lincoln of the hustings, the husk only. the lincoln of history. it took four fearful years to give the event its true relations and right proportions and was not until the veil was drawn by an assassin's hand that the real lincoln was revealed. he concluded that the delegate had been unconscious instruments of a higher power. so much had to come together for lincoln that. i think the word miracle is not an exaggeration. well, that's whirlwind tour through the book and i'm so grateful to all of you coming out and listening to this. thank you very much. thank you so much. thank you. and i'd be delighted to answer questions, which is usually the most interesting part of these presentations. let's start over here. thank you. jeffrey bagwell from columbia, maryland. first timer, wooden, cassius. ever been a more appealing vice presidential candidate than hannibal hamlin? yes. the question is wouldn't cassius clay have been more a more appealing candidate? he might well have been, but what happened with hannibal hamlin was the delegates were in a panic

lincoln. this segment of our program allows us to eavesdrop on a conversation between and matt as they discuss the heartwarming highly emotional and keenly important relationship between president lincoln and black americans who knew him by. i give you professors and norman. good morning can everyone hear me? excellent. excellent. benjamin quarrels, who was a pioneer african-american history in author of the book lincoln and the --, along with several other books like the -- and the civil war, frederick douglass. he did a book on african-american in the american revolution. so and a number of books. he was a true pioneer in african-american history. i he said many, many years ago in the sixties that lincoln became lincoln because of the --. and it was the latter who first reflected the image of lincoln. that was to live. in other words, it was the african-american and who actually created and encouraged the great emancipator image. and so quarrels, i think, was was partially right even before

the lincoln assassination. lincoln didn't know him well at all. there were rumors that he had been drunk during lincoln's inauguration. vice presidents generally were considered secondary figures. and so that that's the preamble to who? andrew was, the actor who plays him was incredible. the first time i laid eyes on him, i thought, did they hire a lookalike that's how andrew johnson was. but so he was not a major figure. he absented himself if he came to lincoln's to the deathbed vigil, the peterson house, he didn't stay long we're not sure if he went or not. he was not visible during manhunt. it was it was really stanton and not johnson who organized the manhunt for booth and fought the end of the civil war. the vice president was not that much an important figure and there was conflict him and lincoln. and between stanton and so that's who andrew johnson was. let's return to the manhunt itself. we left off as john wilkes booth at dr. mudd's house, getting his leg attended to. how long did he stay and where did he go from there? well, he stayed

lincoln's birthday.by 19 nine is you have white southerners celebrating lincoln's birthday as well. and you see lincoln's image being used as kind of a bridge to reconciliation. and at the same time see black voices pushing against that. and there's a professor. he's a professor, virginia. and he, i think, really these nuances and complexities is where he says that lincoln supported before issuing the emancipation proclamation. but lincoln believed the declaration ofepdence, and he believed that it applied to people at a time very few white people were willing to to hold those beliefs. so just that one item from 1990, you see these how you can you can admire lincoln and praise him. and he says lincoln will be immortal. but then at the same time he says he's he's not perfect. he's not perfect now. although we acknowledge that is this nuance attitude about lincoln. i think we would have to agree that sometime between 1863 and 2023, there has been shift in terms of about lincoln. and historiansican attitude

of liberty, the political speeches and writings of abraham lincoln, lincoln's america, and lincoln's dream clashing political perspectives. do you write anything that doesn't have lincoln in the title? no. we appreciate that. and i will mention you, those of you who are here in attendance at the lincoln forum here in, gettysburg, that joseph fornieri is also a talented guitarist. and if you are lucky, you can sometimes catch an impromptu performance by professor fournier in the windham bar after the festivities have ended for the day. it's a rumor. now we've got evidence. you're not. you're very good. ronald white is well known to both lincoln forum attendees and those with his publications on and civil war era topics. he is the author of two new york times bestselling presidential biographies lincoln a biography fee and american ulysses a life of ulysses grant, among other works. he's also the author of several additional books on abraham lincoln, including lincoln's speech, the second inaugural, the president a portrait of lincoln through his words and lincoln in private, what his

