dominated judiciary which actually, the sedition act which we regard as a total violation of the first amendment didn't even go to the supreme court because people knew how they would rule. they were federalists, they were appellate. that.y would uphold i can see people, i firehose you on that, but i hope it is a good ending. i want to thank you very much. sarah has some more announcements. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] washing american history tv. to join the conversation, like us on facebook @cnspan history -- you are watching american history. >> author and historian harold

holzer talks about abraham lincoln's views on immigration policy and immigrant groups in america. he describes the effort to court the german vote and the importance of immigrants in the union army of the civil war. this talk is about an hour. >> here at the lincoln forum, we have spent some time talking about immigration at our sessions this week. it is instructive that our student essay contest this year is about immigration. and let's face it, it is a fraught issue, a provocative issue, and unresolved issue -- then and now. but i want to focus on then, and see if we can get some insight into lincoln and his times and this hot topic. let me start with december 6, 1864, just a month after his reelection as president.

it's the day abraham lincoln sent his fourth -- and as fate would have it his final -- message to congress. it is known today as the state of the union. by the tradition of the lincoln era they were not or rated in person, they were sent via white house staff and read aloud by a clerk. maybe with feeling. probably not. certainly not the way lincoln himself would have read it, so we can only imagine how the document was received by a body that would ultimately just take a reading copy and study it more closely. i would think that one passage, particularly, caught the listener's attention that day. and keep in mind as we set the stage, not only had lincoln been reelected, but the civil war had been raging for three and a half years by this time, and hundreds of thousands of people lay dead.

i don't know if the calculus had been kept up to date, but certainly every home had already been touched in some way by death. and yet, that day the president insisted this -- while it is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves, it is some relief to know that we have more men now than we had when the war began, that we are gaining strength, and may, if need be, maintain this contest indefinitely. so, american manpower, lincoln was saying, to a dubious congress and a battered people, was inexhaustible. that's the word he used, "inexhaustible." he also said it's not material to know how this increase has been produced, which is an odd statement. getting past it, as i am sure

the members of congress did, they knew exactly how it had been produced. one word. immigration. the total number of new foreign arrivals to the union actually had fallen to fewer than 100,000 in each of the first two years of the civil war. but it had rebounded to 100 76,000 in 1863 and 193,000 in the year they were discussing that day in congress, 1864, the highest totals in a generation. so, who were they? well, the overwhelming majority came from england and germany, and ireland, and scandinavia. most were, in fact, young men, as lincoln was alluding to, between the ages of 15-40. many were eager to work in the jobs opening up in industries

rapidly expanding to meet wartime demand. and here pay for laborers was up to four times higher than in europe. no doubt most important to the commander-in-chief, one in 10 immigrants -- one in 10 -- joined the union military as soon as they arrived. by lincoln's optimistic calculation, the result, with black enlistment figured in, and even with the dead, wounded, captured, was a net gain for the union at large. and even more would arise in 1865. let's get one thing straight. lincoln did not favor what we would call open borders. in that message, it's extraordinary, he expressed

concern about our border. he thought it was too porous. he said i have no doubt in the power of the executive to exclude enemies of the human race from asylum in the united states. but he would remain equally vigilant, he said that day, to frauds against immigrants while on their way and on their arrival in the ports. once here, he wants them to have a free choice of evocation and place of settlement. no registry. no limits to employment. while he had spent the previous year and a half worrying that some arrivals were avoiding military service in their own country and were poised to avoid military service in our country, he was so eager to replenish the population, that he was now

willing to guarantee that he would not impose the draft on any new arrivals until they renounced their homeland and became full-fledged americans. as lincoln made clear in his previous annual message in 1863, just a couple weeks after returning from gettysburg, he believed america needed to encourage immigration. he called it the source of national wealth and strength. congress liked the idea, but believe it or not, they moved slowly in those days. [laughter] some impetus was provided when the republican national convention of the following spring passed a platform plank calling for "a liberal and just policy to foster immigration," and then, in 1864, congress

actually passed immigration reform, which not only created the first federal immigration office, believe it or not, and encouraged foreign arrivals, here is one that's hard to imagine. the bill of 1864 offered to pay for the transit of skilled workers to the united states. now, that was too much even for the pro-lincoln new york times, which was staunchly pro-lincoln. they editorialized that it would lower the quality of the population migrating. but lincoln ignored the editorial. he was firm on this. and here he was now, five months later, sending his message to congress, boasting about the positive impact of immigration. so, are there lessons for our times?

