this data strictly for themselves. >> watch the communicators on monday night on c-span two. >> american history tv was recently in ford theater for the hosted byl symposium the abraham lincoln institute. talks about the 16th presidents relationship with immigrant groups. this is just under one hour. great pleasure for me to introduce jason silverman, i first met him and bring field, illinois when i heard him deliver a sparkling lecture on abraham lincoln and immigrants at the state capital. he is the author or editor of 11 books, he just told me his book out there, that is where you can go look for it. that is fitting for the

immigration aspect. professor atior winthrop university where he has talked for years. i like to find a little bit about him, i went to rate my professors.com. if that site is any indication of how the students feel about him i can tell he is love. one student wrote that he is an amazing professor, in his class they are far from boring. you will need to refer the test because he does not cover everything from the book. you will also have to attend class because every day something is new. another one wrote that this class is not easy but if you are struggling go talk to him and he will tell you to take notes, he is very helpful. a number of students remarked that he always began his class with a joke, one student wrote

most are dirty but funny. audience warn, you the you have to be careful when you ask questions, one student wrote that i would kill for this man literally created to go after us too hard. finally, if you years ago, i will not say how many years ago, one student told him that called him the best professor at winthrop. for a 52-year-old man he is pretty dam hot. please join me in welcoming jason silverman. [applause] jason: that was 10 years ago. [laughter] i have not checked lately the rate my professor.com. i would have to imagine my hotness has deteriorated. all i can say today is out. this is an incredible experience

for me. i want to thank john for that touching interview, as a historian he certainly would back in time. i want to thank the abraham lincoln institute for posting this, it is a dream come true. i can tell you i grew up in alexandria which is just across the potomac, washington, dc was always a place where field trips came and went. they always held a very dear spot in my heart.

i would be remiss if i didn't tell you that i have been interested in with abraham lincoln since the fourth grade. it is an act of defiance on my part. my fourth grade teacher for parents night decided that we were going to have silent vignettes. you still there and they look at you, maybe you did famous figures, one of the ones they chose was a lincoln-douglas debate. i got my hopes up tremendously. she said you cannot be abraham lincoln, you are not tall enough. you have to be stephen douglas. well, it was on that day that i decided i was going to be interested in abraham lincoln out of defiance if nothing else. now i am completing my 33 yard -- year at the university where i have taught about him in rooms

full of pack south carolinians. please forgive me if i look up at the box and say mr. president i made it. [applause] i have been fortunate enough to have done some work in an area that has really not attracted many people. i would like to share some of that with you today. as i tell my students at the beginning of every class, please fasten your seatbelts, and let's go back in time to the era of abraham lincoln. may 4, 1865. oak ridge cemetery, illinois. his son is speaking to the clouds, it is peaceful. in wind blows through the

prairie to the west. everybody in springfield is on the street and they are silent and mournful. their sorrow is so all-encompassing they do not know where to go or what to do. the landscape is beautiful, it has been specially cared for for this occasion. there is a tall distinguished looking academics who spoke with a softness that relates to his evangelical days. he is delivering a funeral sermon, he quoted the deceased with deep conviction. words that spoke of great work to be done. they conjured up a specter of evil in the land. broken by it i may be, about to it i never will, the probability

that we may fail in the struggle is not to deter us from the cause that we believe is just. it shall not deter me. if i ever feel the soul expand and elevate to those dimensions, not wholly on worthy of his almighty architect it is when i contemplate the cause of my country, deserted on all sides, i standing boldly alone hurling defiance at our oppressors. the declaration was of a young abraham lincoln who on the day of christmas spoke. the bishop interpreted his words with words that were natural to the nation. this was the margaret who dedicated himself to the great struggle of his life against the slave power.

the bishop ordered him accurately, he had honored a long lost speech. he did make error. this feature is not about slavery, it was about the banking industry. nominations should not surprise us, for more than four decades, he probably talked about economics and labor and used those terms broadly than any other issue including slavery. the bulk of his discussions were and economic focus and they proceeded this, they went unrecorded. the main line of his thinking was survived.

