one of those was lincoln. and lincoln came from central illinois where anti-abolitionist sentiment was particularly strong. of those six, two went a step further and issued a statement that was publisheded in the hou journal sayingof slavery is bas on injustice and bad policy. of those two, one was lincoln.o of those two, the only one who was running for reelection was lincoln. so he really stuck his neck out. in 1837 he was a young man, and he was running for office in central illinois for arguably the most racist state in the union, the free state. so i think his anti-slavery hatred of slavery gets manifested in 1837 and again in 1849. >> and as you pointed out, he never did introduce that bill. i think what you're getting here is that lincoln is ambivalent. he can be t portrayed as anti-slavery but he makes it very clear he's not talking about ending slavery in the south or in the slave states, andd -- >> we're going to have a panel discussion afterwards so i don't want to hog the mic. if there are other pe

for the symposium hosted by lincoln institute. next, author star, lincoln and stanton. he talks about the role lincoln played. this is about 50 minutes. >>> all right, welcome back to our final speaker of the afternoon and first of all, for those of you who cebr

of those 2, 1 was lincoln. of those two, the only one that was running for reelection was lincoln, so he really stuck his neck out. in 1837 -- he is a young man running for office in central illinois, for arguably the most racist state in the union, free state. anti-slavery, his hatred of slavery manifested in 1837 and again in 1849. dr. harrold: and as you pointed out, he never did introduce that bill. i think what you are getting here is that lincoln is ambivalent. he can be portrayed as anti-slavery, but he makes it very clear he is not talking about ending slavery in the south, in the slave states. [laughter] dr. harrold: we are going to have a panel discussion afterward, so i do not want to hog the mic. people have things to say, i do not want to preempt your opportunity. so cap me on the shoulder. [laughter] lincoln says very empathetically "let us remember that opposition to the expansion of slavery is a proxy for opposition to slavery itself."and the reason we emphasize the opposition to the expansion o

lincoln did not attend. this was in part because he fired abolitionists radicalism would dominate the meeting. as it turned out, the meeting adopted resolutions that were more radical than lincoln's views but they were not abolitionists. to resolution called for prohibiting slavery in all united states territories. they asserted that fugitive slaves had a right to jury trials. lincoln limited himself to opposing the repeal of the missouri compromise. lincoln accepted the legality of slavery expansion into new mexico and utah. that october lincoln described slavery itself as a violation of republican principles and a workers' right to the fruits of his labor but he continue to support expelling free african-americans from the country and he continue to oppose repeal of the fugitive slave law. during 1855, as pro-slavery and free state forces in kansas went to war lincoln began to wonder as abolitionists had before him if the union could continue half slave and half free. rather than take action, lincoln calle

lincoln was. i was wondering, is there any evidence that evolved over time, or did president and mrs. lincoln work it out? did they agree to disagree? or is there any evidence about her evolving in her thinking about african-americans? >> something should be pointed out. as i mentioned in passing, her best friend in the white house was a black woman, elizabeth kekley, not only made her dresses, but her confidant. that was a close relationship until she did a book in 1868 where she revealed unflatter things about mrs. lincoln. another thing, because she was a friend to mrs. kekley she contributed money to the freedmen's relief association, something like that, to help the numerous fugitive slaves flooding into washington and who lived in desperately poor conditions. there were some signs of anti-racism, if you will, on her part. but when it came to formal events, like admitting black people at the white house, she drew the line there. yes? >> we're out of time, yes. >> i'm sorry. i had my watch her

lincoln shook hands with her. and mrs. lincoln gave the invariable bow. on the passage of the second one, mrs. lincoln looked aghast. and when the third colored woman appeared, mrs. lincoln sent word to the door that no more colored persons would be admitted to mingle with the whites. but if they would come at the conclusion of the levy, they should receive admittance. now, some of the black people did so. and a journalist noted that after the white crowd departed, the blacks who had been waiting outside, quote, summoned up courage and began timidly to approach the door. the president welcomed this motley crowd with a hardiness that made them wild with exceeding joy. they laughed and wept and wept and laughed. exclaiming through their blinding tears, god bless you! god bless abraham lincoln. in the president's hometown of springfield, a scandalized democratic editor asked rhetorically, are not such scenes at the white house disgusting? when will the white people of this country awake to the sense of shame that the dominant party is bringing upon us by the

