lincoln understood this. and he was enthralled by the multitudes of cultures that he first witnessed in the largely foreign-born and catholic population. later in life, he would remember what he saw and he would forcefully oppose nativist movements of the 1850's and the know nothing party. in fact, there was a part of new orleans that even followed lincoln back to springfield. william billy floorville, a free black a french ancestry found new orleans to be hostile place for free people of color in 1820's. fearing kidnapping and enslavement, he fled new orleans for st. louis and that he found his way up the illinois river in 1831. while approaching the village of salem, a county history records, he overtook a man wearing a red flannel shirt. a tall man was he and caring and -- an ax on his shoulder. they fell into conversation and they walked to a little grocery store together. the tall man was abraham lincoln who soon learn that the stranger was a barber and he was out of money. mr. lincoln took him to his bo

it drove thomas lincoln mad that lincoln would -- lincoln famously would read a book while plowing and get to the end of the row and forget to turn the horse around and thomas would come down and get angry at him. it's funny but it's not because then thomas lincocoln would bea him. switch young abraham and there's this element, this drive and i'm certainly not a freudian but the element of parental disapproval in terms of setting lincoln off his dreamy young man -- dreaming what? in the middle of nowhere, no -- you know, a small farm, failed father as a mentor. no guidance, self-taught, no college. and i think we forget in the 19th century how there is no safety net. if you didn't succeed you died. you disappeared. you became invisible. there was no record of your passing or -- and lincoln himself in his famous autobiographical fragment cuts off the discussion of his youth. he refuses to talk about it where he just simply -- and lincoln does this repeatedly where he cuts it off in poetic terms, he cuts the line and he uses thomas gray's elegy that his early life was simply the short an

but lincoln was again like -- there was a famous occasion in the douglas-lincoln debates where lincoln responds by saying my opponent accuses me of being two-faced. if i had another face, would i wear this one. and that element here where he's using it again of a humility which is not completely forced, not completely fictional. lincoln knew who he was. he knew what he looked like. he was aware of that, and it was something again in terms of the smoothness and urbanity that he could use to his advantage as this is frontiersman coming east. whitman, i'm bringing in walt whitman here because they share this curious connection. whitman comes to idolize lincoln. they never met. and there's this amazing quote by whitman in one of his political traks in 1856 called the 18th president. he misses lincoln by two. the redeemer president. he welcomed a redeemer president of the united states. it would come out of the real west, the log hut, the clearing, the woods, the prairie. he would be much pleased to see some heroic healthy bodied middle aged beard-faced american black smith or boatman come

lincoln is defeated. >> this was a devastating political loss for lincoln. >> lincoln is humiliated.incoln had wanted to win. believed he was going to win. >> lincoln's brief and inglorious political career looks over before it's even really begun. >>> "race for the white house" is brought to you by -- real is making new friends. amazing is getting this close. real is an animal rescue. amazing is over twenty-seven thousand of them. there's only one place where real and amazing live. book a seaworld vacation package and eat free. igoing to clean betteran electthan a manual. was he said sure...but don't get just any one. get one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's rounded brush head cups your teeth to break up plaque and rotates to sweep it away. and oral-b delivers a clinically proven superior clean versus sonicare diamondclean. my mouth feels super clean! oral-b. know you're getting a superior clean. i'm never going back to a manual brush. mary buys a little lamb. one of millions of orders on this company's servers. accessible by thousands of s

to lincoln's tomb. he wants to go to lincoln's tomb.the general manager decides i'm going to take you. so he puts him in his car, takes him to the tomb. he says he goes into the tomb and there by lincoln's grave, he cries. and he comes out of the tomb and they get back in the car and as he's going back to the hotel he finally, the manager has apparently the fortitude to say, "i couldn't help but notice how emotional you were. i heard you crying. could you explain, would you tell me what that was about?" and the man proceeds to tell him that when he was a little boy, he was in the concentration camp, and that he was frightened for his life and that he says that, he tells the manager that he had a dream. he had learned approximate lincoln in school in europe, and he had a dream and in this dream lincoln came to him and this is what he says. when he was in the concentration camp and he was all alone in his cell, it was the worst time of his life, and he didn't think he could go on any more and he said, mr. lincoln came to him, mr. lincoln

