlier. he had been city he needed to point, get away from d.c. his health had always been up-and-down. it had been failing. he was there at richmond, and took his son of a tour of the city.

coming back on the river of the potomac, everyone was in a joyous mood. the war was now the over. -- the war was almost over. on that trip, he did something he loved to do, read shakespeare out loud. no doubt, he recited macbeth's speech that includes the line, fever,ife's fitful treason has done its worst. foreign levy, nothing can touch them further. ,hose words, malice and treason certainly must have registered with the group. the idea of a sound, untroubled sleep must've appeal to lincoln at that moment. on passing mount vernon, one of the newspaper reporters on the boat remarked that one day, springfield would carry special meaning for americans.

the president answered, how happy i shall be in four years hence to return there in peace and tranquility. he returns to washington. is called to give a speech, but resists. he said everything i say is reported, and this speech of all speeches will be seen as a victory speech. this speech must be right. crowds gathered at the white house, and he was asked to speak. band and calls for them to play a song. he said strike up dixie. that is one of my favorite songs. was dixie his favorite song? i don't know. but in calling for dixie to be played, certainly, he was signaling something important. a conciliatory gesture toward

the defeated south. the speech then goes on for pages after page to talk about reconstruction and specifically, the problem of louisiana. what i want to argue this morning is that reconstruction does not begin in 1865. we know lincoln proclaimed the amnesty of reconstruction in december of 1862. i want to go back even further. in fundamental ways reconstruction begins when the , war begins. reconstructiond is used at the beginning of the war, but used differently. it is used not to mean remaking the nation, restoring the nation, reunifying the nation. the states in succession begin to use the word reconstruction to discuss reconstructing the constitution so as to accommodate their concerns and their needs. an abolitionist from ohio who

carried a cane with a hidden wasd in it in the event he attacked, declared in 1861, we hear much talk about reconstruction. that the seceding states may have constitutional guarantees for slavery, he wrote, to go to hell is easy, but to come back again, that is labor. that is toil. once the war begins, from the very start, lincoln is concerned with the question of how the union is going to be restored. how are the states going to be brought back in again? he appoints military governors to five different states. he appoints andrew johnson in tennessee. north carolina, he appoints

someone, edward stanley, who would resign when lincoln signed -- issued the emancipation proclamation. john phelps in arkansas. andrew jackson hamilton in texas. most importantly, george shepley in louisiana. louisiana and new orleans is key for lincoln from the very start. obviously, there is going to be very little traction in texas. andrew jackson hamilton barely hangs out in texas and spends most of his time giving lectures in new york and boston and washington. and in north carolina, there is little traction. in tennessee, arkansas, and pins his, lincoln hopes. he pins his hopes that those states during the war can be restored. this is critical to understanding lincoln and the construction. for lincoln, reconstruction is both a means toward an end as well as an end in itself.

the eventual hope is to win the war and reunify the nation. how are we going to do that? one of the way to do that was to pick off whatever confederate states we could and have them adopt new state constitutions and readmit representatives to congress. you would be weakening the power of the confederacy and advancing the war effort. it is along those lines, lincoln focuses. he focuses on having elections held in those states, particularly in louisiana tennessee, and arkansas. he writes at one point that an election would be worth more to us than a battle gained. more to us than a battle gained. he writes to andrew johnson and says get emancipation into your state constitution, and there is

no such word as "fail" in your case. this becomes critical after january 1, 1863. emancipation is the one requirement that the states have two abide by. they have to write new state constitutions that provide for emancipation and then they can begin the process as outlined under his proclamation of amnesty in reconstruction issued in december of 1863 to rejoin the union. it was a fairly mild, almost benevolent process, 10% of those who voted need to hold a convention to elect delegates, it disfranchised certain confederate leaders, require the inclusion of emancipation in these new constitutions and basically left things to proceed. lincoln throughout his presidency, was pushing and pressing for this to be accomplished, especially in louisiana. which begins to make progress.

