12 years. Raise your hand. [applause] Lynn Ron Berg for 13 years. We believe [applause] and thank you to all the other members tonight. Didnt want to name absolutely everyone but to have been giving since before we opened so is a special thing. I think occlusion of tonights q a, we invite you to the book signing which will be downstairs in the library. Joining us tonight is blumenthal and jamie to discuss his new book, all the powers of first. The third volume on his series. Hes the acclaimed author of a selfmade man in wrestling with his angel. The first two in his biography. The political life of lincoln. Hes been a National Reporter for the Washington Post and washington editor and writer for the new york. Bestselling clinton from authorize of the establishment and permanent campaign. Born and raised in illinois, he is in washington d. C. Congressman jamie probably represents the eighth Congressional District in the u. S. House of representatives. [applause] the district includes montgomery, carol and frederick counties. He was sworn into second term at the start of 116th congress on january 3 of this year. Is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School and professor of constitutional law at American University for more than 25 years. He and his wife have three children and live very nearby with her dog. [laughter] lincoln had a fascinating life in the second half of the 1850s. The years which he featured in the powers of the earth. A lawyer in illinois who decided to return to politics. In the end, was the Republican Partys first ever president ready to take away at the nations most dangerous moment. In between, there is a rhetorical battle with douglas, the house divided speech, some of the most famous and all that was over laughing and raising three boys. His product went from a trilogy to a fivepart series. The time he was working on this volume, the result is a highly informative descriptive description of his prepresident ial years and we have two people who know the jungle and struggle of politics. Please join me in welcoming blumenthal and congressman. [applause] this. I need to ask sidney questions with his often the times that i get to pose the questions. I make no pretense of objectivity. Im a huge fan of this extraordinary series that blumenthal is writing. I find it dazzling. I hope every american reads this book. It is remarkable. Let me start with this. You call one of your chapters about Stephen Douglas who was lincolns lifelong nemesis in some sense. You give it the title of ambition. The phrase lifted from the back. It over leaves itself. That phrase was invoked by senator charles referring to douglas. I raise that because lincoln was also profoundly ambitious. In his own way. I wonder if you would be willing to define and characterize the ambition of douglas, Abraham Lincoln and talk about the ways in which their ambitions were intertwined during the course of their careers. Its my great pleasure and honor to be here with my friend, jamie who represents a Congressional District. To be here in this very special place and i wish to thank the staff of Lincoln Cottage for holding this event and inviting us all here. Abraham lincoln and douglas were not in revelry since the 1830s. Douglas shot like a star early on. He rose and rose and lincoln said of the little giant, i walked between his legs as though. And yet, lincolns law partner, William Henry said lincolns ambition was like a little engine that knew no stopped. We are dealing with two extraordinarily ambitious people. Lincoln was envious of douglas. Douglas ran for president of his party. And lincoln at that time was already obscured. He finishes one term in the congress. Yet no prospects. He was there for long periods of time. He felt defeated. He said, what is there to be due when its done . He saw his life meaning in terms of public purpose. In changing the country. It became more so over time. As the crisis group. The ordinary words that people use has evolved and they say lincoln evolved but there was something deeper going on with lincoln. Lincoln was always natural, he didnt think it was an issue that would hurt the country until it grew apart in 1854. Sponsored by douglas. One of the most interesting things in their relationship is that douglas, through his own ambition and douglas is a ferocious figure. Hes a formidable figure. He is a man of great accomplishment. Hes a selfmade man. He comes from frontier state of illinois. On his own, he becomes this fullblown character, the judge on the state Supreme Court. Elected to congress, becomes a senator. He becomes a major figure on the national stage. Takes over for henry clay and falters politically in the compromise of 1850. He controls the poppies in washington and he owns a lot of real estate in chicago. Sounds lakefront property for a nipsey profit after sponsoring the Central Railroad act. [laughter] douglas raises the path through ambition. In his peers ambition, he knocks down all barriers and opens up the issue of the extension of slavery in the territories and rips the country apart a house divided. While his ambition is going, he gets lincoln on of his obscurity because of it. He cap huddles catapulted into a chrysalis. Then he merges. How is that on honest abes part . Would show up at douglas rallies and when they ended up in the douglas debates, that did lift lincoln out of obscurity. Jumping forward, 1854, lincoln is back in the resistance. He says we grabbed whatever we could. And we ran toward the sound of the battle. In 1856, the Republican Party. His own party has completely disintegrated, fallen apart and lincoln and many others in the state have to put this Party Together from pieces and hostile personalities and he uses that as his platform to run for the senate against douglas. In 1858. In order to get douglas to debate him, lincoln stalled him. [laughter] he went from city to city. Douglas is a great man. Douglas is holding rallies for