from there, the lincoln special went up to jersey where lincoln's the lincoln hearse car was put on toa ferry for crossing to new york. now at the ferry terminal, the clock was stopped at 722. i couldn't find a picture of a clock stopped at 722. this was a very common victorian superstition in that they were afraid that the dead would not be able to pass on to where they were going. the dead should know no time so they could pass into the next world. so it pretty much every stop all the clocks in the building were stopped at the minute of his death. and also, all the mirrors were draped. so this was another very common victorian superstition one that if the dead spirits saw themselves reflected in a mirror, they would realize they were dead. and again, they couldn't pass on. so all the mirrors would have been draped in all the locations that the lincoln obsequious were held. now, when the ferry arrived at the desroches street station, it was met by peter rella. he was a sexton undertaker in new york. he dug the graves at the willet street, methodist episcopal church, and as such, he wa

yes, lincoln answered. that is what the constitution allows and that is what the framers clearly intended. by lincoln's count 23 of the delegates to the constitutional convention also voted in congress on various measures to ban slavery from the territories and of those 23 21 supported the ban. so the framers themselves endorsed banning slavery from the territories. but then lincoln shifted to the most important constitutional issue at stake. southerners were wrong to demand aggressive federal protections for slavery lincoln said for when you make such demands is a long quote you have a specific and well understood allusion to an assumed constitutional right of yours to take slaves into the federal territories and hold them there as property. but no such right is specifically in written into the constitution that instrument is literally silent about any such right? we on the constitution deny that such a right has any existence in constitution even by implication? not only does the constitution not recogniz

lincoln taken the debates of lincoln-douglas debates in 1858.nd i tv pearson and this guy i don't know if i want meet him in a in a law court or a back alley for that matter. he was a tough guy. no. yes. a great wrestler. he didn't like sports. i remember going through herndon's informants and being by that. he preferred reading to hunting and sports, but he was good at them and i think i don't think he was menacing in any way. i meant i meant really is a the toughness in him in law court in politics as person. oh i think there was a yes and i think that part of the humor, part of the role of humor was to cloak that. i think that he disarmed people with the anecdotes and the jokes and the puns. but there was a there was there was steel in there and. and thank god there was because it ultimately all of us us let's get a little bit into his character, a number of areas. i just want to briefly talk with you about walt salmon, who was a colleague of his here, illinois, part of a long nine, six nine politician is over six feet tall, voted to like of

it's a book about lincoln. so i focus on what abraham lincoln did. and when you get to the war, i'm just going to show pictures. but i'm not going to talk about thisecause do i'm going to talk about these in depth when i do the civil war roundtable later. so basically, lincoln, though, encouraged and had the increase in technology and the advancement of technology in weaponry and in other areas during, the war, especially the use of the telegraph, the railroad. so i'll talk about that. i'll do a whole lecture on that. so i'm like, i spend much time, but i do want to spend the last part of this on how lincoln of institutionalized science prior to the civil war, there really wasn't much science institutionalized at the federal level. you know, the british had the royal society, the french had their royal academy, you know. there were other countries had things we basically didn't have much of anything other than some private clubs. what we did have with the smithsonian, thanks to a british guy named smithson who gavall this money to the u.s., even thou

i got interested in abraham lincoln very, very early. i was pursuing lincoln. at the same time, this town is a sea coast town. it has long, beautiful beaches and miles and miles of salt marsh and forest. and at the time when i was growing up, all over the television was this really cool guy named jean cousteau. french oceanographer, he was on all the time it seemed. he won me over and i ended up going into science as a field. so, my degrees are all in science. i work wasn't science. i actually worked as a marine biologist for several years before somebody burned down my laboratory. another long story, we're not going to go into. then, i was in aquatic toxicology and i was eventually down here in d.c., doing regulatory science both here and in europe. and doing that for over 30 years. so, most of my career, my paid career, has been science. but all through this time, i have been pursuing abraham lincoln. those of you who know about my obsession, now that i have almost 2000 lincoln books in my house, probably more than that because i've got all the lincoln group

lincoln sees this. he then writes a letter that that starts with i don't want to relieve you, command. let me explain you in great detail why i'm so disappointed you and then writes a scathing letter to meade that basically is you weren't aggressive enough and i'm paraphrasing but literally he puts it all on meade and says, you didn't do what i asked you to do. the is going to go on because of you was the letter that he wrote he then folds it up puts it in envelope and on the envelope he writes to general meade not signed, not sorry, not sent nor signed meade saw that letter. meade never knew about that letter. it pains to say this because i love that letter as at the library of congress. it pains greatly so no. so this this would have gone with lincoln's papers upon his death. they went to his son, robert lincoln. robert lincoln was then the one that, you know, gave them to the library of congress. and then it had a ticker that they couldn't be released for many years because he wanted them released be

