Honor to me to introduce Jason Silverman. He is the junior professor of history at winthrop university, where he has taught for 33 years. I wanted to find out a little bit more about him, i went to no better source than ratemyprofessors. Com. If that site is any indication of how students feel about him i , can tell he is well loved, heres a few comments. One wrote that he is an amazing professor in his class, he lectures but they are far from boring. You will need to read for the test because he does not cover everything from the book. You also have to attend class because every day is something new. Another one wrote that this class is not easy, but you can talk to him and he will tell you to take notes. He is very helpful. [laughter] remarknumber of students that he always begins with a joke. Someone wrote most are dirty, but funny. I want to warn you the audience, you have to be careful when you ask questions because that i wouldrote kill for this man, literally. So do not at go after him too hard. In a few years ago, one student called him the best professor at winthrop, and concluded with for a 52yearold man he is pretty hot, too. So please join me in welcoming Jason Silverman. [applause] jason that was 10 years ago. [laughter] i have not checked lately the ratemyprofessors. Com. I would have to imagine that, on some level, all i can say today on some level my hotness has , deteriorated. All i can say today is out. Wow. This is an incredible experience for me i want to thank john for me. I want to thank john for that touching interview, as a historian he certainly went back in time. I want to thank the Abraham Lincoln institute for posting this, it is a dream come true. I can tell you i grew up in alexandria, virginia, just across the potomac, washington, d. C. Was always a place where field trips came and went. Fords theatre and lincolns memorial, all of those things held a very dear spot in my heart. But i would be remiss if i didnt tell you that i have been interested in with Abraham Lincoln since the fourth grade. And i must confess, it was an act of defiance on my part. My fourth grade teacher for parents night decided that we were going to have silent vignettes. In other words, you just stood there and the parents looked at you. Maybe they did amelia ehrhardt, iwo jima, and one of the ones they chose was a lincolndouglas debate. I got my hopes up tremendously. And then she said you cannot be Abraham Lincoln, you are not tall enough. You have to be Stephen Douglas. [laughter] well, it was on that day that i decided i was going to be interested in Abraham Lincoln out of defiance if nothing else. And now i am completing my 33rd year at the university where i have taught about him in rooms full of south carolinians. So please forgive me if i look up at the box and say mr. President , i made it. I made it. [applause] i have been fortunate enough to have done some work in an area of Abraham Lincoln that has really not attracted and a normas amount of attention, and i would like to share some of that with you today. As i tell my students at the beginning of every class, please fasten your seatbelts, and lets go back in time to the era of Abraham Lincoln. May 4, 1865. Oak ridge cemetery, illinois. The weather is warm, and the sun is shining through the clouds. The day is peaceful, and wind blows through the prairie to the west. Everybody in springfield is on the street and they are silent and mournful. Their sorrow is so allencompassing they do not know where to go or what to do. The landscape is beautiful, it has been specially cared for for this occasion. The clergyman is a tall, distinguishedlooking academic sort who spoke with a softness that belied his younger evangelical days. ,bishop Matthew Simpson was delivering the Funeral Service and sermon. He quoted the deceased with deep conviction. Words that spoke of great work to be done. They conjured up a specter of evil in the land. Broken by it i may be, about to out to it i never will, the probability that we may fail in the struggle is not to deter us from the cause that we believe is just. It shall not deter me. If i ever feel the soul expand and elevate to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of his almighty architect it is when i contemplate the cause of my country, deserted on all sides, and i standing up boldly and alone, hurling defiance at our victorians desultory us victorious oppressors. The declaration was of a young Abraham Lincoln who on the day of christmas the bishop , 1839. Interpreted his words with words that were natural to the nation. Here was a testament of a beloved martyr, who dedicated himself in his youth to the great struggle of his life against the slave power. The bishop quoted him accurately. He had unearthed a longlost speech that would be lost again. But he did make one error. This feature is not about slavery, it was about the making, about banking, industry, and immigrant labor. The combination should not surprise us. For more than four decades, he probably talked about economics and labor and used those terms labor, to use those terms broadly, than any other issue, including slavery. The bulk of his discussions were and economic focus and they proceeded this, they went mostly unrecorded. The main line of his thinking survived. Immigration . Abraham lincoln . Absolutely. He lived in an era where immigration was his as controversial as it is today. Between 1840 and 1860, more than 4. 