immigration, lincoln absolutely. he lived in an era where immigration was his controversial as it is today. between 1840 and 1860, more than a half million people came from the german states, scandinavian countries and ireland. many more went back and forth across the border from mexico. from an early age lincoln develop an awareness for different peoples and their cultures while no doubt a product of his time. he never begins to let himself be blinded by adversity. he retained an affinity for immigrants, especially the germans, irish, the jews, and

scandinavians. immigrants and their plight were never far from his plans. his travels down the mississippi river exposed him to the sites and sounds of a world that he could only dream about. more importantly he established the sympathy for the rest of his life when it came to the foreign born and the enslaved. it must have been an odd sight seeing that tall boy sailing down the river looking wide-eyed and in all of everything he saw. he is free of the applications to his father in the farm, a he went down on a flat boat with his stepbrother, cousins and lawyer.

sailing on what might have been an amusing sight which was barrels and logged. they set off on an adventure of a lifetime. in the first time in his young life, he was traveling far. he could not know it, what he would see would shave his thoughts for the rest of his life. during his trip, he first made contact with foreigners in the city of new orleans. as one on the road, he probably did not distinguish the different peoples, he did see how the immigrants formed a significant part of the american population.

his trips to new orleans for especially important in his development, they formed the longest journeys of his life. his first experience with a major city, his only visit to the deep south. his sole exposure to the region rampantly slavery and slave trading. this is the closest the ever came to immersing himself in a foreign culture. he never spoke of his trip save for a brief description of preparation. others did, and interviewing john hanks, the cousin of his

biological mother went on his second trip when he departed. lincoln was recorded as saying they landed in new orleans, i can say it is on this trip that he formed this opinion it put a fire in him then and there. that was 1831, i have heard him say that office. his flat boat journeys exposed him for weeks on end of the vastness of american life. no trips whatever match those. they immerse you in the relationship between transportation and economic development in the west. lincoln understood that a better transportation system would improve the economic life of illinois, raise living standards for everybody and raise property

values. his river journeys also show that the state could accelerate preparations for wealth and population to spread throughout the state. seeing america firsthand from a flat boat transfixed lincoln the core economic principles such as free labor, transportation monetization internal improvements and most assuredly the need to attract immigration. his trips to new orleans represented his journey to the slave south, the places where african-americans abounded but also dominated overwhelmingly. new orleans was the largest city he had ever seen.

it would remain so until he stepped onto the national scene as a newly elected congressman in 1848. more importantly, he represented the most ethnically diverse and foreign city in the states. while lincoln would take a day trip to niagara falls, new orleans would represent the closest he went to another country. i would say, on, niagara falls, that is not like leaving the country. with the different religions he experienced in his early life, these early trips made him and

-- engulfed him in the different cultures of the south. it gave him something like no other experience in his life. with this social and economic political landscape, there was a young lincoln in 1828. evidence of ethnic tension had been obvious to any visitor. in the street or in conversation. newspapers that i am sure he saw that decried immigrants. editors promised that their views would be purely american. and obvious nod to the parties that would try to exploit this in 1850. he would see firsthand the difficult time the immigrants would have for being foreign-born. he was president -- present when many people were not considered native born. the creel people became treated harshly. they had an impression that

lasted an entire life in him. in new orleans he would see the largest concentration of free people of color. among them some of the

wealthiest and most well people of african ancestry ever. he never specifically, did on the city's diversity, he came close when he hand edited the section of that in 1860. after marveling at the many negro planters of creel louisiana, it is a cosmopolitan oasis, where they have the polished old world exile of france. he found himself enthralled with all of the culture he witnessed in new orleans. later on in his life he would remember what he saw as a youth and he would fiercely oppose the nativist movement as well as the know nothing party.

new orleans would even follow lincoln to springfield. billy orville found new orleans to be a hostile place for people of color in the 1820's. fearing kidnapping and enslavement he fled to st. louis and then found his way up to the illinois river. well approaching the village of new salem he overtook a tall man wearing a flannel shirt and carrying an ax. they fell into conversation and walked to a grocery store together. the tall man was lincoln, he soon learned that the stranger

was a barber and out of money. lincoln was taken to his boardinghouse and told the people there of his is this an situation. that opened the way for him to have an evening's work on the borders. later lincoln convinced him to settle in springfield, get married, raise a family and prosper as a barber. it was orville who groomed him and his attorney days, just before his final departure from springfield to become president of united states. over the years it is likely he enjoyed many conversations on east adams street, about new orleans, immigrants, slavery on the mississippi river. this bilingual man became his friend.

