We are using this time to reach out to our senior phallus, friends and constituents to talk about the important issues and ethics in public life that are at the heart of the councils work. So thank you all for joining us. Todays topic is democracy on the verge, leadership in times of crisis. This title is a play on the title of the new book, lincoln on the verge, 13 days to washington, written by our good friend and carnegie fellow ted widmer. Great to see you ted. Thank you its good to be here. Im going to let ted described the book i will set the outset it is really a thriller. The book is cinematic, its philosophical, it is a great story. And for me it is inspirational. Like all of teds work, lincoln on the verge, uses the path to enlightenment future and suggest a better future. This is not a bad formula for an entrant understanding the intersection of ethics and Public Policy for this and many other reasons im grateful to ted for his own leadership in our field. In addition to his career as a writer, author and teacher he has been a white house speech writer and a state department historian. He has witnessed the messy realtime compromises of democracy in action. And as max put it politics is a strong and slow boring. It takes both passion and perspective. In this way, ted, along with lincoln reminds us that ethics is not merely about dreams, but also about making hard choices. Weve asked ted to relate some of the lessons of his new book and personal experiences. Specifically we have asked him how should we be thinking about the health and wellbeing of democracy these days, especially as it is challenged by the urgencies of the pandemic and the deeper faultlines of polarization. Now before turning it over to ted, just a word about our format. We have asked ted to kick things off with a short presentation, after that ted and i will have a bit of a dialogue and in the back half the program will be interactive so please use your chat function to pose questions as we go. Our moderator, alex will read the questions on your behalf. So over to you ted congratulations on the book and perhaps you could kick us off with some brief reflection on the book. So thank you so much joel what a lovely introduction. I want to thank you enough Carnegie Council for being such good friends for now quite a few years. I think i met joel about 20 years ago. We are both friends with a great historian who was also a careful student of Current Events and Foreign Policy that was james chase who was a very good friend of both of us. He knew you cant really study the current political environment without a sense of history. And also knowing where we are as a nation now, paradoxically can inform the writing of history and present was on my mind as i did this deep immersion in a twoweek period in february 1861. We are a divided country now as everyone knows, we are divided in many ways not just republicans and democrats. The lincoln moment i chose to write about, i think is the only time the division was even worse. So with that problem think again in the 13 day train trip that lincoln was on, i did not know when i began the project, now almost ten years ago, that our problems would be as deep as they are. That we have International Problems i hope we can talk about them im very worried about the standing of the u. S. In the world as i know you are. And what it means to be an ethical leader in the world community. Which is so important for the United States to fulfill that role. And i am also very troubled about how deep the political divide is mainly between democrats and republicans. But even within the two parties, its restive it is not settled, people are not happy for a lot of reasons. We are racially divided you saw that terrible shooting in georgia that got into the news over the last couple days. Were still trying after all of these decades, more than 200 years, to figure out what it means to be american. Joel and i have talked about that many, many times. So this book project has helped me a lot to reflect on that larger question. It began in a pretty ordinary way. I was writing a series of almost blog post i would not even call them quite articles. But short essays in the New York Times beginning around 2010, going up to about 2015 all around the 150th anniversary of our civil war. The idea was that we could find younger historians who were comfortable in the digital environment could put up more articles about history in the online New York Times than they would have been able to put in the printed paper. When it started the online New York Times was kind of a backyard no one cared about. It was fine to let a bunch of civil war historians right there. Since then, the online has become the main deal. It is fascinating to see now how things have changed and not that many years with the online environment is basically everything. But i was part of a kind of digital experiment to see if history could be done well and we found it really could be that in some ways its a much better environment to write history. You can put up beautiful photographs all kinds of graphics you get instant requests and questions and from readers like we can do in this conversation today. It was thrilling. Way back then i was thinking what is a kind of story i could tell wellin a format that wants me to it write one post a day. That was basically my job for them is what happened 150 years ago . I saw that lincoln had this 13 day train trip. I thought that is a perfect kind of story for submitting a daily blog. I could do here is what lincoln did on day one of the trip appears on day two, and we can put some photographs up of the cities hes passing through. It turned out to be a much better story and deeper story. For me it ended up literally consuming