Not only occupying a seat were on this day in 1860, new yorkers listened to the then littlek nown statesman from illinois deliver a speech that not only altered the course of his life, but what impact the future of our nation. Ofce that day, scores individuals have filled your seats, eager to explore issues that define who we are as a country, and tonight you have a seat to another perspective on americas next chapter, inspired by the man who would ultimately reunite a country after the most divided period of its history, and preserve the Great American experiment. Hisham lincoln later viewed Cooper Union Speech as the turning point for his eventual election to the white house. Here, he made an impassioned argument against expansion of slavery in the United States, in treating his audience to have faith that right makes might. His words did more than make a president. Voice to clarity gave those imploring others to do what is right for a greater good, no matter their political ideologies. Lik tonight like tonights event, we will feature programs that harp on this featuring speakers who shaped movements, righted wrongs, advocated for justice, equality, sustainability, what they believe is honorable, ethical and furthers the common good. I hope you will find your seat again here for one of these programs. Tonightssed that conversation is happening on such a significant date. The Lincoln Project has undertaken a bold task in our current partisan climate, advocating the importance of placing country before party in support of our constitution and our democracy. Id like i would like my like to remind everyone that we are prohibited directly or indirectly from participating in any Political Campaign for elected public office. [laughter] [applause] for us, this is not about anyone candidate. This is about the vibrancy for ar democracy, about fostering debate for those views in service of the health our nation. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming the Lincoln Project. [cheers and applause] ladies and gentlemen, the Lincoln Project. Smith, jennifer horn, ron says low. Seslow. They designated me to lead off in leadoff i shell. Shall standing here in this great hall behind this podium one cannot help but feel the weight and voice of history upon us. It is a threat of history that is so often saw it i our political leaders in this country. Becausearely obtained it is so hard to do it in good times. Ambition to be politically great almost never suffices. Almost never comes without a moment of crisis, a catalyst, or a call. And Abraham Lincoln when he spoke at this podium which had lets not raise the bar too high for my performance. He taught us a lesson in that moment. Whatking in articulating would become the foundation of the Republican Partys moment. On except about the of the expansion of slavery. That the south was never ever going to break on this question. That the moral dimension that would eventually lead to a crisis that could tear this country apart and did that lesson he taught that night was that political choices are fundamentally moral choices. Moral choices. And that is a lesson that has been easily forgotten. I do not like the practice of both sides in politics. I try to avoid that. The American Political Culture has accepted a disconnect between the political and the moral dimension of choices. And we are seeing it right now in the white house. On thise was and anyone stage, the architects and operators and storytellers of the political system that we must acknowledge is breaking. That we must acknowledge is broken beyond recognition. And is insufficient for country as great as ours. Tonight we speak about the purpose and the mission and the future of the Lincoln Project and what it means for a future of the nation in crisis. It is a crisis of National Purpose than a crisis of our character and our national identity. Regarding the very propositional nature of this country that anyone can become an american. That america is an ideal. Not a race or soil or blood type. Whether we will be a nation of idolaters or ideas, just as lincoln could not be described as never slavery, we cannot be described as never trump. We can you always america. I would like to think the men and women on this stage are always america. The change in our politics required each of us to walk away from relationships and friendships and work. That we built over the years. Decades. I got a lot of mileage. I am old. It required all of us to walk away from archrival past. We have sin great and not so great men and women that we work for and fought for a base themselves and abandon principles and embrace the kind of low corruption of high treason that sits in the white house today. But we had the as leave me someone said a particular set of skills. Made us a nightmare for people like donald trump. [applause] we are called to this task. We fight hard. We fight very hard. Sometimes you might think we fight dirty. But that is the better we are in today. We fight hard and we strive for the right. Told this lincoln nation to do to do our duty. Ladies and gentlemen, i give you the Lincoln Project. [applause] it is always a challenge following rep. Olson on stage. Wilson on stage. