While we here in america think we discover and invent and improve faster than any of them. Unquote. I think maybe when he said that, lincoln recognized he was on thin ice. He said they may think this is arrogance but they cannot deny that russia has called on us. In other parts of asia, they scarily know that such things as steam boats and railroads exist. In anciently inhabited countries, the dust of ages, a real down right old fogyism, there he is again, seems to settle upon and smotherter intellectual energies of man. While neither appreciating them, lincoln like many 19th century nationalists pandered to his audience while talking about the virtues of the United States. At the expense of degrading other people, it was lincolns decision to convince his fellow countrymen that they would be next on the great stage of history. And it was a successful strategy to flatter voters into thinking about the ascend into National Prom negligence. But lincoln did put his money where his mouth was and recently it was discovered that during his one term as a member of the house of representatives, he like many other americans contributed 10, which is roughly 500 in todays money, to the Irish Relief Fund during the great famine. Maybe this was because lincolns first teacher, harlan county, kentucky. He was described as a man of excellent character, deep piety and fair education. He had been reared a catholic but made no attempt to proselytize. And the great president always mentioned him in terms of grateful respect. Whether he left a lasting impression on lincoln or not, lincoln was always interested in irish culture. He knew and recited the speech on the dock by memory. Especially the closing words, when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then and not till then let my epitaph be written, i have done. Lincolns favorite ballad was the poem, the lament of the irish immigrant set to music. Many of lincolns quips as a politician often resorted to irish analogies and sometimes they were caustic and perhaps a bit insulting to make a point. His first recorded jibe about a poor irishman comes from one of his congressional speeches on the need for sensible improvements when he described an irishman who had a pair of new boots. Quoting lincoln, should i never get them on until i wear them a day or two and stretch them out a bit. Late in the war an observer recalled that lincoln said, there was a Cabinet Meeting in the afternoon. General grant, who had just returned, gave a very interesting account of the state of the south and the good feeling manifested by the offices of the confederate army. They all said they were ready to lay down their guns and go home. Then lincoln said, some of you just said something about hunting up jed davis. I for one hope they would be like pattys flea. When they get their fingers on him, he just wouldnt be there. This comment was quite consistent with lincolns desire to avoid show trials. He wanted reconciliation and he often used jokes, many times ethnic ones to soften a message of mercy or to conceal a willful blindness to pass wrongs. These jests comparatively speaking to his contemporaries were not very racist or harsh. And they show an awareness for the poor mans plight. Doubtless in that day nearly everyone, most especially poor immigrants, understood the problems of fleas and ill fitting foot wear. Lincoln when he became a member of the Republican Party, vastly opposed anything that the know nothings stood for. Any attempt to change naturalization laws, Abraham Lincoln opposed. He advocated that a full and efficient protection of the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home and abroad, be guaranteed. Throughout his life, there was no group closer to him than the germans. They supported him from the very, very beginning and act 87ly participated in his campaigns. He enjoyed the germans and their culture. On the way to cincinnati, he stopped one night and he was in his hotel room. Went outside a group of german working men came to serenade him. One person wrote that he had put off the melancholy mood had that controlled him during the day and he was entertaining those germans present with genial, even likely conversation. He went to find two dozen more of the german citizens who voted for him because they believed him to be a stout champion of free labor. The germans liked Abraham Lincoln. They said if you ever need us, we stand ready to maintain. It would soon come that the germans delivered on their promise. Lincoln understood immigrants. As a lawyer practicing land law and a politician representing a rural district, he had to Pay Attention to the National Debate over the future of public lands. To the issues linked to real estate taxes. To the relationship between town and country and the importance of the foreign born as their presence increased. Lincoln knew first hand what it meant to be poor. And he knew first hand what america represented as a land of opportunity where somebody could rise to become president of the United States and so his commitment to the American Dream, as lincoln liked to think of it, existed his entire political life. He had an enormous amount of sympathy for the many poor since he himself had long been one. His compassion materialized into a full blown ideology that lincoln carried into the white house. He believed that the civil war would represent an opportunity. But the war drastically reduced the number of immigrants. And at first the Lincoln Administration attempted to meet the difficulty through unofficial state department efforts. But lincoln knew that