he became lincoln's friend. their conversations were many times of substance and certainly the foundations of a genuine friendship because late in 1863, fleurville wrote lincoln a warm letter of gratitude for the emancipation proclamation that had gone into effect the year before. i thought it might not be improper for one so humble in life and occupation to address the president of the united states, wrote fleurville, yet i do so feeling that if it is received by you, it will be received with pleasure as a communication from your dear friend, billy the barber. in all likelihood, lincoln first learned of the situation in haiti -- heck, he probably first learned about haiti through billy the barber and the conditions that fleurville had told him when the men first met in 1831. coincidentally, maybe? ironically, maybe? three decades later, president abraham lincoln established diplomatic relations with the independence caribbean nation of haiti. thanks to billy the barber. ironically, it was through lincoln's conn

lincoln was a spligs. and in lincoln's defense, i don't use that in the kind of nasty sense that i would describe somebody today as a politician. but lincoln understood. and there was a german newspaper -- several german newspapers in illinois at the time. one of them was going bankrupt. the editor of the newspaper was a man by the editor of the newspaper was a man by the name of theodore, and lincoln said to him, i'll tell you what, i will buy the press, i'll buy the machinery, i'll buy everything and you can continue your newspaper along the lines of what you just asked me, you can continue your newspaper in german as long as you don't violate one aspect of the republican party platform. and so consequently, the transaction was struck and theodore, who liked abraham lincoln, in fact, would ultimately have a diplomatic position. published the newspaper and basically it was a republican outreach to the german population in and around springfield, illinois, designed so they could read in their native langua

he became lincoln's friend. their conversations were many times of substance and certainly the foundations of a genuine friendship because late in 1863, floorville wrote lincoln a warm letter of gratitude for the emancipation proclamation that had gone into effect the year before. i thought it might not be improper for one so humble in life and occupation to address the president of the united states, wrote floorville, yet i do so feeling that if it is received by you, it will be received with pleasure as a communication from your dear friend, billy the barber. in all likelihood, lincoln first learned of the situation in haiti -- heck, he probably first learned about haiti through billy the barber and the conditions that floorville had told him when the men first met in 1831. coincidentally, maybe? ironically, maybe? three decades later, president abraham lincoln established diplomatic relations with the independence caribbean nation of haiti. thanks to billy the barber. ironically, it was through lincoln's conn

lincoln memorabilia. all about the cultural impact of lincoln. he tells a story that he went to see the museum. the new museum and sprinkle. there in springfield he is staying at the hilton hotel and he says while he is in the lobby, he is discussing with the general manager why he is there and the general manager says, i have to tell you the story that just happened a few weeks ago. man came to stay at the hilton and this man was very elderly and the man clearly had parkinson disease. he was walking with her walker and the general manager and others in the hotel noticed that he was unstable on his feet and they were concerned it is seen they by himself and so tell it general manager that how ton is asking about take a cap from the hotel to the lincoln memorial. cab from the hotel to the lincoln memorial. the general manager decides i will take you. he put two minutes car and takes into the tomb and goes into the tomb and thereby lincoln's grade, he cried. -- grave, he cried. he comes out of the tomb and

lincoln understood immigrants. as a lawyer practicing land law at times and a politician representing a rural district, he had to pay attention to the national debate over the future of public lands. to the issues linked to real estate taxes, to the relationship between town and country, and to the importance of the foreign born as their presence increased in the american labor force. lincoln knew firsthand what it meant to be poor, and he knew firsthand what america represented as a land of opportunity where somebody could rise to become president of the united states. and so his commitment to the american dream, as lincoln liked to think of it, existed his entire political life. lincoln possessed an enormous amount of shriympathy for "the y poor," as he called them, since he himself had long been one. his "passion" materialized into a full-blown political ideology that lincoln carried into the white house. he believed that the civil war would represent an opportunity. but the war drastically reduced the number of