i mean lincoln lincoln lincoln. i get my guys mixed up sometimes. fdr said of her that she was a welcome thorn in his side, but what thorn she was. i mean, without so much, would not have happened. i mean eleanor was the person who said so many memos to general about discrimination in the army that he had to assign a separate general whose only task was to deal with eleanor roosevelt. she had weekly press conferences where only female reporters could come. so all of a sudden, the stuffy publishers had to hire their first female reporter. she was insistent on women going to work in the factories that they should have an equal role with men. the men said. at first all, they'll never learn how to operate these complicated machines distract the men on the assembly line production will go down. but of course, by the middle of the war, they had to open their doors to women and production went up when women were 60% of the of the of the workforce in the airplane factories and the and the shipyards. so these same old factory owners decided we better do a st

lincoln received david herbert, the great lincoln biographer, estimated lincoln received between two and 300 letters a day. we think our inboxes are full every day, right? lincoln's was very full and he had private secretary aides who worked under the rule refer as little to the president as possible. so they would always try screen the letters and send them to someone who could handle it first. oftentimes would then wind up back at the white house. and if it was a matter that lincoln needed to deal with, it was a pardon request, then that letter would eventually get to lincoln and he would deal with it. lincoln would often take the advice of his. he had people he trusted giving him advice. and so they might look into the content of a letter, figure out what the background was and then say to lincoln, we think this is what should happen, this case. and often he took their advice, although not always right. last question for this round. keep them coming. were any of the black soldiers who wrote to lincoln ever invited to the white house to discuss requests? that's a great question. i

i mean lincoln lincoln lincoln. i get my guys mixed up sometimes. fdr said of her that she was a welcome thorn in his side, but what thorn she was. i mean, without so much, would not have happened. i mean eleanor was the person who said so many memos to general about discrimination in the army that he had to assign a separate general whose only task was to deal with eleanor roosevelt. she had weekly press conferences where only female reporters could come. so all of a sudden, the stuffy publishers had to hire their first female reporter. she was insistent on women going to work in the factories that they should have an equal role with men. the men said. at first all, they'll never learn how to operate these complicated machines distract the men on the assembly line production will go down. but of course, by the middle of the war, they had to open their doors to women and production went up when women were 60% of the of the of the workforce in the airplane factories and the and the shipyards. so these same old factory owners decided we better do a st

lincoln. lincoln didn't know who she was. that letter is buried in the national archives. he didn't keep that one. the mother in law and the the wife were working together to try to get appleton released. even they actually hated one another at this point. eventually the federal government decided to move william seward decided to move appleton to fort warren because they believed it would be to get a conviction in a court than in a new york city court. and appleton, at this point didn't know why he was moved to fort warren on christmas day, 1861. appleton there with a lot of other political prisoners, members of the maryland state legislature, and all these political prisoners just hated william seward and the way they celebrated christmas in 1861 was they made up a doll that looked like seward and they put him on trial for treason against the united states for destroying the constitution. they put him on trial. they had judge and a jury and they found him guilty. then they executed the littl

lincoln to. but again, not james brookes and buchanan likes and he makes the comment when this comes out this decision so full explicit establish the right the master to take his slaves into the territory and hold them there. and despite of all conflicting congressional or territorial legislation, what does the constitution say? what are the law say? what are the court say? that's what was going to be the hallmark for james buchanan as president of united states. don't expect him to go outside of those guardrails? well, the issue in kansas continues to to rile up they've gone from a territorial legislature now to the point where they're actually getting ready to apply statehood. time for another election. they're going to elect delegates to a state constitutional convention to write constitution so that they can become a state. same story again. is it going to be a pro-slavery group or a free state group that comes together to get the pen in their hand, to write this constant tution? well, this t