it wasnt sufficient. In his annual message to congress in 1863, he spoke of immigrants, and i quote, a source of national wealth. Tens of thousands of persons destitute of reimmune i have the occupation wanting to come to america but they needed stance to do so. He asked congress to pass a bill and Congress Responded on july 4, 1864, with the first, last and only time america passed a law to encourage immigration. Lincolns act to encourage immigration was a signature piece of legislation that many of you who i know have been familiar with this, where everything was celebrated, went by without a single moments attention. Lincoln knew immigrants made a major role and to his dying day he related to the immigrant in a way few contemporaries would or could. He told an amusing story about being poor and being able to relate to immigrants. Once again, he went back to his flat boat voyage. 8 a month he earned. And he owed one pair of buck skin breeches. If you know the nature of buck skin when wet and dried in the sun, lincoln reminisced, it will shrink and my breeches kept shrinking until they left several inches of my legs bare between tops of my socks and the lower parts. And while i was becoming taller, they were shorter and so much tighter that they left a blue streak around my legs that could be seen to this day. If you call this aris tow crassy, i need guilty to the charge. To lincoln, america was the land of opportunity. And he welcomed people to the shores long before the words were put on the statue of liberty. To lincoln, the son of a poor farmer, barely literate. To rise to the presidency meant that anybody with a chance, with selfdetermination and selfmotivation corks rise as he had. Lincoln often spoke about his past. But he also spoke about the future. The act to encourage, immigration was passed. Lincoln did not live to see the attack on it by politicians and by Labor Union Leaders who had it all but repealed by 1868. First last and only law in American History encouraging american immigrants. This is a time to think about Abraham Lincoln. This is a period in American History to understand Abraham Lincoln and recognize what he stood for. Often time when he was in the telegraph office pacing and driving them crazy with news, at the end of the day with the shawl around him, he would say, well, boys, i am down to the raisins which meant he had completed his task. I think im down to the raisins right now. And i would like to thank each and everyone of you for being such a wondering attentive audience. Thank you so much. Lincoln approached the no nothing voters. Did he denounce them . Did he try on run them to the republican calls . How did he finesse all of that . Thats a good question. He was asked on a number of occasions, what is your strategy . How do you want to welcome them . He said i will accept the no nothings if they will accept the republican platform which does not include exclusion. And so when lincolns people went out and campaigned and somebody would say, well, what does your boy think about immigration . Lincoln instructed them to tell them that there will be no prejudice at all based on immigration. And theyre more than willing to vote on it. They should not speck there would be any one group more than the other. If he had his way, they should expect specific encouragement of immigrants to fulfill labor shortage that the civil war created. So he did not turn anybody away. He made it abundantly clear, if you vote republican and you enter the Republican Party, you enter on the basis of our platform. Not yours. Im glad you brought up the germanamerican community. Isnt try it that he bought a german newspaper to get german vote . Good question. Lincoln was a politician. And i dont use that in the nasty sense that i would describe someone today as a politician. But he understood. And there was a german newspaper. Several of them in illinois at the time. One was going bankrupt. Lincoln said to him, ill tell you what. I will buy the press, i will buy the machinery, ill buy everything. And you can continue your newspaper in german as long as you dont violate one aspect of the Republican Party platform. So consequently the transaction was struck. He liked Abraham Lincoln and would have a diplomatic position. Public the newspaper and basically it was a republican outreach to the german population in and around illinois designed so they could read in their native language that Abraham Lincoln was the proper candidate and they would get what they needed from him. The sad part is not one single issue of that newspaper exists. Nobody has found a single issue of that newspaper. Thank you. I was interested in your comments about asians. Did he ever meet any asian people . Not many. He met two young men over the course of five or six years who had come to the United States, settled in the San Francisco area, made their way eastward and became part of a Congressional Group to meet Abraham Lincoln. But that was the extent of it. A short conversation. Basically his comments was really based on very little experience and virtually no first hand knowledge. The interesting thing about lincoln, you have to recognize him warts and all. So in his era, he was enlightened and progressive. But he had a few plinld spots and his quotes indicated that. It comes to mind when you speak of another president. And today, advertisements are in the language to communicate to the immigrants. I know mary todd spoke french. Did lincoln ever speak french . No, he didnt. An excellent question. Because he knew a number of the germans, they encouraged him to