this is named after some guy who's named after abraham lincoln. ent book was called lincoln and emancipation. so doctor medford will trace, for us, the ever evolving meaning of the lincoln memorial. over its hundred-year history, it's grown from something focus initially on national unity, to its growing role and civil rights and a symbol of hope for all americans. i might add, a baseball team that we took a picture of this morning, on the steps, a wedding ceremony that took place in their, and that took their picture of the lincoln memorial, and you might see the remnants of some local colleges who've had their graduation pictures taken out here at the lincoln memorial. with that, please welcome dr. ed craig green medford. my [applause] >> era thank you mister. can't thank you to the lincoln group of d.c. for the invitation to speak to this wonderful audience this morning who i believe, you're all baking just like i am. i'll try to be brief. i may 30th, 1922, i diverse group of americans gathered at the sites to honor the most celebrated man ever

the memorial was dedicated in 1922. 100 years ago this month and a full 57 years after abraham lincoln's assassination. so over a half a century after lincoln died. they finally put up a suitable memorial to him and will hear a little bit about. today why it took so long. the speakers that day were the chief justice and former president william howard taft. who formally turned over the memorial to the then current president warren g harding? there was another famous person here that day by the name of robert lincoln president lincoln's son. who was present and had taken part in the development of the of the memorial, but who did not have a speaking role that day 100 years ago. but one person who did have a speaking role. a hundred years ago was dr. robert russa moton. dr. moten was an african-american director of the tuskegee institute. and he was a presidential advisor. dr. moten's words, you know were censored that day because we're in the midst of a segregation error. and the ceremony itself was segregated. we'll hear a lot more about dr. moten later today, but in regards to dr. moten

is the first two time winner of the lincoln prize, in 2004 abraham lincoln, redeemer president, and in 2005 for lincoln's emancipation proclamation, the end of slavery in america. guelzo's president both graceful and erudite, indeed poetic. he is uncomfortable with military topics as he has with political, social and economic aspects of the war and its aftermath. please give a warm welcome to allen guelzo as he speaks to us about the unhappy fate of fitz john porter. [applause] >> first of all, let me say how eagerly i have anticipated being with you all at this art of command conference. not the least because it allows me to be part of a program organized by child burden, who has been trying to work me into one of these conferences for a number of years and now i'm finally here. better late than never. also not the least, for the fact that i have the pleasure once again of connecting with some old acquaintances from bygone battlefield traipsing expeditions. jim burgess and jon hennessy, mr. second manassas. also i'm grateful for the opportunity to share space with some people that i h

he is the first two time winner of the lincoln prize in 2000 for abraham lincoln redeemer, president and in 2005 for lincoln's emancipation proclamation. the end of slavery in. gales holds as both graceful and erudite. indeed almost poetic. he is of comfortable with military topics, as he is with political, social social and economical aspects of the war and its aftermath. please give a warm to allen guelzo as he speaks us about the unhappy fate of fitz john porter. thank you for sharing. first of all, let me say how eagerly i have anticipated being with you all at this art of command conference. not the least. because it allows me to be part of a program organized by childs burden, who has been who has been trying to work me into one of these conferences for some years. and now i'm finally here. better late than never. also, not the least for the fact that i have the pleasure once again of connecting with some old acquaintances from bygone battlefield traipsing explorations. jim burgess and john hennessy. mr. second manassas and also and grateful for the opportunity to share space wi

he said that abraham lincoln was pretty eminently the white man's president. i remember when i first encountered that speech in the douglass papers and manuscripts. i was astounded! surely i would have seen this speech in the five volume addition of douglas's speech is that the yell press published, or the for volume study that philip foner had -- i went back to the sources in those was not included it got me thinking about lincoln and race in general and then kate--. very fine historian published an article recently on the white house reception and black peoples perception of white house perceptions. my 2000-page biography had a little bit to say about that but i thought, jeepers, how did i miss so much of this get information that she has on earth? i decided to plunge deeper into that subject which led me deeper and deeper into lincoln's interactions with black people back in springfield and in washington. lots of people know about lincoln's interaction with frederick douglass, because douglas would describe them in his autobiographies to some detail, little