opens thousands of people in open fields. Lincoln jumped on the train. Hes going to go to the next stop, the next rally. He standing under a balcony while douglas is speaking. Finally, he goes with douglas into the famous debates. Lets talk about the Political Parties for second. He was instrumental, lincoln was instrumental in the creation of the Republican Party. He really put these pieces together to tell this story. Tell us first wife where they afraid to use the name republican in illinois . He said that was controversial in some places after a while. What made him such a diehard weeks . Tell everybody about why he hated the know nothings so much. This is a period in which one slavery breaks out as an issue in the country. Both parties fragment. There are two parties. The week party in the democratic party. The week party breaks apart into the northern and southern parts but it breaks apart into even more parts. A lot of whigs in the north end of the border states join another party enough movement called the know nothing more american party. This party is a reaction to the first wave of immigration in the u. S. The comfort Different Reasons because of the potato famine and the germans come because of the failed reveler liberal revolution. The germans are liberals. They come into the u. S. And the know Nothing Party has a platform. The platform is one pike. Only native born protestants should hold Public Office in the u. S. You had to be native born. It excluded all immigrants from every ever running for office. Lincoln loathes them foot he wouldnt denounce them publicly because he thought they would break up and he could coax many of his former whigs Party Members into a new formation. Lincoln is a patient one, he believed in cause and effect and he waited for the affect, understanding the cause. He does that with nativism and he thinks they will join a greater cause against slavery, at least some of them if i just wait it out and create a party. Hes pushed by the leading abolitionist and owen, who is a minister whose brother was the first martyr, a slavery editor who was murdered in 1837 illinois by a proslavery mob. He says we have to get this party going. Lincoln says, too soon. Cant organize this party. Too many of the people i work with are still with the know nothings. Just be patient. So that is very important in terms of thinking about lincoln all the way through his career, even through the emancipation proclamation which is lincolns patient about when he steps politically because he wants to step on solid ground and hold background on a principal basis. Thats why many of them trusted them. In illinois, they understood him. The new england abolitionist new york abolitionists were always weary of lincoln, even through the 1864 election. But the illinois abolitionist who came to know him, trusted him implicitly. They went to him initially because they understood they needed a politician to trust. They understood they couldnt do this on their own. I want to ask you a question about a 4yearold judgment and decisionmaking. You did something that i have not seen in other lincoln biographies. You devoted a lot of time to the political repercussions and al also, you devoted several chapters but certainly lots of pages to john brown and the hanging of john brown. Talk about the decision he made to do that and how it relates to writing what you described as a political biography as opposed to just a biography. Lincoln does not enter into this book until almost 200 pages. [laughter] its a long book. Bear with me. I advise you the story is the story of the creation of a crisis in politics and what happens with charles, whos the abolitionist senator from massachusetts delivers a stem mining speech on the senate on may 19, 1856, called the crime against him, according to sumner, raved. The forces that are trying to claimant as a territory in the state for slavery. Engaged in violence against of the state of settlers there. In south carolina, congressman of country south carolina. Undistinguished congressman. Undistinguished congressman of wealth whose sort of encouraged to do this violent act by the leading powers of the south who control the congress. Some of them are in a mess with a boardinghouse. They are known as the up street mass. [laughter] they are the chairman of all the committees and they run the congress and the century. They are the collective Mitch Mcconnell of the day. [laughter] and douglas was crab. Stephen douglas was desperate to win their approval to gain the denomination because they were the powers. They never trusted douglas because he was always after himself. They thought he was uncontrollable. Preston brooks enters the senate and he came with a golden hedge had and dashes him. It almost kills him. It was close to the senate. Whats important about this, sumner is the leading order against slavery in the u. S. Senate. And in congress. He represents the commonwealth of massachusetts. He represents the idea of the United States as opposed to the southern idea of the nation. Hes almost killed and sumner believes in a certain kind of politics. He believes in moral suasion. He believes in humiliating his enemies. Hes got to this position in massachusetts elected to the senate. Hes in politics so not really of politics. Once hes bashed on the head and spent several years trying to recover Stephen Douglas watched the whole thing. Very impossibly but attentively watched almost to death of Charles Sumner without moving a muscle to interfere. So he was not disapproving. So it was an extraordinary scene. Charles sumner is recovering. No one knows how hurt he is. He didnt know what brain trauma was. He finds himself in the home of an old friend. Alexis. The great french liberal who has written democracy in america during the jacksonian era. In this is a study, the study has two portraits. Washington and hamilton and thousands of books. Sumner and he sits there. Sumner about how slavery