lincoln's university. as we are prepared to celebrate our own centennial celebration next year, we must never forget that we were among the first created in 1967 by the acts signed into law by lincoln five years earlier. and the only one founded in his home state. one of the reasons is the university of i will kill build upon the legacy of and become linked with linkon in a way the university of virginia is associated with thomas jefferson who to my meenld was not as great a president and as great a person. this brings noah fourth question. why bob woodward? that might be the easiest one of all. many people consider "the new york times" the newspaper of record. but bob woodward is america's reporter of record. he is responsible for two of the pulitzer prizes for investigative coverage of watergate and 9/11. but he is much more than a reporter. he is an historian of among other things, america's presiden presidents. he has written 12 number one best selling nonfiction books, more than any other contemporary

lincoln's university. as we in champagne urfwhan prepare to celebrate our own -- we were among the first created by the act signed into lincoln five years earlier. and the only one in that original group founded in lincoln's home state. one of the reasons i was drawn to come to illinois last year to take the job as a law dean is the prospect is the university of illinois can build upon the legacy of and become linked with lincoln in the way that the university of virginia is associated with thomas jefferson, who, to my mind, was not as great a president and not a great as person. it brings me to a fourth question, why bob woodward. that might be the easiest one of all. many people consider the "new york times" the country's newspaper of record, but bob woodward of the rival washington post is america's reporter of record. he's been at the post for 45 years and responsible for two of the pulitzer prizes for investigative coverage of watergate and 9/11. he's more than an reporter. he's a prolific historian o

lincoln was a politician. and in lincoln's defense, and i don't use that in the nasty sense that i would describe someone today as a politician. but he understood. and there was a german newspaper. several of them in illinois at the time. one was going bankrupt. the editor of the newspaper was a man named theodore. lincoln said to him, i'll tell you what. i will buy the press, i will buy the machinery, i'll buy everything. and you can continue your newspaper in german as long as you don't violate one aspect of the republican party platform. so consequently the transaction was struck. he liked abraham lincoln and would have a diplomatic position. published the newspaper, and basically it was a republican outreach to the german population in and around illinois designed so they could read in their native language that abraham lincoln was the proper candidate and they would get what they needed from him. the sad part is not one single issue of that newspaper exists. nobody has found a single issue of that newspap

this drove thomas lincoln mad that lincoln would -- lincoln would read a book while plowing and would get to the end of the road and forget to turn the horse around. thomas would come down and get angry at him. it is funny but it is not because thomas lincoln would beat him and switch young abraham. there is this drive and the element of parental disapproval. dreamy young man, dreaming what? in the middle of nowhere. a small farm, failed father as a mentor, no guidance, no college. i think we forget in the 19th century how there was no safety net. if you didn't succeed you died and disappeared. there was no record of your passing. lincoln himself cuts off the discussion of his youth where he refuses to talk about it where he just simply -- lincoln does this repeatedly where he just cuts it off. he cuts the line. he forbids any real inquiry to the chicago newspaper about what he was doing. when lincoln's father, thomas, is on his death bed young mr. lincoln moved on and is 80 miles away and refuses to come to the death bed. he doesn't go to the funeral. he cuts off the relations with t

lincoln's university. as we in champaign-urbana prepare to celebrate our own success k susq susq susq susquicentennial. one of the reasons i was drawn to come to illinois last year to take the job as law dean is the prospect that the university of illinois can build upon the legacy of, and become linked with lincoln in the way the university of virginia is associated with thomas jefferson. who to my mind was not as great a president and not as great a person. this brings me to a fourth question, why bob woodward? that might be the easiest one of all. many people consider "the new york times" the country's newspaper of record. but bob woodward of the rifle "washington post" is america's reporter of record. he has been at the "post" for 45 years and is responsible for two of its pulitzer prizes for investigative coverage of water gate and also 9/11. but mr. woodward is much more than a reporter. he has an inciteful and prolific historian of, among other things, america's presidents. in this regard he has wri