there seem to be a substance of genuine friendship because in 1863 there was a letter of gratitude written to lincoln for the emancipation proclamation. i thought it may not be improper for want to address the president of the united states he wrote, i do so saying if it is received by you it will be read with pleasure and communication from your dear friend. in all likelihood lincoln first learned about haiti in 1831. three decades later president abraham lincoln would officially established diplomatic relations

with the independent caribbean nations of haiti. there had to be some influence there. ironically it was through lincoln's connection to new orleans and the efforts of several immigrants that the great a massive later freed one of his first people of color. john shelby a free black and while traveling in new orleans found the same hostility towards him that orville had found years earlier. not having the payment to travel easily, he was arrested and imprisoned. somehow he made contact with the attorney benjamin jonas, he was suggested that he contact a prominent lawyer back home in illinois whose influence may

help the case and arrange for his release. jonas recognized the name because lincoln was a very good friend of his father. he was one of the first jewish settlers and the springfield region. he rode up river to lincoln and his mother. mr. lincoln was very much moved according to his early biographers and requested that he go to the statehouse and inquire if there was not something that could be done to obtain possession of the manfred >> they returned with the report that the governor as you say he had no constitutional right to act. he wrote with good excitement, by almighty i will have that

negro soon or i will write until you do have a right to have me on the premises. the problem was lincoln lack any further records. they drafted $60 and $.30 at the metropolitan bank, in 1857 they sent the funds to benjamin jonas's office in new orleans. by early june he was released who returned safely to springfield. john shelby then became among the first freed by abraham lincoln. surely this would have resulted

in his forced enslavement and permanent forced labor if he was not released. instead he wanted to take action for everyone not just shelby. he says lincoln is one of my most valuable friends, their friendship dated back to the 1830's. lincoln never forgot nor did he ever minimize the role of personal development that those experiences as a flat boat operator play. while on the campaign trail he cast his flat boat travels as a dues paying experience, assuring his political supporters that his presence of a rising stature make him no less or note less tolerant of the other people. 12 years ago he knew me as a strange and uneducated boy working on a flat boat, at $10 a month i was put down as a candidate with this distinction. yes, sure.

lincoln return to the same theme. free society is such that a poor man knows his condition. he knows there is no fixed condition. let him not be ashamed to have this laborer working on a flat boat. just what may happen to any man. on a personal and a little-known episode of his life, he became friends with a reverend. a professor at illinois university lutheran school. lincoln's oldest son attended class with the reverend. he would frequently call on him to discuss studies because at the time robert was not an enthusiastic student. i bring this up to my students on a number of occasions to tell them that all you need is a little enthusiasm to be that much of a better student. they kind of look at me like you are full of it. lincoln even served on the border of the directors of the school. he had experience as member of the city council. he was an outspoken opponent of slavery. they shared political beliefs, as he became a loyal and consistent supporter of lincoln on the press and on the stump. they were one of the first soldiers involved in the battles of the civil war. lincoln's philosophy was far more complicated than me with that which related to the free labor economy. he was a price of his time an environment, despite whatever economic constituents are represented, irish, dutch it is monolithic. lincoln on the other hand are

seated to see every group is distinctive in its own right. because he saw the diversity of these groups rather than just assigning them as four underscore savages, his relationship with these groups was as inconsistent as the man himself. like most westerners he had an opinion of latin america, it was never flattering. because he saw the diversity of

these groups rather than just assigning them as four underscore savages, his

relationship with these groups was as inconsistent as the man himself. like most westerners he had an opinion of latin america, it was never flattering. in his debate with stephen douglas he attacked the concept of popular sovereignty, the notion that the people should decide the slavery issue for themselves. lincoln asked the hypothetical question that to apply the doctrine of a place like mexico were the inhabitants were not white. when we get to mexico i do not know whether the judge will be in favor of mexican people because we know the judge has a great horror of mongrels. i know that the mexican people are a race of mongrels.