holzer is one of the country's leading on abraham lincoln and. the political culture of the civil war area. eric, a prolific writer and lecturer and frequent guest on television, he served six years as chairman of the lincoln bicentennial foundation. for the previous ten years. he co-chaired, the u.s., abraham lincoln, bicentennial appointed by president clinton. he currently serves the jonathan fountain director, hunters college hunter college's roosevelt public policy institute and has authored, coauthored or edited 55 books. there is a fuller biography of mr. holzer in the program, so i refer to that and it is now my distinct honor to invite him to deliver the keynote address. thank, brian. thank you all. and i extend my welcome as well. if you hear in my remarks some echoes of what the chancellor and bryan have said in opening the conference. i guess that's steven. his points very well over the years and we've all absorbed them and put them to use. well i want to particularly thank greg and the entire oates family for giving me the profound ho

in southern illinois sounding far more, actually, sounding less like the abraham lincoln we know. quote that jon writes early in his book from lincoln where he says i walk slowly, but i never walk backwards. this is a pragmatic politician who understood that it wasn't just the south that was filled with racists, that he was actually dealing with a racist north who was fine preserving the union, but they weren't so fine having slaves freed and certainly did not want to live in the same communities as black people. and that's the background that abraham lincoln, the political mine field he was walking through for 30 years. it's an extraordinary story of what he accomplished. >> it sure is. and, you know, the fascinating thing, this is, by the way, my copy of jon's book arrived by pony express last week. we have been reading, read it twice. compulsively readable, classic meacham book in two ways. number one, fascinating story. who in american history could be more fascinating to learn more about than abraham lincoln, and we have new discoveries about lincoln, but more than that, what

united states with empathy, grace, a big heart, and an open mind. >> in his new biography of abraham lincolnfor lincoln, a world in which power was all, in which the assertion of a singular will trumped all, in which brute force dictated all was not moral, but immoral. not democratic, but autocratic. not just, but i'm just. the task of history was to secure advances in a universe that tends to disappoint. goodness would not be always rewarded, the innocent would suffer, violence would at simons, defeat virtue. such was the way of things, but to lincoln, the duty of the leader end of the citizens was neither to despair, nor to seek solace and security, but to discern and pursue the right. joining us now is pulitzer player winning author jon meacham. is the rogers chair in american presidency at vanderbilt university. his new book is, and there was light. abraham lincoln and the american struggle. thank you very much for joining us tonight, professor meacham. the american struggle, but would could we learn from abraham lincoln's life and struggle about the american struggle that we are in toni

[laughter] >> it is one of the stories, bob, you don't often think of abraham lincoln is a very funny man with a lot of humor. if you read deeply into into the stories like you have just done, he did have an incredible sense of humor and was quite a humble man. i'm not sure mary todd could force them into the presidency but certainly her inspiration and standing with him, behind him and often times and got him to where he ultimately landed. later on in this document talk about couple other first ladies that played a similar role in the lives of their husbands, the presidency. one other thing, bob, could you talk about what it's like to travel on a train during lincoln's time? we often think in contemporary terms about the comforts we all enjoy in an automobile, and train with air-conditioning the comforts of modern era. can you talk a little bit about what it is like for president lincoln even after he was elected for example during the journey took from springfield to d.c. what was it like for him to be on board a train back then? >> even before my time not sure how it would've worke

and in this remarkable speech he says abraham lincoln was preeminently the white man's president the first to rise above the prejudices of his time and his country by inviting me frederick douglass to the white house to consult on public affairs. lincoln was saying by that gesture that i am the president of the black people as well as the white and i mean to honor their rights as men and citizens. and it's a striking contrast to the speech. that is very well. known widely anthologized and commented on regularly and that is a speech he gave 11 years later. at the dedication of a statue the emancipation memorial in washington in which he said abraham lincoln was preeminently the white man's president. and i remember when i first encountered the speech in the douglas papers in manuscript. i was i was astounded i said surely i would have seen this speech in the five. i am addition of douglas's speeches that the yale press published or the four-volume study of philip phone or had anza which phone her and i went back to those sources and those speeches weren't that speech wasn't included. u