there were all kinds of progress -- problems that lincoln needed to face. what is the proper relationship between the military governor and the military commander? what happens when civil and military authority come into conflict with one another? all of these questions are profound questions that would continue to be worked through once the era of reconstruction comes into play. there is another huge issue that lincoln has very little patience for. what is the status of the states in the union? there were endless amounts of conversation about this. lincoln was clear from the very start. succession was absurd. it did not exist. succession, he said, was an sophious soffit is him -- ism.

he said there could be no constitutional right to secession. seceded, but you you had not. you are still entitled to your rights as citizens of the united states. that is going to create all kinds of mental gymnastics throughout the war. lincoln holds fast to that. it was a rebellion. it was a war of the rebellion. he believed it was a small group traitors responsible for it. they figured out how to put the rebellion down as quickly as possible. but others had almost talmudic discussions of the nature of the confederacy. some conservatives, such as montgomery blair, gives a speech in rockville on october third, 1863. again, all of this is kicking off in 1863 months before the proclamation and reconstruction.

blair gives a speech in which he says that lincoln's ideas of reconstruction are part of an abolitionist program to further abolish slavery and entrench african-americans into society. he called for opposition to it. he calls for opposition to abolition generally. he begins to articulate what northern democrats and others see as an idea of the terms under which the union will be restored. sumner goes crazy. betty stephens called it a thaddeus stevens called it a viable speech. lincoln tries his best to ignore it. it is not accidental that uncovering blair would be replaced in his cabinet. -- that's montgomery blair would be replaced in his cabinet. sumner is arguing that it was state suicide.

seceded, for all intents and purposes they died , and therefore, we can do whatever we want to do in order to manipulate them, restructure them, reconstruct them to the needs that we have at the time. stevens had a different stance on it. he talked about territorial reality. they reverted back to the status of the territorial government. these conversations filled the newspapers, filled editorials and correspondence, and lincoln had had enough. in the final speech, he called it a pernicious abstraction. that is his phrase. it does not so much matter from a constitutional standpoint what their relationship is to the union, the key he says, and he uses this phrase five times, the same way in the gettysburg address he uses the word nation repeatedly. he uses proper, practical

relations -- relationships. we just have to get them back alive. a goodll was needed was chiropractor, just to straighten it out. [laughter] indeed, lincoln will continue along those lines throughout the war. there is a battle with congress, we all know that. congress has her own ideas of who should be responsible for reconstruction and the terms in which those should be readmitted. even though the davis bill is not as radical as thought, requiring an ironclad oath, lincoln decides to pocket the bill and take an extraordinary

measure. it led to a response from wade and davis. in 1864, you have this public dispute about reconstruction that appears to be a battle over presidential versus congressional authority, but in lots of ways it was not because lincoln always accepted the idea, the reality that it was congress that ultimately had the power. that the president, would go about the business of helping these states to organize those governments. congress would review the credentials of those elected and decide whether or not to seek them. tremendous progress had been made, especially in louisiana, which adopted a new state constitution that abolish slavery. it elected representatives to congress.

in february of 1865, congress decides not to seek those representatives. and lincoln is disappointed. seating --that seding those representatives would be critical to the process of restoring the union that would bring louisiana back in. in other ways, he is not that troubled. congress is about to go into recess. they are not coming back until december. on april 11, what does he do? he takes a case directly to the people. you read this last speech, and he is going on and on about louisiana and asking the people in a common sense kind of way, should we abandon the progress that has been made? isn't it better he says, to take the experiment they have made and proceed with it, rather than abandon and crush it. uses a typical

he uses a metaphor, we should be -- we should preserve it as the egg to the fowl. i trace of responses to this metaphor. people say, what if it is a rotten egg, and maybe some eggs should be smashed, and that's ok. lincoln is prepared, with congress out of session, to do what has to be done from april through december to begin the work of reconstruction. there is a bigger problem, and he knows it, and the nation knows it. the problem is not emancipation. that is done. that is settled. sure, there are plenty of northern democrats who think that somehow slavery survive the war. it's not. some think that lincoln is only partial one way or the other about it.