i am going to avoid that delicate subject as assiduously as other speakers have this week. but i want to look at how lincoln got to his position on immigration from the beginning. his record on immigration often gets lost in his focus -- and our understandable focus -- on lincoln and slavery. interestingly, while he can be said to have evolved slowly on national authority over slavery, especially where existed, and on equal rights, he was consistently enlightened about immigration. and like many politicians, sometimes he had one public

position and one private position. consider his origins. lincoln was not born in a metropolis teeming with foreigners with whom he had first-hand experience. his parents and grandparents were much more concerned about original americans, native americans. on his one visit to new orleans, young lincoln no doubt heard french and spanish spoken for the first time in his life, but what he remembered were the haunting cries of suffering that rose from the slave markets, expressions that transcended the barriers of language. others were taking note of america's growing ethnic diversity, and there was a liberalization of immigration laws even then. it had gone from two years, five

years, 14 years, now it was back to five years. tocqueville did not believe we could create a multi ethnic country. until men can change their nature, he wrote, i shall refuse to believe in a government that is called upon to hold together 40 different nations. but from the more multicultural east coast, herman melville countered that the noble mode in which america had been settled meant that in due time prejudice would be forever extinguished. as we know, the future lay somewhere in between the tocqueville cynicism and melville's rosy optimism. so lincoln, still oblivious, settled in the rural village of new salem, no more diverse than kentucky or indiana.

the occasional irishman, we know from recollections that william herdman collect it, wandered into town. roughnecks could be expected to mock them about their weakness for drink or their allegiance to the pope. we have to remember that the pope of the 1830's, 18 40's was not as beloved as pope francis. it was more of a dig. but lincoln never joined the taunts. one person expressed astonishment that young lincoln had no prejudice against any class, preferring the germans, but tolerating even the irish. [laughter] now, in that phrase, "even the irish," lies a clue to at least some of the prejudice against immigrants in the 1870's. leaving religious prejudice

aside, immigration, like so much of american life and so many issues then, came down to political power. herndon was a fully committed whig. most irish-americans were not. that lincoln tolerated them at all was something of a miracle as far as herndon was concerned because he knew that once the irish obtained full voting rights, they would never vote for him or his party. his mixed messages on immigration, which i will get to, were always political, and never moral. the so-called german element -- largely liberal, mostly refugees from and even veterans of the failed democratic revolutions of europe in the 1840's -- enrolled overwhelmingly in the whig

party, later the republican party, once they gain citizenship, while the irish identified passionately with the democrats. and it's true, lincoln never entirely lost his lifelong suspicion that irishman always rigged elections to elect democrats. celtic gentleman with black carpet sacks in their hands, he once called them, hinting that in the carpet sacks was money to bribe poll watchers to vote more than once. just a few weeks before the 1858 election to the senate, lincoln came to an illinois port town and said he had just seen a dozen hibernians on a dock, and complained those irishmen were imported expressly to vote me down.

