the trial attracted the commentary of walt whitman, james mccune smith, horace greeley, a lot of very well-known people commented on it. now, freeman was entirely clear about why he killed he wanted back pay, and if he couldn't have it, he would have payback. but no one, the prosecution or the defense, wanted to hear freeman's challenge to the auburn system, because the auburn system was the engine behind auburn's prosperity. and by this point, the auburn system, the auburn state prison, was actually a major engine behind new york's prosperity. it was also a major player in party politics. so the prison was very important to a lot of different people, and nobody wanted to hear that it was wrong to make people work for no pay. so nobody wanted to hear it. white auburn ites, particularly, did not want to hear it. so what they did to not hear this very clear critique that they could not hear what they did, instead was they invented their own story. they invented their own stories in order to drown out what freeman was actually saying. they could not hear the in their effort to silence fr

in new york in front of several people who are key players in the republican party, including horace greeley, an important newspaper editor. newspaper editors were often politicians in the 19th century, more than not, they were politicians, and horace greeley was one of them. and so lincoln gives this very important speech at cooper union, where he again gives a key political argument for why it is important to restrict slavery in the territories and why it is constitutionally possible to restrict slavery in the territories. why the republican party that has made it its mission to do this is allowed to and should, and why the constitution says that this is possible. and so lincoln has made a name for himself in making this argument clear and selling it to the people. and this is sort of how lincoln builds his reputation. well, lincoln historian and author harold holzer talks more about that cooper union speech and its importance. this is from the c-span archives. part one is his research proof that 23 of the 39 founding fathers voted for federal authority over slavery? and he uses the phrase

in new york in front of several people who are key players in the republican party, including horace greeley, an important newspaper editor. newspaper editors were often politicians in the 19th century, more than not, they were politicians, and horace greeley was one of them. and so lincoln gives this very important speech at cooper union, where he again gives a key political argument for why it is important to restrict slavery in the territories and why it is constitutionally possible to restrict slavery in the territories. why the republican party that has made it its mission to do this is allowed to and should, and why the constitution says that this is possible. and so lincoln has made a name for himself in making this argument clear and selling it to the people. and this is sort of how lincoln builds his reputation. well, lincoln historian and author harold holzer talks more about that cooper union speech and its importance. this is from the c-span archives. part one is his research proof that 23 of the 39 founding fathers voted for federal authority over slavery? and he uses the phrase

if anyone wants to play the horace greeley role. talk to me later. well, we'll figure that out anyway. so that connection is obviously very exciting to me, and it's absolutely wonderful to be here and said that. oh, let me turn to the topic of tonight's lecture. emerson said there was one thing that we saw it with a kind of incredible relish our whole lives. and that was to forget ourselves, to be surprised that over a propriety, he said, to do something without knowing how or why. and there was this sense in which the capacity to surprise and even more the capacity to be surprise was very crucial to the way he thought about everything. he, after all, didn't think that everyone should have, as he put it, an original relation to the universe. that meant seeing everything afresh. that meant not taking the word of the community or the church or the state. it also meant a constant sort of reexamining of your own life because he hated the idea of status. he hated the idea of simply resting on your laurels. he felt that a human being who was alive and sent