harrison hires abe lincoln. why does he choose abe lincoln? defense attorney for potential murder? >> he definitely handled other murder cases. his cocounsel was actually the one who had suggested that they hire abe lincoln for this case. that is how he was brought into it. we went we learned a little bit from the transcripts and from your description about abe lincoln's demeanor in the courtroom, how would you describe it? >> look i think abe lincoln in the courtroom was somewhat consistence with the image many have of abe lincoln the political leader. but he was very folksy. that is what made him a good lawyer was there is not a sense of pretense with him. he could bond with a jury. he knew how to talk to people in a very clear way. and that became evident from the transcript on the wayay the jury ultimately responded. w >> host: dan abrams, was his case highly covered? >> it was certainly covered locally. then got national attention. but it certainly was not the trial of the century at the time.t but it was a very important case for abe lin

the so-called first thanksgiving dinner tonight have any connection to the holiday as declared by abe lincolnn 1863 for quite a while there was no connection at all.n. >> by the time lincoln declares the holiday there was an association but is not until the mid-18 -- 19 century, about 15 years before lincoln makes his declaration that that association started to be reined in the popular american mindset for the 1600s in the 1700s and the first portion of the 1800s there's no connection whatsoever between days of thanksgiving and the story of pilgrims and indians, it's a 19 and earliest 20th century. >> there's a woman an editor and magazine editor, she had read a story about the 1621 event and decided to use that as a model for an annual holiday, what else is going on she publicist story in a a popular book where she hd recipes for turkey and stuffing, there was more than this than just her interest. >> just to be sure. >> there's a lot of reasons and 819 century for white americans to link this mythical thanksgiving of friendly pilgrims and indians to the thanksgiving holiday and for when th

that so-called first thanksgiving dinner didn't have any connection to the holiday as declared by abe lincoln in 1863 for quite a while. right there was no connection at all by the time lincoln declares the holiday, there was an association. but it's not until the mid-18th, the mid-19th century, you know, so very in about 15 years before lincoln makes his declaration that that associate ation started to become ingrained in the popular american mindset for the 1600s, the 1700s and the first portion of the 1800s. there's no connection whatsoever between days of thanksgiving and the story of pilgrims and indians, it is a 19th and early 20th century invention. so there was a woman named an ed rather and magazine editor, sarah josepha hale. she had read a story about the 1621 event and decided to use that as a model for an annual holiday. what else was going on there? i mean, she published the story in a popular book, cody's lady's book, where she had recipes for turkey and stuffing. but there was more to this than just sarah josepha hale, right? oh, to be sure. there's a lot of reasons. in the la

birthdates and the whole nine yards, but he is very interesting but he is into a lincoln and even has -- abe lincoln and even dressed up as him at school. i went to the television about a book that you rode -- you wrote about and can -- about lincoln appropriate for a nine-year-old? dan: the stabbing itself was a violent stabbing, but there isn't foul language, there isn't sexuality in the case. i think that we have a children's version, i don't know if it is a children's version of the book, but i would go to the softcover version out there because that is the one that is the most recent version of the book. i think it is safe for a nine-year-old. some of the some of the legal questions and issues, but i don't think there's anything that would be deemed to be inappropriate as long as you accept the fact there was a murder and someone stabbed someone else. but there are no forry pictures, just -- gory pictures. host: march 1770, boston, shots fired. john adams attorney. he was going to defend the boston massacre revolutionaries, right? dan: not obvious, no. i appreciate the set-up. no, not obvious a

he had just been elected captain in the black hawk war, and he signed himself, abe lincoln, for the firstoment. and nobody said about that while the successor side had that is the one has given me the most pleasure that artifact brought me closer to lincoln to understand him. what do you understand lincoln saying that about that moment in time when his friends and neighbors saw something in him and elected him it was his first hour of legitimacy. and as we know he thought of himself. we worried from time to time that his birth had not been legitimate. he worried about his grandmother's birth, rumors of his family's, how to put it scant at. and i think that to have been elected harry truman had the same kind of reaction to becoming an officer in what became a battery d in the first world war i. andrew jackson had a not dissimilar moment. he was an elected general in the war of 1812. so i think it was an affirmation and a genuine vote of confidence, both literal and figurative, that he could win the confidence of others. yeah, and it stayed with him all the way up to the presidency when he