sit in on a class to learn the german language. So he learned a couple of three, four words and a phrase. What he liked to say when he would speak to somebody that he was fluent in german, most of the people, the accounts that i read of people with him said he liked to tell stories more than he liked the listen and learn german. Thats the closest he ever came to being bilingual. Did he have any pro found thoughts about native americans . Thats a pro found question. I was going to include it in my book. Then i thought, well, okay. That really broadens the topic. Because nativeamericans are not immigrants. And now youre talking about that fine line between race and ethnicity. It depends on who you ask. There are some who will tell you the Abraham Lincoln was as prejudiced toward indians as any westerner would have been and participated in the execution of a number of indians in minnesota. On the other hand, if you take the other side, they would say that he reviewed each case individually, reduced the number scheduled for execution by twothirds, and squenlly saved a number of indians. So it is kind of like everything with Abraham Lincoln. It depends what side of the fence you were on. If youre asking me, have i ever come across anything in which he said nativeamericans were part of this American Dream and should be given jobs, no. Not at all. I think he was a westerner but his short experience in the black hawk war where he said that the only blood shed was by mosquitos. He saved an elderly indian from being shot by one of his fellow soldiers. Hingeon could not lincoln could not face that he would be executed just because he was a nativeamerican. I think he had much more compassion for his fellow man and woman of all ethnicities than anyone in his era. The one thing you caution my students about for years and years, and i think some professional historians need to be cautioned as well. It is very unfair to evaluate lincoln by 2016 standards. If you went up to him and said you were a racist, he wouldnt even know what that word is. If you suffer from presentism, meaning you judge a character on the base you of what we know today, youre doing everybody a disservice including yourself. So i feel comfortable saying that lincoln was as enlightened a human being as came from the west in the middle of the 19th century. All right. Im ask. Relating lincolns policies to what seemed to be republican platforms today, isnt it fair to equate them . No. Im glad you asked me that and im glad this is on television so there will be no mistake what bit this. I think lincoln would have fits with the Republican Party. I dont think he would recognize it as his Republican Party. And this, you know, i tell my students on an ongoing basis. In south carolina, i come from a red state. Whether it is red or blue, republican or democrat, i tell my students with a great deal of sincerity that i hate them all. I have no use for politicians in that sense. But lincoln would not be able to reflight a giant wall being built, to deportation or the punitive measures taken against any group because of who they are. They had this extraordinary ability to look at people as individuals and not the broad generalizations and act on them. As a westerner, those generalizations might filter into his vocabulary. But take comments about asians. Were lincoln alive in the 1880s, i cant even imagine that he would have participated in the chinese exclusion law. That just was not him. So for people to latch on to Abraham Lincoln targs it sort of saddens me that they dont understand him and they misuse a great deal of what emand how he said it. There was a very famous newsweek editorial. I believe it was written when i was an under graduate in the stone age. And the title was getting right with lincoln. This was during nixon and watergate and the vietnam war. How every president including nixon tried to get right with lincoln. Thats what i think people do today. They try on get right with lincoln but the Republican Party today, i dont think lincoln would relate to or identify at all. I also think, and lincoln knew some dirty politics. They were not angels back then. The debates were brutal. Lincoln was a politician so he knew how to get beaten up. But we alive and witnessing some of what has happened in this president ial campaign season, i think he would be just appalled. And i dont think he would be able to support anything about exclusion of immigrants just because of who they are. Thank you. Thank you so much. Coming up this weekend on American History tv on cspan3, saturday night at 8 00 eastern lectures of history. Professor karen raid order films made in the cold war out of fear the u. S. Population was falling behind the soviet union in science education. And sunday morning at 10 00, on road to the white house rewind, the 1952 and 1948 national conventions. In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower second the republican nomination and ad laid stevenson. And the first televised conventions where president harry truman semied his partys nomination. The failure to do anything about high prices and housing. My duty as president requires that i use every means within my power to get the haws people need on such matters of important urgency. And well look at the museum. Africanamerican this history and culture. The museum opens its doors to the public in september of this year. We were able to get an amazing checks of movie posters. That is from the 1920s. And this is part of our job, to help people relearn the history they think they know. That movie poster is from spencer