diana schaub, the last word is to you. our friend colin thibeault says some of lincoln speeches are famous for being very short. was that intentional and does that impact his rhetorical intention and constitutional ideas? your thoughts on his shortness as we close this wonderful program. >> yes, and i think i don't have much time left to answer this. so i will try to be as brief as lincoln. yes, he acquires this gift for brevity and you see it especially in the gettysburg and the second inaugural. i think it's very deliberate on his part. part of it, especially in the gettysburg address, i think is he hoped it would be memorized by americans. so my suggestion is that we all commit both the gettysburg address and the second inaugural to memory. >> what a wonderful challenge, and friends, let's take up diana schaub'challenge. and if you succeed in memorizing either the gettysburg address or the second inaugural, then write to me and jay rosen at constitutional center dot org and let me know! i will send you a congratulations

welcome noah feldman and diana schaub. michael burlingame let us begin with you. tell our friends why you argue in your new book that lincoln was the black man's president. you have several speeches of frederick douglass that you begin with, including in 1865, the eulogy on lincoln. he said no class of people has a better reason for lamenting the death of lincoln then have the colored people. what is the significance of that speech? why do you hold that lincoln was the black man's president? >> thank you very much for your kind introduction. thank you very much for inviting me. i feel a little out of place because the central theme of my book is, let's not focus on lincoln's speeches and writings and policies and alike, let's focus on lincoln's interactions with black people both in lincoln and washington. the title of the book comes from a eulogy from frederick douglass from june 1st in 1865, cooper union, the premier site in the country to give a major speech. it was covered widely in the new york press. it has been on on accountability ignored by historians and

his greatest speeches how lincoln moved the nation welcome michael burlingame noah feldman and diana schaub. michael berlin. let us begin with you. tell our friends why you argue in your new book that lincoln was the black man's president and you have you have several speeches of frederick douglass that you begin with including in 1865 eulogy on lincoln where he said no people at class of people in the country have a better. reason for lamenting the death of lincoln then have the colored people. what is the significance of that? speech? and why do you believe that lincoln was the black man's president? well, thank you very much for your kind introduction and thank you for inviting me. i feel a little out of place because my book is focused the central theme i'm book is let's not focus on lincoln speeches and writings and policies in the light. let's focus on lincoln's interaction with black people both in springfield and in washington, but the title of the book comes from a eulogy that frederick douglass delivered on june 1st 1865 in cooper union the premiere site in the country to give up

so lucky to be joined today by two friends of aei i'll introduce them both and then we'll begin diana schaub is, professor of political science at loyola, maryland. and i'm happy to say senior fellow here at aei. she writes and studies statements and political rhetoric, ud

so lucky to be joined today by two friends of aei i'll introduce them both and then we'll begin diana schaub is, professor of political science at loyola, maryland. and i'm happy to say senior fellow here at aei. she writes and studies statements and political rhetoric, including especially abraham lincoln and, frederick douglass, her most recent book is titled his greatest how lincoln moved the nation. and she also earlier, a book titled erotic liberalism women and revolution in montesquieu use persian letters seems topical for today's conversation, our second guest is arthur meltzer. he is a professor of political thought at the michigan state university, where he also co-founded symposium on science reason and modern democracy. he received his ph.d. from harvard in 1978. and i also highly recommend his latest book. i think it's your latest book philosophy between the lines, the lost history of esoteric writing. and i should say, since this event is co-sponsored by the foundation for constitutional government, you can also see several of their conversations with bill kristol in that series

diana schaub is professor of political science at loyola university, maryland. and i'm happy to say a senior fellow here at aei. she writes and studies statesmen and political rhetoric, including abraham lincoln and frederick douglass. her most recent book is titled his greatest speeches how lincoln moved the nation. and she also earlier wrote a book titled erotic liberalism women and in modern skews persian letters. seems topical for today's conversation. our second guest is arthur meltzer. he is a professor of political thought at the michigan state university, where he also co-founded the symposium on science, reason and modern. he received his ph.d. from harvard in 1978, and i also highly his latest book i think it's your latest philosophy between the lines, the lost history of esoteric writing. and i should say, since this event is caused sponsored by the foundation for constitutional government, you can also see several of their conversation sessions with bill kristol in that series. we're going begin with arthur. on the subject of thermos, and then we'll