now, lincoln's paranoia was par for the day. rival democrats just as often claimed there was fraud being practiced by germans who always cast their ballots against them. lincoln came of age politically amidst both rising immigration -- again, you know, there is a trifecta making america more diverse in the 1840's. the famine in ireland. the revolutions in germany. in those regions. even the mexican secession creates a mexican population in the southwest. it also made for a toxic brew among those who had come here earlier and believed that america was bare exclusive -- was their exclusive birthright. now, lincoln joined the whigs, as we know, for its policy of encouraging upward mobility, but even the quick party had a big anti-immigrant streak. they made life unbearable for

catholic newcomers competing for jobs. to his credit, as much as lincoln supported whig policies on economic development, he refused to endorse or echo the anti-catholicism growing within his own party. in fact, early in his career, he openly rejected it. he was just 35 years old. he was already set up for a future run for congress. that is when he and the rest of springfield learned that philadelphia, the cradle of liberty, had been rocked by anti-immigrant rioting, sparked, by the way, when catholic residents simply asked if they could use their own bibles in local schools. local whigs had incited the violence. appalled, lincoln attended a

meeting that rallied people from isolation to gatherings where public speeches and exchanges of ideas were held. this one was called to support the immigrants of philadelphia and to make sure that local whigs didn't think it was a conspiracy to put them down. that day in 1844, lincoln did nothing less than chart a roadmap to citizenship. he said that in admitting the foreigner to the right of citizenship, he should be put to some reasonable test of his fidelity to our country and its institutions, should dwell among us for a reasonable amount of time to become generally acquainted with the nature of those institutions, and then, consistent with these requisites, naturalization laws should be so framed as to render

citizenship as convenient, cheap, and expeditious as possible. the historic promise of refuge, asylum in america, lincoln declared that day, remained sacred and inviolate. now, lincoln was preaching to the converted that day. the opposition democratic newspaper wrote that lincoln's words failed to defend the whigs in a manner satisfactory to those who heard him speak. as a matter of fact, as much as he protested that year and in the next 10 or 15 years, lincoln never quite escaped the rumor that he did not oppose nativism enough. why is that? lincoln was never anti-catholic. but the hard truth is, that he never discouraged alliances with

anti-catholics in order to broaden his own circle of support, support that would give him the power to do noble things. in other words, i guess you could say he sometimes kept bad company. now, cozying up to nativists carried risks in the wake of the biggest outbreak of xenophobia in national history. with immigration surging, the know nothing party rose up to demand restrictions. lincoln abhorred their view, but shrewdly, refused to block the coalition. congressman lincoln boasted that all the odds and ends were now

with the whigs, including native americans -- by which he did not mean indians, he meant the know nothings. he believed a broad tent would produce an overwhelming triumph for the whigs, and he was right, even if the occupants of the tent were bigots. lincoln criticized the know nothings privately, but he refused to cast them out, particularly from the even bigger tent he began building in the 1850's in response to slavery. at virtually the same time that one of his great allies was calling nativism the indelible shame of our politics, lincoln was admitting that most know nothings were my old political and personal friends, and that

he hoped their organization would die out without the painful necessity of taking an open standard against them. it didn't die out, and he didn't take an open stand against them -- for a while. now, with the 1856 elections looming, the first that would offer a republican candidate for president, lincoln told local abolitionists -- whose support he wanted for the fremont ticket -- know nothingism has not entirely crumbled. in fact, it is encouraged. until we can get the elements of this organization -- he meant bringing them into the fold -- until we can get them, there is not sufficient material to successfully combat the nebraska democracy. the nebraska democracy was

opponents of the nebraska kansas act that would allow popular sentiment to spread slavery if a majority of voters approved it. the antislavery movement needed all the supporters it could attract, even if it meant including know nothings. i fear an open push, he said, might prevent us ever getting them. lincoln did not want bigots excluded from the new party. i have no objection to fuse with anybody, he said, provided i can fuse on ground i think is right. even though he thought little better of the know nothings than of the slavery extensionists. you could make the argument that by this time maybe lincoln should have known better.

in 1855, in a legislative contest, abraham lincoln had entered the ballot as the overwhelming favorite to gain a senate seat. he had it sewn up. but in ballot after ballot, he did not quite get the majority. the know nothing element abandoned him. and someone else was elected. that is what stimulated the long letter that is quoted so often. we don't have the return letter to lincoln. we can conjecture, did he say -- why in the world are you consorting with those people? they did you in and they are doing in the american atheists.