>> favorite quote of lincoln's? well, so many lincoln stories, i'm not quite sure of their providence. but lincoln said, "if i call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? five? no, four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." words to live by. thank you. [ applause ] >> one of my favorites, too. thank you all so much for being here. i wish you all a good night. >>> c-span3's american history tv is in prime time during the convention. tonight's programs are about li. a look at his interaction with immigrants. after that bob woodward reflects on abraham lincoln's legacy and how it has affected a number of his successors, including richard nixon, ronald reagan and barak obama. and later, columnist george will reflects on president lincoln's view of judicial review and the constitution. all of this coming up tonight on american history tv on c-span3. >>> up next, historian jason h. silverman talks about his book "lincoln & the immigrant." mr. silverman concludes that these encounters shaped president

the lincoln/douglas debates were pretty brutal. lincoln was a politics. but were he alive and witnessen some of what has happened in this presidential campaign season, i think he would be appalled. i really do. i don't think he would be able to support anything about exclusion of immigrants just because of who they are. >> thank you, professor. >> oh, wow. thank you so much. thank you so much. >> thank for you visiting with us. >> i'll get out of your way. >>> tonight hillary clinton becomes the first woman to accept a major political party's nomination for president of the united states. and with c-span, you have many convenient options for watching the entire speech without any interruptions. watch her historic acceptance speech live on c-span. listen to it on the c-span radio app. watch it live or on demand on your desktop, tablet or smartphone at cspan.org. hillary clinton's historic acceptance speech tonight on c-sp c-span, the c-span radio app and cspan.org. >>> coming up next on the president sis, "the washington post's" journalist bob woodward tal

lincoln. july 17th, 1980 at the republican convention, reagan accepts the nomination. and he quotes lincoln. said, so president lincoln said "no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." quoting lincoln. then reagan said, "if mr. lincoln could see what's happened in this country in the last three and a half years, he might hedge on that statement." in other words, the carter years. reagan also said in his inaugural, in 1981, "whoever would understand in his heart the meaning of america will find it in the life of abraham lincoln." true. true. and i think he got it. in 1984, when reagan was running for reelection, he said, i want to quote president lincoln. lincoln said, "we must disenthrall ourselves from the past and then we will save our country." and reagan went on to say, "well, four years ago, that's what we did. we saved the country." reagan had -- he said that he shared many points of philosophy with linco

on lincoln's lap, a copy of the bible. the artist is telling us which is the context in which the emancipation proclamation is emerging. can you think out loud with me a little bit about the message here? what is the artist wanting to convey about the proclamation about how americans should think of it? any thoughts at all? christian, you have a thought? >> well, the bible is like an illustration of a more like moral ideal when it comes to emancipation. but then his oath is like what he is sworn to do. and then andrew jackson obviously for preserving the union. his goal is to preserve the union but at the same time he has these moral obligations to free the sleeves. >> does that resonate with the rest of you? you see the artist is really trying to show the complexity, the motives, the way in which lincoln in a very difcult way is balancing these competing obligations, these competing loyalties. the bible is the embodiment of moral obligation. the oath on the wall the embodiment of constitutionality. you have a sense the ar

he's talking to president lincoln. he tells lincoln these generals may try their skill, they may try their strategy, but i think my hammer is the one that's going to break the backbone of the rebellion. his hammer is labeled draft. the draft that's going to put us over the top and bring military success. lincoln, always with the stereo type of the rail splitter says to secretary of war stanton, you can try him with that, but i believe that this ax of mine is the only thing that will fetch him, as he puts it. the only thing that will do the trick. and the ax is labeled emancipation proclamation. you see the symbolism there. this is all about bringing victory. it's justified as a military necessity on my authority as commander in chief of the army and navy of the united states. here we see the relationship between success on the battlefield and popular support for emancipation. it would correlate pretty closely with popular perception of whether the war was being won, whether progress was being made or not. the unfortuna

a month ago that abraham lincoln wouldn't have been abraham lincoln without his wife. i can tell you after eight years of research and writing the same is true of the most famous union civil war generals and their wives. they wouldn't have been who they were without jessie fremont, nelly mcclellan, ellen sherman, julia grant. when i was in graduate school and learned that ellen sherman sought help for her husband for president lincoln in january of 1852. 62. from earlier reading i knew that jessie fremont had lobbied the president on her behalf earlier. as a former congressional aide and lobbyist i was intrigued by their lobbying efforts and by the very different results they achieved. i want to know more about how these wives influence their husbands careers. i was confident that they have because i was raised in a military family and learned very early the strength, courage and resilience required of military spouses. i began with jesse and ellen after initial research decided to tell the stories of the wives of two men whose career trajectory in the civil war roughl

