Leading on Abraham Lincoln and. The political culture of the civil war area. Eric, a prolific writer and lecturer and frequent guest on television, he served six years as chairman of the lincoln bicentennial foundation. For the previous ten years. He cochaired, the u. S. , Abraham Lincoln, bicentennial appointed by president clinton. He currently serves the jonathan fountain director, Hunters College hunter colleges Roosevelt Public Policy Institute and has authored, coauthored or edited 55 books. There is a fuller biography of mr. Holzer in the program, so i refer to that and it is now my distinct honor to invite him to deliver the keynote address. Thank, brian. Thank you all. And i extend my welcome as well. If you hear in my remarks some echoes of what the chancellor and bryan have said in opening the conference. I guess thats steven. His points very well over the years and weve all absorbed them and put them to use. Well i want to particularly thank greg and the entire oates family for giving me the profound honor of delivering the keynote at this conference. This day of reflection, remember science and appreciation. At the same time, im all too aware of the pressure placed on keynote oates and keynote. I remember watching bill deliver the keynote at the Democratic Convention and atlanta and bombing droning on so interminably that when he got to the words in conclusion, the entire hall erupted in applause and i had a direct if somewhat minor hand in editing and, listening in advance to mario cuomo, his Convention Speech in san francisco, which was such a triumph, it made him the odds on favorite to win the president ial nomination in 1992. We we all know which of the two won the president ial that year, which may suggest that keynotes dont matter much and. Ive taken that to heart. As i begin here, i hope this one does not because of of the keynoter, but because i wanted to on a true giant of our Historical Community who did so much to enhance the art of biography, contributed so much to our understanding of Abraham Lincoln of particular importance to me. And i fear sometimes left us without fully knowing how much so many of us appreciated talent. His discernment and his bravery in many ways by telling story the pure hopes to engage our hearts as well as our minds as readers, we become active participants in the drama as though we are with the subject. As he lived his, we identify with him and his relationships, with his ideas and feelings, his anxieties and joys. We are alternately and moved. We may even cry out of compassion or heartbreak or exaltation. I have not suddenly elevated my prose into poetry. In case you were wondering, those were written 36 years ago by stephen b for a collection called biography as High Adventure and stephen created quite an adventure. The field of biography, didnt he . Let me continue with the quote, because i cant say it any. I doubt if anyone else. Here is more from stephen on what makes great biographic writing. It gets the reader involved. He said because the biographer artist does not try to explain everything thats important to me because i tend to write everything i have to. He was stephen was a great self editor does not try to explain everything instead relying on the power of suggestion to let us reach our own make our own discoveries that takes a lot of confidence, by the way, by stories. And we have come to know the subjects so intimately that his death should leave us with a great sense of loss. As this particular biographer artist concluded, we close a book feeling uplifted for our and our minds have both been edified Stephen Oates edified our minds and, uplifted our spirits. And he did it by deploying biography as art. And we feel our own great sense of loss that voice has been stilled indeed may been stilled before its time in some ways, but not without the production of timeless works. Because, as he pointed, experienced biographer fearlessly tackle the nature challenge and hazards of that field. In stephens case, what he so even presciently a hazardous process produce compelling poetry of john brown dr. King clara barton, William Faulkner and of course lincoln and wonderful to see the books arrayed on the display table in, the rear of the chapel for me with, malice toward none is the place. Start because its subject of course, is lincoln, not only as a biographical game changer, but in its title and approach to life and work that lincoln personified and to which i think stephen as well though both had plenty of reason begrudge their critics. Both men succeeded and both men were admired and both incited occasionally stormy responses as. Lincoln put it the day after his reelection into the presidency in 1864. It is a little singular that i, who am not a vindictive man, should always have been before the public for election and canvass as marked for their bitterness bitterness. Yet stephen tellingly preferred another quote for the epigraph of with malice none. I shall do nothing in malice. What i deal with is too vast for malicious dealing. Stephens lincoln was complex, paradoxical and richly human. Lincoln was entitled, he said to the right to be a human being in stephens masterful telling, lincoln, in fact emerged. In one of stephens heroes, Paul Murray Kendall called the warmth of a life being. But getting back to concept, the oates book also subtly but daringly a long held and since persuasively revived argument dating all the way back to lincolns law partner william herndon, that lincoln kind of