senate, and they've come to hear abraham lincoln confront senator stephen a. douglasissue that threatens to tear america apart -- slavery. >> the debates between lincoln and douglas drew enormous crowds. >> people are drinking. people are cheering. people are fighting. it was almost pugilistic, as if people were coming to a boxing match to watch these two heavyweights slug it out. >> lincoln is a rookie politician, a member of the brand-new republican party. just four years old, it was formed to end slavery. >> he's an unknown, abraham lincoln's career as a politician has been almost nonexistent. >> the only thing lincoln has is his brain, is his ability to orate. that's it. >> his opponent in this election is the current senator of illinois, democrat stephen a. douglas. >> stephen a. douglas was among the most ruthless politicians of the day. >> more importantly, probably the most powerful democratic politician in the united states. >> i would call it david and goliath. but it's worse than that. it's david and goliath if david didn't even have a slingshot. >> he does

lincoln douglas debate was kind of a spurious show of democracy because the people couldn't directly vote on the senators. but lincoln is beginning to stake a claim and make his name. people like joshua speed start to bring in photographers. we are with a society in which people didn't know what other people looks like. zachary taylor wins the nomination for president and defeats henry clay. clay snubbed the president-elect because he didn't know what he looks like. clay was effusive in his apology. the size of the country and the distance between people. the lack of imagery. as photography is coming on not until the 20th century. with google we can go look at ourselves. that was not the case in the 1850's. photography is a way that you can have images made and most poignantly ordinary americans, it wasn't cheap but it wasn't expensive either. photography begins its service for everything from high school yearbooks to wedding photos. lincoln went along with walt whitman. the two people who begin to realize that photography is a way of transmitting one's personality. whitman enjoys get

, he said he agreed with douglas in being horrified by the thought of interracial marriage. lincoln said, and i quote, "judge douglas is horrified at the thought of the mixing of the blood of the white and black races. a thousand times agreed." presumably, he purportedly spoke for himself as well as nearly all white people when he said, "there is a natural discussed in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races." there is evidence to think that he expressed a version -- his expressed diversion -- a version may have been insincere. in 1859, he asked lincoln why he favor the illinois law for banning interracial marriage. according to locke, lincoln said, "the law means nothing. i shall never marry a negress but i have no objection to anyone else doing so." if a white man wants to marry a -- some of lincoln's defense of statements towards african-americans pander to the prejudices of voters. the six the definition is, racism is inadequate concern for the welfare of a certain race of people. there is evidence that linc

now it's a double race between lincoln and douglas in the north and democrat john c. breckinridge and constitutional unionist john bell in the south. >> abraham lincoln has to win without his name even on the ballot in the south. and that's not going to be easy because he has to win new york. if he doesn't win new york, he will not be president. >> new york state has the highest number of electoral votes, but it is also the stomping ground of william seward and thurlow weed, who lincoln has so publicly humiliated. >> they hate lincoln. they feel like they got cheated out of the nomination. >> lincoln has to make peace. he invites weed to his home in springfield. >> lincoln's attitude is nobody's his enemy. everybody is his friend. >> lincoln's approach here wasn't to stand over a vanquished opponent and rub it in and not just tell weed, hey, you lost, i won, get on the program. >> and the two men spend five hours talking. >> he courted weed and he had to offer weed any number of things to secure the right level of support and endorsement. >> what lincoln and weed talke

the lincoln douglas debates live tweeted, i am not sure. had somehas always very kind of commercial and celebrity appeal, there is no question about it. events that draw people. the politics of today has taken celebrityppings of and the affect of celebrity. even the debate that we see on the networks, the introductions look like game shows. they even come with commercial breaks now. they did not used to do that. so it is just orders of magnitude different, i would say. and certainly since the arrival of the internet and the rise of twitter, that is where the major political battles and new cycles are turned. we will see if those either attacks or mistakes made on twitter can have the effect of actually turning elections for or against someone. t -- up next on our independent line, vivian, you are on with mark warren. caller: hello, mark. ism so happy that someone talking about pop culture, because i agree with you totally . who started it was clinton, bill clinton. back to abraham lincoln because i can only go back to eisenhower. that was m