lincoln. when gerald ford became president, the next year, one of the things he said, again, contradicting nixon, he said "none of our problems today are as severe as those facing lincoln." he quoted one of the things lincoln said in one of ford's kind of natural spontaneous statements of humility. he said, oh, lincoln -- ford's in a dispute with congress. he said, well, lincoln said the following. "we of the congress in this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves." ford also said, of lincoln, that his compassion, lincoln's compassion for others came from an understanding of himself. i think the kind of merging somewhat of the pragmatism and the strategic sense of what the country needs, excellent example of this is gerald ford. i remember it was september 1974. ford had been president about one month. and he went on television. some of you may remember this. and gave -- said he was giving nixon a full pardon for watergate. and any other crimes he may have committed. now, ford

lincoln's university. as we and champagne prepare to celebrate our own sesquicentennial next year, we must never forget that we were among the first of the land-grant universities created in 1867 by the act signed into law by mr. lincoln five years earlier and the only one in the original group founded in lincoln's home state. and who better to help us at this time and in this place, think about what we can learn from lincoln as a country and as individuals then george will, one of the finest minds this region has ever produced. he was born and raised in champaign where his father was on the faculty here. he attended the child development laboratory program in town and went on to graduate from the university laboratory high school. he worked for the now defunct or newspaper where i understand he had a friendly rivalry with roger ebert who worked summers in champaign. from champaign, mr. will went on to trinity college and oxford university and then on to princeton where he earned his phd. and the rest as t

three months earlier sherman asked president lincoln and lincoln agreed. he feared his troops were outnumbered and began to show signs of a nervous breakdown. as he requested the leave of command and moved to a less stressful posting but as a consequence of the motion, newspapers around the country. the startling headlines general william sherman and so in january of 1862 ellen traveled again on his behalf to ask the president of the united states for help in restoring her husband's reputation. .. >> in early october, as sherman left pittsburgh it was clear their youngest son willy was not well. almost as soon as the boat arrived in memphis the young boy died probably of typhoid. that was the last time she traveled during the war. ellen bore another son, her seventh child, before atlanta fell and sherman began his march. cut off from communication along the way, he didn't learn baby charles sherman died on december 4th until arriving in savannah and reading about it in the newspaper. for the rest of the war, they devoted their time between two cities. she

lincoln disagreed. hi responded to the act with a controlled, canny, patient but implacable vehemence. so the most morally luminous career in the history of american democracy took its bearings from the principle that there is more to america's purpose, more to justice than majorities having their way. considering my or gins sorigin land of lincoln, there's a personally satisfying symmetry, which i do not recognize at the time, in the fact 50 years ago i submitted to the politics department of princeton university a doctoral dissertation titled "beyond the reach of majorities, closed questions in the open society." . the title came from the supreme court's 1943 opinion in "west virginia v. barnett," the seconds of the flag salute cases involving public school children who were jehovah's witnesses. as told by professor noah feldeman of new york university law school in his splendid history "scorpions, the battles and triumphs of fdr's great supreme court justices" the two case which is culminated in one

mysterious where the mask for me blocks lincoln. the accessibility of getting to lincoln becomes more and more difficult and i'm taking a still here of henry fonda, young mr.

this is what lincoln is faced with. so lincoln goes and meets grant because we have to do something about the shenandoah valley. george mead certainly would be willing to be a commander of this new army if it is formed. grant sort of mention that -- no, no, no -- can't do that. they has been helping me since gettysburg. -- they had been howling at me since gettysburg. i am not going to get rid of him -- by the way, you know, george mead is a good soldier per can -- can you imagine how difficult it would be to have the boss sitting over your shoulder? once a campaign started, neither staff could stand each other. you know. the difference of course was that grant had to exercise the ghost of the 12th. -- exercise the ghost of mcclellan .grant came in and he would do that, eventually. nevertheless, a good soldier. basically reduced into a glorified chief of staff to grant, right? then for reasons that are hard to understand, grant proposed william b franklin. . he had been enamored with franklin since their west point is b