and remember, you mention the lincoln/douglas debate he was lincoln's transcriber for the lincoln/douglas debate. notice i use the words lincoln's transcribers because it douglas' transcriber presented a slightly different diversion of the debate that lincoln's transcriber. that is such an interesting element to the lincoln/douglas is to compare transcription for lincoln versus douglas is transcription for their small differences there. robert hitt is someone who went on to have a very distinguished career in politics as the u.s. member of congress in almost a vice presidential candidate. but this was sort of one of the big moments from the combination they lincoln/douglas debate and then lincoln asking him to transcribe this trial. >> robert hitt appears in one of your later books. this is theodore roosevelt for the defense. it came out in 2019. robert hitt and tr had a relationship, correct? >> i have to admit we did not even realize this relationship until we start working on the roosevelt book. we had done extensive research on robert hitt. but we sort of left it at the end of his car

lincoln comes a painful decision. he calls the cabinet meeting september 2 and help tells is he displacing george mcclellan in command all courses. he's very specific about om that. he is not the commander of the troops. commander of fortifications because we have decided what you're going to do with mcclellan. gahan wells you see in the lower right there was a more disturbingfeeling that i witnessed in council, one of them was standing to the left , the secretary of war. he was trembling with rage. he despised mcclellan zoloft, someone allegedly said he would favor the capture of washington to the return of mcclellan to command, now whether he said that or not i don't know what he hated him. so they're not happy with .incoln's decision we thought we were going to get rid of mcclellan but things will get worse cause it appears that the confederate army simay possibly move into maryland in order to send with mcclellan saying there's every possibility that the enemy will cost the potomac and make a raid in maryland or p

lincoln scholars, michael burlingham, noah feldman, and diana shaw, marked abraham lincoln's februaryrom the national constitution center. they talked about the 16th president speeches, and what they reveal about his views on the constitution. here's a portion of the conversation. >> well, let me start by saying that plenty of people who looked at the gettysburg address and seen classical brief overtones, and those are unquestionably -- draw intention, very active into this. the speech is suffused with biblical language and a biblical idea of morality. it's the beginning, in my view, of lincoln articulating his own moral vision of the entire history of the united states. and the second not jeweler dress, which we will come to in our next round of conversation, he is most explicit about doing that. in my view, he is starting to do that at the gettysburg address. the three score and seven's self consciously biblicizing, it's biblical, and two americans of the 19th century, almost all of them were protestants. biblical language meant general morality, 19th century americans believed that

so lincoln comes to a very decision. he calls cabinet meeting on september the second and he tells hisan in command of all the forces within, the fortifications. he's very specific about. he is not the commander of the troops that will put in the field commander of in the fortification, because haven't decided what we're going to with mcclellan yet. now gideon wells, who you see in the lower, says there was a more disturbed and despond ing feeling than i have ever witnessed in counsel. one of them who was despondent, edwin stanton to the left the secretary of war. he was with rage. he despised mcclellan much someone allegedly said that he would favored the capture of washington to the return of mcclellan to command whether he really said that or not. i don't know. but he hated him. so there's there's a they're not happy with lincoln's decision. we thought we were going to get rid of mcclellan, but things are going to get even worse because it appears that the confederate army may possibly move into and order sent to mccl

hitt was lincoln's transcriber for the lincoln-douglas debates. notice i use the term lincoln's transcriber. douglas's transcriber presented a slightly different version of the debates. that is such an interesting element to the lincoln-douglas debates is to compare hitt's transcription versus douglas's transcription. robert hitt is someone who went on to have aistinguished career in politics as a u.s. member of congress and almost vice presidential candidate. this was one of the big moments for him, the combination of the lincoln-douglas debates and then lincoln asking him to transcribe this trial. >> robert hitt appears in one of your later books. this is theodore roosevelt for the defense. it came out in 2019. robert hitt and tr had a relationship. >> we did not even realize this relationship until we started working on the roosevelt book. we had done extensive research on robert hitt. we left it at the end of his career. he had a prominent career in congress. as we were researching the theodore roosevelt book, we realized in 1904, when rooseve