douglas was. at one point he said bieshy the, lincoln i don't think ever read douglas' narrative. the first time lincoln and douglas met, he began to explain who he was and lincoln said i heard all about you, i know exactly who you are. johnson seems not to. at one point, johnson says to him have you ever lived on a plantation. he thinks douglas is from rochester. douglas says matter of fact, i was born on one in maryland. disastrous meeting. when the delegation leaves, johnson turns to his secretary and says you know, i know people like that douglas that negro, doesn't use the term negro, says he would rather put a knife in the white man's back than anything. but the delegation had great success. they talked to republicans in congress. they make two kinds of pitches for why congress should get on board with sort of the convention agenda. the first simply is war. 180,000 black men had now risked their lives, they fought for country, it's time for the country to fight for them. recognize they are citizens and voters. but these guys are also pragmatic and practical so they are not ju

the lincoln douglas debates live tweeted, i am not sure. had somehas always very kind of commercial and celebrity appeal, there is no question about it. events that draw people. the politics of today has taken celebrityppings of and the affect of celebrity. even the debate that we see on the networks, the introductions look like game shows. they even come with commercial breaks now. they did not used to do that. so it is just orders of magnitude different, i would say. and certainly since the arrival of the internet and the rise of twitter, that is where the major political battles and new cycles are turned. we will see if those either attacks or mistakes made on twitter can have the effect of actually turning elections for or against someone. t -- up next on our independent line, vivian, you are on with mark warren. caller: hello, mark. ism so happy that someone talking about pop culture, because i agree with you totally . who started it was clinton, bill clinton. back to abraham lincoln because i can only go back to eisenhower. that was m

the lincoln douglas debates live tweeted, i am not sure.omehas always very kind of commercial and celebrity appeal, there is no question about it. events that draw people. the politics of today has taken celebrityppings of and the affect of celebrity. even the debate that we see on the networks, the introductions look like game shows. they even come with commercial breaks now. they did not used to do that. so it is just orders of magnitude different, i would say. and certainly since the arrival of the internet and the rise of twitter, that is where the major political battles and new cycles are turned. we will see if those either attacks or mistakes made on twitter can have the effect of actually turning elections for or against someone. t -- up next on our independent line, vivian, you are on with mark warren. caller: hello, mark. ism so happy that someone talking about pop culture, because i agree with you totally . who started it was clinton, bill clinton. back to abraham lincoln because i can only go back to eisenhower. that was my firs

in the 21st century, lincoln and race or this but that wasn't the choice in 1860 it was lincoln or stephen douglas, which one are you going to vote for? lincoln or general m[l1clelland. those are the choices people had. not between lincoln and perfect. so, i would have a toe say may respect for lincoln went way, way up on working on the person who murdered him, oddly enough. >> the fact you can write about subjects who have been written about before in new ways. just heard a lecture by charles dozier last week in new york about lincoln and his friend, joshua speed. is that his name? >> yes. >> he was his incredibly intimate male friend for many years, and i thought, this is just incredible that you can hear new perspectives on a subject that's been so written about. it was exciting. so, i'm going to ask one more question, and then we will open proceedings to the floor. the question is, always the one that the biographer doesn't want to hear, which is why i'm going to ask that because that's my nature. what is next? what are you going to do next? did you say less than your -- >> we don't do that. d

frederick douglas is an interesting parallel case to lincoln. think, because he lived longer, he was taken his photograph that he was having his photograph taken because it made people visible. he moves into his career as an anti-slavery and abolitionist, this element of bearing witness, here is an african-american man. goesisibility of the cause words.ith douglas's i think if nixon had heard this he would have been president earlier. it seems today with twitter, facebook, and photoshop that is used to form images form all of us -- or video. my question is, following on lincoln's example, his developing use of photography, did that continue in a strong way after him? >> that is the key, you see it in the technology. garner.increased -- you can blame lincoln and garner if you like. but the images are ubiquitous, we are overwhelmed with them. the verbal is turning into the visual where now we have a situation where the visual trump -- that was totally inadvertent, i am it government employee i cannot make political statements. without getting into