-- the american ethos. that is why lincoln writes, i am by no means a know nothing. our progress and degeneracy begins to be pretty rapid. we began by saying all men are equal. when the know nothings get control, we will say except negroes, foreigners, and catholics. then he talks about a base alloy of despotism that makes no pretense of bigotry in places like russia. did he protest too much? keep in mind, as often as we quote this letter, it was completely unknown in the 1850's and 1860's. it was not made public until william herndon wrote his biography of lincoln after lincoln's death.

let's understand the letter for what it is, the reassurance to a personal friend -- his best friend -- not a public declaration of distaste for the know nothings. in fact, it wasn't until 1876 that the letter was published in catholic monthly, and important publication at the time, and only then the editor wrote that it deserved to be inscribed in gold. in gold. a few months after he wrote the letter privately, the know nothings had metastasized so drastically the party was able to field its own candidate for the presidency, willard fillmore, who went on to run one of the most successful third-party candidacies in history, receiving an appalling 23% of the vote with a platform dedicated to excluding foreigners.

of the most successful that must have rattled lincoln. two years later, he gives the house divided speech and becomes the nominee of the republican party, which is a new kind of thing, the one and only party candidate from the senate to challenge stephen douglas. the seven debates that are so famous -- justly so -- would barely touch on this subject. one or two passing references, and usually it was douglas teasing lincoln about being abandoned by the know nothings at the 1855 legislative contest. but a month before the debates got underway, lincoln delivered a response to douglas in chicago. it was such an important occasion that when douglas agree

to the debates, he excluded cook county because he thought this was already a debate. it was just a week after independence day. that must've been rattling around in lincoln's mind, because he began by talking about the iron man who had established the country, but he had his eye on foreign men, too, because many foreigners were in the audience, because by now republicans had been flooding into illinois, changing the demographics, making it one of those tossup states that we hear so much about today. aside from the men defended by

blood by our ancestors, he said at least half among the audience are not. if they look back through our history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find none, but when they look through that old declaration, they find we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal, and then they feel they have a right to claim that as if they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote the declaration, and so they are. now, lincoln lost the 1858 senate race anyway, but just a few months later began casting his eyes on a bigger prize, and where reaching foreign voters was concerned, finally and literally put his money where his mouth was. it's quite a story. i would like to go over it now. i find it one of the most astonishing springfield,

illinois stories ever to come down to us. remember, lincoln had been cultivating newspaper editors wherever they traveled. he would engage them. they were reluctant at first. he won them over. he was a charmer. he found every republican editor he could find to get them on his side, and these included the editors of german language weeklies wherever he went in illinois, indiana, ohio, wisconsin. he met them and corresponded with them because he knew the german vote was going to be so important in the west in the presidential election. it might even tip the balance of the republicans in the swing states like indiana and

illinois, which had gone for buchanan in 1856, may be a big german vote as population increased and voter eligibility increased could flip them in 1860. so in an episode long overlooked in our history, abraham lincoln decides it's not enough to cultivate german newspaper editors. he decides to become a german newspaper editor. [laughter] well, how did he do that? he had a partner, a young german immigrant, a doctor by training, an american citizen for just four years, but already very active in illinois republican politics.

he had a newspaper in alton, illinois, and was just about as unwelcome there as elijah lovejoy had been. he seemed shocked that he had no advertisers or readers there. he moved to become a statewide german language republican newspaper. as he gets to springfield, something interesting happens. people and illinois get wind of a bill that is being considered in the legislature of perhaps the most progressive state in the country, massachusetts. there, they are considering a law that would prohibit foreign-born citizens -- people who have already become citizens -- from casting their votes in national elections and state elections for two years more. a two-year waiting period. well, republicans knew what that was. that was democrats in the state legislature trying to prevent people from voting in the presidential election. it was a national movement. he and his friends were outraged. horace greeley in new york warned this would threaten the republican victory. it was voter suppression, and