i understand that there is not one person there that is not pure white, i would assume from the judge's previous declaration that would make it to mexico that he will be in favor of these mongrels is out of the question which would bring him somewhat into collusion and collision with his inferior race. even if allowance is made for these comments by lincoln happened in an intense debate where they had serious race debating, he still used derogatory comments about hispanics where there was no apparent motive. in describing the cubans he pulled no punches. he said their butchery seem to me most unnecessary, they were fighting against one of the worst governments of the world. their problem was that the real people had not asked for assistance they were neither desirous of or looking for similar liberty.

he liked to make references, extolling the innovation and brilliance of what he called the young america as opposed to the old countries. the older i get the less i like him using that phrase. my wife of 31 years makes reference to that many times, every time she says that, i think i have become an old man. i wish he had become a different phrase. he concluded with a habit of observation, people almost instantly discovered california which have been trotted on an overlooked by mexicans and indians for centuries. it was in that same speech that he made on his few remarks about

the people of asia, the nonwhite group he had the least acquaintance with. the one who had never been to asia or arguably for that matter barely got out of united states, he claimed that the intellectual curiosity and scientific progress was the exclusive domain of the western world. he recognized asia as having human beings, but he said it was an ancient crumbling civilization whose time is long past. human failure originated in asia, they have worked their way principally westward. right now the people are behind -- and utterly behind the people of europe. while we here in america think we discovered an invented faster than anyone. recognizing that perhaps he was on thin ice he concluded, he may think this is arrogant. they do not deny that russia has access to show hurt steamboats and railroads well in other parts of the asian area they barely know those exist. in these ancient inhabited countries, there is a real downright old notion of smothering the intellect of man. well neither respecting or appreciating the countries of latin america, wink and like any nationalist understood his audience by extolling the virtue of the united states. at the expense of degrading other people it was lincoln's intention to convince his

americans that they would be on the next great stage of history. a most successful strategy to flatter voters during his assented to politics. lincoln, to his credit did put his money where his mouth was.

it was not discovered long ago that during his first term in the house of representatives, he joined many americans and contributing $10 which is $500 of today's money to the irish find of the great famine. perhaps this is because his first teacher had been of irish descent. he was described as a man of excellent character, deep piety and a fair education. he had been reared catholic but made no attempts to proselytize. whether this irishman left a lasting impact, he was always interested in the culture. he knew and recited speeches from robert emmet, especially the closing first where my country shall take its place amongst the earth, then i am

little. late in the war, one contemporary result around a cabinet meeting. general grant had just returned with an account of the south, a good feeling was manifested by the officers of the army. they were ready to lay down their arms and get to work. someone said about rounded up old jefferson davis, lincoln

said i hope you would disappear like patty's fleet, i hope he is not there. this is quite consistent with his desire to not have any show trials or punitive missions. for reconciliation he often used jokes, maybe to soften the message of mercy or to have a helpful blindness to pass on. they were not very racist or part certainly compared to his contemporaries. who shows sympathy and awareness for the one man's plight chiding him a little bit. nearly everyone especially poor immigrants understood the preference of fleas and ill ill fitting footwear.

lincoln refused to have an anti-immigrant stanford when he ran for president, he wanted to change any state legislation that had previously been against immigrants that impaired in any shape or form. he advocated for a full and efficient protection of the rights of all classes of citizens for their native or naturalized at home and abroad. throughout his life no immigrant was closer to lincoln, they marched right to the white house. if the germans led lincoln to victory, they nonetheless provided great support. lincoln enjoyed the germans and the culture, while visiting

cincinnati on his way to washington, outside a group of german workingmen came to serenade him. lincoln had put on a melancholy mood and this seemed to console him. it was entertaining those germans with genial and lively conversation. lincoln went to the balcony to find nearly 2000 more of german citizens who had voted for him because they believed him to be the stout champion for freedom. lincoln listened intensively as a man was asked to speak for his country. we, the germans of cincinnati use this opportunity to assure you that our message of sincere heartfelt regard. you earned our vote as the

champion of free labor. if two is said you should be in need of man, the german free workingmen will rise as one man to your call ready to risk their lives in their effort to maintain victory already won by slavery. and of quotes. he would soon see the germans delivered on their promise, lincoln understood the challenges immigrants face. he worked the land with his hand for many years. he spent most of his life in the agricultural area. as a lawyer practicing agriculture law he had to pay attention to the national outlook of land, to issue links to taxes. to see the relationship between town & country and see how their presence increased the american labor force. the core of his thinking was in this regard