and abraham lincoln learned this from his father. thomas lincoln died in 1851. abraham named one of his sons after him. also a horse, old tom. [laughter] after he was elected president he was planning his trip to washington and he visited his father's grave, and he saw there was no stone on it. and he said, i will have to fix that, i will have to have a stone put up. and he never did. so that was the end of his relationship with thomas lincoln. but if we don't get from our parents everything we need or we have to never do look for it from surrogates. we have to look for substitute parents. and for a boy in early 19th century america, handiest surrogate fathers were the founding fathers. still alive were and lincoln's early lifetime. he was born in february of 1809, when thomas jefferson still had one month to serve in the white house. jefferson was followed by eight years of james madison, who was followed by eight years of james munro, the last founder president. so they were in the white house and to lincoln's teenage years. is in the time lincoln his 20's, th

lincoln. among them, with charity for all, lincoln and the restoration of the union, which won the second place for the 1998 lincoln prize. lincoln's last months. which came out in 2004 and received our own institute's book award. lincoln's rise to the presidency, which was awarded the henry adams prize by the society for history in federal government. lincoln and the border states, 2011, which was co-winner of the lincoln prize. and his latest book, lincoln and congress, which treats the sometimes contentious, sometimes cooperative relationship between lincoln and capitol hill, although perhaps more cooperative than we sometimes think. lincoln, according to bill's work, really only had one important veto to deliver during his time as president. i can tell you that bill writes with intelligence, great insight, solid judgment, good humor, and popular appeal. bill has an active web presence, and if you enter his name, he comes up in a number of predictable categories for, you know, for his affil

mary lincoln was wrong. major rathbone came here and he leaned against the wall in the hallway and assume -- soon he collapsed and fainted. here is where mary lincoln spent much of the night. secretary of war stanton and secretary wells -- secretary of the navy wells arrived shortly after lincoln was taken here. they had been at the home of secretary of state stewart. i -- they had heard that he had been stabbed to death. he survived. they rushed over here that -- so they rushed over here. the carriage could not push through the crowd. there they were, the two most powerful members of the cabinet had to disembark from the ae -- there 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 ford's theater were brought here. stanton questions them. a union army soldier who knew shorthand sat at this table was stanto

the other world of abraham lincoln, also called shrinking lincoln, lincoln and the civil war and a dozen volumes of lincoln-related primary source materials, among them the diary of john hay, the letters of john g. nicolai and the memoirs of william stoddard, all of whom were white house secretaries. later this spring, southern illinois university press would publish michael's next book which is entitled 16th president in waiting, the springfield dispatches on henry willard, 1860 to 1861 and there's more. he's also working on a book about the lincoln's marriage and as we will learn today another about lincoln and african-americans. left, but not least, michael is not only a prolific researcher and writer, but he is a very flexible guy, as well. for those of you that have not heard, michael was kind enough to volunteer to take richard carmadine's place today and dr. carmadine had to make a last-minute consolation so join me now with a heartfelt thank you and welcome dr. michael burlingame. [ applause ] >>> well, good morning. it's still morning. okay. that reference to my age, i don't mea

lincoln.""braham the president's home town of springfield, a scandalized democratic editor asked the are not such scenes at the white house disgusting? when will the white people of this country awake to the sense of shame that the dominant party is bringing upon us by the establishment of social equality of the negro? the milwaukee daily news deplored folk, the fact that the negros flock to the outer rooms of the white house. so now we have three examples of black people coming to the white house. after the new year's 1865 reception, the ban on black guests was reinstituted at white house levies, at least those given by mrs. lincoln. truth was turned away from the first lady's reception on february 25, 1865. athite woman who was present that event recorded in her diary that the famous african-american grandmother abolitionist "went with captain george karst, but the police man would not allow her to go in to see the president and first lady. when i went in, she was sitting in the eddie room, wa

lincoln. there is a distrust and fear that he is too undecided and ri inefficient to put down the rebellion. during the dark days of early 1862, republican leaders in congress came to the conclusion that the reorganization of the the warwas necessary if was to be won. overwhelmingly, they wanted secretary of state stewart replaced in the cabinet. and to a lesser extent, the anti-republican thunderbolt, postmaster general montgomery blair, an old fossil, edward bates, the attorney general. congressional republicans unfairly thought these cabinet members, especially stewart, controlled the president and his administration's failure to pursue an aggressive policy to win the war. always seemed to have the president's ear. dating back toal 1860, 1861 whe as a senator he offered a proposal to save the union, which many republicans believed was a sellout to the successionist. when he unsuccessfully sought to dominate the administration. conduct to foreign affairs did not sit well with republicans in