ten years of my life. Because it was so deep it was basically bottomless. Goes into the endlessly fascinating question of who is Abraham Lincoln . He is still elusive to a biographer even more than 15000 books have been written about him. Why did his speeches become so good . He had given a few important speeches, not too many, a few. The Lincoln Douglas debates are important the cooper Union Address in new york is very important, he steps it up to an even higher level while traveling under very difficult conditions. Under rapidly moving a railroad through all these different cities of the upper midwest in the north. And then how did he deal with some of the worst political problems any incoming president has had to deal with . He was elected with a very, very weak plurality it was not a mandate it was less than 40 of the vote he had the Second Lowest of votes of a winning president ial candidate and our history. Which is amazing if you think about how famous lincoln has become, to look at the bad hand he was dealt when he won the election. After John Quincy Adam he is the second weakest victor of a president ial race. Seven states succeed after he is elected so he is only the president elect of half a country. Then as i develop in the book, it was not at all certain he could even make it to washington to become the president of a country called the United States. Believe me, i have spent many years studying this. I was shocked by how much new information i was able to find by really digging into journal accounts from the winter of 1860 and 61, private correspondence between important players like William Henry stewart, new york senator and future secretary of state. Basically the democracy was hanging by a thread in the idea of a country called the United States of america was also hanging by a thread. Because washington was not very sympathetic capital to the president ial hoax of Abraham Lincoln and this very new, unformed party called the Republican Party which was not a grand old party. It was not grand and it was not old it was apparently one party and if you are a new england republican you are very different than an Illinois Republican or Wisconsin Republican they all had different goals and jungles. They are barely coherent as a party and lincoln is not much of a party leader. Hes an accidental nominee of party bosses and thats good for him. Hes not really dictating party policy. And then the situation in washington is terrible. The republicans are unpopular there is a nether president , a democrat, James Buchanan who is sullen and uncooperative with lincoln and its coming very close to recognizing the new confederate government which does not even really have a name yet. The states have seceded away from the u. S. They just have not quite formed in their new government. Foreign powers are on the verge phrase i use a lot on the verge of recognizing this new slave based country without a clear name yet. What i was shocked to discover was how close the south came to sending a pretty small set of militia soldiers, it would not have been organized troops but a couple hundred men with guns from virginia and maryland into the city of washington d. C. Which was barely defended at all and just taking over the u. S. Government, taking over the u. S. Capitol that included the library of congress and the senate and Supreme Court in the house. They would have had all of the treaties of American History they wouldve had the patents that dictated so much commerce, and they would have been able vectors papal records they wouldve been able to call themselves the night is states of america. And lincoln would have been a rogue president elect of Something Else who probably wouldve only been able to make it to philadelphia. He is the one who wouldve had to rename his country. No one quite knows what would have happened. But through incorruptible, moral leadership which gathered huge numbers of americans behind him including people who had not even voted for him, and physical courage. I talk a lot about how brave he was to stand out on that train platform day after day and night after night were anyone could get very close to him. That was the whole point. Hes defending democracy. And one really wild ride the last night of the trip when he went all night in an ordinary Passenger Car of an ordinary commuter chain train that went from philadelphia through wilmington and baltimore there is a very serious assassination conspiracy to take his life and arrived at dawn in washington on february 23, 1861, walked up capitol hill and by arriving safely i argue he made everything possible. Not just four years of his presidency, which we now know very well is historic. The civil war is one of the most important episodes in American History. In my epilogue i argue that so many episodes of americas moral leadership in the world, and americas greatness as a country, including our late but important entry into world war i, and our transformative role on us as well as on the world and world war ii, when we along with our allies crushed fascism, not just a few countries but an ideology that was very powerful and reasserted the importance of democracy, race blind democracy by the way. And within economic component is fdr always articulated it as the primary organizing idea of the world from 1945 on. Fdr dies in 1945 but we know very well what he says and i argue if lincoln does not survive his train trip, and then when the civil war and in the process revitalize all of those ideas about democracy specifically soaring language of the declaration of independence which is a document about human rights in addition to declaring the right to form a new country. Its also asserting the right to all human beings for foundational human rights. If