williams. It is one of the most important black film directors in the late 30s and 40s. And sunday night, historians talk about the process of writing a president ial biography. For our complete schedule, to go cspan. Org. Coming up next, Abraham Lincolns lasting legacy. It focuses on relevant advance 150 years after his death. This is about an hour. I am the dean of college law here at the university of illinois. On behalf of the law school and the entire university, i am pleased to welcome you here to the beautiful auditorium for the new lecture in a new series entitled the new lincoln lectures. What lincoln means in the 21st century. During this series, we will over the next few years, bring in ten or so ideologically Diverse National thought leaders to reflect openly on lincolns legacy and his continuing relevant advance 150 years after his passing. I know all of us are eager to hear from bob woodward but i want to take a bit more about the lecture series itself. People ask me why the law school has chosen to focus these lectures on Abraham Lincoln. Thats easy, he is probably americas greatest lawyer. Of course, he made many roles. President , legislator, military strategist, newspaper owner, et cetera. But at his core he was a lawyer. A constitutional lawyer. To our good fortune was there when the nation most needed someone to understand and preserve the law of the land so as he put it, the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth. Another easy question. Why focus on lincoln now a century and a half after his death . Many of the themes of his work, treatment of race and noncitizenship, the relationship between National Government and the states, the scope of executive power among others, dominate discourse today nearly as much as in his era. What is more, we are literally in the midst of a presidency of another tall, skinny illinoisan whose very political ascent would likely not have been possible without lincoln. President obama twice carried essentially the same States Lincoln did and was true after linkons death, there are Big Questions about whether that coalition can endure to transfer power to a key aide of the twice elected president. In the 19th century, Ulysses S Grant and today, hillary clinton. These questions raise the question, why here . In a real sense, this is mr. Lincolns university. As we are prepared to celebrate our own centennial celebration next year, we must never forget that we were among the first created in 1967 by the acts signed into law by lincoln five years earlier. And the only one founded in his home state. One of the reasons is the university of i will kill build upon the legacy of and become linked with linkon in a way the university of virginia is associated with Thomas Jefferson who to my meenld was not as great a president and as great a person. This brings noah fourth question. Why bob woodward . That might be the easiest one of all. Many people consider the New York Times the newspaper of record. But bob woodward is americas reporter of record. He is responsible for two of the Pulitzer Prizes for investigative coverage of watergate and 9 11. But he is much more than a reporter. He is an historian of among other things, americas presiden president s. He has written 12 number one best selling nonfiction books, more than any other contemporary author. A native of where he will, illinois, and a graduate of yale college who spent five years in the navy. I am particularly thrilled that he is a leadoff lecturer, because one of his early book, the brethren, to look at the outside view, figured in my decision and then my older brother, always law professor, to attend law school. I have reread the brethren a half dozen times over the last five years including the term i worked for justice blackman. It tens to be relevant even though it was penned. All of this brings me to the last question. How the answer to that turns out to be quite tim mr. Ive heard long before people knew who he was, he would determine who he wanted or needed to talk to for a project he was working on. Approach forthrightly and said im bob woodward from the Washington Post and i need your help. When we reach out to bob woodward and explained why we needed his help, it turns out above all his accomplishments and talents, mr. Bob woodward is a kind man and i am honored to turn over the podium. [ applause ] it is great to be here. I do not have a coat and tie on because i got stranded out of washington for a week because of the snow. And the dean generously offered his best suit. And i declined. Because my daughter who is a freshman in college said, now you look like a real professor. Under dressed. It is really a genuine pleasure for me to come to a law school or talk to lawyers which ive had the opportunity to do for many decades. My father was a lawyer here in illinois. Wheaton, illinois, outside of chicago. A circuit judge, then became an appellate judge so i was raised in a household where he drummed into me the following. He said always care any Pay Attention to the lawyers. Because they have the most profound and meaningful and lasting things to say, unless you listen carefully. Great advice for a journalist. I want to tell one lawyer story that actually that actually connects to lincoln in a way. This was the 1980s. We were doing a lot of stories with the cia, covert operations. And the Reagan Administration was trying to prevent us from publishing these stories. There was a big debate. A lot of pandering. At one point on a saturday morning, i went to seward bennett williams, the very famous criminal lawyer, and