he is not. he has been determined for a long time. the question is not emancipation. the question is the transition to freedom. this is an issue that doesn't get enough attention, because it is the issue that society is debating. editorial after editorial, talks in terms of what is to be done about the slaves. that is the way the question is parsed. what is to be done about the slaves? lincoln raises this into a letter to the military commander of louisiana on august 5, 1863, he says, i would be glad of her to make a new institution, referring to louisiana, recognizing the emancipation proclamation where the proclamation does not apply. while she is at it, he says, i think it would not be objectionable -- classic lincoln, double negatives -- it

would not be objectionable for her to adopt some practical system by which the two races could gradually lift themselves out of their old relationship to each other and both come out better prepared for the new. lift themselves out of their old relationship with the other. what does that mean? maybe for a time in his head, he thought it meant some kind of an apprenticeship, but that would not be acceptable. some kind of wage labor agreements, the importance of education. but this is the fundamental dilemma facing america and the problem of reconstruction circa 1864/1865. it is not emancipation, it is a transition to freedom. how do we give meaning to freedom? what can we do? lots of people were at a loss. radical republicans had an idea. the the free men

in a way equal to white men. confiscating the states, restricting the land. lincoln wrangles all over the place on this issue. at the hampton roads peace conference, he tells a story when this issue comes up about what to do about freedom. here is the story he tells. "it reminds me of a man in illinois by the name of case who undertook a few years ago to raise a few herds of hogs. it was a great trouble to feed them. how to get around this was a puzzle to him. he planned on planting a field of potatoes, and when there was sufficiently grown, he charts the whole herd into the field. only save labor and feed the hogs, but he dug out

the potatoes. a neighbor comes along, this is all very fine, the hogs are doing very well, but out here in illinois, the frost comes early, and the ground freezes a foot deep. then what are you going to do? this was a matter mr. case had not considered. he scratched his head and stammered, well, it may come pretty hard on their snouts, but i don't think they will die. it was a harsh judgment. even alexander stevens later wrote that the tail was hard to replace. [laughter] it expresses something about the confusion. what can be done? what are the possibilities? well, as with everything lincoln, he evolved over time. he changed his mind. he considered, contemplated.

in february of 1965, signing the act was one concrete, positive step toward doing something about the transition from slavery to freedom. providing for food, shelter, relocation. an important first step in a government that was not used to having a federal authority being responsible for helping. but he went further. he went further. in his last speech, toward the very end, he publicly endorses black suffrage. for those who served and the well-educated. people knew that privately he had been thinking about black suffrage. he had written a few letters in which she said "for your eyes only." at that time, it meant everyone whispered to everybody else. did you hear the president endorses black suffrage? now he publicly comes out and

states his support. as many of you know, john wilkes booth is in the crowd, listening to that last speech. he turns to lewis powell and says, "that is the last speech he will ever give." three days later, he acted on his threat. lincoln's endorsement of black suffrage was one of those steps that seemed to be gaining momentum. something that would help in the transition to freedom. but let us not romanticize how everyone felt after lincoln's assassination. some republicans in congress secretly confessed, as one wrote in his journal, that lincoln's death is a godsend. this is a republican.

lincoln's death is a godsend. why would he say that? he said it because the radical republicans thought lincoln was soft. they thought that he did not have the steel it would take to deal with the rebels. and indeed, time and again, lincoln signaled this, most dramatically and politically, in the conclusion to the second inauguration, with charity for all. time and again, he said let the war be remembered for lessons to be learned, not ask to be revenged -- acts to be revend. -- revenged. when he was in richmond with his son, someone comes up to him and says, what should i do with these confederate prisoners? lincoln said "let them up easy." lincoln wanted a just peace, a rightous peace. but he also wanted to show mercy.

