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 University Lutheran 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 concept of popular sovereignty, the notion that the people should decide the slavery issue for themselves. Lincoln asked the hypothetical question that to apply the doctrine of a place like mexico , where the inhabitants were not white. When we get to mexico i do not know whether the judge will be in favor of mexican people because we know the judge has a great horror of mongrels. That the mexican people are, most decidedly, a race of mongrels. Lincoln continued by saying i understand that there is not one person out of eight that is pure or white, and i would assume from the judges previous declaration that would make it to mexico that he will be in favor of these mongrels is out settling the question, which would bring him somewhat into and collision with his horror of an inferior race. Even if allowance is made for these comments by lincoln happened in an intense debate where they had serious race debating, he still used derogatory comments about hispanics where there was no apparent motive. In describing the cubans he pulled no punches. He said their butchery seems to me most unnecessary, they were fighting against one of the worst governments of the world. It but the real problem was that the real people had not asked for assistance they were neither desirous of or looking for civil liberty. He liked to make references, extolling the innovation and brilliance of what he called the Young America as opposed to the old fogey countries. The less iell you, like him using that phrase. My wife of 31 years makes reference to that many times, and every time she says that, i must confess that i do not think of Abraham Lincoln, i think i have become an old fogey. I wish he had come up with a different phrase. He concluded with a habit of observation, people almost instantly discovered California Gold in california, which had been trotted on an overlooked by mexicans and indians for centuries. It was in that same speech that he made on his few remarks about the people of asia, the nonwhite group he had the least acquaintance with and opportunity to think about. For one, he had never been to asia or arguably for that matter barely got out of United States, he claimed that the intellectual curiosity and scientific progress was the exclusive domain of the western world. He world. He recognized asia as having that like africanamericans, were the human zines were indeed human beings, but he said it was an ancient crumbling civilization whose time is long past. Human failure originated in asia, they have worked their way principally westward. Right now the people are utterly behind europe, while we here in america think we discovered and invent and improve faster than any of them. Recognizing that perhaps he was on a bit of thin ice, he concluded they may think this is arrogance. But i cannot deny that russias show them on us to how to build steamboats and railroads, while in other parts of asia they scarcely know such things in this exist. In anciently inhabited ,ountries, there is a real downright old fogey of them smother that seems to deteriorate the intelligence. Man at the expense of degrading other people, it was lincolns intention to convince his fellow countrymen that they would be on the next great stage of history. A most successful strategy to flatter voters during his assent into national politics. Lincoln, to his credit, did put his money where his mouth was. It was discovered long ago that during his less than successful first term in the house of representatives, he joined Many Americans and contributing 10 which is 500 of todays money to the Irish Relief Fund during the great famine. Perhaps this is because his First Teacher had been of irish descent. He was described as a man of excellent character, deep piety and a fair education. He had been reared catholic but made no attempts to proselytize. The great president always mentioned hymns in terms ham and great terms of ham in terms of great respect. Whether this irishman left a lasting impact, he was always interested in the culture. He knew and recited speeches from robert emmet, especially the closing first where my country shall take its place among the nations of the earth, then read up on my epitaph i am done. Lincolns favorite valid was the lament of the irish immigrant set to music. While many of his quips are famous, he often resorted to analogies, sometimes caustic and a bit insulting to make a point. Of airst reported jive poor irishman came in his congressional speech talking about sensible improvements when he described the plight of a man with new boots. I shall never get them on until i wear them a day or two and stretch them a little. Late in the war, one contemporary observer recalled there is a mechanic meeting there was a Cabinet Meeting that afternoon. General grant had just returned with an account of the south, a nd a good feeling manifested by the officers of the confederate army, who were ready to lay down their arms and get to work. Someone said about rounded up something about rounding up Old Jefferson davis, lincoln said i hope you would disappear like pattys fleet, i hope he is not there. This is quite consistent with his desire to not have any show trials or punitive commissions. , he oftenconciliation used jokes, maybe ethnic ones, to soften the message of mercy or to have a helpful blindness to pass on. They were not very racist or part certainly compared to his contemporaries. Who shows sympathy and awareness for the one mans plight chiding him slightly for his conditions. Nearly everyone especially poor immigrants understood the preference of fleas and ill fitting footwear. Lincoln when the Republican Party was formed in 1854, the newly created antiimmigrant know nothings drifted into the party to adoptd republicans an antiimmigrant stance. Lincoln refused. When he ran for president , lincoln opposed any change to immigration laws or state legislation that afforded a right to state chip a great store be impaired in any way, shape, or form. He advocated for a full and efficient protection of the rights of all classes of citizens native or naturalized culture, while visiting cincinnati on his way to washington, outside a group