abraham lincoln was not the prime candidate out there. he was a lawyer doing what lawyers do. as you point out, in the wake of the lincoln douglas debates was certainly someone the country was keeping an eye on. >> mr. harrison hires abraham lincoln. why did he choose him? was he known as a defense attorney? >> he had handled other murder cases. his cocounsel was the one who had suggested they hire abraham lincoln for this case. that is how he was brought into it. >> we learn a little bit from the transcripts and your description about abraham lincoln's demeanor in the courtroom. how would you describe it? >> i think lincoln in the courtroom was somewhat consistent with the image that many have of lincoln the political leader. he was very folksy. that is what made him a good lawyer. there was not a sense of pretense with him. he could bond with the jury. he knew how to talk to people in a clear way. that became evident from the transcript and the way the jury ultimately responded. >> dan abrams with this case -- was this case highly covered? >> it was certainly covered locally.

we'll move on to president abraham lincoln. which is someone we probably all know a little bit about as far as his presidential travel. this image you are looking at right now highlights the stops he made on his journey from illinois after he was elected president to washington, d. c.. you can see, it's a little bit fuzzy, i apologize for that, that he made 93 individual stops on his rail journey. remember, rail journeys then were not like they were now, they weren't very quick at all. but before this, before this journey, he spent quite a bit of time in illinois traveling by train because of the lincoln douglass debates. bob, do you want to talk a little bit about mr. lincoln's problems with the illinois central railroad during that period of time? >> my favorite story is one that i found in a book called lincoln and the railroads, only 227 copies wherever printed. i received the book because of -- interlibrary loan, it is a great thing, i had no idea existed before i got into the research for this book. you can borrow this bo

if you decide to get yourself in abraham lincoln signature, this is one of the most common abraham lincoln signatures that exist. it's an endorsement so most of the time cut off of the letter and the rest of the letter stornoway. there is very popular, i didn't do it. [laughter] people did a long time ago when they were collecting lincoln. i can probably wrote more than any other time but this man take the oath of december 8, 1863 and be discharged. in this case, he signed december 31, 1864. in this case, for those of you want to see it, i'll put a link in the comments so you can see it. it signed by lincoln and andrew johnson we were talking how many times were those men in the same room together but maybe three bucks this is a very interesting link but what it tells us, but this man taken out discharged. the law lincoln is talking about and how does it affect the confederates at the end of the work bucks. >> december 163, we can and should what became known as the plan that would part of any confederate to voluntarily surrender or put on their weapon and quit fighting the union. johnson,

and he actually, actively determined to become the first democrat to seize abraham lincoln for the democratic party. he assiduously worked that connection, while serving as governor of new york. he particularly emphasized it as america went to war in 1941. we want references to lincoln's reluctance to start a hot war in the southern states, with slave holding states, his reluctant entrance into the war because he was looking for the way for the united states to stop the spread of fascism. he even hired robert sherwood, who had just won a pulitzer prize, for running the play abe lincoln in illinois. it was being made into a hollywood movie. beginning to put references to the reluctant leadership of roosevelt. of lincoln. i don't know if anyone knows this but came blinken came to gettysburg on the train and wrote his speech last minute on the train. visiting i think something called the peace monument. and the speech was not only about peace in overtime, but it was about lincoln and he supposedly met some veterans. >> as harold mentioned we had these polls every year. asking who is the greatest