inaugural, which is filled with references to the note, lincoln said, "judge that we not be judged," quoted the bible. on his trip to city point, he said it over and over again. someone writes to chase, i am sick and tired of hearing this. what does that mean, judged not that we not be judged? haven't they started the war, shouldn't this war be about slavery? we should judge them and bring the hammer down on them. but that was not going to be lincoln's way. that much we can say. and, of course, we can never fully know what would've happened had he lived. but of course, it is tempting to speculate. it is tempting to speculate how this man would have managed this situation.

in some ways, we know the elements that would have turned out superior to anything that ended up happening with andrew johnson. again, we have to remember that andrew johnson, at the beginning, was celebrated and favored. the radical thought that they had in december that andrew johnson was someone they could work with. sumner got a different view of the matter when he meets with johnson and writes a letter where he says andrew johnson used his hat as a spittoon. johnson is going to change. of course, we are going to have the warfare that will erupt between the radical republicans, between all the republicans, and johnson, and the democrats. lincoln was far too great of a politician to review what sidney blumenthal said earlier this morning. a masterful politician. he did not lose that mastery is the war went on. he was able to play the middle

, keep the moderates in line, address the concerns of the conservative side of the party, and not completely alienate the radicals. we have to believe, certainly, that his ability to do that would have continued the pace. other ways as well, in which, had lincoln survived perhaps things would have , changed. douglass spoke at length after the assassination about the speech. douglas said the president has expressed himself in favor of extending the rights of suffrage to two classes of colored men. first, the brave colored soldiers who had fought under our flag, and the second is the intelligent part of the south. the declaration on his part, though it seemed to mean but little, meant a great deal. it was like abraham lincoln. he never shot prejudices

unnecessarily. statesmanship, he always used the thin edge of the wedge first. fact that he used this at all meant that he would, if need be, use the stick -- use the thick as well as the thin. but douglas cast his conclusion about what the death of lincoln meant for reconstruction. he said, had abraham lincoln been spared to see this day, the negro of the south would have more than the hope of a enfranchisement, and no rebels would hold the reins of government in any one of the late rebellious states. now, one can only lament to what might have been. whoever have mourned the loss of abraham lincoln, to the colored people of the country, his death is an unspeakable calamity. an unspeakable calamity.

but i think we have to take care to believe that all the problems would have been solved. to be sure, as i have alluded, certain things may have turned out differently had he lived. in all likelihood, he would have revisited his amnesty proclamation and revised it once all of the confederate states had surrendered. all that can be said with certainty concerns character and not policy. lincoln's character did not allow politics to become personal. during the war, his disagreements with the radicals never turned malicious. he was not given to personal resentments. neither was he dr. mary -- doctrinary. he recognized that there were plans other than his worth considering and said so repeatedly, including at the end of his proclamation of amnesty

and reconstruction. time and again, he changed his mind and altered his position. he had every reason to believe that after the war he would move the nation toward a political reconstruction that did not forsake southern loyalists, and a social reconstruction that may not have provided the free men that all the radicals had envisioned, but would have afforded more by way of government protection, then southern blacks ended up receiving. it was a fraught moment. on the morning of april 14, lincoln's cabinet met to discuss reconstruction. general grant was there. frederick stewart was there, in place of his alien father. he talked about creating military districts. they discussed specific

problems, the problem of the restorative state of virginia, and things that happened earlier the confused people about lincoln's policy on reconstruction, believing that at one point he suggested the confederate legislature meet to officially dissolve itself, which created all kinds of chaos when he eventually said that wasn't what he meant. this confusion is important for understanding the moment, the complexities of navigating the nation through something that no one knew how to do. they talked about reconstruction, they developed a plan, of course. he took the carriage ride with mary todd that afternoon. he said that he believed on this day, the war had ended, and he was happy in ways that he never had been before. i started with the notion of lincoln's happiness. and i want to end with that as well. because, despite dark days, lincoln never surrendered hope

that the union would be saved, because what was the union itself but hope incarnate? the last best hope of earth. for democracy. for freedom. with the war over, he sought to unify the nation. to rebuild it on principles of justice and mercy. he knew there would be significant obstacles. but there had then obstacles to winning the war, and those had been overcome. so too with the problem of reconstruction. for all of the sadness he had endured, one observer said there was a soft shade of melancholy in his smile and his eyes. lincoln was, at heart, and optimist. his final speech sought to define and redefine terms. during the war, he had offered a plan of reconstruction, with emphasis on "a" plan of reconstruction.

