to lincoln's assassination. lincoln had this dream three recurring nights and on april 14 lincoln tells crook about the dreams and crook is so terrified that he pleads with lincoln to let him come to ford's with him. lincoln says you are tired. go home and go to sleep. then lincoln turns to crook and says good bye, crook. every other time, every other night crook said lincoln said good night, crook. on april 14 lincoln said good bye. and it was very compelling. we don't know what the dream was because crook didn't write it down. but the question again is how reliable is this remembererance? and we can't know definitively. i went back to the 1910. in that one crook makes no mention of the scary assassination dream that lincoln had three nights before he was killed. and crook says only mentions the ship on the water dream in his 1910 and he didn't mention that he had heard it from lincoln. he described it as a matter of record. and i think crook published the first in 1910. then he thought i can make this even bet

then a visionary historian, who loved abraham lincoln and was obsessed with honoring lincoln occupied this house. he created a lincoln museum in the basement and in these rooms. for small price, visitors from all over the country could come to the house where lincoln died, which was known as coming come to this room. over decades, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of americans came and visited this room what it was a privately operated museum. it was not until decades later that the national park service took custody of the peterson house and restored it to natural appearance as it was on the night abraham lincoln was assassinated. this is one of my favorite historical sites in washington partly because it's not gigantically grand like abraham lincoln's white house. it's not huge like forts the it or 1800 sat and watched the mayhem that happened across the street. what i like about the peterson house is the intimacy. i would often come to the peterson house at hours when i knew there would be few visitors. i stood in this room any sign that many times i bought myself and imagin

mary lincoln was wrong. major rathbone came here and he leaned against the wall in the hallway and assume he collapsed and fainted. -- and soon he collapsed and fainted. this is where mary lincoln spent much of the night. secretary of war stanton and secretary wells arrived shortly after lincoln was taken here. they had been at the home of secretary of state stewart. i had heard that he had been stabbed to death. he survived the -- they had heard that he had been stabbed to death. he survived the wounds. heard that lincoln was shot show they rushed over here that -- so they rushed over here. the carriage could not push through the crowd. the two most powerful members of the cabinet had to disembark from the ae carriage and pushed their way through. stanton came through this room and into the back parlor here which was the bedroom. it was here on a table in the center of this room that the secretary of war began the manhunt for john wilkes booth. witnesses from fort's theater were brought here. stanton questi

again, the biography of lincoln speculates as folse, lincoln's -- as follows lincoln's remarks , about the course that lincoln should follow. the realization that slavery was already dead. the principle concern was that the war might drag on for another year. the purpose was to undermine the jefferson davis administration by appealing to those followers mentioned in his annual message to congress in december '64. he wanted to raise their hopes if necessary, through a campaign of misinformation. clearly, the three confederate commissioners would have an easier task in persuading other southerners to lay down their arms if they promised that at least the remnants of slavery could still be saved. and i should add for some period longer. donald points out that stevens and hunter recall that lincoln also followed this up at hampton roads by pledging he, meaning the nation o, would be willing to tax for their slaves. again, this is february of 1865. he added, this was justified because both the north and south shared culpability for slavery's existence. given the far weaker state of the conf

lincoln, lincoln was much more connected to the average person that is than any modern president would be. and i just don't know that a modern president remembers his audience very much after six years in the office. >> so true. especially when your audience is being coninfected everywhere you go of loyalists. so they're going to give you the response you have to get, whereas you campaign, you have to sell people, you have to get with them on their terms. you have to go find them. >> that's right. >> and that's the challenge. >> anyway, this has been a great nice. i am sure we could go on. and i think these questions are great, especially to compare and contrast. especially an academic person who is here. but thank you. it's been an honor with you dean. thank you, dr. carson, dr. wellson. i've learned a lot tonight and i hope you all have, too. thank you very much. >> announcer: you've been watching american o'hare tv in prime time. every weekend here on cspan-3 experience american history tv starting saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern. 48 hours of people and events telling the american sto