.

lincoln fully understood that this enhanced public demand. one such manifestation of this broad view and how he managed to serve the poor was how he helped us feel for immigrants. he never share the belief of the also madedid it was much more for a temporary reality. that only diverted

thousands of americans and civilians into military facilities but it also drastically reduced immigration. at first the lincoln administration tried to conceive this are the unofficial state efforts by meeting the work estate agents. plaintiff took an act of interest in this by the end of 1863 lincoln was determined that he had to do more and he directly asked congress. this annual message to congress was requested that they devise a system for encouraging immigrations. it spoke to the immigrants from the old world and became a source of national goodwill. tens of thousands of persons, destitute of remunerative occupation, desire to come to america but they needed assistance to do so. he asked congress to pass a bill and congress responded on july 4, 1864, with the first, last,

and only time america passed a law to encourage immigration. lincoln's act to encourage immigration was a signature piece of legislation that many of you who i know have been familiar with the celebration of the civil war, went by without a single moment's attention. lincoln knew that immigrants played a major role in the building of industrial america and to his dying day, he related to the immigrant in a manner that few of his contemporaries would or could. it is not something we hear a lot about. day lincoln related to the immigrant in few aces contemporaries english his speeches he made gail the audience with working on his boat parade owning but one pair

of buckskin breeches. if you know the nature of buckskin when wet and dry in the sun, he reminisced, it will shrink. and my breeches kept shrinking until they left several inches of my legs bare between the tops of my socks and the lower part of my breeches. while i was growing taller, they were becoming shorter and so much tighter that they left a blue streak around my legs that could be seen to this day. if you call this aristocracy, i plead guilty to the charge. there were not a people who went out lincoln. more than a few immigrants could relate to his stories of prosperity and austerity. he was for the common man, he said god loved so much he has not made many of them.

it never ceased to be the lead thepportunity, he welcomed shores long before the statue of liberty represented those words. the struggle of americans poored a nation in which a immigrant could rise to success. that regardless of nationality they could have another chance. these feelings were born out of remembering his past on a speech that he gave on his way to washington. deeply a motion presented his thoughts, saying i have never had a feeling politically that did not bring from the declaration of independence. it was that which gave promise in due time that the way it be lifted from the shoulder of all men.

when he was in the telegraph office pacing or pondering he would talk about the awestruck soldiers, we are down to the raisins. now i think i am down to the raisins, i want to thank you for being a fantastic audience. if you have nearly as much as fun as i did, you are delirious with happiness. thank you. [applause] >> i imagine it is time for questions. >> what would lincoln say about the current immigration situation with the temporary ban? , when i first gave a

talk on immigration i was not prepared for that. oft was in the fall september 15 now i am ready. , my opinion ised he would be appalled to what is happening right now. i tell my students that it is very difficult to measure a historical figure in terms of what is happening. that is unfair, he lived in a different time as us, we would get his words as his guide. lincoln believed that immigrants represented wealth for the united states. they would contribute to the well-being economically to the united states in the long-term. accentoln they were an -- and assets. remarkable human

being, he tried to do the right thing. he genuinely believed that he represented an opportunity for land that were torn from revolution or poverty, despair, hunger. or even destitution, coming to the united states you give somebody a chance they have the chance to have the opportunity to rise through hard work. he was not anything to anybody. his own life as a poor child growing up was always foremost in his mind. wallnk the notion of a being built or immigrants breaking up families would have been absolutely horrible to him. [applause] qwest well. >> wow.