the most fervent democrats have convinced him to run for president against lincoln in 1864. after he'd lost, they fled together again to europe. we know for certain george loved nelly but did she love george, though the biographers state that as fact, the answer isn'ter obvious in my opinion. i tell the tale of her engagement to the future confederate general which was thwarted by her mother but i found even more convincing evidence of her ambivalence and behavior during the war and later in life after her husband died. now he abandoned the responsibility for the reputation after his death. she left her husband's legacy td the mercy of a director who published perhaps the most inaccurate and most criticized memoir of any general and it included more than 200 of the letters mcclellan had written. in the letters that mcclellan always asked nellie to keep private he poured out his abusive link in the figure below, the baboon, stanton. it's almost enough to make you feel sorry for george mcclellane unlike the other wives, she met her husband as a young child. they were neighbors

it's lincoln, the approachable. lincoln, the charitable. student: with a lot of the other monuments, it seemed like they had this grandiose like stature, where it removes them from the environment, and it draws attention to it. and while this one -- while it may try to draw some attention to it, it does include this. it doesn't remove itself from it. and so it kind of plays with the whole inclusiveness of fighting with the nation, that everybody should be welcomed to this area. it should not be something that you need to look up to to enjoy. prof. nesbit: right. absolutely. this is lincoln at his most approachable self, right? i mean, lincoln when -- i mean, he did visit the city of richmond right after it fell. and he was let off at rockets landing, which most folks would let you off right on the river. you know, the city's charred at this point. he enters the city and he does not go and sit on the park bench with his son. that's not the first thing that he does. he walks into the city -- the city has no white people, essentially, in it. a

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lincoln becomes friends with many of them. we know this am the documents. here is a man who was one of the founders of the hebrew congregation in springfield which took shape in the early 1850's. haberdasher and there's definite evidence that some of lincoln's boots were bought from him. he was also a friend of the family, of course mary taught family to the inauguration of 1860. lincoln also meant a law that people will traveling around on the eighth circuit. and above the store to it does it was the store that belonged

lincoln understood that threat, too. he deeply believed everyone deserved in his words a fair chance in the race of life. he saw it as a defining feature of the united states and believed it was vital that hard working people be free to enjoy the fruits of their own labor. it is one of the reasons he was so strongly against slavery because it violated that entire notion and as president he took pains to use the tools of government to create more economic opportunity for americans at every level of society. so too must we fight inequality and create opportunity in our time. not just for some americans but for all. so i come today as a mother and a grandmother to two beautiful little children who i want them and all of our children to grow up in a country where violence, like the kind we saw last week doesn't happen again and where the american dream is big eno h enough. i am here as a candidate who is deeply concerned about the divisions that still hold our people apart and our nation back. i believe that our future peace

lincoln issues what is known as his retaliation order. he says for every black soldier or white officer that is executed we will execute one confederate prisoner of war. knowledge they never did that. that never happened. i could be wrong. i've never seen evidence of that. it is entirely possible. it was a threat, a retaliation order and is according to lieber permissible to do that during war. this is one of these, even as we get to in just a second the lieber code expressed prohibitions against the mistreatment of prisoners of war, this is one of those gray areas that although you are not supposed to mistreat prisoners, you are supposed to be them and give them medical care, you are not supposed to mistreat them in liable, they are still to this retaliatory measure. another criticism or question that some people will raise about william sherman, if he could have liberated andersonville and why didn't he? this is a map of georgia. this is the town that represents america's georgia, a town there he near where andersonville was. if you rec

and because they refuse to exchange black soldiers, lincoln -- president lincoln brings the prisoner exchange to a halt. he issues a command to all of his military officers that they are not to exchange any prisoners so long as the confederacy were uses to exchange african-american prisoners. and so, this happens, the collapse of the prisoner exchange before ulysses s grant he comes the commander of union forces, the army of the potomac. a lot of critics of grant will use this quotation of his and allowed, he needlessly these men to suffer and die in andersonville. it was not his policy or the policy of the president. policy, butt his the policy of the president. he approached robert e. lee several times throughout 1864 as the population of prisoners are growing, and growing, and growing. he approaches him about the reinstatement of the exchange. let's reinstate the prisoner exchange. will you exchange black prisoners? and lee response, i do not have the authority to exchange black prisoners. the confederate government refuse to exchange them. they both agree as long as the confedera

