. >> stephen a. douglasmong the most ruthless politicians of the day. >> and more importantly, probably the most democratic politician in the united states. >> i would call it david and goliath. but it's worse than that. it's david and goliath if david didn't even have a slingshot. >> douglas doesn't open on the issue of slavery. instead he plays to the crowd. >> ladies and gentlemen, i do not question mr. lincoln's conscientious belief that the negro is his equal, but i do not regard the negro as my equal. >> douglas was not one to talk about legalizing slavery in the territories so much as he wants to paint lincoln as a pro-negro politician. he is, in other words, playing the race card and playing it in the most shameless fashion imaginable. >> but the prairie lawyer is not going to be deflected from his mission to see the end of slavery in america. >> lincoln had always said that if slavery isn't wrong, then nothing is wrong. that slavery was horrendous. >> and i think it was because he hated the way his

stephen a. douglas. >> stephen a. douglas is the little giant.s a man of physically short stature, but titanic ambition, and douglas desperately wishes to be president of the united states. >> but lincoln has the advantage. after an angry convention in charleston, south carolina, douglas' democratic party has split down the middle over slavery. >> the news that the democratic party had split was an enormous boon to the republican party and to lincoln because now they faced a divided opposition, but he still has an uphill battle. >> the republicans know it's futile to put lincoln up for election in the south. no decent upstanding slave owner is going to vote for him, and slaves don't vote. now it's a double race between lincoln and douglas in the north and democrat john c. breckenridge and constitutional unionist john bel in the south. >> abraham lincoln has to win without his name even on the ballot in the south. and that's not going to be easy because he has to win new york. if he doesn't win new york, he will not be president. >> new york state

state to state, but his case for the union makes him a traitor in the eyes of southerners. >> stephen douglas his own personal safety. >> he has to take the chance that some fanatic may decide that the best way to deal with douglas is assassination. >> and stephen douglas, the most ruthless, partisan, underhanded politician, becomes the patriot. >> with just three days to the election, douglas delivers a forceful defense of the union. >> there's a conspiracy to break up this union. >> he makes it very plain. i'm not here to solicit your votes. i am here for the sake of the union. >> i regard the union as the greatest blessing upon a free people. >> for douglas, the take-home message is clear. >> the south has already launched itself to create something entirely new in the new world, a slave empire. >> the very idea of america is at risk. 81% of the electorate come out to vote. one of the highest turnouts in united states' election history. >> the stakes were so high because it might have been the last election for a united states of america. >> lincoln is waiting on the telegraph to tell them

state to state, but his case for the union makes him a traitor in the eyes of southerners. >> stephen douglashing on the line, particularly his own personal safety. >> he has to take the chance that some fanatic may decide that the best way to deal with douglas is assassination. >> and stephen douglas, the most ruthless, partisan, vicious, underhanded politician, becomes the patriot. >> with just three days to the election, douglas delivers a forceful defense of the union. >> there's a conspiracy to break up this union. >> he makes it very plain. i'm not here to solicit your votes. i am here for the sake of the union. >> i regard the union as the greatest blessing upon a free people. >> for douglas, the take-home message is clear. >> the south has already launched itself to create something entirely new in the new world, a slave empire. >> the very idea of america is at risk. 81% of the electorate come out to vote. one of the highest turnouts in united states election history. >> the stakes were so high because it might have been the last election for a united states of america. >> lincoln is

first of hishe debates with stephen douglas of a statesman. the compromise somewhat diffused the slavery issue and sectional animosities for three decades. it did so by for bidding slavery in the louisiana territory north of the line that included the kansas and nebraska territories. -nebraska act introduced by senator douglas empowered the residents of those two territory to decide whether or not to have the institution of slavery. the acts premise was that the distilled essence of the american project is democracy and that the distilled essence of democracy is majority rule. and that therefore, it was right that there should be popular sovereignty in the territories regarding the great matter of slavery. people should have the right to vote it up or vote it down. lincoln disagreed. he responded to the act with a controlled -- with a control and plaque will be immense. most morally luminous career in the history of american democracy took its bearing from the principle that there is more to america's purpose, more to justice, then majorities

the event was the work of another man from illinois, senator stephen a douglas. the event was 1854 and nachman of the kansas-nebraska act. it is not too much to say that a great question posed by that act continues to reverberate in the nation's life and certainly in my professional life. it reverberate in the nation's life, not just because the civil war is the hinge of american history, and the kansas-nebraska act which repealed the missouri compromise of 1820 was unquestionably the spark that lit the fuse that led to war. if the civil war was not an irrepressible conflict before 1854, it certainly was after that. the missouri compromise had been the work of henry clay. lincoln, in the first of his debates with stephen douglas called my idea of a statesman. the compromise somewhat diffused the slavery issue and sectional animosities for three decades. it did so by for bidding slavery in the louisiana territory north of the line that included the kansas and nebraska territories. the kansas-nebraska act introduced by senator douglas empowered the residents of tho