lincoln does not get off the train live, i am not sure how world war ii turns out for the United States or the world. We are fighting that war with an equally powerful southern version of ourselves, that still has either real slavery or some modernized version of a wage slavery we are not able to inspire the worlds people to fight in world war ii the way we sit successfully did. And very aware weve often fallen short of our own standards and we have since them in vietnam, iraq, and im very aware that other countries often hold that up against us. But still, the fact that we won a civil war to reassert a better version of ourselves and lincolns language is still important in learning how we did that. And that we stood up to fight fascism and then build the International Architecture that this community of listeners know so well, the un. So many agencies including in a time of pandemic the world health organization. All of that is because people can Work Together and they should Work Together. We solve problems more effectively and we are united, internationally as well as nationally the least top attacking people for all of the wellknown problems we have. It is a civil war book comments even more specific than that its about 13 days only in the life of lincoln. But it argued that by surviving those 13 days in developing the big concepts that he does develop on that trip, he gave us all the rhetoric to use and every future predicament, we are certainly in one now. Host ted, thank you thats terrific not only summary that brings us forward to today and the future about how our principles relate to the formation of not only Public Policy but as youre saying our role in the world. There are so many dramatic moments in the book. I want to come back to one of them. Its really at the core of what you were just saying. Washington earth day 1861 its when lincolns train arrives in philadelphia and is called to speak at the Independence Hall. At that moment, maybe you could help the audience understand what actually comes together for lincoln at that moment and compare it to what was happening to his counterpart it was also having a journey of his own through the south, Jefferson Davis. What i took away from that was actually what inspired the solidarity youre talking about, was the point that lincoln came to and that famous speech in 1861. That in philadelphia became the rally points, the true north if you will. That was for lincoln, for the union, for what the country should be. Guest thank you for that question. That is the pivot of the entire book. Its a very short speech she gives insight Independence Hall on the morning of february 22, 1861. Its loaded with drama. As you say Jefferson Davis has been racing on a train of his own across the south and he has arrived. Lincoln is still trying to get to washington and the night before, he is heard from a really into female spy in baltimore, that there is an extremely serious conspiracy involving as many as a thousand people who will stab and shoot him when he comes through baltimore and the transfer between two train stations when he has to write a horse and carriage. So he has taken in that information the night before, pretty dark information. Hes got to go out and talk about democracy and trust between people. So its a very heavy moment for lincoln. But, brilliantly they have scheduled the talk for the morning of washingtons birthday. I argue that was a triumph of something we dont always think of an 19th century history. But then, as now, theyre thinking about the equivalent of photo ops and how to position the president elect and his tractive light as possible. Argue that southern leaders including davis, just as good a claim to george washington. George washington is a southerner and Jefferson Davis had close personal ties, relatives of his and his wifes hood fought in the American Revolution more than lincoln did. But lincoln was smarter and the way he thought about washingtons birthday. And to talk in Independence Hall on washington birthday thats a second both important day of the year after fourth of july. To talk in Independence Hall gave him a chance to talk about the declaration of independence which is for lincoln a core document. He has been talking about it for years. He hasnt almost a mystical attachment to that document and specifically the second paragraph with the great soaring language we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal either god their creator with certain unalienable rights and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is a lot of lincolns Political Program just in those sentences. In fact, affirmation of the declaration of independence was written into the republican platform of 1860. Its unusual the declaration goes into a political platform but it was really under attack in the 1850s as southerners were saying and more and more aggressive language, that was a mistake, that was some boilerplate 1776 obviously does not apply to africanamericans who arent really people in the full sense of the word and they are definitely not citizens in any sense. They cannot get married, they dont have last nays, they dont have any civil rights. That was a strong southern position in 1870 and Jefferson Davis himself goes on record and including in his Farewell Speech of the u. S. Senate he goes out of his way to say by the way the declaration of independence is not apply to black people. Lincoln comes in, and is always calming and unified language says theres not a political thought i have ever had it is not stem in some way from the declaration of independence. It is a powerful moment. He has been traveling in his mind through some of the darkest days of the American Revolution the days talked about washington at valley forge, he