i was talking to my friend, he always likes to think when there are no questions that he did a great job that he answered all of the questions. microphone, i have obvious enough answered all the questions. recall we can have some very mean things to say about the immigrant voters and that they would be transported from one building to another. could you enlighten me on that? >> first of all the group that you mentioned were the irish. the irish support of the democrats that the republicans. so lincoln is a pragmatic

politician he is genuinely that with the votes in the middle of the 19th century, there is all sorts of possibilities that could go wrong with a ballot box. he would say some harmful things but if you are asking me what the bottom line about fraudoncerned and corruption in the election. perhapsugh he would use in some language about the irish was nothing there in his being that would enable him to discriminate against those people. consequently the comments he that mean to like make excuses for him, he spoke in the parlance of enacting century man. the irish even though they were

members of the opposition party they would never feel the wrath of his discrimination. he was not punitive in any shape or form. here with purpose and determination. now i am scared. >> back then, immigrants could vote. there was no registration, there was no citizenship papers? >> they would be naturalized. once you are naturalized you could vote. roll? kept the voter i assume different states allowed people to vote. recordsre talking about that were not necessarily the most accurate or the most comprehensive. island there were

records that came through new york, and their state and and their locales they would have never people over a certain. of time. opposition parties wanted to take those years and expand them more and more to become a citizen. massiveany kind of opportunity to deny them votes needed they would have probably been kept at the local level. the irish voted against lincoln, there is no question about that. they voted many times, they voted often against him. yes sir? are the voting rights for the taxpayers and landowners? are only naturally citizens allowed to vote?

>> sort of around the. time of andrew jackson, that was part of that rebellion. that,f you have heard ais was not necessarily obstacle to voting by the time did -- you did not have to own huge chunks of property. skateboarding rights are for landownerss not for for the taxpayers? the other thing is i think it would be very fair to compare what wasario to lincoln's understanding of other

religions. well, the answer to that is of ally very reasonable had it wouldincoln be that area. he was visited in the white , i believe he was the first naturalized japanese american citizen. volume biography that was fascinated, the bottom line wi-fi bring this up is these are my words not his. people are asking questions about asia in his conversation with him so he can learn because he knew very little.

know there was not an enormous enough for him to engage in any kind of thought about that. oh, i am sorry. i am so sorry. i have always been told i have a big mouth. >> thomas jefferson had a translation of the karate, he went to the library to understand. of therstand the psyche slaves at that time. >> i do not want to disparage abraham lincoln, he is predominantly self educated, with jefferson he donated his library and that becomes the library of congress. that is much more red than

lincoln. lincoln would always ask a number of questions about something he did not know anything about. [applause] that was the last question. >> that was it? thank you so very much. [applause] >> interested in american history visit our website you can view our tv schedule, get a preview of the week's events and watch archival films. american history tv at c-span three. work.

presidency, on the the university of virginia scholar discusses the traits that make a good president. she uses george washington, abraham lincoln, fdr as examples of how they cultivated their skills, here is a preview. >> it will not come as a shock to you to tell that the three top presidents who are considered the greatest that have ever been in our ranks, these three presidents always come out as the top. abraham lincoln, george washington and franklin roosevelt. i like that. they come from three different centuries, they come from three different histories in our country. there is one democrat, one republican and one nonpartisan leader.

we view george washington. what makes a great president? how do we define that? i came it on a definition that i particularly like which helps distinguish these top three for the next four under them. rooseveltnclude teddy , aaron david miller who was a scholar and served for presidents is -- presidency is has wondered why there is not a great president anymore. his definition of what makes a great president will separate out those top three will be that you have to preserve your an existential challenge or crisis. if you think about it, of course, george washington saved the country as it is being founded. it could have broken apart

during a hunting, it could have broken apart at any time, he saved the union at the beginning. then lincoln saved the union at the cold war. the 1860's. fdr weathers a will -- worldwide depression and world war ii. the entire program tonight at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. on lectures in history, university of mary washington professor kristin moon teaches a class about anti-immigration laws in the 19th century. vocus the on chinese immigrants. influxdescribed how an of chinese immigrants on the west coast during the 1800s led to local and federal legislation, and attempting to limit or ban immigrants from china. the 1882 chinese exclusion act was the first federal law to