he challenged lincoln to a duel, which lincoln reluctantly accepted. we cannot be sure how far lincoln intended the dark humor that lurked in his selection of weapons, cavalry broad sorts of the largest highest precisely equal in all respects. . eight inches taller than shields, he would have a huge advantage. lincoln counted the cost on his reputation. never again would he write satire.g, anonymous he recognize that taken to an offensive extreme, ridicule could damage its author as well as its victim. the books third aim is to explore the purposes of lincoln's humor. lincoln's stories were carefully and purposely deployed. they served as a means of empowerment, of imposing himself on others. lincoln relished the role of entertainer and was invigorated at. he did not assess the actors ease of movement, but had a gift for squeezing the most humor out of his material and delivering a punchline. he dominated gatherings. humor acted as a health savings salve. is notorious for an ability to depression were two sides of the same coin. laughter was a therapeu

seven of the books relate to lincoln and notable "for charity and all" and lincoln and the restoration of the union which won the liberty prize. an lincoln's last months which came out in 2004 and received our own institution's book award. and lincoln's rise to the presidency, and that is henry adams' prize for society and lincoln in the border states of 2011 which was the author of the lincoln prize, and his book lincoln and congress which treats the sometimes contentious, and sometimes cooperative relationship between lincoln and capitol hill, ale though perhaps more coooperative than we sometimes think of lincoln according to bills were really only one important veto to deliver in his time as president. i can tell you that bill writes with intelligence and great insight, and solid judgment and good humor and pop ular appeal. bill has an active web presence and if you enter his name he comes up in the predictable categories for, you know, for his affiliations for himself and as well as these three which i found interesting which is the historians of the civil war and to turn up ameri

for the 21st annual similar pose young hosted by the abraham lincoln institute and ford's lincoln society. next a panel featuring the similymposium speakers discussi the 16th president's life, career and legacy. this is about 30 minutes. >>> good afternoon, thank you for hanging out this afternoon. we've had a splendid day of thought-provoking presentations. i'm lucas morell and teach politics at the university and very proud that i brought lincoln to the land of lee. and i'm a board member of the abraham lincoln institute. thank you for sticking around today. y'all had a few minutes with each of the folks up here to ask questions earlier, but there's always a bunch more that you want to ask. which i had asked them this thing. so if you want to ask a question, we've got live mikes. only on this level. if you're up in the balcony, join us down here. but please approach the mike and because this is being recorded, speak into the mike. and we're really interested in questions, not statements that are followed by the question, what did you think about my statement? so the floor is open for 30

ton and/or lincoln were aware of the orders if they were at all. ton and/orn were aware of the orders if they were at all. ston and/or lincoln were aware of the orders if they were at all. ton and/or lincoln were aware of the orders if they were at all. aton and/o lincoln were aware of the orders if they were at all. nton and/o lincoln were aware of the orders if they were at all. >> oh, hot pay toe toe. -- hot potato. >> and dahlgren was the late are est and so it is possible that he had discussions with stanton and lincoln that were not really the official orders but may well be reflected in the so-called dahlgren papers, and the importance of it is to me not so much what lincoln or stanton did, but that after the dahlgren raid, lincoln and stanton had targeted the leadership for the assassination, and it is a big if, but if the confederal government had any role in booth and the conspirators, they did so because of the dahlgren raid which they used as tearing up the laws of war and declaring that the war was not going to be fought according to t

for the symposium hosted by lincoln institute. next, author star, lincoln and stanton. he talks about the role lincoln played. this is about 50 minutes. >>> all right, welcome back to our final speaker of the afternoon and first of all, for those of you who celebrate, happy st. patrick's day today. i'm michelle crow and i'm here with the abraham lincoln institute. and to describe or next speaker he is -- well this part doesn't describe him. he has been described by his enemies and admirers alike as irritable -- that's why i said this is actually not about walter. irritable, capricious, good hearted, twoeted, patriotic, venue vicktive, due police tiff, aggressive, strong willed, hateful, cruel, honest, selfish, fearless, sometimes on seekuous, incorruptible. to abraham lincoln this man was above all indepence bl. this litany of adjectives was not applied to walt r stahr but rather to his biography. fortunately walter only shares the sterling qualities that made stanton inpersist bl like ill against, per sis tense and ability to advertise data. after graduating from harva