as the phrase goes, he put in parentheses. but he understood that in fundamental ways, the phrase was inadequate for the rebirth that he desired. not reunion, restoration, or reconstruction, but the rebirth of this nation at the end of the war. he would not allow a return to the status quo. and had he lived, his humanity might have led the nation toward the righteous peace he envisioned for all americans. thank you. [applause] >> we have plenty of time for questions. i often find we can get at some

of the other issues during q&a rather than me lecturing. yes, sir? the author of the principal rights act of 1966, the 14th amendment, do you think lincoln would have made a similar trajectory as lyman trumbull? prof. masur: i believe so. i think we still get civil rights act, the 14th and 15th amendment. i think that it is in the softer area where support for the transition to freedom would have made a big difference. unlike johnson, who congress passed it over his veto, it would have continued to do its work. moneys provided for the kinds of things that were needed for the transition to freedom. whether it is tools or seed or negotiating wage labor agreements with former masters,

certainly education. education remains -- talk about reconstruction having anything near to triumph, but education is one. that investment in education within the black community and among northern whites and others that went south to teach black schoolchildren. the c rates exploded over the course of the 19th century. -- the literacy rates explode over the course of the 19 century. the creation of historic black colleges and institutions. in those kinds of ways, we end up with a better situation. but we would be naive to think that the ku klux klan could have been prevented from the terrors, or that there would have been a significant enough military presence in the south to control things. we can to play the hypothetical continue to play the hypothetical game about possibilities, disenfranchise the former confederates to prevent them from gaining political power as quickly as they did.

i was astonished in researching this book -- i didn't know this, but i should have -- alexander stevens is reelected by georgia in december of 1865 to congress. think about that. the vice president of the confederacy is reelected. of course, congress refuses to see any representatives under johnson's reconstruction plan, which leaned a little to lincoln's. you mentioned lyman trumbull, it is also congress's refusal to see representatives in february that led us on this path. i believe the embracement of civil rights, as indicated in the last speech, when continue. -- would continue. >> was black suffrage addressed in any of the reconstructed state constitutions? prof. masur: in louisiana, it was left to the legislature to decide, which meant no black suffrage. i don't know for a fact if any of the state legislatures were

able to do that. i don't believe so, which is one of the reasons for the necessity 14th amendment. you had abolitionists pricing for suffrage early. another reason for it, obviously, is the political party or which black men are going to vote. there is justice and expediency involved in pressing for the 15th amendment. talk about southern states, northern states did not allow free black men to vote. connecticut has a referendum to give the vote to free black men. that referendum failed.

we have to keep that in mind when we are talking about this contested problem of race. question here. is this the last question? >> he is looking at people as people are looking at the construct of relationships, rebuilding relationships between blacks and whites, and that is based on the sense that black people are people. the idea and the context at that time, when there was so much hatred and putrid consideration, where did this come from, where he is saying, not only is the old not working anymore and we are going toward a new sense of being with ourselves and each other? prof. masur: frederick douglass met with lincoln on several occasions. s said about him that he was the only white man that he ever met that treated him fully as of equal. part of it comes back to the idea of the self-made man. lincoln's idea that we have to lift artificial weights off of old people's shoulders.

or is the great articulat of that vision. early on, he does not know what to do. this will change over time. 1854, he said if all power was given to me, i would not know what to do with respect to slavery. my first inclination would be colonization. send them out, because whites and blacks cannot live together in harmony. he made comments about not believing in political and social equality. but ultimately, it becomes about the ways in which experience transforms attitude. lincoln group, but so did many w, but so did many other americans. in my last book, i wrote about soldiers. one important element of the emancipation proclamation is when the army becomes about liberation. it changes their mind. what does it mean when you are marching south and you're able to unionize african-americans? the soldiers are very important.