no one comes to honor lincoln. i might find one or two people when i sit on the steps of the petersen house and contemplate what happened. couple of years ago, the parks service almost arrested me sitting on the steps because the guard accused me of being a homeless loiterer, and i tried to convince them that i had written books and set on the the -- served on the council of advisors. the national park service police questioned me and said, how do i know that you are not a homeless man who will damage the house? one of them came to his senses and said enjoy your evening. i have had quite a time coming to his house which has been abandoned for the public for a long time with this year will be different. lincoln arrived at the theater at about 8:30 p.m. the play was underway. he was late. no one at the petersen house noticed lincoln arrived. people were going to the bars and taverns to celebrate the victory of the war. it was a quiet night on the street. everyone was inside the theater. the play was underway so the c

again, the biography of lincoln speculates as folse, lincoln's remarks about the course that lincoln should follow. the realization that slavery was already dead. the principle concern was that the war might drag on for another year. the purpose was to undermine the jefferson davis administration by appealing to those followers mentioned in his annual message to congress in december '64. he wanted to raise their hopes, if necessary through a campaign of misinformation. clearly, the three confederate commissioners would have an easier task in persuading other southerners to lay down their arms if they promised that at least the remnants of slavery could still be saved. and i should add for some period longer. donald points out that stevens and hunter recall that lincoln also followed this up at hampton roads by pledging he meaning the nation o, would be willing to tax for their slaves. both the north and south shared culpability for slavery's existence. given the far weaker state of the confederate military in 1865 this pledge now had far greater significance. lincoln's rationale was

she wrote so much about lincoln. there's a sense of at the immediate moment i think garfield and mckinley were devastating events but they didn't have the legacies that lincoln and kennedy had partly because they were not, i guess although garfield was a very good president, they were understood to be the kind of great statesmen that lincoln and kennedy were understood to be. thank you. yes. >> i wonder if you can tell it to be more 150 years ago about lincoln's assassination 100 years later then how people feel about also how they address the issues because the cause may be freedom and justice and peace and now we can international affairs. would you give us a little bit related issues and how people feel and why do they assassinate this person. >> i'm not a kennedy scholar but i think it's a tremendous event in people's lives and terms of commemorations and sentiniels. i do think what's so fascinating for me about thinking about kennedy and lincoln and the two assassinations was the difference in the world when the

i think it's clear on war and peace issues, king and lincoln -- lincoln lamented the cost and bloodshed of the war, but lincoln was obviously the commander in chief. whereas i would think king was much more of a peace person. so that would be clear to me. i'm not sure about the other ones. lincoln not an ideal -- >> well certainly obama and kennedy and you have to say reagan. they could give speeches with profound importance. they could say things philosophically and we remember it and we could argue about it. i personally think obama was the best in my adulthood. he's unbelievable. but he's lost his ability to connect. i guess it wears out these days. it's hard to keep connecting with people for a long time. people stop listening after a while. is there a duration? that people are willing to give you these days? >> to me the most interesting speech obama gave was when he accepted the nobel peace prize. he has that picture in his office of king and gandhi and i'm not sure who else was in the picture, but it's some -- obviously something that's very close to him. he writes about this in

we have a picture of lincoln as a family man, mary lincoln, his lincoln also, when he would get awayom the white house, in addition to going to the theater to watch shakespearean plays in particular, which he enjoyed was a retreat to the old cottage where he would reflect as well, gather his thoughts. the shakespearean dimension, and his enjoyment of shakespearean literature was almost therapeutic for lincoln, a very melancholic man dealing with the various tragedies that he had. the leak and family had four children altogether. eddie, who died in infancy. and another one who died of typhoid figure, and tragically tad would die of tuberculosis. mary lincoln lost three of her children. the only one to lead make it to adulthood would be robert todd lincoln. mary lincoln is a very interesting topic. the madness -- "the madness of mary lincoln," is one of the best works that does justice to her. here we have president lincoln, the mark of war, showing the four years of caring the countries -- carrying the country through the conflict. it was believed that that picture was taken place aro