ed was my personal attorney and represented the post. So i went into his office. I need to talk to you about whether to publish National Security secrets. And he said, just a minute. I need to tell you something. What is that . He said, well, i represent you, i represent the post, i represent the cia director bill casey also. Personally. And i am general president to Ronald Reagans advisory board. Ed, now, wait a minute. You represent me, the post, the cia director, the president , isnt there a conflict somewhere in this . And he smiled and looked at me and said, i would like to represent the situation. A lawyers dream. If you look at lincoln and the way used his power during the civil war, in so many ways, he as lawyer and president represented the situation. I want to identify the characteristics. I think lincoln had. And then let me go through the list. First of all, lincoln accepted himself and who he was. He was a pragmatist. He had a moral center. He had a sense of strategy and thats what you want to do in a year and six months and not just crisis manage. He had a strategic patience. He was not in a hurry even on the most vital matters. He was persistent. He was ruthless. As commanderinchief and more. He understood deeply the importance of morale for the troops and the generals, and he understood the importance of human relations in carrying out his office. He was a big ego. A giant ego. He had a giant ego. Probably had no real friends. He was probably the most activist president. He almost believed in executive supremacy. He waged the civil war without a declaration of war, as the constitution literally required. He suspended habeas corpus in various regions. He said in justifying, defending what he was doing, that it made no sense, quote, to lose the nation and yet preserve the constitution. In reading a number of books and doing some research about lincoln, there is a book by josh joshua which is called lincolns melancholia. And the thesis and theres some truth to this, that lincoln had melancholy. I think if you examine it deeper, maybe that melancholy was really a habit of introspection. But in his book, lincolns melancholy, he said the following which i found quite striking. What primarily accounted for linkons increasing success, and his vital relevance was not his own growth to a place where cospeak to the countrys needs but the countrys regression to a place where lincoln was needed. An assistant who looks for me said, you know, lincoln was in many ways like the batman of Christopher Nolans movie trilogy. Not the hero we deserved but the hero we needed. Lincoln was certainly the most modern of the president s. Now in 2016, i think if you look at the politics of this country, we are at a pivot point. In history, and it is violent that the next president who ever that might be, gets some things right and get the important things right. At least comprehend the impact and meaning of failure to get those important things right. Over 40 years of writing about president s and trying to understand them, i have asked the question, what is the job of the president . And my answer is that the job of the president is to figure out what the next stage of good is for a majority of the country. Then develop a plan and carry out that plan. And it must be a majority for the majority, not one Interest Group or one party. I did not realize that this was one of the points lincoln made in one of the speeches. It was the president elect. He said i hope while man exists, it is his duty to improve, not only his own condition but to persist in ameliorating man kind and therefore, i will say that i am for those means which will leave the greatest good to the greatest number. Yes, it is true, america is the last great hope as lincoln said. But i think he realized that failure was possible. The country was young when he was president and not yet powerful. America was an experiment. In truth now in 2016, the experiment is not over. What i would like to do is review the eight president s ive worked on. And try to distill out what they may have learned from lincoln or maybe should have learned from lincoln. One of the scholars said the following. And this is about lincoln. Quote. What gave lincoln his enormous strength in relation to others was that he had learned early in life to accept himself. He knew that he was ugly, ungamely, awkward in society, untaught, except by himself and as a congressman for one term, unsuccessful. The great point was that he did not resent those deficiencies. He neither tried to cover them up nor referred to them continually, they were part of him and he accepted all of himself as inevitable. As a fact of nature. That realization freed him from some of the demons that have plagued other president s. I think specifically of richard nixon, which i will get to and probably dwell on probably too long. Lincoln was a pragmatist in an important way. One of the things he said, our government rests on Public Opinion. Whoever can change Public Opinion can change the government. And this is, what he did was identify the essential element of democracy. He also said, with public sentiment, nothing can fail. Consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts laws or pronounces decisions, a clear dig at the congress and the supreme court. Part of what he did and just how he handled the press during the civil war and harold holesers book on lincoln and the press, he makes a number of important points. What lincoln did and this again is reflective of the praguetism. He did not initiate press suppression. He remained ambivalent