i think notable she went back to lincoln. lincoln was also somebody obama talked about. he delivered his acceptance speech. it was also reflective. she said she her self had done well bridging the dui, had fueled partisanship and could do better. i think we're at this time, what does it mean to have a president to deal with race. what does it mean to have a white president deal with race. we have obama with all these expectations of race, we're in this post obama phase. some democrats believe that someone like hillary clinton would maybe be better in terms of race than president obama because she can talk directly to white people in a way president obama might not be able to. >> in her speech, you heard it, we need to listen to those who say black lives matter. >> that was particular matter, because black lives matter the movement has become divisive in a lot of quarters, the response to that is that's racist, all lives matter. i thought she contextualized it in an articulate way saying a for a lot of african-americans, they feel like their lives don't matter, they are d

but both grant and lincoln agree. they have asked african-american men to fight and die on behalf of the country up until that point had not given them much reason to do so. thousand african men by the years -- wars and will have fought. they cannot simply say, ok, we will only exchange white soldiers and you can keep like captives. it is morally wrong. --is terrible for more our morale. expect other african-americans to come and fight? it is a sticking point morally for both lincoln and grant, and they refuse to exchange any prisoners if the confederacy will not exchange black prisoners, as well. here.nt is right menaid it is hard on our being southern prisoners, but when we start releasing confederate prisoners, they will simply go back into the ranks and pick up guns and start fighting again. but for grant, it is not simply a matter of trying to outlast the confederate supply of manpower. it is more complicated than that. there is a serious moral imperative at stake for both grant and lincoln regarding the exchange

and lincoln was the steel backbone of the press and the congress. but lincoln was solid. confederates realized this. they were looking forward to this and said if we can defeat lincoln in 1864, we'll get a lot of what we want. 's it turned out because gorgeous mcclellan was running against him. he wanted nothing to do with ending slavery whatsoever. and george was also willing to have some kind of a truce, pause, cease-fire to talk things over. well, i think once that happened, that's pretty much the end of it. so how could the election have gone in favor of mcclellan? the first thing is that superficially we've always heard the election of 1864 was a landslide. 55% to 45%. and electoral votes were 212-21. sounds like mcclellan had no prayer. there were 4 million voters. and if less than 1%, 29,000 had changed their votes, mcclellan wins by one electoral vote is. e were a lot of close states. it would not have taken much. less than 1% votership would have given the election to mcclellan. which i found astounding in light of the fact that in the 10 weeks leading up to the

this is what it's going to be like after abraham lincoln is reelected. at the inaugural ball celebrating his re-election, you will have this gathering and what jumps out at you? can you see it well enough to pick up on the message of the artist? kyle? >> yeah, all of the -- lots of white people dancing with african-americans. >> i think if i haven't missed something, every single couple there is inter racial. the whole idea is this is what we're moving for and if you don't believe in that you have no business supporting anyone other than george mcclellan and the democratic ticket. if you are a republican, in 1864, you're going to do everything you can to deflect the emphasis on race. you cannot win the election defined in terms of racial equality. you must win the election if you're going to win at all, defining the issue in terms of union. so what the republicans are going to stress above all is the disloyalty of the democratic party. they're going to link the democratic party with the south. they're going to emphasize the democratic party's support for

so at home we have lincoln's birthplace and we make everybody wants to claim lincoln. >> i've also been to mary lincoln's house in lexington. she has kentucky roots, too. >> she was from lexington. the lincoln roots in kentucky were real. and you probably remember his famous quote that he wanted to have god on his side but he had to have kentucky. what that mint was he spent an enormous amount of time trying to prevent kentucky from seceding from the union because he thought it was extremely important in terms of the war strategy to avoid kentucky's cessation. thus the saying i have to have god -- i want to have god on my side but i have to have kentucky. speaking of kentucky, this is john marshall harlan. every first year law student can tell you who he was. he was from kentucky. he fought for the union. and after the war, had some political aspirations but kentucky curiously enough, seemed to sort of go over to the southern side after the war. and became a totally democratic state. so harlan didn't get very far with his political aspirations. he had a partner, a law partner named benj