during his 1860 presidential campaign, lincoln adopted lincoln and liberty as his official campaign songolitionism and log cabin values. perhaps a little more surprising a favorite song of the president's was "dixie" in the afterglow of the confederate's surrender, lincoln said to a group of well wishers that i have always thought dixie one of the members of the senate tunes i've ever heard. our adversaries over the ware attempted to over appropriate it. i presented the question to the attorney general, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. here to play lincoln and liberty and dixie is bobby whorton, a multiinstrumentist, musician historian, and great friend of our national parks. bobby has successfully combined his love for music and civil war history and is now one of the leading authorities on music from the civil war period. i'm pleased to introduce to you bobby whorton. >> hello everyone. this is lincoln and liberty. this was the irish tune called rozen the bow. hutcheson from the singing family had serenaded the president quite a few times and wrote these

here was lincoln. greatest triumph. he got into the presidential box and bowed and sat down and the play continued. i would have liked to have seen that. i would not have wanted to seen the assassination, but i would've loved loved to see that magical moment when abraham lincoln arrived here with majestic simplicity and accepted the greetings and thanks of the american people after one you have been coming to this box since 1987. for you and so many historians it must feel special for you tonight. abcatoo tonight. >> guest: it does. i have been coming here since 87. my future wife and i came here on april 14 14th thinking we would see a celebration honoring lincoln's. we went to a restaurant and waited them and no one ever came. all we saw was a station wagon drive-by. the car slowed car slowed to a stop, the father pointed the force theater, the kids look, nodded, nodded their heads and drove on. that is how the american people remembered. they did nothing's. no celebration. what you see behind me now

so they bring lincoln in there. lincoln dies there the next morning.illie clark comes back after lincoln's body is cleared out. and essentially, you can only imagine the scene there. you are told, by the way, the president of the united states died in your bed last night. what would you do? sarah, do you think you would -- would you ever go into that room again? sarah jencks: you know, i can't imagine what willie clark must have been feeling. he was a young guy. and he was -- this was his room. this was the room he knew. and it was his bed. and he paid for the room. his response was, he slept in the bed. and honestly, while we might have chosen not to do that, i think in other ways, it is understandable that that is what he did. it was his home. so, willie clark is not a famous name, but he guided the interpretation of that space his bedroom, four the immediate aftermath of the assassination because people came to visit him and they bothered him. the neck on his door. it was his room. david mckenzie: in fact, one of the items that we have here in the l

so they bring lincoln in there. lincoln dies there the next morning. willie clark comes back after lincoln's body is cleared out. and essentially, you can only imagine the scene there. you are told, by the way, the president of the united states died in your bed last night. what would you do? sarah, do you think you would -- would you ever go into that room again? sarah jencks: you know, i can't imagine what willie clark must have been feeling. he was a young guy. and he was -- this was his room. this was the room he knew. and it was his bed. and he paid for the room. his response was, he slept in the bed. and honestly, while we might have chosen not to do that, i think in other ways, it is understandable that that is what he did. it was his home. so, willie clark is not a famous name but he guided the interpretation of that space his bedroom four the immediate aftermath of the assassination because people came to visit him and they bothered him. the neck on his door. it was his room. david mckenzie: in fact, one of the items that we have here in the l

and he did not leave lincoln until the next morning when lincoln i only passed away. tracey avant: the exhibit is laid out in four acts. we modeled the, since it was the night the lincolns went to the theater, we decided to do a narrative based on the play. so this section, this is a playbill from our american cousin. this is something that you would have been headed out on the -- handed out on the streets. it really was an advertisement for the show that night. and it highlights laura keene, the lead actress that night. she was also responsible for bringing the show to ford's theatre. so she was one of our key players. we look at our key players in our exhibit, and that night, we had the president and the first lady. their guests were major henry rathbone and his fiancee engaged to be married. a young couple. claire was a personal friend of mary's. and dr. charles, he was the first doctor to reach abraham lincoln in the presidential box. and started to care for lincoln that evening. then laura keene, are actress, -- the actress she also made her , way to the box afte