179,000 men were serving. in all these ways, it is not just lincoln, it is parts of a society that are trying to move ahead to solve what, for them, causes the problem, the problem of freedom in the age of slavery. it is a complicated problem. on one hand, it is a problem that the nation continues to have to address. i think for lincoln, it is that basic sense of allowing individuals to rise or fall on their own merits, and giving everyone the opportunity to do so. >> the readmission of southern states. several years ago, a friend of mine, a civil war buff, told me that he had seen a map of the southern states in which the boundaries and state borders were redrawn and new states were created.

that.ever seen i've never found anybody who said anything about this. have you ever seen it or heard of it? prof. masur: i can defer to real experts in the audience. michael, have you seen anything like this? no, this sounds new. it is possible. there are lots of things being thrown out. but, aside from the fanciful and hypothetical, there were certain realities. i come back to the problem of reconstruction. what is the price that the confederacy paid for leaving the union? slavery was the price. could there and should there have been additional prices to have paid? that is the place where the debate has to be engaged. could confederates have been disenfranchised? there is an argument about confiscation of property, but is ascation of property

bill of attainment that is unconstitutional. the idea of confiscating property for one generation is confiscate u can't it in perpetuity. there are lots of stumbling blocks on the road to thinking how the south could have been reintegrated into this nation and to further protect the rights and liberties of freedom. men.ed >> that is a segue into my question. where their progressive voices among the way people in the south at the end of the war and starting with reconstruction. people began to think, we lost, let's work something out with the freed men, and let's work something out for our futures. prof. masur: there were. lincoln may have exaggerated the number of southern unionists at the start of the war, but there were southern union lists, andhern whigs still there,

there were those that were not necessarily committed to the plantar class. even some of the planter class got on with the program quickly. they understood this was a new day dawning, and we have to arrange for these kinds of relationships. many of the freed men wanted to leave the plantation. many of them, as they wrote at the time, did not know they were free unless they had the freedom to leave. many of them sat out on missions many of them sat out on missions searching for loved ones that had been separated. many of them stayed on as if nothing had happened. the problem is the northern republicans who would come south and characterize the carpetbaggers, and blacks were elected to state legislatures and became demonized. that is not to say there were not issues. southerners who support the effort get labeled scalawags. we have not escalated our ways

selves out of the lost cause and arguments about reconstruction that were articulated in birth of the nation and other kinds of historiography. up until the 1960's, for -- until the 1960's, and took different kinds of ways for historians to revisit reconstruction and save the myth of corrupt northerners and that the kkk was there to protect rights. that was so ingrained for so long. there are still remnants of it that continue. to go back and to revisit reconstruction, there has been a lot of great work done. i'm looking at exactly what people were able to do or try to do. the problem is is that it is a luminous, but brief, moment that gets undermined and defeated. for lots of reasons. the war raged from 1861 to 1865. reconstruction is going on

longer than the war. by 1869, 1870, 1871, people are tired and exhausted. there is postwar depression. you need a moral and political will to solve the problem of the transition to freedom. that will dissipates, for all kinds of reasons. reconstruction turns out the way it does. of course, all of us would have loved to have had lincoln's hand at the tiller for those last three years to see what might have happened. again, i think in many ways, we get changes that would have meant a lot in the specific lies -- lives of individual freed men, but there were larger structural problems of racism and the transition from slavery to freedom that i'm not sure could have been solved then, but i sure hope that in the near future they will be solved.

[applause] thank you all very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] you are watching american history tv. follow us on twitter to keep up with the latest. proudly secretary, we toe 72 of our delegate votes the next president of the united states. ♪

announcer: on october 22, 1965, president lyndon johnson signed a highway unification act which called for removing outdoor advertising signs and encourage enhancement on the interstate highway system. the effort was championed by lady bird johnson, who also worked with private organizations and government offices to clean up the nation's capital. next, showcase for the nation, the story of mrs. lyndon b. johnson's beautiful -- beautification program. the 23 minute film details the first lady's effort to plant trees and flowers and improve