republicans would not win if the bill was passed. so he did what everybody did. he held a public meeting so that everybody could yell, shout, and denounce. and he invited this famous republican in his new home town, to attend. abraham lincoln did not attend. he was still being very careful about those know nothings, or former know nothings, with nowhere to go. and this was 1859. he was not yet ready to appear at a public meeting. and that is an important, may disappointing, thing. a letter was published in the german press. lincoln figured it would be read only by germans. he wrote, understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of man, i am opposed to whatever tends to do grade them. i have some little notoriety for supervising with the strife of the negro. this is a milestone. this is the speed letter all over again. but perhaps a little toned down. you don't hear about the base

alloy of hypocrisy or despotism in russia, but at last made public. a big milestone for lincoln. it took him 50 years, but a big milestone for lincoln, and it created a sensation. perhaps to his chagrin. perhaps he was ok with it.

it was published in the english language presses as well. he held lincoln as the gallant champion of the state and began meeting with him about plotting republican strengths. but he had a problem. he wants to start this german paper. but as soon as he got to springfield, his creditors had seized his printing press and his types. seized them. put them in hock. how am i going to start a pro-lincoln paper without a printing press? very wise. lincoln set i know what i am going to do. i am going to go to the republican state committee and say what do you need? he says i need $500. a lot of money in 1859. i will go to the republican

state committee. state committee. i will get to the money for you. parties and newspapers are cogs in the same political machine. they are fully integrated for one common cause. the republican committee chair says to lincoln, are you kidding? he is a leech. i not going to give you a penny. i have been bailing him out of things for the last couple of years. i am doing my own version of the conversation here, but the quote "a leech" is real. i have seen the letter. lincoln decides to pay for it himself. william herndon comes in and says did we get our fee from so and so today?

lincoln says billy, we just bought a newspaper. i know all of you lawyers will be disappointed that lincoln wrote his own contract and represented himself. it's an extraordinary contract. both copies arrive. in it, lincoln says here is $500. what i require to you is that you are loyal to the state and national republican platforms. if you divert from them in anyway, i will take everything back. if you remain loyal until after the election for president, you can have it all. you can have the press, the name, the type. it's not to be made public, but it's all yours. that was the whole deal. that's how important this instrument of public opinion was to lincoln.

by the way, politicians were openly owners of newspapers in those days and newspapermen routinely ran for office. this was a well kept secret. no one knew about it except to people. it's rather odd. but lincoln was so proud of the result, he began mailing it to other politicians. he would say this is a wonderful newspaper. you should subscribe. but i cannot find any evidence he identified himself with it. and here is the real rub. there is not one copy of this newspaper -- and i mean not one copy -- that anyone has ever found. there have been alerts written in springfield and in washington. if any of you have one, see me later about the collection. they have vanished. they did their work. the english paper in springfield said a lot of the victory in 1860 was due to the german republicans of the city. isn't it extraordinary? abraham lincoln for a year published a newspaper he could not even read. by the way, he had taken german lessons for a while in springfield because he wanted to speak directly to his constituents.

but according to one survivor of the class, lincoln told jokes throughout the class and nobody learned any german, and the class disbanded. all we know is that in chicago, he met met george schneider one day and said i know what your name means. schneider means taylor. schneider said you speak german? lincoln said i know taylor. that's about it. about a month after the election, lincoln signed the paper over. he had been supported for the nomination for president, which most german editors did not. they supported edward bates, because he hailed from st. louis, the most german american city. and now all germans lined up for what happened in the 19th

century when you won an election, jobs. federal jobs. and newspaper editors were the most honored for jobs. they were named the teutonic expectant's as they lined up for their loaves and fishes, and lincoln was very generous. he gave them diplomatic appointments to ecuador and zurich, german editors, and they had supported bates. and then kustoff koerner, famous german editor, writes a letter to lincoln and says why have you ignored this man who was for you before any of these guys?