lincoln to ford's theatre on april 14, 1865. >> behind me is the carriage that have lincoln road -- rode in to report theater. it is part of the exhibits we are working on, which opens this month. april 14 1865 was an incredible day for both the lincoln's and washington. news had reached the city that robert e lee had surrendered to grant. the war was finally coming to a conclusion. that morning, abraham lincoln had breakfast with his family. robert todd lincoln, has all this -- his eldest son, joined him for breakfast. and he was telling the story to the family about what had just taken place. the city was in celebration. and the lincoln's themselves, you know, or celebrating and finally seeing the end of this incredible war and all of the burdens that it had on the president. he decide that day to celebrate a difficult of ways. one thing he decides this to go on a carriage ride with his wife. and it is an incredible ride that the two of them take. mary asked whether they should invite anyone to join them. abraham lincoln said, no, he would like to go just the two of them to and they ta

so they bring lincoln in there. lincoln dies there the next morning. willie clark comes back after lincoln's body is cleared out. and essentially, you can only imagine the scene there. you are told, by the way, the president of the united states died in your bed last night. what would you do? sarah, do you think you would -- would you ever go into that room again? sarah: you know, i can't imagine what willie clark must have been feeling. he was a young guy. and he was -- this was his room. this was the room he knew. and it was his bed. and he paid for the room. his response was, he slept in the bed. and honestly, while we might have chosen not to do that, i think in other ways, it is understandable that that is what he did. it was his home. so, willie clark is not a famous name, but he guided the interpretation of that space his bedroom, four the immediate aftermath of the assassination because people came to visit him and they bothered him. the neck on his door. it was his room. david: in fact, one of the items that we have here in the lincoln collect

but lincoln is correct. the second inaugural address tend to be the two documents that people mean the most of lincolns and they are the two that are inscribed at the lincoln memorial. it's pret 2i extraordinary after four years of civil war after hundreds of thousands of deaths the treasure involved in prosecuting the war, that lincoln goes into the future with malice toward none and charity toward all. he called the speech's sacred effort. that he concentrated more on the passages of slavery. that this war was about that while abraham lincoln was giving this speech the 13th amendment had been put out to the states. and the 13th amendment was when it abolished slavery. the 13th amendment that had been proposed back in 1861 was to leave slavery alone. four years later, now, the 13th amendment is going through. so i think there's a lot that people can look at in this speech in terms of what lincoln thought was the cause of war. was how you go into the future. puritans hear it all of the time, here's where we'

care for lincoln that evening. then laura keene, she also made her way to the box and cradle the presidents head on her lap. brought water for him. then left later, try to get the crowd under control. then lurking in the background sneaking around the corner, we have our assassin -- john wilkes. booth. our second section looks at the arrival to the theater. the lincolns and their guests arrived late. lincoln was finishing up business at the white house hurt when they came in, the show was in progress. the show was stopped and the president and first lady were introduced. there were walking across the belkin. they played "hail to the chief." we have a violin and the pair of drumsticks that were played that evening. these have not been on view for several years. they are part of the national park service collection. then our third section is the actual acts of the assassination. the president is shot. so the key figure here is the derringer gun used by john wilkes booth to assassinate the president. he was able to sn

[laughter] professor varon: so you talked a little bit there about lincoln and grant and lincoln's instructions to grant. let's get to april. early april, the siege line runs from richmond to petersburg, lee and his troops had west, and the troops catch up to him at appomattox courthouse. what happened at appomattox, and as appomattox effectively end the civil war? it is commonplace to observe that appomattox effectively ended the civil war. it does it intoend the civil war, and if so why? to lincoln and lee's minds does it represent the end? ms. leonard: i would say no. actually, depending on how you caf au lait the war and income i think it is clearly an important point, clearly an important surrender, but there's a lot to be resolved, and even after all of the confederate army has surrendered, there is a lot of resolution that needs to be accomplished. it takes a very long time for that to happen. professor varon: let's talk about grant's term. it's even filling lincoln's wishes as he offers those magnanimous terms to the confederate? mr. holzer: i think so. we have the record that grant lef