5 million newcomers arrived, most of them from ireland, the german states, and scandinavian countries. Many more went back and forth across the border from mexico. From an early age, lincoln developed an awareness for different peoples and their cultures. While no doubt a product of his time, he nevertheless refused to let himself be blinded by adversity. Throughout his legal and political career, he retained an affinity for immigrants, especially the germans irish, the jews, and scandinavians. Indeed immigrants and their , plight were never far from his thoughts or plans. His travels down the Mississippi River exposed him to the sites ights, sounds, and taste he could only dreamed about. More importantly, he established the sympathy for the rest of his life when it came to the foreign born and the enslaved. It must have been an odd sight, seeing that tall boy sailing down the Mississippi River in 1829, with his companions, wideeyed and in on of everything that he saw. , and free of the obligations of his father and on a and lincoln set off flat boat with his stepbrother, cousins, and employer. Must have been an amazing sight, elan cabin on a raft with barrels and hogs on a raft with barrels and hogs think about it. They set off on an adventure of a lifetime. In the first time in his young life, he was traveling far. And while he could not know it, what he would see would shape his thoughts for the rest of his life. During his trip, he first made contact with foreigners in the exotic port city of new orleans. One on the road, he probably did one author wrote that he did from thenguish swedes dutch, russians, italians, and others in the city, but he did immigrantst the formed a significant part of the american population. Two voyages to new orleans were especially important for his development. They formed the longest journeys of his life. His First Experience with a inhis First Experience with a major city, his only visit to the deep south. His sole exposure to the region of the brain regions brand of slavery and slave trading. This is the closest the ever came to immersing himself in a foreign culture. He never spoke of his trip save for a brief description of preparation, and a couple of incidents in illinois. Others did. In interviewing john hanks, the cousin of lincolns biological joined lincoln on his second trip, and lincolns eventual law partner, he recorded that landed in new they landed new orleans. I can say it is on this trip that he formed this opinion it put a fire in him then and there. That was 1831, i have heard him say that often. His flat boat journeys exposed him for weeks on end of the vastness of american life. No subsequent travels would ever match the length of those journeys. Him in theed relationship between transportation and Economic Development in the midwest west. Lincoln understood that a better Transportation System would improve the Economic Life of illinois, raise Living Standards for all and enhancing property values. His river journeys also show ed that by controlling the unsettled domains in illinois, the state could accelerate preparations for wealth and population to spread throughout the state. Seeing america firsthand from a flat boat transfixed lincoln the core economic principles such as free labor, transportation monetization internal improvements and most assuredly the need to attract immigration. His trips to new orleans represented his journey to the slave south, the places where enslavedbash africanamericans abounded but enslaved africanamericans abounded but also dominated overwhelmingly. New orleans was the largest city he had ever seen. It would remain so until he stepped onto the National Scene as a newly elected congressman in 1848. More importantly, he represented the most ethnically diverse and culturally foreign city in the United States. While lincoln would take a day trip to Niagara Falls, new orleans would represent the closest he went to another country. I must add that come on, Niagara Falls . With all the respect to the canadians, that is not like leaving the country. While he occasionally encountered french or spanish foreigners, he got a perspective that no other place or time in his time would provide. In the midst of this complex and contentious socioeconomic and Political Landscape walked a young Abraham Lincoln in 28 1828. Evidence of ethnic tension had been obvious to any visitor. In the street or in conversation, or in the press. Im sure lincolns on newspapers that directed scorn toward one group of immigrants or another. Editors promised that their views would be purely american. And obvious nod to the parties that would try to exploit this in 1850. Lincoln would have been present in new orleans at the time and seen firsthand the difficult time the immigrants would have that was heavily populated by a ford born elements. Creolesresent when suffered by people you are not considered native born. Creoles quickly became an and thef scorn, treatment of immigrant groups formed an impression upon visitors like lincoln, which lasted his entire lifetime. In new orleans, he would see the largest concentration of free people of color, some of the best educated and wealthiest people of african ancestry anywhere. Commentedpecifically on the diversey, but came close when he personally hand edited the section of that in 1860. After marveling at the many negro planters of the sugar louisiana, it is a cosmopolitan oasis, where they have the polished old world exile of france, spain, and englands made babble in the speeds. Streets. Lincoln found himself enthralled with all of the culture he witnessed in new orleans. Later on in his life he would remember what he saw as a youth and he would fiercely oppose the Nativist Movement as well as the know nothing party. A part of new orleans would even follow lincoln to springfield. A free black man of french african ancestry found new orleans to be a hostile place for free people of color in the 1820s. Fearing kidnapping and enslavement, he fled to st. Louis and then found his way up to the illinois river. While approaching the village of new salem, he overtook a tall man wearing a flannel shirt and and carrying an ax. They fell into conversation and walked to a Grocery Store together. The tall man was lincoln, he soon learned that the stranger was a barber and out of money. Mr. Lincoln took him to his boardinghouse