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next, an interview with abraham lincoln interpreter george buss. [applause] >> fellow citizens of the senate and house of representatives, since your last annual assembly,

andher year of health bountiful harvest has passed. while it has not pleased the almighty to bless us with a return of peace, we can but press on guided by the best light he gives us, trusting in wise- in his own time and way, all will yet be well. buss, that is from c-span's archives of you training abraham like him. what is the value to understanding history of the reenactment? >> it reaches a population that might not pick up a book, but they want to have the experience. reportedhat they have over the years. that they are not readers. they are not picking up the written word, but they went the experience.

>> how many years have you been portraying abraham lincoln? >> 33 this year. started extremely small, but i wish i could tell you there was a grand plan and it is certainly not mine. >> how did it get started? >> i was on the board of the illinois education association. one of the board members came up to this skinny man with a black beard and said, you know if you dressed, we could all come on the floor of the convention and they would know illinois had arrived. i was intrigued. i said let's try this. that was the only thing i did in 1986. work at freeport with a debate site. >> people will not understand the reference. will you tell that story?

and douglas iesco with stephen douglas? my whole life was a parking with a bolder dedicated by teddy roosevelt. a longtime resident and insurance executive said at the coffee shop we can do better. the group assembled. we turned that into an acre of green space and interpretive signs and a life-sized statue of lincoln and douglas in debate. 19 94, c-span went to all the towns in all annoy that had hosted the lincoln and douglas debates and asked if the towns put on the debates, we will bring the debates -- we will bring the cameras and televise the debates. how many of those debates did you play lincoln? >> two of the seven. >> what preparation did you need

to do for a three hour debate? question, whoal are lincoln, who are douglas and why? why was that so pivotal? you have to get right with lincoln according to senator paul simon and i have done my best. >> is betraying lincoln a full-time job for you? >> it is now. >> was it for most of the years you did it? >> it was as things could be scheduled. that was all word-of-mouth, marketing as such. that could work into other travel schedules. and was far enough in advance that could be scheduled handily. >> from that first experience of the illinois education meeting, how did you inhabit one can? how did you learn enough to be able to be comparable in your portrayal? work,lincoln said, work,

work. that is the thing. everything that has been published in the last 30 years, i have had good fortune to even meet the authors and ask those critical questions. to also go back to the primary source documents to understand what was happening in the times. 2010 why lincoln reacted to why -- to understand why look and reacted. how those two met. he can in his times -- lincoln in his times. >> how much of his repertory can you interpret? >> it started small with the lincoln and douglas debates. then i had calls. will you come and talk about the war? will you talk about the indiana years? lee talk about the final months -- will you talk about the final months? you find that written work and you consume it. then it comes forward.

somebody said it is a gift. someone else said if you do not share the gift in its pure form, it is not moral. i took that very seriously. >> how did you become like an physically and how you -- and how do you do it today? >> the coat fits. the best fits. est fits.he v the boys, the central illinois twang. we climbed the hill and made it to the top. >> let's go back and watch a little more of that event and listen to the voice specifically. i would like you to talk about how you captured something that was not captured by any devices at the time sh. lose shall nobly save or

the last best hope of earth. other means may succeed. this could not fail. plain, peaceful, generous, just. a way which is followed, the world will forever applaud and god must forever bless. 1862, abraham lincoln. [applause] >> so what did you have to work with to interpret his voice and how it might sound the echo >> i -- sound? >> i did underground at ball state. hotel in springfield, illinois years back.

years later, brought coffee. he came to the table and said, you want coffee? i was stunned. i said, where are you from? he said, springfield. i said, how long have you lived here? he said, my whole life. this is what i have waited for. it was the descriptions of the letter writers at the time. inn i met david donald gettysburg for the award of achievement, he wanted to hear it. i thought, what do you say to an author of a lincoln biography that was just awarded the pulitzer? i thought about that a while. i gave him the voice. he smiled that smile which is ever so david donald and he said, it is as i expected. do not ever change it. >> can you give us a full line

right here in the voice as you interpreted? >> if we could first know where we are and whether we are attending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. >> that is very nasal. timeescriptions of the described it as being very nasal. >> high-pitched and a nasal chin one of the other right -- twang. today, mostln god-awful voice i ever heard but his message was pretty good. falsetto it was the voice, but when you do it in quincy, illinois on the block of washington square -- do you remember that? we saw no grass from the

plymouth. somebody said, how did that work in your day? tohout microphone, we spoke 2500 people on the square. even the policeman on the other block could hear it. >> because the voice rose above the crowd. >> and it carries. >> what other physical characteristics do you share with lincoln? pounds. 175 this beard does not do him justice today, but with a little --k as we saw in the clip, and i think when the hat comes on at the end and you are ready to go out the door, he is there. experiencer had the that suddenly lincoln is among us because it is an academic assignment.