does he have lincoln's mandate?s even filling lincoln's wishes as he offers those magnanimous terms to the confederate? mr. holzer: i think so. we only have the record grant left from the city point conference. we have the record that grant left to the city point conference. i want to get back to what elizabeth said -- i think lincoln thinks it is the end of the civil war. bells toll in washington. he has already been on the extraordinary tour in richmond where he had walked up the streets to the confederate white house, he is greeted jubilantly by the african-american population. and a couple of days or a day after appomattox, he appears at the window of the white house reclaiming the song "dixie" for the union and ordering the band to play "dixie," and his son waves the captured confederate flag. he thinks this is it. professor gallagher: i think what elizabeth said is right. from our perspective, we know things will play out really in a slow motion for a long time, but i think in the moment, the surrender of lee'

there was no greater legacy to abraham lincoln. he looked at how they honor lincoln. there were no reprisals against prisoners, civilians or property. they blaifed as the fine soldiers they had become. lincoln would have been proud of his men to have known that. oaf the next three days, an event took place right here. ambassadors, ministers of foreign lands. offices of the nations and states. but we miss the deep sad eyes of lincoln coming to review us. something is lacking to our hearts now even at the supreme hour. they were coming home. but 600,o 000 plus weren't coming home. american veterans had come back from war before. never so many with day bill tating injuries. nobody was prepared to this scale. but there's also something else. these men had predominantly left their homes green. they saw the element. they came home as profshl soldiers who had witnessed sites and performed deeds that no one ever imagined. the kaleidoscope of combat. and it is a kaleidoscope. to suffer the pain those endured on the battlefield, i cannot, in reality, tell. it is behind the huma

thank you. >> uss abraham lincoln attention. erin: i would like to thank the riders and the crew of the uss abraham lincoln, as was dr. morris and mr. peck for joining us today. thank you all. i hope this day was as memorable for you as it was for us. [applause] announcer: today, american history tv is marking the 150th anniversary of the lincoln association. you can find hundreds of programs on president lincoln in c-span's video library at the span.org. here is a brief look at one of them. >> imagine for a moment that the president of the united states has been assassinated in your workplace by one of your most admired and respected charismatic colleagues as you stood nearby. picture the chaos as her mind races, fearing for your own safety and the fear of being found. the own chosen words you might have uttered the could of been considered hostile to the president, as well as the times that using socializing with the assassin as recently as the drink you took with him in the bar next door a few hours ago. the more that i start

holzer: lincoln was the western canada, and it is wise to choose and easterner the assumption that lincolnl have northern votes, that he was a perfect balance to the ticket. in 18 sisi four, hamlin is a bit expendable, lincoln is the representative man up north, and if you're creating a national union party, as the republicans rebranded themselves in 1864 you pick the one senator who stayed in the senate and southern guy so it is a northern southern -- professor gallagher: the republicans need -- they cannot win the war just with republican. andrew johnson absolutely exemplified what unionism there was in the democratic party and in the slaveholding state. harold talk about these moments apparel for the united states. in the late summer of 1864, it is certainly one of those, and this is part of the effort, at least for my point of view, to broaden republican appeal, do not call ourselves above and play our best card, which is union, and put this guy, andrew johnson -- it shows that it does matter who gets chosen as the vice presidential candidate. professor varon: it is also the case that

but lincoln is correct. the second inaugural address tend to be the two documents that people mean the most of lincolns and they are the two that are inscribed at the lincoln memorial.

yet lincoln does live to this day.hat he would call "the better angels of our nature." the man who liberated 4 million enslaved people lives on in every sacrifice women and men of courage make for freedom and justice. the president who steadfastly lead our nation through its greatest crisis lives on in our journey to perfect our nation, a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. abraham lincoln belongs not only belongs to the ages, he belongs to us. thank you. [applause] >> 150 years ago last night, abraham lincoln went to the theater. the day had begun as one of the happiest of his life. confederate general robert e. lee surrendered on april 9 and it is related to him. he was more buoyant than any time during his presidency. three quarters of a million men had fallen, and he presided over that. and the conflict that almost consumed him. "this war is eating my life out," he wants to to prominent abolitionist congressman owen lovejoy. "i have a strong impression that i shall not live to see the end. " we