lincoln and the border states, cowinner of the lincoln prize. and his latest book, lincoln and congress, which treats the sometimes contentious, sometimes quite particular relationship between lincoln and capitol hill, the more cooperative than we sometimes think. lincoln only had one important veto to deliver in his time as president. bill writes with intelligence, great insight, solid humor and popular appeal. he has an active web presence. he comes up on a number of editable categories for -- predictable categories for his affiliations or himself. three, as these historians of the american civil war will turn him up. american military historians. and one called living people will turn him up. [laughter] i am so glad he is alive to pleaseheladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming bill harris. [applause] prof. harris: good morning again. honor to be invited to deliver a paper on lincoln, from the stage of this historic theater. it is also an honor to be introduced by terry, was well insightful-- whose biography of john wilkes booth is a must-

biography of lincoln. and so, they might -- i'm not saying that i'm 100% sure he didn't say it. hey was there. it is possible. i think that if stanton said anything memorable, it would have somehow survived in print before 1890. so going back to april, 1865, stanton was busy in the days and weeks following the assassination. organizing the funeral here in washington, d.c., organizing the route for the funeral train taking his remains back to the sacred ground of springfield. organizing the manhunt and investigation into the complicated plot to assassinate lincoln and johnson and perhaps stanton and grant. on april 20th, stanton -- spent part of the day drafting one of the most famous things from the lincoln assassination. the poster offering rewards for the capturing of booth and his colleagues. let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land by the rest and punishment of the murders. a draft of the famous poster is in the archives of the new york historical society. here in washington and the fil

lincoln, it was different. his few remarks were sound, simple, and practical, and the point of admiration and excavation he left to his aides. before he left, the crew was mustered. he passed slowly before them, hat in hand. it gives me great pleasure to say he declined the invitation a glass of iceh water. keeler being a notorious teetotaler. there was a shout of "here comes the merrimack!" it was that perhaps another engagement between the two ironclads would occur. however, nothing occurred that particular day. they just glared at one another. lincoln insulted personally lead a reconnaissance party onto the shore later in his visit, something mcclellan had failed to do. he identified the oceanview area as a likely spot to begin the invasion of the south side of virginia. the morning of may 10, that is exactly what happened. the mayor of norfolk created them in an elaborate, long speech that allowed the confederate troops to leave. he passed the keys of the city over to the union. no one in the confederacy, h

lincoln, mrs. harris and major rathburn, was shot by an assassin who suddenly entered the box and approached behind the president. the assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theater. the pistol ball entered the back of the president's head and penetrated nearly through the head. the wound is mortal. the president has been incen insensible ever since it was inflicted and is now dying. those of you lincoln assassination buffs will have noted a couple minor errors in what i read compared to what happened. i'm not going to reveal them now. but overall, the message goes on to talk about seward and seward's son and described the assassins to the extent he had a description. it's an amazingly detailed, amazingly accurate description of the events here in ford's and at the seward house written within a couple hours of those events. in another of these press releases, sent a few hours later, stanton reported that a letter found in boo

who, a visionary historian loved abraham lincoln and was obsessed with honoring lincoln, occupied this house. and he created a lincoln museum in the basement and in these rooms. and for a small price, visitors from all over the country could come to the house where lincoln died, and come to this room. over decades, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of americans came and visited this room. it was not until decades later that the national park service took custody of the petersen house and restored it as it looked on the night abraham lincoln was assassinated. the peterson house is one of my favorite historical sites and washing them. partly because it is not gigantic and grand like abraham lincoln's white house. it is not huge like ford theater. what i like about the peterson house is the intimacy. when i was working on my books about the lincoln assassination, i would often come to the peterson house. when i knew there would be very few visitors. i have stood in this room any times and imagined what it must've been like to stand here when abraham lincoln was brought down the hal

the abraham lincoln institute and ford's theatre society hosted a symposium on abraham lincoln's life, career and legacy. including a discussion about president lincoln and his relations with his cabinet and congress in 1862. that's from university of new hampshire professor will harris. american history tv in prime time begins on 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >>> this sunday, on "1968 america in turmoil." civil rights and race relations. senior lecturer kathleen cleaver and peniel joseph, author of "dark days bright nights" from dark power to barack obama. and of stokely, a life. watch "1968 america in turmoil" live sunday at 8:30 a.m. eastern on c-span's american journal, and on american history tv on c-span 3. >>> for nearly 20 years, "in depth" on booktv has featured the nation's best known n non-fiction writers. this session we're featuring fiction writers for our in depth fiction edition. join us with walter mosley. his most famous book is "down the river unto the sea." the next one was "devil in a blue dress" which was turned into a movie, and "gone fishin'." our fiction editi

