despite being initially disrespected by new york senator william seward, whom he chose as his secretary of state, ohio governor salmon chase, and former u.s. attorney general edwin stanton, his secretary of war, lincoln refused to take their slights personally, and chose them to serve in his cabinet, believing he would need their skills to leave the country during his presidency, which he knew from the start would be tempestuous. he explained his decision. quote, these were the strongest men, and i had no right to deprive the country of their services. what happened? >> what happened? it didn't take for them to realize that abraham lincoln , who they discredited before they served under him -- it didn't take long for them to realize, he is the smartest guy in the room. he is heads and shoulders above all of us, not in terms of his brilliance, intelligence, emotional intelligence. how he interacted with them, mutual respect, earned their respect with one exception. salmon chase, who could never get beyond his own ego and was consistently undermining lincoln and considered running against

he knew that there wouldn't be enough to elevate william seward to win. and so when people realized who are going to wasn't going to win, that lincoln there ready to step up and and as i said before, you didn't have to be around lincoln long to. no, he really is the smartest guy in the room. he's the most appealing guy in room. and and he's the most eloquent guy in the room. so it was strange that he didn't have more of time in washington before he became president. but on the other hand, he had all that time in illinois close to the people, the fabulous lawyer, all kinds of cases. he knew what problem solving was about he knew how to achieve resolution of disputes was all about and so all of the he learned about public speaking he learned writing strong briefs argue over 400 cases to the illinois supreme. so the skills you need to be a great, great speaker, great writer, great thinker, great strategist, a great, emotionally intelligent human being to work with all kinds of people. lincoln had all those traits. so like you tell maturity, like a good lawye

i thanks for this william seward question. so if the story that you're telling us about the republican party eventually away from the ideals of as it began and then moving towards imperialism, what do we do with the figure like bill seward, who as early as 18 we align with lincoln more fought for the not right, but as early as 1867, he masterminded the alaska purchase. he's also trying to buy bunch of caribbean islands. congress doesn't really to do that. but how do we see them if we're figuring imperialism a thing that happens later on after republicans kind of flip and go and do something else? what do we do with that kind of early behavior by someone in that center of power with the republicans like? so yeah that's a great question. and we like to draw these neat lines right in periodization, but sometimes you can see the roots and origins of something way beyond. so for instance, those who talk about western reconstruction, want to go back to the mexican war. they we should look at the mexican war before the civil war and

he knew that there wouldn't be enough to elevate william seward to win. and so when people realized who are going to wasn't going to win, that lincoln there ready to step up and and as i said before, you didn't have to be around lincoln long to. no, he really is the smartest guy in the room. he's the most appealing guy in room. and and he's the most eloquent guy in the room. so it was strange that he didn't have more of time in washington before he became president. but on the other hand, he had all that time in illinois close to the people, the fabulous lawyer, all kinds of cases. he knew what problem solving was about he knew how to achieve resolution of disputes was all about and so all of the he learned about public speaking he learned writing strong briefs argue over 400 cases to the illinois supreme. so the skills you need to be a great, great speaker, great writer, great thinker, great strategist, a great, emotionally intelligent human being to work with all kinds of people. lincoln had all those traits. so like you tell maturity, like a good lawye

lincoln and william seward visited the right here in this town when the 37 new york, the so-called irish rifles encamped at the capitol building, lincoln paid another visit. and while when general louis blanquer paraded on the white house grounds with the 6/8 new york, the so-called german rifles, general scott said to lincoln that this was the best regiment in the army. just a coincidence that i chose only new york regiments. so you'll have to forgive me. one recruiting poster in my hometown, new york, had declared berger all your land is gafah zewde and wafa citizen. your land is in danger. your land, meaning the united states to arms and to arms. these foreign born citizens went. it didn't matter to the volunteers, to the commander in chief, to anybody. it seems that army regulations at this time required all soldiers to speak english. the united states needed them just as they had. the immigrants had once needed the united states. and so while the union was about 14% foreign born, its armed services grew to 23% foreign born, 200,000 germans, 150,000 irish plus hungarians, italians, s

guest: what happened, it didn't take long for william seward and edward stanton, it didn't take long them to realize he is the smartest guy in the room and head and shoulders above the rest of us. not only in terms of his wisdom, brilliance and emotional intelligence. just every aspect of the way he interacted with them, mutual respect, earned their respect very promptly. the one exception was salmon chase, who never could get beyond his own ego and was consistently undermining lincoln. he considered running against him for the 1864 election and dropped out. when roger became supreme court justice, lincoln named him a supreme court justice. he never took the bait. the way he acted was matched by the way he treated the union generals. george mcclellan was in charge of the war. a distinguished west point grad but it didn't take long for him to realize he's not real good at war because he didn't want to engage in battles. lincoln knew it was going to have to be a hard war. he goes to the library of congress and read about military strategy and implements a war game plan and picks ulysse

guest: what happened, it didn't take long for william seward and edward stanton, it didn't take long them to realize he is the smartest guy in the room and head and shoulders above the rest of us. not only in terms of his wisdom, brilliance and emotional intelligence. just every aspect of the way he interacted with them, mutual respect, earned their respect very promptly. the one exception was salmon chase, who never could get beyond his own ego and was consistently undermining lincoln. he considered running against him for the 1864 election and dropped out. when roger became supreme court justice, lincoln named him a supreme court justice. he never took the bait. the way he acted was matched by the way he treated the union generals. george mcclellan was in charge of the war. a distinguished west point grad but it didn't take long for him to realize he's not real good at war because he didn't want to engage in battles. lincoln knew it was going to have to be a hard war. he goes to the library of congress and read about military strategy and implements a war game plan and picks ulysse

seward. thank you for your support of csis generally particularly your work on nuclear issues led by heather williams. thank you everyone for joining us today here and on line for it have a good weekend, and may the force be with you. [laughter] [applause] -- may the fourth be with you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap.org]

seward. thank you for your support of csis generally particularly your work on nuclear issues led by heather williams. thank you everyone for joining us today here and on line for it have a good weekend, and may the force be with you. [laughter] [applause] -- may the fourth be with you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap.org] announcer: coming up, president biden will award the presidential medal of freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to 19 people including former house speaker nancy pelosi representative james clyburn, and former senator elizabeth dole and john kerry. the ceremony is at 4:30 p.m. eastern here on c-span. ♪ today, watch c-span 2024 campaign trail. a weekly round up of c-span's campaign coverage providing a one-stop-shop to discover what the candidates across the country are saying to voters. along with first-hand accounts from political reporters, updated poll numbers, fundraising data, and campaign ads. watch c-span's camp