and told the people there of his is this an his business and situation. That opened the way for him to have an evenings work on the among the borders. Later, lincoln convinced him to settle in springfield, get married, raise a family and prosper as a barber. Lincoln knew him endearingly as billy the barber. It was this man who groomed him and his attorney days, just before his final departure from springfield to become president of United States. Over the years it is likely he enjoyed many conversations on east adams street about new orleans, immigrants, slavery on with thissippi river man who became his friend. Would seemrsations to be of substance, and surely the foundations of a genuine friendship, because late in 1863, he wrote a warm letter of emancipation the proclamation that had gone into effect a year earlier. I thought it may not be improper for want to address the president of the United States , he wrote, i do so saying if it is received by you it will be read with pleasure and communication from your dear friend. In all likely hood likelihood, lincoln first learned about haiti in 1831. Three decades later president , Abraham Lincoln would officially establish diplomatic relations with the independent caribbean nations of haiti. There had to be some influence there. Ironically, it was through lincolns connection to new orleans and the efforts of several immigrants that the great emancipator later freed one of his first people of color. John shelby, while traveling in found the same6, hostility that had existed years earlier. Not having the proper papers to travel easily in the crescent city, he was arrested and imprisoned. Somehow he made contact with the attorney benjamin jonas, he was suggested that he contact a prominent lawyer back home in illinois whose influence may help the case and arrange for his release. Jonas recognized the name because lincoln was a very good friend of his father. His father was a leading citizen of springfield and one of the first jewish settlers and the springfield region. Word spread of printer up river to show his mother and shelbys mother and lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was very much moved according to his early biographers and requested that he go to the statehouse and inquire if there was not something that could be done to obtain possession of the manfred the man. They made the report and returned with regret to say that they have no ability to act. He wrote with good excitement, by almighty i will have that negro soon or i will write until you do have a right to have me in the premises. Was, lincoln lacked any further recourse, and orleans have the law on its side. 60. 30 out of the metropolitan bank in new york, and sent the funds to benjamin jonass office in new orleans. They paid the fine, and buyer early 2 by early june, he was returned safely to springfield. John shelby then became among the first freed by Abraham Lincoln. Surely this would have resulted in his forced enslavement and permanent forced labor if he was not released. But lincolns affection for the presumed you would take action just as much for them is for shelby himself. As one regarded shelby rush a valuable friend, and their friendship dated back to the 1830s. He never forgot nor did he ever minimize the role of personal development that those experiences as a flat Boat Operator played. While on the campaign trail he cast his flat boat travels as a firming, dues paying experience, assuring his political supporters that has presently rising stature made him no less a man tolerant of the people. It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens of this county, who 12 years ago new me as a strange, friendless, workinged penniless boy on a flat boat. For 10 a month, and now i have been put down as a candidate with aristocratic family distinction. 20 years later, lincoln returned to the same theme. Free society is such that a poor knows he can better his condition. He knows there is no fixed condition of his labor for his whole life. Thatnot ashamed to confess my five years ago i was a hired laborer, hauling rails and working on a flat boat. Man andht happen to any a poor mans son. On a personal and a littleknown episode of his life, he became friends with a professor at Illinois UniversityLutheran School in springfield. Lincolns oldest son attended class with the reverend. He would frequently call on him to discuss his sons studies, because at the time robert was not an enthusiastic student. I bring this up to my students on a number of occasions to tell them that all you need is a little enthusiasm to be that that much of a better student than robert todd lincoln, son of the president of the United States. They look at me like your point is what . Lincoln even served on the border of the directors of the school. He had experience as member of the city council of princeton, illinois. He was an outspoken opponent of slavery, andand lincoln took be a liking to him since they shared Strong Political believes. As he became a loyal and consistent supporter of lincoln on the press and on the stump. Enlisted ins sons the human army, being one of the first swedish soldiers to fall in battle. Lincolns philosophy was far more complicated than me with that which related to the free labor economy. He was a product of his time and environment, and despite whatever economic constituents are represented, irish, dutch it is monolithic. Lincoln on the other hand, perceived every group is distinctive in its own right. Because he saw the diversity of these groups rather than just assigning them into groups as for north foreigners or savages his relationship with , these groups was as inconsistent as the man himself. Like most westerners he had an a low opinion of latin american civilization, and his references to hispanics were flattering. Never flattering. In his debate with Stephen Douglas he attacked the conce