i first met michael burlingame about 20 years ago in the holy land, springfield, illinois. what struck me then has remained true through all these years, and that is michael is the most generous scholar i have ever met. even though he's been doing the legwork, crisscrossing this country and digging into all these archives and nooks and niches, he still loves to share these findings before he publishes them. he's not worried about being scooped. the grand culmination of this work, of course, was his monumental and mammoth two-volume biography, "abraham lincoln: a life." what professor burlingame affectionately refers to as the green monster received the lincoln prize in 2010. along the way, he has published at least a dozen books at last count and earned many awards, including illinois's highest honor, the order of lincoln. after teaching at connecticut college for over 30 years and working on his biography, he joined the history department at the university of illinois-springfield, where he has served as the chancellor, distinguished chair in lincoln studies since 2009. ple

and michael burlingame, david leg, and he lincoln group of the district of columbia. the ever him lincoln institute is a non-for-profit institute that relies on its donations and additionally it is those donations that keep this day free to all of you. anyone wishing to make a donation can go to the ali website www.l incoln-institute.org or hand a check to our board members here today. i would like to introduce the president of the lincoln institute. he is an associate professor of american studies and the author about -- attor eight books about abraham lincoln. welcome, john. [applause] >> thank you, so much. good morning and thank you for joining us. i am president of the abraham lincoln institute. i wanted to say we are here to celebrate the latest in lincoln scholarship but today is a very encouraging day for me in thinking about the future of lincoln scholarship. a few minutes ago i was on the balcony and i met a young girl who is seven years old and she insisted that her mother bring her here for this symposium. it says that the future is bright and i think we s

i first met michael burlingame 30 years ago in the holy land, springfield illinois. springfield, illinoi. michael is the most generous scholar i have ever met.

to speak about the betweeneld dispatch lincoln's election and inauguration, my good friend, michael burlingame. [applause] michael: thank you for that kind introduction, lucas. lucas is not only a distinguished professor, but he is also my agent. [laughter] michael: i would also like to thank the professor for his kind remarks about my pinchhitting for him last year. i would like to add a footnote to the professors talk. as he mentioned, lincoln was fond of off-color stories. almost everybody that william interviewed after lincoln's assassination that had known lincoln well said lincoln was fond of off-color stories, but they were reluctant to tell him any of the stories because they did not want to besmirch the memory of their martyred friend. i was excited to discover years ago in the carl sandburg papers at the satellite campus of the university of illinois that sandburg had discovered the off-color stories. i ransacked the papers of sandburg at the university of illinois and found good material for my book, but no off-color stories. i was very disappointed. i was doing research at the newb

i met michael burlingame in the holy land, sprin springfield, illinoi.

. >>> next on the presidency of abraham lincoln, michael burlingame recounts the time between lincoln's first election and inauguration. he's the editor of 16th president in waiting, a collection of news reports about abraham lincoln from that time. mr. burlingame holds a distinguished chair in lincoln studies at the university of illinois-springfield. a panel discussion of all the conference speakers follows his remarks.