ison silverman: you know when first gave a talk, i was not prepared for that talk. that was before that question. 2015.as before september not ready. it has been asked. my opinion is lincoln would be appalled at what is going on right now. i understand and i tell my students repeatedly that is very, very difficult to measure a historical figure in terms of present date. that is unfair. lincoln lived in a different time than we do. words we take lincoln's as his guide, lincoln believed that immigrants represented wealth for the united states. they would contribute to the well-being economically of the united states in the long-term. so to lincoln, immigrants were an asset. they never reliability. he always believed, and he is sort of a remarkable human being, because virtually all the time, he tried to do the right thing. he genuinely believed we represented an opportunity in this country for people leaving either lands that had been torn by revolution or poverty or despair or hunger or destitution , and that coming to the united states, and you give somebody a chanc