bobbed his way along the tide of history making decisions at the last minute, sometimes without much conviction, only when he had to, and never quite ascribing to the idea of the modern presidency or the national that he all but invented. Lincoln himself contributed to this misperception in my when he wrote in a public letter. I claim not to have controlled events, but confessed plainly that. Events have controlled me. Those slightly disingenuous words were written specifically to alert, slaveholding states that there would be no retreat on emancipation or black military recruitment in a way that Divine Authority had been responsible for both. Indeed, for the devastation and duration of the war itself. It was a way for lincoln literally sanctify what he was initially aiding himself. But biographies. And after oates have been constructed around questionable premise, ignoring the fact that lincoln among other initiatives called up 75,000 volunteers and allocate money or directed money to pay and supplied them without the consent of congress, ordered a naval blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus. Those be discussed, but without congressional approval issued the emancipation as an executive order. As commander in chief. And heres an example of proactive authority. Seldom recalled. I love this story, he his name on the congressional resolution sending 13th amendment to the constitution. The states for ratification. Such resolutions do not and did not require president signatures. But lincoln added his anyway. He wanted be identified with an amendment that felt he had initiated at the very least, by signaling its inclusion in. The republican platform of 1864. As it turned out his mere signature was enough to send the senate back into session, where a senator from lincolns own home state who had defeated him once for the senate. But thats another story. Introduce another resolution. Actually condemning the president for trying to share the glory of the triumph. I know. Can you imagine u. S. Senate acting in so petty a manner and wasting time. Lincoln had not let events control him in that instance. Yet when Herbert Donald produced his one volume biography of lincoln in 1995, it with this epigraph and i just i said it ill say it again because its in the donald book. I claim not to have controlled events, but confessed plainly that events have control me. I guess the senate didnt get that letter. Its just why they introduced that resolution. Heres side story and applies to professor and ill complete the circle after i tell you this. I remember hearing from david donalds editor, simon and schuster, the legendary alice mayhew, who later edited. Of my books that professor donald actually wanted to call his book. Events have controlled me and had to be talked down by the publisher, not because the publisher. Disputed his argument because they thought it was not a commercial title until wisely switched to the nondisclosure chapter of a nonjudgmental one word title. Lincoln other biographer offers. So lincoln, as did donald, in a way as a incurably whig ish, deferential to the late legislative, reluctant to define job as much more than that of. Chief magistrate perhaps an accurate way of perceiving the american presidency before, the civil war, when, as historians like richard currant and Pat Robertson have pointed out, most americans interacted with the federal government only in the sending and retrieval of mail from the post office, but little else. But not during the civil war, when lincoln observed, we must rise with the occasion and did precisely that. I would add that the circumstances that altered the presidency in advance, altered circumstances of what would follow in 1860. Crescendoed pre lincoln at Harpers Ferry in the wake of john browns an event chronicled so compellingly steven in another masterful book that told the dramatic story. When i read it i said to myself and i repeat all these years later told a story as if the ending not yet been determined. Thats the real measure of artful biography. We all know what happened to john brown. I mean, if you know whats on the dust jacket, this is the story of a man who was captured and executed in 1859, but read Stephen Oates. You will get caught up in that story as if the ending unknown to you. And of course that book that event positions lincoln to become the activist he really was and which stephen. Yes. Subtly. Tells us and with malice toward not. This reminds me of a story that i that i didnt write down. I was the fellow who wrote the john adams book. I cant believe. Oh, oh, david mccullough. Sorry whom i knew and whose name has now flowed from my memory, obviously, how mortified i was once with him at an event and i said to him, i know you dont want a glass of wine before we start public discussion. And he said, as larry once told me, and i said, larry. And he said, olivia of course, i said, oh, okay. As larry once told me if you drink before a performance, it affect your lines. It only affects the pauses. And he had a glass of wine. He was great. But what put me in mind of that story is with stephen its its the blanks pauses in his biographies. And im struck because i possess that talent by subtlety and the choices he makes in telling the story what he admits is almost as telling what he features and includes. Hes, as i say, a brilliant, selfish, and he lets us come to the story. He doesnt it all at us. What a rare talent. Speaking of brian, again at the time, to purge this line with, blood