we put every one of these people, even lincoln, oddly enough, lincoln went on the stand to explain whate was up to. at the end of the spring semester semester, i was ready for commencement, and i put the gown on like judge dread like? sat up front for the whole thing, and the process a wonderful friend of mine, james hal, dedicate fortunes to mr. hall for all the encouragement he gave me over the years, loved coming to class, took us on the escape root following booth's past, and it was amusing. mr. hall couldn't go in the home of dr. mud. that's because he was very hard on dr. mud in the writings and so the muds did not want mr. hall coming in. he was banned from the house. [ laughter ] i said wait, booth can go in there? you can't go? he said that's right, i have to stay out here, so you know we would go in, and he would hang out in the cars until we finished the tour, and one of the granddaughters was always gracious. she welcomed us, gave a tour but looked out the window at the parking lot, you know and finally, she drew me aside saying, is that james otis hall out there? [ laughter

this is abraham lincoln's handwriting.lincoln got back in uncorrected proof, which he then decided to cut and paste to show how he wanted to read the address. so you see that in four paragraphs, in the manuscript draft, he's cut it up in little sections so he could know how he wanted to read the address, what the pacing was and what i always think is the most interesting of how he wanted to read it. if you see any of the other copies and the word cane is just at the oend of this paragraph. he's describing four years ago on my first inaugural, we had many more reasons to have a longer address. he accounts for the reasons why the war had started. one thing you can always learn about lincoln it's more of a light hearted way. lincoln wrote for how people were going to hear his speech not necessarily sitting by with a book of grammar. so he would write how he wanted his audience to hear something. so if he wantd them to take a pause, he'll add a comma. the printer is looking from more of a grammatical point of view. so when you

and that is where grilli and lincoln separated. co-chair varon: can we take just a minute then have the perspective on the perspective of the press and could the -- in the confederacy? the davis do much? could he have done more? >> i am not filler with davis in the press, i'm afraid. chair holzer: there was just as much pushback in the confederacy as there was in the north. >> davis was hoping, however for a forest of support. you know? so it may not have been actual attacks on him. it was his policy and his personality. he was unpopular throughout the war. >> stevens had papers that were organs of his critique of the davis the ministration. >> legislation eventually passed in the confederacy to limit the press us -- press' freedoms. >> -- they were very cool to davis throughout the war. -- cruel to davis throughout the war. i don't know about his impression of them, but certainly he has enemies in the press who were, as you are hinting, almost seditious in their criticism of davis. chair holzer: i do want to make one brief point -

to abraham lincoln by brooks brothers.s made by brooks brothers and given to him for his second inaugural. >> reporter: mary lincoln gave the coat to the family's favorite door keeper after the president died. he let friends snip small pieces from the shoulder where blood had soaked through eventually causing the sleeve to separate. there are pieces from others. laura keen starred in the play that night and rushed water to lincoln's side. his blood soaked her cuff as she cradled his head. ford's theater also wants us to see this larger-than-life lincoln the history books elevate was also just a human being. the library of congress loaned these items that were in lincoln's pockets when he was shot. an ivory pocketknife, a confederate $5 bill, a remierngdnder of his trip to the confederate capital a few days before. >> we had a pair of his glasses. the arm had broken off and he tied it with a piece of twine back together. that's how they have been saved. >> reporter: they have all been saved, including the carriage that took

that is, a lincoln. you had to achieve a kind of balance, which, of course, was a balance that favored slave holders. let's be honest about it, you had to sustain that balance in order to sustain the illusion that this was the kind of union that the founders imagined. >> i was just thinking, you talk about the importance of jefferson's first inauguration don't you think that we're all federalists, we're all jeffersonians, the point is to tell the federalistic that you may have lost, but were no threat? prof. onuf: worse than that, he says, the federalist, how does he define federalism in the rest of the address? he says, federalists are people who believe in states rights. he just turns it on its head. this is not conciliatory. he says we won't persecute the , leaders of the federalists we'll just make laughing stocks out of them. they will not -- they will lose their support. majority rule is foundational. no question about it. gary was alluding to this. that's why i was so difficult to pin down on the