lincoln sheepishly writes a letter that says i know i am coming to washington representing illinois, and i hate to give jobs to people from illinois, but i have to take care of canisius. i would like to make him consul to vienna. ultimately, he rewarded his copublisher as well. and he did more. without leaving very big fingerprints, lincoln asked the state legislature when it got back into session in january of

1861 to please pass a resolution to buy up all the back copies of the newspaper. this might be why there are no copies around. please buy them and make use of them. it produced $504 for canisius to take with him to buy strudel in vienna. maybe they had a bonfire. he continues to appoint germans, and of course, on february 11 goes off to washington and gets another precious opportunity to speak directly to an immigrant population. he gets to cincinnati, to appear before a german-american industrial association. he gets an year splitting ovation. he is introduced as a model self-made man. he says workingmen are the best in the world, not only nativeborn, but foreigners from other countries. here he is reiterating his statement to the newspapers from 1859 a couple of years later, and importantly, in person. he says if foreigners desire to make this land their land of adoption, it is not in my heart to throw off their way or prevent them from coming to the united states. i esteem foreigners know better than other people -- he got a laugh with this -- or any worse. it is not my nature when i see a people broke down by the weight of their shackles to make their life more better by heaping upon them greater burdens. rather what i do all in my power to raise the yoke.

but lincoln also expected the foreign born to live up to the responsibilities of american life as well. and the union itself was threatened, riven, consumed by war. the foreign were expected to serve and defend the union they had made their home. in fact, the union army came soon to speak with a foreign accent. fully a quarter of the 2 million men who took up arms for the union were born outside this country. a half-million hyphenated

americans. to encourage enlistment, lincoln hit upon an ingenious organizing device that his counterpart, jefferson davis, did not adopt, and that was giving important military commissions to foreign-born officers who would be able to recruit and form ethnically-based military companies. for example, lincoln's old friend carl schultz, who he first appointed to spain, for without distinction -- fought without distinction, finished the war behind a desk, but he served a purpose. even if badly trained german troops fled so quickly from one battle that they were nicknamed the flying dutchman, there were 145 units exclusively comprised of germans for the union. including that of the enormously popular von siegal, who remained

a huge symbol of german loyalty to the union and a poster boy for recruitment. he was so unlucky that the troops who followed him would say i fought with siegal. even if they fought without success. it didn't matter. freedom was an important cause of the war. notwithstanding, 150,000 irishmen also went on to serve in the union army. they formed legendary companies of their own, the irish brigade, the fighting 69th, but they always complained that the germans got favored treatment. many of them groused that when brigadier general james shields failed to win expeditious promotion -- i mean, we must admit that he did very little in combat to earn it, but neither did fran sigel, but his fans were aware of his long relationship with abraham lincoln, which was not always hunky-dory.

shields once complained that either lincoln or mary todd was viously mocking him in local newspapers, really rough stuff. what did shields do? he challenged abraham lincoln to a duel. lincoln said it's my responsibility. it was probably mary who wrote or at least cowrote it. but lincoln took responsibility. they went out to an island of the mississippi river called bloody island because it was the place where dueling was legal.

lincoln with a choice of weapons chose broadsword and began slicing off tree limbs, and shields ultimately said maybe we should make up, or something of that nature. [laughter] the irish who fought with him did not know that. i always say the bottom line there is had that duel proceeded, lincoln today might be a rap musical instead of a spielberg movie. the irish mob was unwilling to fight to free slaves who might compete with them for jobs. they burned and pillage their way through manhattan. even in the horror of that, lincoln simply sent a message to his son to come out of new york city and come home.