to army jag and then in the upper right hand corner, president lincoln wrote sentence remitted abe lincoln and then the date. so that's in abraham lincoln's hand. so it did go to the president, but again, it filtered the judge advocate general for the army before it before it it went there. this is another case. so this is the background of this is this is a soldier who was in a colorado unit. so this is private michael delaney was a company k first colorado cavalry. he deserted in the spring. they found him several months later, went to trial. the outcome of the case was he was to be shot to death. so same thing the officers sat on that trial, made recommendation that he not be shot to death because they found serving in another colorado unit. so he left for a couple of months, came back, didn't return to his previous unit. he joined another colorado unit, which happened during the civil war. most, most often they went back to their they're their unit. there were several soldiers who because they were volunteers felt that they volunteer to go to the army and they felt that they volunteer

[ laughter ] or grovelin' grover cleveland or lyin' lincoln, lyin' abe lincoln?der that hat? [ laughter ] i've said it for years look under the hat nobody listened to me. nobody looked under the hat. you don't think he smuggled documents out of the white house in that giant hat? i guarantee you if you lifted that hat off his dumb head, you'd find an old civil war document that says 'top secret.' [ laughter ] in defense of trump, i do think it must have been a little suspicious when lincoln started wearing those giant hats one day. i don't want to spread any rumors, but come on. if your buddy dale suddenly started showing up to work in a stovepipe hat -- [ laughter ] you would think something was up "psst, hey, guys want to know who took all the free pizza from the conference room [ laughter ] dinner for a week, baby. get out of here, dale! we all know it was you you stink like pepperoni [ laughter ] now, as we told you last week, trump's announcement speech was away from it before it was over. and then on friday, just to add insult to injury, the same thing happe

do i have to stand on a street corner in times square dressed like abe lincoln, handing out pamphlets those guys advertising a presidents' day sale, because i will do it actually, i won't do it, but i will make wally do it. [ clears throat >> four score and seven cue cards ago -- >> seth: oh. [ laughter ] it's like -- [ cheers and applause it's like a dead heat with daniel day-lewis [ laughter ] it's very possible the democrats will lose seats tomorrow since historically that always is what happens to the party in power. in fact, it would be very normal and maybe even unremarkable if it weren't for the fact that republicans want to subvert the system to ensure that they never lose power again that's their plan, and we know that's their plan. because they've said that's their plan it's a plan -- >> where you can choose your plan and you know what the plan is. this is the plan >> seth: this has been "a closer look." ♪ [ cheers and applause we'll be right back with gayle king ♪ >> a announcer: : for more o ofs closerer looks, bebe sure to subsbscribe to " "late nightht"n youtube. tatake

how that l would affect everythg we try to explain to my friends and family, i see a portrait of abe lincoln and i think wow, that hero, the emancipator. you feel all warm and fuzzy. you hear leonard tell a story about the mankato. you don't see that hero. you see a mass hanging. where was the constitution when that was going on? you hear eisenhower talk about relocation programs. they have made the statement -- the onlyu indian you will see us through a museum. like you say, he turned it into a positive by relocating. they were in one place and they can rise up together becoming that voice. the mechanic that is in seattle, i don't know if you are familiar with the article that opens with thees businessman. because of the article is about a young reporter interviewing thiser businessman a business owner who has opened up to those and has there mechanic and is doing really well. hece is prospering. her power was on union lines with 2500 and had a great job and it was a beautiful family. it is like they put a lot of wonderful situations on the side and took on a great risk believing in that pr