they actively determined to become the first democrat to seize abraham lincoln for the democratic party. he assiduously works that connection while still serving as governor of new york. and particularly emphasized that, as america went to war, in 1941, he wanted references to lincoln's reluctance to start a hot war with southern states, with slaveholding states. his entrance into the war as he was still looking for a way for the united states to stop the spread of fascism. he even hired the robert emmet sherwood, who had just won a a hollywood movie and pulitzer prize for writing the play, a blinken in illinois. which was made in 1939, it was made into a hollywood movie. and sherwood begins putting references to the reluctant leadership of roosevelt. by the way -- of lincoln, sorry. very much identified with him. i don't know if everyone or anyone knows this, fdr came to gettysburg in a train and wrote a speech at the last minute of the train. i don't know if he visited the cemetery, both he visited something called the peace monument. yeah. and the speech was not only about peace in o

the union passed a resolution that allowed abraham lincoln to issue letters of mark.ver w went through with t and enter in a big and a half confederacies stops issuing letters of mark's. i was having said that, war and other confederate raiders were doing a much better job of it. russia and civil war we still have privateering that talk about in the talk about in the book. there's a small state underway today that bill issued presented introduced towa congress a coupe of months ago that wanted to reviveg american privateering s issued letters of mark once again primarily to battle against pirates, off the somali coast and groups and some people i've even argued we should allow for frontiers to attack chinese commerce because they were viewed as a threat to america. they make no comment on that in the book. we have the most powerful navy now think there's any reason for us to go back to privateering but the arc of the story continues and who knows what wille. happen in the future buti doubt we will ever have privateers, american privateers on the ocean again. so this i

abraham lincoln for the democratic party and he assiduously worked that connection while still serving as governor of new york. and particularly emphasized it as america went to war in 1941. he wanted references to lincoln's reluctance to to start a hot war with southern states with slaveholding states his reluctant entrance into the war because he was still looking for a way for the united states to to stop the spread of fascism. he even hired the robert emmett sherwood. had just want to pull a surprise for writing the play abe lincoln in illinois, which was then being made in 1939 that was being made into a hollywood movie and sherwood begins putting references to the reluctant leadership of roosevelt by the way of lincoln. so very much identified with him, and i don't know if any if ever anyone knows this but fdr came to gettysburg in a train and wrote his speech at the last the train. i don't know if he visited the cemetery, but he visited i think something called the peace monument. yeah. appropriate. yeah, so annie and the holes and the speech was not only about peace in our time

abraham lincoln, the thanksgiving proclamation, it is a beautiful piece of oration.ully read, i should say too, jonathan, so thank you for that. although they say if you're wearing your glasses, i have to call you johnny, because that's end even cooler -- >> you know, ashley, hold on, hold on. these glasses, my wife hates them. but the ladies at this desk say that they are dashing. so i'm glad you brought them up. lauren: that is not true. i sided with your wife, jonatha- >> well, there were two ladies here. [laughter] lauren: and i said you wear them well. however, i understood where she was coming from. [laughter] >> i take it back. ashley: stirred up a hornets' nest, clearly. [laughter] i want to get back to this, jonathan, there's a new study which i find fascinating about how successful people are actually better at giving thanks. explain that one. >> yeah, it's interesting, there's been a lot of studies actually that have said that when you work the muscle, i would say the muscle of thanksgiving, right, of gratitude, it changes your mentality. and it says there

it reminded me very much of abraham lincoln, who toured richmond right after the war. well, the war was still going on. but he went there at the end of march, beginning of april -- april 4th, to be exact. what were truman's thoughts on this visit to berlin? did he change anything, did it anger him? how did he feel? >> i kept hoping that he would say something really interesting. he wasn't very interesting on the subject. he didn't seem terribly moved by what he had seen, either. others were -- berlin was basically rubble. you can see some amazing footage from that period. you can watch people lining up and passing food and water and bricks and so on. and churchill actually rather enjoyed it, i think after what they had been through. i couldn't compare it to lincoln's visit to richmond. first place, lincoln was visiting his -- they were his countrymen still, and he was the president. this was the enemy. it was a really hated enemy, so i think truman just said, well, this is what happens when you overstep. >> did he go through any of the camps at the time? >> no, never.