>> abraham lincoln. >> reporter: abraham lincoln. >> he's not a founding father.the first president? >> i want to get it on a tape recorder because nobody is going to believe me. >> george washington. >> what's a founding father. >> hi, i'm earth. have we met. >> reporter: what is ben franklin famous for? >> 100th president? >> i like franklin better. he's on the 1200. washington is on the single. >> thomas jefferson signed knit. >> reporter: he wrote it. >> oh. >> reporter: what about sam adams. >> good beer. >> reporter: have you had a few of those already? >> no. >> give me some more punch. >> reporter: do you know who patrick henry is? >> i've heard of him. >> reporter: give me liberty or give me. >> freedom. >> freedom? >> am i right? >> justice. >> and the american way. >> reporter: why were we fighting the british? >> taxation without representation? >> reporter: no tackation. >> you can't be taxed if you're not represented as an individual. >> reporter: who is famous for that line? >> john smith? >> reporter: sam adams. you learning something every day. li

valley, lincoln's reelection was reassured and the road appomattox had quickened greatly. thank you. [applause] coming up this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. tonight at eight eastern on lectures in history, virginia commonwealth university films maden student it during the cold war out of fear the u.s. population was falling behind the soviet union and science education. and sunday morning at 10:00 on road to the white house we want, the 1952 and 1948 national conventions. in an 1952, dwight eisenhower accepted the republican nomination and adelaide stephenson received the democratic nomination on the third ballot. in 19 88, the first televised conventions were president harry truman accepted his party's nomination. the failure to do anything about high prices and the failure to do anything about housing. my duty as president requires that i use every means within my power to get the laws of that people need on matters of such importance and urgency. on american00 artifacts, we take a look at the new society and national museum of african american history and c

lincoln always had a way with words. other questions, yes, sir. >> wait for the mic. >> as sherman's men got down into the rice belt of georgia, they actually i guess didn't know what rice was or hadn't eaten much of it and didn't know how to eat it. there was an account that i read just don't know if i can believe it so -- about the union soldiers putting gun powder on rice to eat it to spice it up, to give it some flavor. i mean, maybe they didn't have salt and pepper -- >> i prefer shrimp or gravy on mine. i've never tried gun powder. it might help though with the bad case of constipation i would think. i have read those accounts too, don't know if they are accurate or not. rice does require some seasoning. i think it froblly tasted better -- what we have today that refined white rice was not the same as the kind of rice they were eating at that time. might have had a little bit more flavor. it does get old. the people in savannah were eating the white population of savannah and black too, eating a lot of rice and the

lincoln was solid. the confederates realized this so they were looking forward to this and said if we can defeat lincoln in 1864 we'll get a lot of what we want. and especially as it turned out because george mccullough was running against him and george wanted nothing do with ending slavery and george was willing to have some kind of truce, pause, cease fire to talk things over. i think once that happened. >>> that was pretty much the end of it. how could the election have gone in favor of mccullen. we've heard the election of 1864 was a landslide, that there was 55% to 45% and electoral votes were something like 212 to 21. it sounds like he had no prayer but if you dig into the numbers there were 4 million voters and if less than 1%, if something like 29,000 of those voters had changed their votes in selected northern states he wins by one electoral one. there were a lot of close states and it would not have taken much of a shift. so we're talking less than 1% voter shift would have given him the elec

but lincoln explored the concept of buying the freedom of slaves. he had done the kind of calculation that you talked about, and he used delaware, which had a very small number of slaves, no more than 2,000, as a good example. and so he had some calculations that for the cost of one day of war, you could free 1,000 slaves and go on from there. but -- so he tried to sell this to the border states. these are once still members of the union. they had not gone o aut, and th would not go along with it. they had meetings with delaware. held meetings with the four border state representatives, and no one bought into it. no one at all. so even in the border states, there was such a firm belief in slavery that they were not willing to consider selling their slaves in order to avoid the war. again, tells us something about maybe the slavery things was not just economics, but it was economics plus politics plus social. that a lot of things went hand in glove. yes, sir? >> thank you very much for your presentation. i was wondering whether you consider the shelb