inevitably must be. He says how . How would this happen . Sumner says, i dont know. But i know it must end. And he says, the man is a prophet. And then in my book, we moved to lincoln. [laughter] i called the chapter on creation lincoln. Hes on the train, hes a lawyer. He just wrapped up some cases in illinois. Hes gone to bloomington illinois for the First Convention of the Republican Party and he doesnt know whos going to be there. Hes walking car to car while the train is moving. To see if there are any old whigs in these cars were coming. Any old friends. He wants the widest coalition. I can see that. [laughter] there arent too many. Illinois, the abolitionist while not necessarily, they understood they needed somebody like lincoln. He put together this new party and no one knew what it would be. You raise an interesting question earlier about the republican. It was considered to be too associated with radical abolitionists. Stephen douglas never referred to the reporting party. He referred to the black Republican Party. So in the beginning, it was called the peoples party. Not the Republican Party. It took a long time for the republicans in illinois to fully accept the use of the word republican. Not exactly night today. The radicalism of the origins of this party. Lincoln was sensitive to language. Language he he had with formal schooling. A passionate reader and shakespeare fanatic. You also are somebody who has made your career on language, talk about the importance of language in particular speeches in the development of lincoln as a politician over the course of his career. And how they were turning points for him. They were absolutely crucial for the rise of Abraham Lincoln, which is what this book covers. It is important for politicians at the time. We may forget that in the leading universities of the ti time. It was a major subject and it was considered a public person. He would spend about hours, weeks starting and working on his own his speeches. The speech, you can mark lincolns rise from the speeches. From 1854 street against the kansas nebraska act. In which he lays out the entire history constitutionally. He wants to know what the argument is of his opponent and he wants to knock it down. He wants to be thorough and logical. He wants to be fair minded and appeals including in some of his most famous speeches in the beginning, he makes an appeal and the evidence as a lawyer. He regards douglas as an illogical liar and demagogue. Which he was. A very capable one. So lincoln does the old constitutional history of antislavery in this very first speech. Then speech by speech, you can mark lincolns rise. The famous speech called the law speech. Lincoln didnt want it reported because it was too radical. Just replace the name republican at the time. A lot easier to lose speeches in those days. A lot easier and it was no cspan. The house divided seats, house divided against itself cannot stand the country half slave and half free. I would really explain the National Debate and explaining what the country is going for. Thousand and acceptant speech. All of lincolns advisors except for his law, they urged him not to give a speech because it was too advanced. He gives that speech, its the first speech of its kind, before william, the senator of new york said that. He speaks it before then. It comes from two parts of the bible. Lincoln knows the bible, shakespeare, hes reading all the newspapers of the day. He and his partners have journals from england. He reigns john stuart folks. Hes reading all sorts of things. Hes even reading its correspondent in london. Thats in your book. [laughter] hes a wide reader. Then theres the speech which he delivers in february 1860 of the new york notables. Which he says right makes money. He lays out the entire history in it investigation, hes done on his own of the founders and antislavery background in order to refute that decision delivered by the judge of maryland, the chief justice of the Supreme Court. [laughter] he said the black man has no rights but the white man has to respect. To systematically in detail refute that decision. These speeches are not only eloquent, they are deeply researched. There his own investigation. They are deeply constitutional and historical and lincoln distills at all himself. Hes doing this process himself. I wanted to tell little stories like oak with your book. One is in the first volume of this series, i think you can get off, i dont know if its the first page, with lincoln saying i, myself was a slave and telling a story which i will allow you to account. In this book, there are a number of parts that moved me to tears but one was the story of lincoln being contacted by our free africanamerican who got essentially kidnapped and tricked into slavery. Lincoln trying to raise money to purchase and paid for most of it himself. It fit on what we can understand is this real moral and political understanding of slavery to happen. Lincoln said in one of his autobiographies, im naturally antislavery. He meant he had been born into it. At his parents were opposed to slavery. They were very unusual people especially for semi illiterate at best poor whites that belonged to a small emancipation of the primitive baptist church. His father left kentucky, fled because he was forced to compete for wages with slaves. Lincoln says therefore poor whites to flee from. In 1856, at the time lincoln had become a republican before a crowd, he said i used to be a slave. Then realizing the gravity of the statement which was quite shocking to people at the time. Now the practice law but what did he mean by that . He really meant his father rented him out. Until he was 21 years old, he took his wages. His father was opposed to lincoln, it was his stepmother that protected him and allowed him to read on his own. Lincoln regarded himself as a slave and regarded himself as self emancipated. As a profound effect on lincolns point of view and understanding