what we need to do. i am constantly aware of that. when we are ready and the beard is right and the other set of glasses is right, we see what it looks like. >> how long does it take you to become lincoln? >> an hour. i have tried to shave the time down. i just cannot do it. there is a methodology. it is step-by-step. it has to be the same every time. >> what is the most poignant place you have played lincoln? i have got to say since i have been asked to do gettysburg at gettysburg, to stand on that dais and -- if you look past the crowd, you can see the stones of the cemetery. that is a consuming moment. you contemplate the deaf.

all of that meant -- the death. all of that meant. i greet the crowd. i thank them for coming to the commemoration. it is not a celebration. it is not high-fives and let's have pictures taken. it is solemn. we have got to get it right every time. beenre books that have published then any other president. people are surprised to know there are many people in the field doing this. approximately how many? you have an association. >> there is an association. i believe there about 100 throughout the country. that keeps that memory alive. >> when you gather together, what do you talk about? >> getting it right.

and, where the venues have been. what the next steps are repeated with the new publications are saying -- what the next steps are. what the new publications are saying. if there have been issues brought up in the past, how has it been handled? it is a collaboration. everything is put on the table and hashed back and forth. and we go and again. >> when we do question and answers as abraham lincoln, what is the most often asked question of you? >> they want to hear gettysburg. and think about all of that means. time insay nearly every that q&a, will you give us gettysburg? >> would you say over the course of the 30 years you have been doing this, the interpretation has changed or become nuanced?

are there any issues we are dealing with as a society you have had to rethink? >> actually, it has deepened it. in the current politics with the division, it parallels those times prior to the war. i am not suggesting that we are on the cusp of that, but you talk about divided politics, it is the 1850's all over again. itn folks say how did you do in your time, what was that? we need to work together. we must not be enemies but friends. >> we wanted to spend a few minutes with you on this presidents' day weekend. in closing, as we think about abraham lincoln on his birthday week, what is the essential lincoln? what do you think is his message for our time that you most want

people to be thinking about? >> let us bind up the nation's wounds. i think the population -- the anger that we see and hear, and i run into it like this. not necessarily lincoln. that working together. that is all right to reach across the aisle. as lincoln did a team of rivals. democrats and the cabinet of a republican administration. finish, and enemy is only a friend i have not made. if we agree to reach out to one another, have a discussion about what we agree on, work on what we do not agree on, that will take us to the next step . >> we have known you had c-span

since 1994 when you helped us put on the lincoln-douglas debates. thank you on this presidents weekend for talking to us about abraham lincoln and how you bring him to life. >> thanks for bringing me back. >> lectures in history as our weekend series featuring college-level american history courses from institutions across the country. with the house of representatives in recess, american history tv be in primetime on c-span3. join us for a week of distant learning monday through friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. footagewatch archival on public affairs each week. america --es will america.s reel here is a look at one of our recent programs. viruses, and there are many different kinds of them, can be scattered which teeth -- with

each particle of saliva and mucus. do not think for a moment that cold producing viruses are spread only by sneezing and coughing. if by some magic the tiny particles of saliva and mucus could be made visible by a black smudge, we would realize in how many other ways we are apt to scatter bacteria and viruses around us. janie here has a cold. look at that smudge. look at those germs she leaves on the doorknob. hand picking them up. bob is now covered with germs from that doorknob and transfers them to a book. sue, having the bad habit of wetting her finger to turn pages, carries the germs from the book to her mouth and passes them along with a pencil to an n.

leaverries them home and them on the family's dinner table. during an ordinary conversation, saliva and mucus particles escape our mouth and easily reach others when they breathe. member how birth becomes visible on a cold day. how then with so many germs surrounding us can we avoid having colds all the time? fortunately, our body has defenses against this enemy. normally, we breathe through our nose. sinuses,as well as the and the throw our debt -- are lined with a delicate membrane. if you look at the lining of the nose, we call it the nasal membrane, you can see it is covered with tiny moving threads. forth likeack and stocks of grain when a wind blows over a field. with aia are covered

warm, moist sticky substance called mucus. the nose usually secretes a court of this liquid every 24 hours. by warming and moistening the air we breathe in prepares it for our lungs. mucus also catches and destroys microorganisms. that is, bacteria and viruses. if you have a cold, do not stay in school. if you do, you may send others home with your cold. ♪ >> if you have a cold, stay home. stay in bed. whichs the prescription common sense medical science recommend. medicine, but only