about its execution, but he seldom intervened to prevent it. He let it go. He said and made it very clear that the secretary of war has my authority to exercise the executive discretion on this matter. It was his way of saying he represented the situation, and he was going to delegate it to somebody else, because it was a task that was difficult. And he kept his hands off it directly. The most important part about lincoln, of course, is that he had a moral center, that sense of strategy, strategic patience, as i mentioned. The great achievement, the emancipation proclamation. If you look at the histories of this, what he did is reeled it out over a long period of time. He just didnt declare it. He had meetings with reporters and editors. There were coordinated leaks imagine that to the press to freed blacks or to religious leaders. This went on from july to september of 1862. He knew he needed a military victory or success, and he waited until he got it. What he did then, he announced he was going to free the slaves on january 1st if the rebellion did not end. It, of course, did not end. The military order, which is what the emancipation was, really was an invitation to slaves to leave their masters. This pragmatism that he had and its something to measure now candidates by. But it went far and deep for lincoln. Harry williams, the historic said, quote, lincoln would not have been able to comprehend the attempts of modern writers to classify his ideas into an ideology. Indeed, he would have not known what an ideology was. John hague quotes linking saying, my policy is to have no policy. Very important to the way he conducted not just the war but everything else. How he conducted the war is very instructive and i think important as we get as we start looking at some of the eight last president s. He supported, lincoln, the great humanitarian, supported the scorched earth Economic Strategy carried out by grant and general sherman. And agreed that brutal aggression was the only way to subdue the rebellion. Lincoln didnt like war, thought it was terrible, but the larger purpose and strategy to save the union was key to this. He also understood the importance of morale for everyone in the country and the military. On july 14, 1863, he wrote Union General meade a letter after meade had failed to pursue general lee following Union Victories in gettysburg and vicksburg. And so what the letter said was the following. My dear general, i do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in lees escape. He was within your easy grasp and to have closed upon him in connection with our other late successes would have ended the war. As it was, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. I am distressed immeasurably because of it. What lincoln did, didnt send the letter. He realized that it would be too graphic an attack on the general. And i sometimes have thought, if we could ever get the unsent letters or emails of president s or president ial candidates, we would learn a great deal about them, and we would also learn that it is important sometimes to write these things out and not linger on them. The other important part. And this is a core aspect of lincoln, how he understood the importance of human relations. I remember it was sometime in 90s, 1990s, kathryn graham, owner and publisher of the Washington Post for years, was working on her autobiography. I ran into her and she said, oh. The weirdest thing happened last night. I was at a reception, and jimmy carter, the former president , was there. And carter came up to her and put out his hand and said, oh, mrs. Graham, i admire you so much. I like you so much. And mrs. Graham said to me, you know what i thought . What the fuck . [ laughter ] sorry, were in an academic environment where we can quote people accurately. [ laughter ] and she said, now think of this. We fought with carter and his administration for years. The whole time he was there. We couldnt find out what was going on. There was no real relationship. And then she made the larger point which is critical. She said, you know, its hard not to like someone who says they like you. True. If youre in disagreement with somebody, or youre negotiating with them, they say, you know, i like you. Not all the barriers come down, but some of them. Lincoln realized this in so many ways. When he was a private lawyer in the 1850s, he was involved in a lawsuit where edwin stanton, the countrys foremost lawyer, was involved in this case in ohio. And stanton and lincoln learned stanton would speak very negatively about lincoln and call him privately a backwoods bumpkin. Stanton was a democrat, and he later practiced law in washington, and there was still this badmouthing of lincoln the whole time. And what did lincoln do . He appointed stanton secretary of war. And it turned out that stanton was one of the best war chiefs the United States ever had. After lincoln was assassinated, it was stanton who said, as it is remembered, now he belongs to the ages. And so lincoln was able to bring people, even enemies, close to him and use them for his purpose. This sense of human relations, much is talked about in the histories about lincolns second inaugural famous address. And then if you look at it in the context of pragmatism and in the context of human relations, and read what that second inaugural said, with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as god gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds, to care for him who shall have born and carried the battle, and for his widow and his orphan. To do all which may achieve and