of german workingmen came to serenade him. Had put on a melancholy mood and this seemed to console him. It was entertaining those germans with genial and lively conversation. Lincoln went to the balcony to of germany 2000 more citizens who had voted for him because they believed him to be the stout champion for freedom. Intensively asd a man was asked to speak for his country. Cincinnatimans of use this opportunity to assure message of sincere heartfelt regard. You earned our vote as the champion of free labor. If two is said you should be in need of man, the german free workingmen will rise as one man to your call ready to risk their lives in their effort to maintain victory already won by slavery. And of quotes. Germans soon see the delivered on their promise, lincoln understood the challenges immigrants face. He worked the land with his hand for many years. Most of his life in the agricultural area. As a lawyer practicing agriculture law he had to Pay Attention to the National Outlook of land, to issue links to taxes. To see the relationship between town country and see how their presence increased the American Labor force. , in this regard andd readily applicable to the growing population in his day was his intent and can genuinely developing commitment continually developing commitment that all people should receive full and fair award for their labor so that they might have an opportunity to rise in life. For the son of an almost illiterate poor father who in time rose to the white house, this commitment was a personal one for Abraham Lincoln, and this, lincolns american dream, became a mantra throughout his entire life. He expressed sympathy for the many poor, as he called them, since he had long himself been one. By the 1850s, this compassion manifested itself in a flow bone fullblown policy at Economic Development and free labor. Welcoming,he accepting and utilizing up immigrants labor. Lincoln understood that such Development Enhanced the chances that a common man could improve their lives. One such manifestation of lincolns broad view of how to serve the interests of the many poor was this attitude he had towards immigrants. He never shared the nativist leanings of the old ways whigs. Certainly there was a political ingredient, but it was made much more of future hopes rather than contemporary realities. The civil war not only diverted thousands of americans from civilian into military pursuits, it also drastically reduced immigration. At first, the Lincoln Administration tried to meet the difficulty through the unofficial state department efforts, and by aiding the work of safe agents. With lincoln taking an active interest in the matter. By 1863, he determined he the president had to do more, and he directly asked congress for assistance. His annual message to congress requested they devise a system for encouraging immigration that spoke of the immigrants from the old world as a source of national wealth, and it pointed to the labor shortage in both agriculture and industry and to the tens of thousands of persons destitute of remunerated occupations, who desperately desired to come to the United States but needed assistance to do so. This conclusion showed that in spite of slavery and the war, linkedin could still be a perceptive server of the linkedin could still be a perceptive server of the american people. Andress responded, immigrants responded in a major way to the coming of the industrial revolution. The beginning of a new life not only for themselves but for their adoptive country. This is the first, last, and only law in American History passed by congress to encourage the flow of immigration, signed appropriately on july 4, 1864, not something we hear about very much recently in the sesquicentennial of the civil war, is it . To his dying day, lincoln related to the immigrant that few of his contemporaries good. He regaled the audience with his memory once again of working on speech, andn a owning only one pair of buckskin breeches to his name. Now he said, if you know the nature of buckskin when wet and dried in the sun, it will shrink. I breeches kept shrinking my breeches kept shrinking until my legs were bare between the tops of my socks and the lower part. While i was growing taller, they were becoming shorter, and so much tighter that they left a blue streak around my legs that can be seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy, i plead guilty to the charge. [laughter] there were not many people who would doubt were lincolns allegiance lay. Americanseveral could relate to the austerity and poverty. He was of the people, the immigrant, who lincoln said god loved so much because god made so many of them. To lincoln, america never ceased to be the land of opportunity, and he welcomed newcomers to its shores long before the statue of liberty represented the immortal words of lazarus. The struggle of america to lincoln created a nation in which a poor, backwards boy could rise to the panicles of power and success. Pinnacles of power and success. Regardless of nationality, you could be insured the same chance. These feelings were borne out, remembering his past was evident on a speech that he gave on his way to washington for his inauguration. Emotionwith deep presented his philosophy. I have never had a feeling politically but did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the declaration of independence. It was that which gave promise that the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all that, and that they should have an equal chance. When lincoln was in the telegraph office pacing or pondering, he would say to the awestruck soldiers there, well, boys, we are down to the reasons when he completed his task. I think i am down to the raisins , and i want to thank you guys for being a fantastic audience. If you had nearly as much fun as i just said, you are delirious with happiness. Thank you. [applause] Jason Silverman i imagine it is time for questions. Question. Say about thecoln current immigration situation from the temporary ban to the wall . What would lincoln think about that . Ison silverman you know when first gave a talk, i was not prepared for that talk. That was before that question. 