he joked that even that could remind him of a funny story, and ethnic humor was always part of his repertoire. he told the cabinet that general hugh kilpatrick was going to new york to put down the riot, but i promise, his name has nothing to do with it. think about it. kill patrick. lincoln was a pun maker. don't blame me. he also asked the irish archbishop, john j hughs, to recruit catholic clergy for the military, and later gave him a diplomatic post. you all know of lincoln's heroism. it took political heroism to countermand ulysses s. grant's military order banning jews as a class. remember, jews were not only

jews, they were foreign-born. german, austrian. banning jews as a class from the western military theater. lincoln quietly overturn the order. it was not a great press opportunity. he did not want to embarrass grant, who was a victorious general. let's remember that the person who codified the laws of war, francis lieber, to whom he turned for precedent-setting rules, who helped make black freedom possible with those rules, was also born in germany. i am not going to argue that lincoln was perfect from the outset on the immigration issue.

once during the lincoln douglas debates, he called mexicans mongrels. although it can be argued that he was repeating something douglas had said, introducing the slur. lincoln certainly expressed little sympathy for asians. seeing the chinese chiefly as a labor force to build the new transcontinental railroad, not as full future participants in the american dream.

as for latin america, early in the war, the only thought lincoln gave to that region was the idea of setting aside land there as new land for freed african-americans, rather than as a source of population for america. yes, he told ethnic jokes. mimicry of dialect never inhibited or embarrassed him. and true, immigration was never abraham lincoln's top priority. slavery and rebellion captured nearly all of his attention even though i have seldom mentioned those issues today. and equally true, the rising politician was not willing to discourage bigots from

supporting him, and never discouraged irish voters to the polls to oppose him. but publicly, he never once made an address without emphasizing moral right over political expedients. i expect wikileaks might have found some of the notes he wrote to lovejoy and others disturbing, but i think the record is pretty good. all lincoln really ever expected and ultimately inspired in return for citizenship in america was national service and hard work, the same sacrifices he demanded of the native born and of himself. the result was nothing more, as i said at the beginning, then the replenishment of a population ravaged by war, whose victims, lincoln knew, included the foreign-born. speaking of which, just a few months before that final annual message, the u.s. army began burying the first union union casualties in the new national cemetery taking shape at robert

e. lee's one-time mansion at arlington. among the first martyrs interned there were soldiers who had been born in germany and ireland, not to mention england, france, russia, mexico, and persia. in the first group buried at arlington. by then, lincoln had gone so far as to conclude that a higher power had governed this transformative change in american society. remember, lincoln would say only a few weeks later that if god willed that the war continued, the judgments of the lord are true and righteous altogether. here he was saying in that final message that god had governed something else. this is astonishing and seldom discussed. he said i regard our immigrants as one of the principal replenishing streams which are appointed by providence to repair the ravages of war. appointed by providence. think of it. malice toward none on immigration.

ordained by god to heal and replenish a nation ravaged by war. it's a pretty breathtaking claim, and if it sounds a little like the modern dialogue on immigration, that's because it is. so let me end where i began, with the presidential message, the last lincoln ever gave to congress. remember that i said it was carried by a clerk to the capital. in fact, the clerk that had the honor of bringing the message to capitol hill was john george nicollet, who served at his side in washington for four years. well, you can guess the rest. he had been born in bavaria, sailing to the u.s. with his parents at the age of six. always, even though he had come at such a young age, speaking

with a slight german accent that made many visitors to the white house rather fearful of him even though he was a skinny little guy. now he was entrusted to carry the message of the president of the united states to congress as an american. not only was lincoln's ascent -- to paraphrase lincoln -- altogether fitting and proper, keeping open the gate of diversity had become a crucial part, with god's help, of finishing america's work. lincoln believed that what made us americans was not place of birth but love of liberty, and what made america america was not restriction on opportunity, but rather than building a wall, raising the yoke. thank you very much.