back to lincoln. following world war i, the lincoln institute was 1866 my soldiers of the 65th colored infantry. created by thee former black soldiers. it was to train african-american craftsman in things like shoe cobbling, shoe horsing, so forth. it was vocational skills. i, especially african-american men by the thousands answered the call to serve their country in world war african-americans across the country saw the obvious inconsistency of african-american men being asked to defend the country in a war that was supposed to make the whilesafe for democracy not being allowed to participate in the basic benefits of a democratic society. in 1917 to tryh to get the university of missouri,the state of to open up the university of missouri in columbia to african-americans. that wasn't going to happen. you may know it didn't happen for another 30 years. then, only because of a court case. legislators -- the first african-american legislative -- legislator was elected in 1920. he was asked to sponsor a

back to lincoln. -- in the period immediately following world war i, lincoln had been established in 1866 by former soldiers of onlyolored infantry, the college in the country established by former black soldiers. a place toarily train teachers of black schools and to train african american craftsman in things like shoe cobbling and shoe horsing and so forth. it was a vocational school. after african men died by the thousands and answered the call to serve their country in world many saw the inconsistency of african american men being asked to defend the country in the war that is supposed to make the world safe for democracy while not being allowed to participate in the basic benefits of a democratic society. in 1920 to tryh to get the university of missouri and the state to open up the university of missouri in columbia to african-americans. happen andt going to it did not happen for another 30 years and only because of a court case. , the first african-american legislator was elected in st. louis. he was asked to sponsor legislation that would change the name of lincoln institute

i have always stood clear of lincoln. just one million books about lincoln. come at himcould from the founding. intelligent biographers have written about it. let me go the other way. after that book came out, he said you should do john marshall. int is going to be out october. if he thinks about a third book, i will have to give him a percentage. i thought i was being very clever title in the book affairs of state. it should have been 50 shades of grey straight. it would have sold a lot better. they would have thought it was in the series. when they put this together, the sad state of history education, where do you see in the state of history education, and what can be done to study the past? >> there are some hopeful things. there is an institute in new york city that is doing terrific work. success of books -- , this shows books there is an appetite for it. i would work with those positive things. in a way, i think it is heading to a nest of good look at the economic level. the founders were taught and a good track for many years. they really took the fou

what would lincoln have done? what would lincoln think? we do that now with douglass, to some degree. he was a radical figure and a proponent of classic, 19th century political liberalism. at different times he hated and loved his country. he was a ferocious critic of the united states and all of its hypocrisy, but also, after emancipation he became a government bureaucrat, a diplomat and a voice of territorial expansion, especially through the caribbean. in other words, american empire. he strongly believed in self-reliance and he demanded an activist, interventionist government at all levels to free slaves, to feed the confederacy and to protect black citizens against terror and discrimination. douglass was a serious constitutional thinker, and few americans have ever analyzed race as both a concept and a reality with more leniency than this mostly self-taught genius. he was a radical editor, writer and activist, but also a hard-earned pragmatist who had to learn, i can get the best deal possible. douglas was jim crowed more times than h

we must act out of faith, not fear. >> lincoln comes up with a brilliant idea.i'm gonna announce that i'm sending down relief ships, just 'cause these guys are starving." hits the ball to jefferson davis, who now has to make the decision, "do i allow these relief ships to come in, symbolizing that federal authority still reigns in the state of south carolina, or do i fire on them?" >> general beauregard has confirmed that a supply ship is on its way to fort sumter. >> if war with the federal government is the result... then so be it. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? need a change of scenery? kayak searches hundreds of travel and hotel sites so you can be confident you're getting the perfect hotel at the best price. soak it in. kayak. search one and done. [thud] [screaming & crying] ♪ [screaming & crying] ♪ creaming & crying

we must act out of faith, not fear. >> lincoln comes up with a brilliant idea.na announce that i'm sending down relief ships, just 'cause these guys are starving." hits the ball to jefferson davis, who now has to make the decision, "do i allow these relief ships to come in, symbolizing that federal authority still reigns in the state of south carolina, or do i fire on them?" >> general beauregard has confirmed that a supply ship is on its way to fort sumter. >> if war with the federal government is the result... then so be it. [thud] [screaming & crying] ♪ [screaming & crying] [phone ping] with esurance photo claims you could have money for repairs within a day... wow! that was really fast. that's insurance for the modern world. esurance. click or call. more dependable...le have discovered something stronger... longer lasting. in a chevy truck. and now, you can too. see why chevrolet is the most awarded and fastest growing brand the last four years overall. current competitive owners can get a total value of over eleven thousand dollars on this silverado all sta