april 1865 brought the confederate surrender at appomattox and the assassination of president abraham lincoln in this period of uncertainty americans wondered how the new president andrew johnson would lead the divided nation many especially in african-americans were hopeful that johnson would actively promote cause of black equality. black leaders. however became disillusioned with johnson after a dramatic meeting with the president at the white house frederick douglass attack johnson's policies in a number of lectures across the country. johnson's conflict with congress over reconstruction eventually led to his impeachment. within the records of the national archives is the resolution to impeach johnson written on a scrap of paper and introduced in the us house of representatives of february 21st, 1868. three days later the house voted 128 to 47 to adopt the rest of resolution. in the failed promise robert s levine portrays the conflicts that brought frederick douglass and the wider black community to reject andrew johnson and call for guilty gerdict in his impeachment trial. herbert s. lev

common abraham lincoln signatures that exists. it is an endorsement. most of the time, it's cut off of these letters and the rest of the letters are thrown away. it was very popular. i didn't do it. [laughs] people did it a long time ago when they were collecting lincolns. it is this -- lincoln probably wrote every other time, let this man take the oath of december 8th, 1863, and be discharged. a blinken, in this case, he signed it in 1864. in this case, just for those of you who want to come and see it later, i will put a link in the comments so you can see it. it is signed by a lincoln and andrew johnson, and carrie and i were just talking, how many time where those men in the same room together? right? maybe three? so, this is a very interesting linkage. it tells us that it refers to let this man take the oath, december 4th 1863 and let him be discharged. what is the law lincoln is talking about, and how does that -- confederates? >> lincoln had what was known as the 10% plan. any confederate below the rank of colonel who put d

abraham lincoln, although the content of the general remedy lee. hey all fervently believed that almighty god was orchestrating their fate. yet nobody ever cared. as lincoln and lee as religious fanatics, i was fascinated, by the way, steve, reconstructed martin luther king's dangerous civil rights campaign as you know, this is florida. not the least of which because of the things you reveal to me about my hometown i left doing summer of 1960, just after the southern black student sit in begin which i had participated in as a freshman them university in tallahassee. but the movement had not yet reached st augustine, although those of us who had gone off to college had all been active. that nascent struggle. and my boyhood friend hank thomas would become an iconic figure in the southern struggle when his image appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world, walking out of a flaming bus, the crazed white mob that is firebombed. freedom riders in anniston, alabama. by the time dr. king came to saint augustine, i had been gone for years and

what was different, i think would the absence of abraham lincoln and the rise of andrew johnson is that you had leadership in washing ten after lincoln's assassination that included two kinds of people, one who just wanted to move on and do nothing more, and others who wanted to take a series of half measures who wanted to take an ambivalent approach? mike and i were talking about this before and i think ambivalent, the right way to put it, an approach to which there would be somewhat of a commitment in the south, but not that much of a commitment to that much because for most northern republicans, there was more money to be made in the west and they were tired of fighting in the south, the most northern republican said was we've put a lot into this war. the war should be over now. can we come home and take our money and move on, move on with our lives? so those have been problems regardless. but what andrew johnson did the president who succeeded lincoln, who never should have been president was he blanket pardoned confederate leaders and in this state of texas just as one example a.w.

now this created an interesting problem for abraham lincoln because once one of the first confederateteers that were captured called the savanna, they brought the prisoners into new york, they paraded them down broadway. theywere manacled at the time and people were cheering at them . they were thrown into the tomb's prison in new york and abraham lincoln to hang the confederate privateers and because he viewed them as nothing more than pirates. so jefferson davis said hold on, he was a very formal letter, he said you start hanging confederate privateers and we are going to have hang 141 union soldiers we have in our prisons soabraham lincoln never went through with the hangings . and actually the congress of the north , the union passed a resolution that allowed abraham lincoln to issue letters of mark by congress. they never went through with it and after a year and a half the confederacy stopped issuing letters of mark. it wasn't having much of an impact on the war and the shenandoah and other confederate raters are doing a much better job. so after the american civil war we still