appeared. Eric foner found it and i quote so engrossing that the book reads like a novel, despite the fact that it is so extensive, researched and documented. And the new york review of books called it the most objective and absorbing of john brown ever written. It still holds that rank drama object, liberty, careful research, use the tools of the trade. Lets remember that malice toward none was similarly the most objective one volume biography of lincoln. Wait for it. David donald, who actually a different approach. So if a theme i would emphasize today about which we will undoubtedly hear more in the course of this conference. Its the juxtaposition, artistry and objectivity. Objectively i reread with malice toward none month. I thank greg, because this opportunity required, i think my, reading it. It holds up beautifully. And i also went back to lincoln. The man the man behind the myth, which is also there, the perfect, perfect to read next. And as stephen argues there, lincoln not have sought an imperial presidency but and i quote he would do whatever he thought imperative to save the country and it represented close quote because will add what did it represent democracy freedom choice. Ultimately freedom itself the right to choose your own leaders and live with the consequences. Fair elections the right of everyone to an equal chance. And what lincoln called race of life. Lincoln may have deferred god to explain the war, but he would help god. Stephen writes by flexing his own executive muscles. Does he use president ial powers in president ial ways to preserve the right of selfgovernance and selfimprovement, to save of . And i use this phrase not lightly because it has been revolting appropriated in recent months. Save the american dream. This leads me to one more word on the possibilities. Perils of keynoting. Toward the end of mario cuomos life. I got to talk to him about his keynote because we were going to do a book together on his process, writing process. His Health Failed before we could get to do that. But i got to ask him at home day, how do you account for the impact your keynote had . Was it the phrasing . Was it your wonderful voice . Was it the political moment. No, he said, my son andrew had noticed that during earlier Convention Speeches, the tv cameras kept cutting away to reaction shots of board delegates, chatting with their colleagues, mulling around yawning, stretching or fast asleep in their seats. So before i began my speech, says mario andrew got the dnc to switch all the lights off while i was on, and with nothing and no one else to focus on the spotlight and the cameras stayed on me the entire time. And thats why it was a success. I think he underestimated it himself. But it is a great story. And mario insisted, that his goal was not to people, to their feet, but to bring them, to their senses. But in the end, he did both his. Keynote was interrupted by. Applause 52 times a number that he, for some reason, had in his memory for his entire life. In a way, Stephen Oates switched off the superfluous lights as well. He illuminated history, laser like precision, but also with careful emotionalism and a voice, by the way. He was a biographer. Yes, he was a great performer. He also a great craftsman as professor Joyce Berkman has. And i saw her quote in the program, and i loved it. So i put it i jotted it down here. Stephen combined brilliant scholarship and riveting literary craft. Now i trust todays panels will not altogether ignore because we and we shouldnt the moment when in my view then and now envy is researchers armed impersonal machines came down on stephen the kind of microscopic scrutiny. Im not certain anyone us could survive suddenly phrases more important than ideas. Punctuation. More impact than argumentation. As one result. The long lived and socalled lincoln fraternity. Not the old boys network. It sounds like, but rather a group of historia uns who nourished each other stage conferences and symposia. They introduced scholars to a receptive general public and to each other, mentoring each other, learning from one another. All that dissolved in disputation as people chose sides went their separate ways. And it was a loss. More than a dozen greatest taureans from the current don ferran barca to James Macpherson to mark neely left suddenly. Abraham lincoln of springfield, illinois, by cleaving and taking some of the heart and soul out of the lincoln field. The good news, if there can be any, since there was a cost to. All this to stephen was that out of that fragmentation came a group called the Lincoln Forum about which more in a moment and other groups and days of new collegial events replace that single winter day that brought people together in lincolns hometown not. To mention a new golden age in Civil War History in which i wish stephen had enjoyed more opportunity to participate in and which i wish the lincoln field had the to insist that he did. But stephens contract final abandoned as weve heard recorded documentation for a unique and arresting blend of fact and fiction in the tradition. Weve heard faulkner. But as he said of mark twain tonight, or the belle of amherst with a touch of faulkner and he said, Robert Altman and john sayles thrown and thats quite a soup. But also in the tradition of say monet stephen made his art increasingly abstract as if he was seeing things more clearly than ever. And it was up to us to see that as well. And he also admitted me and to others and indeed on screen at the podium