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I come from california. I do want to speak a little bit about the Cooper Union Speech we are celebrating and honoring 160 years ago. For me, i know i cannot us escape the fact the address the aoper union was fundamentally moral pronouncement on race in america. It was not just about the eagles of slavery. Slavery. It was about our americanness and the concept that others could somehow join in the families of who we are in the idea of those who could not join had basic founding principles. And history should remember that while the first republican s National Ambitions were cemented in his speech in this great hall, the current republican president s ambitions were launched with a speech given not far from here as well. The speech at cooper union and the speech at trump tower offered to radically different perspectives on how republicans view and spoke about race and of americans defining issues their day. Indeed, the speeches could not be more diametrically opposed in tone, and most importantly in character. O views that cannot exist in one party. The view of lincoln bold,. Onfident, righteous the view of trump cowardice. Fear, and isolationism. As a californian i have seen with the future of trumps party looks like. I have seen the effects of the Republican Party that cowers in the face it the face of change. I have seen a party that has devolved into fear and anger over hope and aspiration. Ive seen a party that regresses into one of identity politics. A party that has become the home of an aggrieved racial minority, white in at is 80 state that is only 36 white. [applause] the california Republican Party has become a hollow shell of its former self. The birthplace of aspirational reagan conservatism has become a wasteland of dystopian trump nationalism. Those of us working on the Lincoln Project will fight for a different future, and we want you to join us. [applause] as Abraham Lincoln did 160 years ago i want to conclude by speaking to my republicans, the average order the average voter. The people on stage have dedicated their lives, careers, to working for the values the Republican Party articulated here by Abraham Lincoln. We have worked alongside of you, registered voters with you, worked precincts and campaign. We have fought with you. We know you. You,ow that many of millions, struggle with what you are seeing every day. Wondering what this party has become. And like you we know that what we are witnessing is not normal. It is not ok. It is not who we are. [applause] most important it is not who you are. And we know you are feeling this way because you know, you know this is not right. [applause] my advice to you, my fellow republicans follow lincolns message. Do what is right. Do what is morally right. When faced with much harder warces, slavery, secession, lincoln compelled us to rely on her better nature. He reminded us in these times it is our character being defined. Right makes might. He taught us. In fact, it is the only thing that can. Thank you. My fellow travelers. [applause] hello, im ron. Im a millennial. [laughter] it is well understood that my generation entered adulthood not able to take for granted some of the things our parents were. Economic stability, job opportunity. Now, my generation is being forced to learn that democracy cannot be taken for granted either. [applause] that the balances and the checks put into our system require enactment by Public Servants and that sub service sub service can be costly. The price of defending democratic ideals rises steeply when one party sacrifices its moral court in exchange for political advantage. [applause] as you may know, around the 1960s the gop realized it would be mathematically impossible for a republican to win a National Election ever again. Soon after came the southern strategy which exploited racism in the south to to white democrats. Later, the party coopted the church, creed of the moral majority and weaponized antigay sentiment, leaving a legacy of politically advantageous hate that i experienced personally growing up gay in a conservative evangelical home with pastors for parents and going onto work and republican politics for 17 years. [applause] as a publican republican strategist, i struggle to reconcile my hope for retaining the moral of lincolns party with the reality of a perverse yet more entrenched ideology or nevaeh of a cynical electoral calculation born of a cynical electoral calculation. That maligned my identity as a gay man. I didnt suddenly become troubled by the gop in 2016, but i did begin to despair of change from within. This modern party that had been built on exploiting minority groups had become unrecognizable from the one that Abraham Lincoln catapulted into victory from this podium 160 years ago today in a speech in which he meticulously laid out the wrongness of slavery and the moral imperative of standing against it. In his cooper union address, lincoln affirmed that there are moral truths and it is our duty to articulate them, and to create a country that reflects them. They certainly include that human lives are sacred and that people ought to treat one another with dignity. And there are fundamental tenets of democracy, that power is not its own justification, that the rule of law must be sacrosanct, that lies corrupt trust. Allowing trump and trumpism to prevail then and now amounts to abandoning such a moral foundation. To approving the exchange of what is right to what is expedient, to believing that there are no rules other than the ones you bend or break or make to win. That winning is the ultimate virtue. That might equals right. My generation started life as civics classes were dying and dilemma ethics were supplanting instruction and virtue, and moral relativism was blossoming. This world we have inherited has shaken us. We are learning, in an era of fake news, the preciousness of truth and the labor required to gather it. [applause] witnessing the court of Public Opinion so easily roused to sanction hatred, we are anxious for sturdier moral ground. And recognizing the threat of foreign interference in our democracy, we long for a leadership that, rather than gladly accept advantage, will rise to her defense. [applause] i would now like to introduce [applause] amen, brother. Ron, thank you and thank you to everyone who has come this evening, and to my fellow members here and those who arent here this evening. I would like to say to president sparks sent everyone else her, i have two great uncles who attended this institution. They were both electrical engineers and i am not. [laughter] i had written some words about party and politics and the practice of