wasbraham lincoln interested in the founding fathers his whole life. the most famous expression of that is in the gettysburg address, where he said our fathers brought forth on this content -- continent. 1863, twon november, and a half years into his administration and the civil war. 1860, at cooper union, new york city, he gave a ofech which was the kickoff his presidential campaign. it was a 90 minute speech and half of it was devoted to the specificallyers, the men who had signed the constitution and lincoln went through their opinions on the federal government's power to restrict and control slavery in the territories. he said in that speech of slavery -- so let it be again marked as a evil not to be extended but i speak as they spoke and act as they acted upon us. octobers before that, 1854, illinois, lincoln gave a three-hour speech which was the beginning of his mature political career. the speech has all the themes he would touch for the rest of his life. in that speech, he said -- our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. let us w

betweenson -- eras lincoln and johnson?oshua: it was very much the same experience. brian: the book is called society."the great there is a lot more in here about the people who worked for lyndon johnson. thank you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at you hyundai.org. q and a are available as c-span podcasts. if you enjoyed this interview, here are other programs you might like. our two-part interview with --itzer prize-winning cairo carrow. you can watch these any time or search our entire video library at c-span.org. ♪ c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up monday morning, bloomberg senate reporter and national editor discuss the week ahead in congress and at the white house. -- talkingnymous about efforts to implement the new tax law. we sure to watch washington journal each sunday

>> well, lincoln was poec and profound, you can never go wrong reading lincoln. he had a practical problem that's like the problem that the founders faced with the king of england. the problem was most people didn't think back then, they didn't want black people marrying their kids and most of them didn't want a lot of them around, and douglas exploited that, and the charleston debate here, said did you know, he says to the people, that lincoln's friend fred douglas who spoke on our campus twice and there's a statue of him now, rode through this town last week in a carriage driven by a white man. mark: this is the great frederick douglas, an escaped slave, brilliant man. >> brilliant. mark: who helped lead the abolition movement. >> that's right, and the lincoln-douglas debates, only lincoln rises to great heights. douglas's health was destroyed by this experience, but lincoln says, you know, maybe the black woman is not my equal. you think. why don't you let her alone? because isn't she the equal of every one of us, and the right to eat the bread she earns with

, lincoln the war ends is killed, and that is it. that was only the beginning of the constitutional debate on what the civil war meant, and it was up to people like bingham, and not just bingham -- there were others who were important -- who had to take those words and translate them into law, and that is where we get the 14th amendment, and to some extent you can say it is the work of lawyers, but it is work that was necessary and had tremendous impact since. >> we will talk a lot about the 14th amendment and how it came to be, what i'd like to take out my pocket constitution that i carry at all times -- and i hope you will get one when you leave -- and let's just read the 14th amendment and i will ask you what bingham was trying to achieve when he wrote it. we will read section one, which was the part that bingham contribute in the most to come although did he write all of it? >> he wrote the second sentence of section one, the one that we use the most. the famous cases you are familiar with from the supreme court. >> i will read.

for the abraham lincoln symposium.p next, an award presentation, and then we will hear from speaker stanley harold, who will talk about the influence of the abolitionists on lincoln's political decisions. [inaudible conversations] on april 14, 1865, president lincoln visited ford theater to watch american cousins. the performance, john wilkes booth shot president lincoln. after the assassination, the ford theater remained closed for 100 years. it officially reopened as a national historic site and theater. [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon.

so in 1864, abraham lincoln was reelected. if he had not been reelected and lost, then that would have signaled that the union, the will of the union to continue the civil war had diminished and there might very well have been a negotiated peace, but the fact that lincoln won made very clear that this war was going to be fought to the finish. so, there's an example of, as soon as the outcome of the election was known, it was very clear that this was important, but these elections are almost always elections where a president is up for reelection because these are the elections that actually stand in as refer da for the performance of a president. another one that is, i think, sometimes overlooked is the election, well, the election, not reelection, but the election of lyndon johnson in 1964. because johnson had just been instrumental in passing the most controversial piece of legislation in 100 years. the civil rights acts of 1964 and if johnson could get elected in his own right and not just elected, but overwhelmingly electe