abraham lincoln met with douglas twice earlier at the white house. he had invited him to the inauguration. after the speech, douglas tried to get into the reception at the white house. he was stopped by security but was eventually vouched for and was greeted by lincoln. he asked douglas how he liked the speech. he told with a man through the anthem that douglas was his great friend. douglas said he liked to the speech, then he walked away. johnson joined lincoln at the reception. he would not let frederick douglass tell the story of what happened. this is from douglas is 1881 life and times of frederick douglass. some 16 years later. i was standing at the crowd on winter lincoln touch mr. johnson, pointed me out to him. the first expression that came to his face, which i think was a true index of his heart, was one of bitter contempt and aversion. saying that i observed him, he tried to sue a more friendly appearance, but it was too late. it is useless to close the door when all within has been seen. his first glance with the frowned of the man, the

argues modern americas political sentiments to abraham lincoln andhe reconstruction era. and, on the presidency, a historian looks at an era in america to the presidency of franklin roosevelt in his 1936 landslide election in his book, roosevelt sweeps the nation. ♪ governor's seat but he goes to democrat tina kotek. for the conversation with veterans and their families this morning we want to start with leo shane from the military times to talk about military veterans and the midterm election results. how many veterans were running the cycle? guest: almost 200 veterans, the largest field we have seen since 2012. it shows some of these younger veterans are starting to come into politics, work their way up through state races and local races and put an impact on the national scene. guest: what issues were they running on? guest: it's funny. this is a big part of their campaigns and identity but veterans don't usually run on that many veterans issues or military issues. it's another line in the resume. quite a few campaigns talked about v.a. care and access. the pact act, t

abraham lincoln had visits from frederick douglass, martin delaney other black visitors during the civil war and whatever they said he responded to and at some point changed his policy. the first time douglas visited lincoln, he visited out that wages were not the same for black and white soldiers. lincoln responded by saying there was a pragmatic reason for that. i don't want to alienate white people but it will take that under consideration. at least he listened. martin delaney, back in 1864 propose that blacks in the south go on gorilla expeditions against anti confederates. lincoln makes him the first black major. i did not see any johnson evidence on the same kind of listening. the other thing i emphasize in the book -- again if you have questions i think this is an important point which is worth making. i did not make it all that well perhaps in the talk, is that douglas and other black activists were constantly dealing with racism from people, white people, other than andrew jackson. i think it is a mistake to say that those who believe johnson was the only white racist in the uni

he certainly was a direct person and usually honest i know that with abraham lincoln wore lamin one of his colleagues and private protector said that he could lincoln could stretch the truth when necessary. what about truman? what was his character like truman? certainly? no truman could stretch the truth, too. he would remember things that never happened. i i was fascinated to find in one of his late books. he would just he carefully described a conversation he had with roosevelt discussing just discussing history. he never roosevelt had never actually never had would have a conversation like that. they had one meeting together a lunch in august of in august of 1944 before the election. he would he would show up with the white house, but but would sort of wanted this to happen. he wrote about it as if it had happened to give i mean to i will say that it was many years later that he wrote about it, but he really wanted so that really meant a lot he would definitely stretch the truth he would all so inflate himself there. early, it was an early meeting with molotov. who was the foreign

abraham lincoln. he says, gettysburg, as everyone knows. i hope everyone knows that democracy is government of people. by the people. for the people. of the people. by the people. for the people. the challenge that the civil war poses and post-civil war years. that the politics after the war actually take the people out of democracy because the war had been a people's war. the solutions are solutions that limit popular activity. and so in some ways post-civil war, we see remarkable creativity within our society a remarkable creativity to create stability, but stability that decent franchises millions of people, african-american and others. that's less of an issue. before the civil war, because we're such a stratified society because populations don't have access to vote, particularly african-american populations, but also immigrant populations others. it's after the civil war that we see a rise in voter turnout and participation. and the question is who gets to participate now and who doesn't? the par