let us hold him who the standard of his contemporaries, harriet tubman, frederick douglass, abe abraham lincoln, and all of those who understood that the enslavingment of others has -- enslavement of others has always been an immoral act. figures like taney belong in history textbooks and classroom discussions, not in marble bronze on public display of honor. yes, we ought to know who the roger brooke taney is, a man who was greatly admired in his time in the state of maryland. but he was wrong. over three million people visit our capitol each year. the people we choose to honor in our halls signal to those visitors which principals we cherish as a nation. for black americans who faced racial violence and still confront institutional racism, today seeing figures like taney honored here is a searing reminder that the past is present. it need not be, however, our future. just last year the january 6 insurrection carried confederate flags through the capitol's corridors, desecrated the poster outside my office honoring my friend, john lewis, and screamed racial slurs at police officers as they pro

that's your life long and i would try to explain to my friends and family i see a portrait of abe lincoln i think, wow, the hero, the emancipator. and you feel all warm and fuzzy. you hear leonard tell a story about the man, cato, and then we heard next is telling as well yesterday. it's like, wow, you don't see that hero. you see a mass hanging and where was the constitution when that was going on? you hear eisenhower talk about relocation programs started. most of the assimilation programs and had made the state by the end of my administration, the only indian you'll see is in a museum that's like, wow. and yet, like you say, turned it into a positive by reload, creating many nations were in one place and voices could rise up together and the movement became that voice. so the mechanic that's in seattle, that's leonard peltier. i don't know if you're familiar with the article that was in the seattle times. that opens with leonard peltier, the businessman because the article is about a young reporter interviewing this young businessman and business owner who's opened up to bays and has h

i believe lincoln would want his statue removed for these are the same values that he, too, admired. i'm not sure i agree. but, this college kid isn't the only one coming after honest abeeks ago in chicago vandals defaced the lincoln statue, covered it in paint. turning into 2020 all over again. and, trust me, nobody wants that. stephen miller's the america first legal founder, first i wasn't that concerned. some kooks of san fran took name off elementary school. i thought that was okay. now they want statues removed, miller, and abe would have wanted it that way. >> well, i think, jesse, it's important for us to take a very impartial look at this and not rush to judgment. it's true, it's true. abraham lincoln ended slavery and saved the union. but did you know, jesse, did he not have a single lgbtq i initiative. not one his entire presidency. it's been reported by historians that he frequently misgenderred people. he used the wrong pronouns and while he did issue the emancipation proclamation, did you know, jesse, unlike joe biden he did not issue one executive order on equity? not one. so there are real deficiencies there, jesse, that we do have to take a look at. >>

lincoln served as the basis for the steven spielberg movie "lincoln", and tonight we celebrate the briscoe center's cquisition of doris' papers ab her husband, he was a lion in liberalism before it became a dirty word. crafting speeches for icons including john f. kennedy, robert kennedy and lyndon johnson and his speech for lbj, a plea for the voting rights act in the wake of bloody sunday in selma, alabama which spurred immediate action from congress, ranks as one of the most eloquent and effective and perhaps one of the most underrated presidential speeches in history. dick's papers include holdings that document key issues in the 1960's, including the civil rights movement, the vietnam war and anti-war movement. the acquisition of the invaluable archives of dick and doris good win will add to the briscoe center as one of the most prestigious in history. and the combination of the archives of the briscoe center and the lbj presidential library make this a mecca for the study of the 1960's. joining doris on stage tonight are two other authors and found, don carlton is the founding director of the briscoe center, published 13 b

and abraham lincoln threatened to hang these confederate privateers men because he viewed them as nothing more than so. jefferson davis said, well, hold on, abee didn't say that. he wrote a very formal letter. he said, if you start hanging confederate privateers men, we are going to hang one for one. union soldiers that we have in our prisons. so lincoln never went through the hangman's and actually the congress of the north of the union passed a resolution that allowed abraham lincoln to issue letters of mark to the congress. they never went through with it. and after about a year and a half, the confederacy stopped issuing letters of marque because it wasn't having much an impact on the war and the alabama and the shenandoah and other confederate raiders doing a much better job of it. so after the american civil war, we still have privateers on the books. and although we don't talk about it, the book there is a small underway today and there was a bill issued. what's the word presented introduced in congress a couple months ago that wanted to revive american privateering an issue letters of marque once again primarily to battle against off