it. As i was Walking Around the lobby, i started thinking about something that was both indicative of president lincoln and indicative of the sacred ground that you have invited us to here tonight. You know, cooper said that, in his words, a union was a collectivity of a sheer will to achieve it, and i think that at least for this small band and a band that grows every day across this country and with the help of folks like you, i do not think we could have a better definition of union, and i also think it is appropriate that president lincoln was talking about union that was on the verge of a massive rupture and one that he would ultimately help to reunite and hope to bind up those wounds, although we know he did not have the opportunity. We know also that this is a hall and school of builders. President lincoln was a builder. Frederick wilson was a builder. They might not have built buildings, but they built belief, and they built movements, and in their own ways, they built the politics that so many of us knew about and expected for so long, and it is in that tradition and in their tradition and in their hallowed footsteps that we stand here before you tonight, so i ask that you permit me just a couple of minutes to talk about that building. We like to think about america as a home. For many of us who were born here, it was a home we have taken for granted. For those who have come here, let my ancestors and i am sure your ancestors, it was a home they could only dream of, and when they got here, they made the best of it, but we must build a new political home in this country. The home we have is pretty ratty. It has got two sides that do not talk to each other. One side is actually blatantly on fire at the moment. [laughter] and so we must decide what that new home looks like. We know that we will not all agree on what this house should be. We do not agree on design. We do not know what the rooms are windows will look like, but here is what we know. It must be big enough for anyone else to, to join us. [applause] it must be built with a wide, open front door. It must be built with windows that allow both the sunshine to come in and for those people in it to look out and see a better day. And i would say this. When we think about these things, the people that we hope to help us build this house will not be working in a vacuum. There will be plenty of folks who live and those houses that exist now who will defame us, who will try to stop us. They will tell us the house is not the right size. It is not the right color. It is not the one they want, and they will do everything they can to stop this, but here is what we know, that in this country, it is not the homogeneous coalition that ultimately succeeds. It is the heterogeneous coalition that ultimately succeeds. [applause] for People Like Us today who might not otherwise agree on everything. No one agrees on everything. The idea of purity, regardless of party, is irresponsible, and it is unrealistic. [applause] what i would ask is that we try to build this house not just for today, tomorrow, or for next month, but for next year but beyond, and we hope that you join us in this construction project, and we thank you for being here tonight. [applause] thank you. Thank you, reed. When Abraham Lincoln stood here 160 years ago, the United States was a nation of 34 million people. 25 million lived in the north, and 9 million in the south. 5 million lived in freedom in the south, and 4 million lived in bondage. Abraham lincoln knew a great storm was coming. He knew that the union was going to fracture, and he knew that there would be a great, costly war, but the idea is an idea that breathes life into a new nation in 1776. That idea was the most radical expression of Human Dignity and freedom ever put on paper by the mind of man, that all men are created equal and are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights, amongst them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And in the great war that would follow that would kill 600,000 people on the shores of our land, lincoln reconsecrated the idea of america, the only nation in the history of the world founded not on ethnicity, not on territory, not on land, but by an idea, which is why when somebody takes the oath of citizenship, they are as much an american in that instant as a descendent of the mayflower. [applause] one of the great battle captains of the civil war was William Tecumseh sherman. In 1861, he was a colonel in the union army, and in his letters, he was deeply skeptical of the potential leadership of a backwoods barbarian, as he was described, from illinois. Uneducated. Unsophisticated. And not up to the task. With months left in the war but the outcome clear, Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address talked to the country not of retribution, not of an imposition of cruelty, but he said it would now be time to bind up the wounds of the nation, to care for the widow and the orphan, with malice towards none and Charity Towards all. And when he was martyred weeks later, sherman, who had last seen him with grant at city point in virginia, the great union army headquarters, was asked to reflect on Abraham Lincoln, and what he said was that he had met all of the great men of the world, the kings, the emperors, the industrialists, but he had never met a man who possessed more of the qualities of greatness and goodness than Abraham Lincoln. When we think about this despicable and vile chapter in our history, we must do as lincoln instructed from this very spot 160 years ago. Have faith. This season of malice and meanness and indecency will pass. [cheers and applause] a president not long remembered was james buchanan, who, if he were with us today, would be grateful for donald trump. [laughter] because at long last, for the 15th president , the title of worst president in the union goes away. [laughter] [cheers and applause] [whistling] it is again up for gr