at least in the sense that lincoln admired webster. lincoln was nobody.ebster vastly overshadowed lincoln. we know in lincoln's speeches that he lifted portions of webster's speeches. some are so well known as coming from webster that lincoln did not even have to attribute them to lincoln. lincoln did not have to attribute them to webster. lincoln stands up and says we are a government of the people by the people and for the people. no one in the audience has to be told that those are webster's words because everybody knows that from the readers they read in school. webster's influence was white broad and i think significant in preparing the country for the civil war. >> after five not consecutive terms in the u.s. house, daniel webster was elected to the senate in 1827, joined what became known as the great triumvirate of webster, clay and calhoun. i have another clip and this will be the only other one we show on the program. this was often referred to as the golden age of the senate. >> the historians have often referred to the 1820 to 1850 time as the

todd lincoln and mrs. grant says they have got to go see their children in new jersey, which they did and president lincoln was assassinated that night. grant is bereft with guilt and he thinks if i had been there married would have been able to save president lincoln. he was also a target, grant was of john wilkes-booth. >> after he was assassinated grant stands at the time of the most popular figure. >> by far. johnson despise that. he despised the grant had that power and grew to really hate him. johnson did to the point where he was just trying to figure out how to get them out of the way want to send them to mexico and do all these things in grant stood up to him and said no. he said if it's a military worker i will go but i'm not going if this is just you sending me. >> grant us known as the northern union general but you write in your book that because the approach that he took to southern soldiers to the confederates i don't want to see the people in the south admired him as much as those in the no

lincoln's problems at the illinois central railroad during that period of time? >> i found it in a book called lincoln and the railroads 227 copies were ever printed. was by her have no idea it existed before he did research for this book. you can buy this book from other libraries. anyway i finally got a copy in the pages could not be cut apart. nobody had even read the book took the book home and copied every page in it. but my favorite story writing for a newspaper in new york city talks about a conversation he had with abraham lincoln on a boxcar. at 9:00 o'clock on a hot sultry evening that is where the train stops or someone is to be picked up or dropped off it's not a regular stop. they're getting to a station the train intended to take after waiting a half an hour for the train to come in at thunderstorm at the station. it was then in their when he was clerking the highest of the political ambition was to be a member of the state legislature. this of course he said with a laugh but my friends got me into this business being a railroad lawyer. i do not con

again, the lincoln book. i was always looking for lincoln recollections. in a new york -- you may not have noticed this but i did because i looked at so many. every lincoln's birthdays, starting about 1880, every regional newspaper, local newspaper. in february would run a sunday supplement on that week about abraham lincoln. they'd have no trouble getting stories about the greatness, whatever. they would always send their cub reporter over to the local veterans home. and they would say, all right, who hear ever met abraham lincoln? and they'd all raise their hand. and she'd write down their stories. some of which were in kansas, montana. easy ones to get rid of. what i really liked. it was a new york soldier in a heavy regiment which is an artillery regiment that you normally man seige guns but were infantry for the most part at this point of the civil war. he said he was a century at city point. and one day on his way up to meet with grant, he stopped and had a couple of pleasant words for him. that was it. nothing more profound than that. but it was suc

the lincoln book, i was always looking forward lincoln recollections. you may not have noticed this but i did because i looked at so many. every lincoln's birthday starting about 1880, every regional local newspaper in february would run a sunday supplement that week about abraham lincoln. they would have no trouble getting stories about the greatness or whatever. they would always send it to the local veterans home and they would say all right, who has met abraham lincoln? they would all raise their hand. she would write down their stories, some were in kansas and montana, using wants to get rid of what i really liked, a new york soldier, a heavy regiment from artillery regiment that normally residency transport infantry for the most part in the civil war, he said he is a sentry at city.and one day on his way up, he stopped and had a couple of pleasant words. that was it, i think more profound than that but it was such a great moment doing my due diligence, i went to the civil war and i found him. the ninth new york heavy artillery and said great, one

lincoln is assassinated and johnson aides erasing lincoln's vision day by day. and grant can see that happening before him. he eventually is drafted to run for president, winds in a landslide. what he gets done, he pushes through the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution. he fights the kkk with federal troops. he keeps the country together with peace after the war. and to be able to dig in and tell that story, it's the contested election of 1876. >> i get the sense that you feel like grant was one of the most underappreciated presidents. >> -- his ranking in those historian rankings has gone up 13 spots in recent years. that's before my book. >> [laughs] >> eisenhower went up five spots. i think in this day in age, when we are in such a partisan divide, and everything that we talk about with race -- looking back at all that he did to hold the country together, and a really pivotal time -- it gives him another look. >> -- >> one of the most brilliant generals. -- overshadowed as president. >> yes, in part because he wrote his memoirs about his time in eloq