but douglas cast his conclusion about what the death of lincoln meant for reconstruction. he said, had abraham lincoln been spared to see this day, the negro of the south would have more than the hope of enfranchisement, and no rebels would hold the reins of government in any one of the late rebellious states. now, one can only lament to what might have been. whoever have mourned the loss of abraham lincoln, to the colored people of the country, his death is an unspeakable calamity. an unspeakable calamity. but i think we have to take care to believe that all the problems would have been solved. to be sure, as i have alluded, certain things may have turned out differently had he lived. in all likelihood, he would have revisited his amnesty proclamation and revised it once all of the confederate states had surrendered. all that can be said with certainty concerns character and not policy. lincoln's character did not allow politics to become personal. during the war, his disagreements with the radicals never turned malicious. he was not given to personal resentments. neither

lincoln, in the first of his seven 1858 debates with stephen douglas called my idea of a statesman. the compromise somewhat diffused the slavery issue and sectional animosities for three decades. it did so by forgetting slavery -- forbidding slavery in the louisiana territory north of the line that included the kansas and nebraska territories. the kansas-nebraska act introduced by senator douglas empowered the residents of those two territory to decide whether or not to have the institution of slavery. the act's premise was that the distilled essence of the american project is democracy and that the distilled essence of democracy is majority rule. and that therefore, it was right that there should be popular sovereignty in the territories regarding the great matter of slavery. people should have the right to vote it up or vote it down. lincoln disagreed. he responded to the act with patient,led, kenny, but implacable be hermits. -- implacable vehemence. the most morally luminous career in the history of american democracy took its bearing from the principle that there is more to ame

lincolnk douglas visit at the white house in august 1863 to discuss the disparate treatment that black men received. lincoln council patients an understanding of the sensitivity of the border states and many northerners of the use of black soldiers. the men affected courageously board their objections to such in justin sees -- in such injustices and petition lincoln. enlistment had permitted them to be men. they had no intention of accepting an inferior status from the government. rather than accept an equal pay, some units chose to accept no. hazard.this was a real from their soldier husbands. provided ammunition to those back home. the black men who were endangering their lives, it was argued header of the right that equal to fair and treatment, but purchased with their lives, the life of every black woman, man, and child to be treated like any other citizen. the folks at home pressed for voting rights, equal access to public accommodations and services for their children. suggested touietly the governor that the state, then undergoing reconstruction, might want to consider granting the vote to let vetera

. >> waiting for lincoln on the podium is his old rival stephen a. douglas. >> at his inauguration his speech is blown about a bit, and he's trying to hold his hat at the same time, his top hat. douglas is seated there. and douglas takes his hat and holds it. >> the old rivals had come to a meeting of the minds, at least on each other and what they owed to each other. >> we must not be enemies. the passion may have been strained. it must not break our bonds of affection. >> just five weeks after lincoln's inauguration, civil war breaks out. 620,000 americans would lose their lives. but it will be abraham lincoln who saves the nation and abolishes slavery. >> the things lincoln worked toward are the most important things america's ever done. nothing will ever be as important as ending slavery and at least setting us on a course toward full equality. ♪ >>> welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm michael holmes with you today. now, our top story, rescue efforts ramping up in japan after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck kyushu isla

lincoln really make things happen, and so he is included in a fictional story. mr. roosevelt here has written a fictional story, but he uses actual people that existed, justice douglasthe attorney general. these are actual real people but he is telling a fictional story. we are telling a fictional story using actual people and institutions and actual facts. we are not a documentary. i know that criticism was made by a documentarian. his criticism discusses the photographic truth. we express the emotional truth of that experience. [applause] mr. roosevelt: in the middle here, can we pass the microphone to the man in the blue shirt? >> i want to thank you also. i belong to a japanese-american buddhist temple and one of the offerings in our library is a book called "rice country," and in that book, in the early chapters they talk about the jacl, but they explained it as the japanese-american league and i want to thank you for setting that straight, and in my mind allowing me to understand the mitigation that the jacl played in trying to protect the japanese-american population in the internment camps. my question is, i see a lot, the results of japanese-americans tryin