intimate in the lincoln white house after lincoln's death. she was involved in the old clothes scandal with mary lincoln and in 1868, she wrote a book called behind the scenes as a way of telling her story, but also trying to vindicate mary lincoln a bit because as she's said, since she was involved with this, this woman so closely, she needed to show that she was upright in her own activities as well. the problem is, is that she then gave some letters to her editor that were included in the book, and they were very personal about the lincolns. and she essentially became persona non grata with most lincoln people. and most of us now know her because of that lincoln story. so my connection with this and what i wrote about in the essay is when i was an undergraduate, i wrote a senior seminar paper on elizabeth keckley and i kind of this is terrible, but i kind of promised myself, like, if i got an a on this paper, i will go to her grave in washington, d.c., because i got an a, but we never doubted. now, sometimes you do have to doubt, but but t

intimate in the lincoln white house after lincoln's death. she was involved in the old clothes scandal with mary lincoln and in 1868, she wrote a book called behind the scenes as a way of telling her story, but also trying to vindicate mary lincoln a bit because as she's said, since she was involved with this, this woman so closely, she needed to show that she was upright in her own activities as well. the problem is, is that she then gave some letters to her editor that were included in the book, and they were very personal about the lincolns. and she essentially became persona non grata with most lincoln people. and most of us now know her because of that lincoln story. so my connection with this and what i wrote about in the essay is when i was an undergraduate, i wrote a senior seminar paper on elizabeth keckley and i kind of this is terrible, but i kind of promised myself, like, if i got an a on this paper, i will go to her grave in washington, d.c., because i got an a, but we never doubted. now, sometimes you do have to doubt, but but t

that your lincoln would spielberg's lincoln? yes, i do. i mean, what happened? it was a long process. took almost, maybe almost ten years to make that movie because. i first approached me. we were at a he had asked me and a bunch of historians to get together because he was doing a documentary on the century that had just passed and and i was one of the people there. he found that i was writing about lincoln and he said he'd always wanted to make a movie about lincoln, but had to wait until he was mature enough to, be able to do it, to tackle it because he cared much about lincoln. so he asked me to come out to his house in long island. we talked it. i was only half done. i had i was it was 1999 and i didn't think it was until 2005. but he decided he wanted to get it and then he got an option. then it was on other movies and he keep calling me from whatever movie was on to say what, did lincoln do today? that was his relaxing. yeah, yeah, yeah, i can see that. and so then finally decided he wanted to get a scriptwriter start. so

but why secretary cameron was delayed in responding to lincoln and a kentuckian in lincoln's cabineteached out and brought him into his his cabinet department. and that was postmaster blair, who had to west point, who was a kentuckian and and was postmaster general. he appointed marquand in the fall 1861 to be as special agent. the us post office department. now at that time special agents were the police department of the post office and indeed their successors. today are called postal inspectors. met one of them when i gave this talk and charles, then a couple of weeks ago it was to you was wonderful to actually meet one of them. but they are ones that that cracked down on crime dealing with mail. if you remember when steve bannon was arrested on the russian let's build the wall scam, he arrested by a postal inspector. thesmeat have to be smart, brazil elegant, resourceful and courageous in dealing with problems. so he becomes this special and he's sent to cairo, illinois, at that time, the biggest crisis in the post department was the number of soldiers until the civil war started

lincoln through his words and lincoln in private, which won baroness lincoln award. his most recent book, which speak about this morning, is on fields the life and unlikely heroism of joshua lawrence chamberlain. please give join me in giving a lincoln forum forum welcome ron white. thank you, john, for your friendship and your leadership then harold for the invitation to be here and all of you already we've had wonderful conversations. we will certainly have more as the time goes forward. as i prepared biography of joshua lawrence chamberlain and i received a telephone call from, brunswick, maine the woman herself as a consultant charged with rewriting the script to for visitors to see the remarkable chamberlain. after we talked for a while i asked her at the end of the conversation well, who comes to the chamberlain home? well, she said about 60% are chamberlain fans. they just packed their way. she said the other 40% are people who have been wrangled by their friends or relative. so already a few of you have identified yourselves as part of the 40%. i suspect this