i mean, there's one in here where varina davis is the wife of jefferson davis says about stephen douglas that he stinks. and, you know, and that she's glad a new water system's coming to town so he might wash more often. >> right. she means he actually stinks. [laughter]. >> right. and there are lots of things like that where -- abigail brooks adams, whose letters have never been published. she was charles francis adams' wife. he being john quincy adams' son. he was in congress and then became the ambassador for the union -- >> right. >> -- to great britain where he kept them from siding with the confederacy. and she is just as feisty as her grandmother-in-law and mother-in-law. and she writes from washington when he's in congress that buchanan is a toad and that, you know, the senate is acting like children and silly ones at that. i can get behind that one. [laughter]. >> sure. >> and she says at one point, i would advise any young woman if she wants to have a calm, peaceful life not to marry an adams. [laughter]. >> well, now, of course, did not know this letter would be one day the su

stephen. and they cannot be noncommissioned officers, so lewis douglas is a sergeant major. so that is why i began in 1863, because of the expense of men like this. of the 1500 identifiable men of color who hold national and local office during the reconstruction, at least 130 our military -- our military. no big surprise. this is my father's generation, you could run for office, so black men all across the north marched to join in the 54th. i am sure that you have seen the film glory. it manages to get everything wrong about the story. they come from all across the north, 19 men come from syracuse. new york state had a several -- second ledger's -- largest contingent. ohio was number two. ohio has the largest contingent. and it is interesting, because it means that young men are leaving ohio and they are joining up, yet they cannot vote back home. so this -- and they are told that they are not a citizen in the country of their birth, but they are putting on a uniform and ready to die for a country that does not want them and will not allow them to go back home. because of a

a he had already become national figure because of the debates with stephen douglas.itics was the abiding passion of the country so thousands of people would listen to these debates. when you had a great speech it would be printed in the newspaper. everybody would be reading it. it would be passed out to 50,000 people or 100,000 people. speeches were much more important than than they were now. charlie: he wrote his own speeches? >> without a question. [laughter] nobody else could have done that. he was brilliant and completely self-taught. he figured out he had only one year of formal schooling. a few weeks here, a few weeks there. his father would lend him to someone to work to pay off the debts that his father had. the best himself books, shakespeare, poetry, the king james bible. those cadences got into him. it is not just that they were great rhetoric, he had this remarkable empathy to understand people on all different sides of the political spectrum. so he could speak to their feelings and thoughts and absorb them in a way that the other guys could not. he used

some say this is not presidential behavior, but let's not forget the election of 1860, when the stephen douglas campaign compared mary todd lincoln unfavorably to a sheep in heat. that's history. that's-- we didn't make this up. that's history. last night donald trump had to answer for that retweet at a town hall, when he was grilled by cnn correspondent and the legolas of cable news, anderson cooper. >> after saying that you were going to spill the beans about heidi cruz, you repeated unflattering picture of her next to a picture of your wife. >> i thought it was a nice picture of heidi. >> come on. >> i thought it was fine. she's a pretty woman. >> you're running for president of the united states. >> excuse me, i didn't start it. >> sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of a 5-year-old. >> i didn't start it. no, it's not. >> the argument of a 5-year-old is "he started it." >> excuse he. you would say that. that's the problem with our country. >> every parent knows a kid who says "he started it." >> excuse me. >> stephen: yeah, excuse me. excuse me, anderson. you would say that. that

and the debates with stephen douglas. this is a different time than ours. politics was the abiding passion of the country so thousands would come listen to the debates. when you had a great speech, it would be presented in the newspaper next day. everybody won would be reading it. it would be in pamphlet form passed out to 50,000, 100,000 people. so speeches are more important than now. >> rose: he wrote his own speeches? >> without a question. nobody else could have done a single part of that. >> rose: he was brilliant. and completely self-taught. he finally figured out he had only one year of formal schooling. a few queetion weeks here and there. his farmer would lend him out ps everyone had. he had remarkable empathy, more than others, to understand people on all different sides of the political spectrum so he could speak to their feelings and thoughts and absorb them in a way others couldn't. he used folksy metaphorrings. he's a gifted story teller, legendary. he could have been up there with any of the comedians today. he's more funny, more lively, mor

extension of the boundaries of fraud, and you the smithsonian out of the hands of people like stephen douglas, lincoln douglas fame who wanted to expend all of james smithson's money on agricultural schemes and projects. and he kept it out of the hands of andrew johnson, the president, who wanted to rename the smithsonian washington university for the benefit of indigent children of the district of columbia. now, perhaps his greatest achievement in washington was surviving for 30 years from 1846 to 1878 as secretary. that is no mean feat, especially as joseph henry in the civil war was a man of decidedly southern sympathies but stayed on and served and survived in the smithsonian survived because of him. so that is my thank you's, but i do want to also tell you why i wrote this book and what this book means, at least to me. i began writing this book as a young child. standing up, about five and six years old in the back of my father's 1946 studebaker as he drove from philadelphia to virginia and would come in on what i later realized was new york avenue into the capitol, and i would see it an