[applause] >> thank you. do we have time for a couple of questions? i don't know where the microphone is. do you? there it is. camouflaged. >> as a prospective candidate for president, what do you think lincoln would have said publicly or privately about a proposal to register all muslims? this is what president-elect trump said yesterday he wants to do.

to register them and more. >> so, i will be glad to see you outside. [laughter] but i don't want to use my time at our own healing place, the lincoln for them, to talk modern politics. so i respectfully punt that one. with respect, i hope you don't mind. [applause] >> you mentioned voter suppression. >> voter suppression in 1864 or before? >> 1864, before, and eternally. it has always been there, as has voter intimidation and voter fraud. it's still unclear how people prove their citizenship to register to vote. both sides said there was cheating and voter fraud. how widespread was it?

was it a real factor? you mentioned irishmen on the pier coming to vote. were there voter rolls? was this widespread? and if you were an immigrant and not yet a citizen and you enlisted in the union army, did they waive the five-year requirement for you to become a citizen or did you still have to wait even if you are wounded? >> that's a lot of questions. we discussed how registration was accomplished in the 1840's, 1850's, 1860's. then as now, voter rules are made by the states and localities. there was no such thing as do 90

or drivers license, or an nra card that qualifies you to vote in states where ideas required today. but there was a requirement for citizenship documents, which would come after five years. lincoln was a poll watcher. whole books exist in his handwriting where he not only carefully checked people in and off the voter rolls, but memorized so much of the data that, for example, on one of those excursions to meet an editor, his private secretary, who did not want to waste any time -- he knew the voting data and how it had changed between 1852 and 1856 in stoddard's district better than stoddard did. he knew that stuff cold. that said, the idea that dead people are voting, noncitizens are voting, has been awash in

the land for generations, for 100 50 years. lincoln worried about irishmen voting twice or voting without citizenship or residency. douglas worried about germans. there is really no evidence that there was any widespread fraud, any systemic fraud, just as today these accounts are apocryphal and unproven. it was not a major factor, but it was a good thing to rouse your troops, for all the wrong reasons. i don't know the answer for voting rights for enrollees, particularly the wounded. i suspect it was a five-year rule, period, even for those who had volunteered for service. >> harold, i don't believe all immigration was appointed by

providence since the union was sending recruiters to ireland to bring people to the united states. this happened enough that the confederate government complained to the british government through their envoy in washington. was lincoln a party to this policy? >> sure. he needed soldiers. i didn't say he believed immigration was appointed by providence. i said he set it at the state of the union. [laughter] and it's good to have divinity on your side in a bloody war where there are hundreds of thousands of casualties.

he is good to have on your side in a war where there are hundreds of thousands of casualties. jefferson davis did not see the efficacy of forming ethnic companies and creating ethnic heroes to stimulate german and irish recruitment, but there were -- i did not mention it -- but there were german regiments and irish regiments as well. ethnic companies, even if they were not supported by the top-down. it is a very complex record, and ever thus. >> when did the first lincoln immigrant arrived, his ancestor? >> in the 1600s. but again, his family were immigrants, but they preceded the declaration. thank you for enduring. thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] official opening last september, the museum of african american history and culture has welcomed visitors. on sunday, american history tv on c-span3 gets you inside the museum for a live exclusive after-hours tour. the special includes an exhibit telling the african-american story from slavery to the first african-american president. throughout the program, our andt's will talk to you hear your phone calls and tweets. join us for an exclusive live visit inside the national museum of after an american history and at 6:00sunday beginning p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3.

>> tonight, melissa fleming, journey to europe in her book -- one refugee's incredible story of love, lost, and survival. >> how did things develop to the point they felt they had to leave? >> this was 2011 and the arab spring was happening all around them. average families in syria are living under an oppressive regime but they all have homes, livelihoods, health care, they are going to school and going about day-to-day life. this family in particular was not politically active. there caught up in excitement other countries changing and maybe we can change here. would have been 16 years old, inspired to go out and see what is happening.

she witnesses that peaceful protesters are shot at. >> monday night on the communicators, the new chair of the house subcommittee on communications and technology, tennessee congresswoman marsha blackburn on how she expects communications and tech issues this year with a republican administration. >> making certain we address what i view as having been an , communities that do not have broadband are not able to go in and expand educational opportunity for their students. they are not able to utilize health care