abraham lincoln is elected and in 30 years of democrat rule in d.c., rose despises lincoln she refersto him as the bean pole. was certainly unhappy about lincoln's election. not only did abraham lincoln's election cause or lead to the breakup of the union and the deep south states succeed after he wins, but the election divided rose's family. her niece, eddie cuts and her husband steven douglas befriended lincoln even though prior to lincoln's election douglas was one of his rivals. her son-in-law is treadwell moore becomes a captain in the u.s. army. it's interesting more asked rose to help them. he wanted to be sent to ohio to raise a regiment. he asked rose to use her influence and she didn't. she wrote to the secretary of treasury and more was able to do as he hoped. now rose was recruited as a spy in the spring of 1861 by captain thomas jordan. he was a west point is a quartermaster in the u.s. army and he was planning to leave the army inside with the confederates. he acts upon general beauregard staff. he wanted to create a spy ring. he recruited rose to do that. then taught he

lincoln wants to visit richmond.nts to meet with the confederate leaders to negotiate peace, but they are all gone. lincoln wants to visit jeff davies's office in the confederate white house, which is still there. lincoln has a big entourage. people follow him up and down the streets. how careless. he could've been killed, easily. that's his young son, taddy. he goes to jeff davis's office. he sits in his chair, he can't resist saying, oh, this is an awfully little chair for a man. he also goes and visits, what? libby, he wants to see libby. it was so infamous. the crowd gathered they all knew the story. we will chair down we will tear down lincoln yells, no. leave it as a monument. the preservation by the national park service and andersonville today is just extraordinary. we need these places to be a monument so we know the horrors of war. lincoln visits libby. what happens at the end? here is the five men i talked about. the big rly guy on the left, that is rose. rose is put back in solitary confinement, beaten ye

well lincoln's visit in jerusalem was the 1st of a high ranking u. s. official scenes netanyahu formed his far and coalition government. earlier, i asked al correspondence different simons in washington. if netanyahu's partner selection had affected us is riley relations. well, it's hard to say with has really effected are impacted effect that the relationships within the us and israel, the earth on israel, our friends, their allies and you know, whatever government is in charge or it power in power in israel, the u. s. will. and there's administration, at least we'll try to make it work. and that's what mr. blanket doesn't. this is the explanation for his trip. he's trying to make it work keyword here is the escalation at the moment for mr. blinking. that's his main effort. as he said today to okay, after jerusalem blinking his schedule to hold talks in ramallah, what is the biden administration hoping to achieve with this visit? the, the binary ministration has a very low target, low hanging target. he again, in the media terms, it's de escalation

bush, and now abraham lincoln. what do you think is the essential quality for a successful american president? >> a commitment to something larger than his or ultimately her own power. it's the one theme -- one of the themes that connects all of these lives. not that they were perfect, because they weren't there, but they were imperfect men who left us a more perfect union, largely because, at various critical moments -- and it can just be a couple -- they actually put the pursuit of the common good over the narrow, easy personal interest of the moment. president bush sr., for instance, knew that he would be clobbered if he did the budget deal in 1990, but he knew and believed it was the right thing to do. on an even larger scale, obviously, abraham lincoln's anti-slavery commitment, while long questioned, was of long standing, in fact. and i think the lesson of all these lives, and we've seeanew in recent years how important this is, is that power divorced from conscience is fatal to liberty under law. >> well, yo

lincoln. magnanimity. you know, if you go to appomattox court house, the surrender grant, lincoln's son robert is only his oldest son, rather, and joshua chamberlain and others. lincoln gave them orders. tell grant to take his sword and firearm and just go home. lincoln grant did tell lee rather. i'm sorry. lee tell lee to take his horse sidearm. you know, just go home. grant lincoln did not want to see lee dragged through the streets in chains at go home and became president of a college. and lee then told his fellow southerners surrender, it's over. and most senior confederates pardoned. turner, the commandant would have been tried, i think, if they caught him as the commandant of here. wirtz was tried, hanged after the war. he would have been, but he escaped. -- turner, the deputy warden, was put in libby. but afterwards, they pardoned him and let him go. they pardoned the guards and let them go. you know, lincoln, to not just win the war, but try to win the peace, reconstruction, one country, you know