that hed done some acting in college and thought it might be fun to use those chops, both his writing and in his public appearances, to give a new kind of reading to make himself more invisible, as he put it, to try something new, to listen to the people of history and their own point of view. This is stephen talking why they react and behave the way they did intersecting perspectives. Perspectives without faults or a historical note. By the way, whirlwind of war, as i recall, has close 100 pages of notes. This did not come out of an artists imagination. It came out of an artists strong reliance on facts and research. In 1997. I cant. Its a quarter century ago. Stephen appeared with all in his mind and in his heart at our annual one of our first annual Lincoln Forums in, gettysburg at the invitation of myself and my dear friend and founding chairman frank williams. And there the introduced i dont think you were the chief, but youre soon to be the chief. The. Introduce stephen by saying so perceptively of stephens initial book of first person narrative the approaching and i quote frank on the reaction to the book quote stephen caused all the crows to fly up over the trees look down and settle on different branches. Thats a really really interesting way of looking at the impact. I love that quote because thats what stephen he was kind of a shotgun blast reverberating in a thick forest and making all the birds fly on to different branches. Meaning take a look not for the first time but really for the first eye opening time at the history theyve lived with so long. Stephen read from a whirlwind of war that night. I recently replayed the tape which one can still find the cspan archives online . I recommend how lucky we were that the network recorded it and preserved. And there he was introducing, the reading by saying i got tired of reading books in the third person from the point view of others, i wanted to recreate the viewpoint of the people of history. By the way, he he spoke as he wrote, which is another pretty good talent to have. Maybe he came close to revealing why he adopted this daring new format in his remarks when he thought back on all his efforts, all his research and all the recent tumult and said and again, quote, plus, its on the. Screw it, im going to try something new. I dont know if i can say that a chapel, but i just did. He wanted freshness and, passion, immediacy, what he called the hardest things for historians to impart. But i think there he underestimated his own gifts in traditional biography. Perhaps he wanted no further scrutiny of sentence sentence art than, say, shakespeare provoked by dramatizing plutarchs or holland sheds chronicles of england. I really enjoyed rewatching that Lincoln Forum reading stephen was indeed not only a great historian, not only a skillful, but a very good actor, blessed with a fine tenor voice that i envied, and a kind of like slightly a serbian tone, which i really dug, i must say. He recited at night, from the words of lincoln and john wilkes booth, recreate the roiling of lincolns final days, the alternating spirit of relief and revenge that defined the period between appomattox and fords theater. I want to be invisible, he said before he started his. Ive been so many voices. I have to go into therapy. He was edgy as usual, provoke, active and spellbinding. Did he want to go where no one could dare question his absolute integrity, which he held my view for his entire career to retreat into the characters he had already brought so vividly to life. I dont know. Maybe others today explore what either a bracing expression of New Historical writing or a way to circumvent historys most pedantic, picaresque. I will say that Stephen Oates did not make himself invisible that night in gettysburg, or, in my view, ever in the end in whatever format he chose. Stephen did make subjects live in a living world and even when committed to what he later called the drudgery of painstaking research, he molded it in the language of literature to evoke and dramatize his dramatized lives through the novelistic techniques. But not through invention itself, recreating what andre moore called the magnificent poetry of life more, while also said that a happy relationship is a long conversation, always seems too short. Stephen oates a long and bracing conversation with history. But though he lived to be fourscore years and five, i will always think conversation was too short as a critic. Once said of one of stephens books. The minute you finish it, you will want more. I may be a glutton for illumination and. I suspect many of his admirers are. But he left us wanting more. And all the great writers do. Today, we gather, explore the confluence, research, drama and indeed poetry in service to biography and public history that stephen oakes, Stephen Oates worked to to evoke the past for a living world. So to end i began and thank you for not cheering when ill but said in conclusion felt like the greatest keynotes stephen brought people to their senses and people to their. His talent may have rubbed the less blessed the wrong way, but his achievements endure. His writing still remains as his ideas still discussion. From what ive heard today, from some the guests here, his teaching remains another blessed memory. And its a great pleasure. Begin the process today of extinguishing those superfluous outside light and highlighting the impact of lives wellwritten and one particular life very well lived. Thank you very. Welcome back, evne