2015. As before september not ready. It has been asked. My opinion is lincoln would be appalled at what is going on right now. I understand and i tell my students repeatedly that is very, very difficult to measure a historical figure in terms of present date. That is unfair. Lincoln lived in a different time than we do. Words we take lincolns as his guide, lincoln believed that immigrants represented wealth for the United States. They would contribute to the wellbeing economically of the United States in the longterm. So to lincoln, immigrants were an asset. They never reliability. He always believed, and he is sort of a remarkable human being, because virtually all the time, he tried to do the right thing. He genuinely believed we represented an opportunity in this country for people leaving either lands that had been torn by revolution or poverty or despair or hunger or destitution , and that coming to the United States, and you give somebody a chance, they have the opportunity to rise through hard work he was not going to hand out anything to anybody but his own life as a poor child was foremost in his mind. I think the notion of a wall being built or the notion of deporting immigrants, or breaking up families, would have been absolutely deplorable to him. Thank you. [applause] Jason Silverman wow. Talking to my friend, john, before he introduced me, and his words are now prophetic. He always likes to think when he gives the top, and there are no questions, that he did such a great job, that he answered all the questions. Come to theding microphone. Obviously i have not answered all the questions. Recall, lincoln said some very mean things about the fact that a lot of immigrant voters, votes could be bought, and they would be transported from one polling booth to another. That is not a kind view of immigrants. Could you enlighten me on that . Jason silverman i would love to. The group you mentioned are irish. [laughter] Jason Silverman the irish support of the democrats, not the republicans, so lincoln is a pragmatic politician. And he is genuinely worried that votes, because this is the middle of the 19th century, there is all sorts of possibilities that could go wrong, lincoln would say some herbal things about the irish. But if you are asking me the bottom line, the bottom line is, he was concerned about fraud and corruption in an election. Even though he would use, perhaps, insulting language about the irish for hispanics, there was nothing in lincolns being that would enable him to discriminate against those people. So consequently, the comments that he makes and i dont mean to make excuses, because he does speak in the language of a mid19th century westerner. The irish, even though they were members of the opposition party, would never feel the wrath of lincolns discrimination or punishment. He was not punitive in any way, shape, or form. You came up here with purpose and determination. Now i am scared. I am going to get you. Back then, immigrants could vote, right . You did not get registration or citizenship papers . Jason silverman they had to be naturalized, but once you are naturalized, you could vote unless it was illegally. But who kept the voter rolls, and how did they know. I assume that different states allowed people to vote. Yes, you arean talking about records that were not necessarily the most accurate or the most comprehensive, but before ellis island, there was castle pardon, so they came into the country theoretically through new york. In their states and in their locales, they would have been naturalized after a certain period of time, even though the opposition wanted to expand them so it would take forever to become naturalized. Then barring any kind of opportunity to deny them votes, they could vote probably at the state level, local level, so they did. Jason silverman they did. The irish voted against lincoln. There is no doubt about that. For all i know, they voted early and often against Abraham Lincoln. Yes, sir. At that time, the Voting Rights are only for the tax onlys and landowners, so nationalized citizens were able to vote . Jason silverman starting before the era of andrew jackson, states started liberalizing their property requirements for voting. That was part of the jacksonian rebellion. The word populism, which i am sure some of you heard in the newspaper lately, right . Ans was not necessarily obstacle to voting by the time of lincoln. You did not have to own huge chunks of property as you might have had to own early in the republic. It means the state Voting Rights are far are for all naturalized citizens, not for the landowners or the taxpayers . That was the way it was before andrew jackson. Ok. And it could be very fair from that scenario to todays scenario. What was lincoln understanding about islam and other religions . ,ason silverman well, you know the answer to that question is probably very little. People, and all of the corners of the world that lincoln seemed to have the least experience and knowledge about, it would be that areas. Lincoln was visited in the white , i believe he was the first naturalized japanese american citizen, a man by the name of joseph teko, and he wrote a twovolume autobiography which is fascinating. O,y bring this up, tek lincoln was like a sponge, asking and asking questions about asia in his conversation because he dido, not know much about it. So i would have to say that as far as i know, there was not an enormous amount of experience or opportunity for lincoln to engage in any kind of thought about that. Oh, im sorry. Oh gosh, i am so sorry. I have always been told i have a big mouth and can be heard everywhere, but apparently not. Thomas jefferson, he had some translation of koran in his library, personal library, to understand. Maybe that is my own opinion to understand the psyche of the slaves at that time, but i mean ison silverman you know, dont want to disparage Abraham Lincoln by any stretch of the imagination, but he is predominantly self educated. , he donates his library and becomes the library of congress, so he is much better read than the mayor lincoln. At lincoln would always ask number of questions to learn about something he knew nothing about. Thank you. Jason silverman yes, sir. [applause] that was the last question. Jason silverman that was it . Thank you so very much. 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