as lincoln instructed one of his generals. here i am quoting him, i wish you to do nothing nearly for revenge. what you may do, is chopping down slowly with reference to the confederacy of the future. -- the point of retaliation wants to produce a thorough reformation of the offending nation. the head of the confederate bureau of war thought a real shooting of prisoners would do good, prevent suffering, and save lives. >> to watch the full program, just search lori in foot, or the title of her book, writes a retaliation at c-span.org slash history. secessionist and >> hello and welcome to this history happy hour on rose o'neal greenhow. i'm kelly hancock, program manager with the american civil war museum in richmond, virginia. as i start out this talk i want to begin with just a few questions. what motivates someone to risk everything for a cause, strong passions? reckless nature? a longing for adventure? a desire for notoriety? as we look at rose o'neil green how, all of these may have been motivating factors in your life. t

we are looking now at abraham lincoln's funeral car. that was used to transport his remains from washington d.c. back to springfield illinois where he was laid to rest. do you want to talk a little bit about the fetal train and the way it unfolded and what the public perception of it was? >> well, that funeral car was made for lincoln derided as president. but it turned out to be his funeral car because he was fascinated, assassinated shortly before his term was set to expire. the route the train took back to illinois it was similar to, with some exceptions, the one he had trip he had made to washington. there are stories about so many people putting flowers on the rails ahead of the train that the wheels would spin and slip and they would have to get the flowers off the wheels before they went. back in the days when embalming is not the exact science that it was now, they would have to carry materials in the final car over the casket to protect the face of the deceased. it took several days to get him, to get his body to illinois for b

i coached him in 1986 from 1988 or 89 at lincoln high school and now he's a counselor and big cogg to the wheel and so blessed to have him in my life, again. omar campos. [applause] so, i think that's everybody that's here. oh, no! [laughter] no. this guy is amazing. met him in 20 o3 my first time driving on lincoln campus when i got the job in 2002 i thipg it wasment looked at the cat walk and first job second year, first job was mission and second job here, and him and all his buddies were up stairs and they had nothing. they didn't have any helmets, no direction and we were very fortunate to turn that around for them. you didn't score a point for 10 years, and he was ready for it. one of the greatest players we ever had. also just great heart, great spirit. he lives the 3d's. dedicate, have the discipline to do it every day and have it desire to be great. three things we live by and do our best and i'm very proud to be in this man's life and proud to be here presenting this to him. andre walker thomas. [applause] so, as usual, can't get out of here without thanking my wife and fami

so people had said to lincoln you ought to cancel this election and lincoln said no. we're fighting. to preserve self-government. we're fighting against the idea that if you lose the election you get to start a war and see if it can win it with the war when you couldn't win it in an election and we're fighting against that kind of idea. and if we were to postpone the election because of the war. we've already lost the cause we were fighting for. yeah, we postpone the election so we say in power. but we were fighting to maintain the id of self-government so we can't do that. we're going to hold the election exactly a scheduled we're going to do exactly what the constitution says. right but politics is tricky and how's that going to affect grants campaign? well for one thing it means there's going to be a lot of scrutiny. it's going to be important. but another thing and i've already told you about the idea of political generals. that these are generals. who are actually politicians because we can't trust the experts. i'm not saying that but i mean the people kind of th

abraham lincoln is elected. it ends 30 years of democratic rule in d. c.. rose despised lincoln.he referred to him as the bean pole. and was certainly unhappy about lincoln's election. not only did abraham lincoln's election cause, or lead to, the breakup of the union as those deep south states secede after he wins. but the election divided rose's family. her niece, addy cutts and her husband, stephen douglas, would befriend lincoln. even though prior to his election, douglas was one of his rivals. her son in law, seymour treadwell moore, becomes captain in the u.s. army. rose didn't want to warn him. he wanted to be sent to ohio to raise a regiment, asked to use her influence, which she did. she wrote to the secretary of treasury, salem chase, and moore was able to do as he had hoped. now, rose was recruited as a spy in the spring of 1861. by captain thomas jordan. he was a west pointer, quartermaster in the u.s. army. and he was planning to leave the army and side with the confederates. in fact he ends up on general beauregard's staff. he wanted to create a spy ring, and he rec

and lincoln was very worried. what if that when that happened, it could be easily there was no legislative or constitutional guarantee that some would be made to reintroduce slavery. i have allowed a lot, but an excellent degree of arlene. yeah, you're mentioned twice or several. the issue of dispossessed people and both and ralph also reflected that but as you know the controversies with regard to central and senate the bill is are loud and distorted. and i wondered if you would address the fact that. the kinds of people who were dispossessed besides those people in central park, besides those because only of seneca village? well, yes, you're right. this has been going on for a while. there's an archaeological dig at seneca village in the park. and i think in 2011, something like that. and so people have been very aware about how people were dispossessed to make park. my point is that all parks really from the 18th century english landscape on end. in fact going back to the middle ages when we had medieval parks,