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. Even beyond being opposed to being slavery. If you read lincolns work closely and read his speeches, they differ from a lot of the abolitionists who are appealing for sympathy. Many of the abolitionists had different doctrines and policies than lincoln, to but they als also much more religious. Yes in character. They want to make you cry. Lincoln often takes the point of view of the slave himself. He sees it from that pointmac of view. The very unusual rhetorical peace. He does it quite naturally and people dont comment on it. But hes doing it. There are no other way from a standpoint of the labor or dignity. There were a lot of people talking about this, a lot of people making the arguments and lincoln was unusually are going to. Personal. And personal solids come to this other story. In illinois, theres a small black community and a woman that lincoln knows comes to his law office and her son, john, had gone down on a boat down the mississippi to new orleans and he lost his papers to prove it. They jailed him in new orleans and he couldnt pay the fine, which they knew and they said you cant pay the fine, we will sell you to slavery. Mother came to lincoln and think it went to the governor of illinois who he put into office and the governor said he cant do anything, its louisiana. But lincoln had a wide circle of friends including the state legislature from quincy illinois and Abraham Jonas among other things, he was a prominent lawyer and lincolns also best jewish friend. He had a brother who was a lawyer in new orleans. He said, lets see what he can do. The brothers said i think we can buy him out. Lincoln raised the subscription the town of money but only raised 16. Sixteen so he sells his own insurance policy to raise the rest of the money and bought his freedom. The first person buys his freedom. Its not publicized. No one knows about it. Its controversial to do such a thing. Talk about the Lincoln Douglas debate in 1858. Who want those debate . You know douglas won the election when the legislatures were still in the u. S. Senators. Did lincoln when the debate . If so, why did he win . Did he win them right away or over the course of time . Lets start at the end. The end is, douglas wins because the senator was chosen by the state legislature. The state legislature, amazingly enough, was gerrymandered. [laughter] douglas wants the boat to lincoln. But lincoln also won the debate in the long run because he damaged douglas by Going Forward as he thought the democratic president ial nomination in 1860, the debate take place. In the beginning, lincoln is not doing well. Hes on the defense and douglas is smearing him up one side and down the other. Lincoln is a traitor. Lincoln is a drunk. He calls him rancheros spotting wedges a name for mexican terrorists. Hes been a congressman and proposed something called the spot resolution. He claimed it had been started by the democratic president and they were phony, not like anything like that has ever happened. [laughter] the key moment comes in the time of court. Douglas is also attacking lincoln as being in favor of equality but he doesnt use the word negro. Lincoln puts douglas on the defensive. He says lincoln, youre getting beat up badly. You have to throw some questions at douglas. He throws this question which is a comp located question involving douglas wellknown division called popular sovereignty that anyone in the territory could be vote for proslavery or make it up freestate and it could be either. He didnt care. That was democracy. Lincoln proposed, could he do this before the state constitution was created, are you in the favor of this . Lincoln is elevated it and what hes doing is youre getting douglas to alienate the governors because they dont like the idea, it could be one thing or the other. They want one thing. The Supreme Court articulated that. They thank you have a right everywhere. He wrote the congress could not make a law prohibiting slaves from being brought into territories. Lincoln was think there will be a second case in which they make slavery national. He cornered douglas on this and it really damaged douglas down the road going into the contest for the democratic president ial nomination of 1860. So that was politically damaging but what about the public philosophy lincoln himself articulated over the course of a debate . That become a platform for his candidacy . Nemec lincoln has one low point and then he soars. Which is his high points. Low points involve douglas accusing him of equality and being in favor of acclamation which is the mixing of the races and says that is true hidden agenda. Lincoln says im not for the socially quality for the races but he says the declaration of independence and guaranty writes to everybody, thats his low point. From there, he soars. He embraces the declaration of independence even more. He says douglas is blowing up the moral life among us. By proposing and speaking the way he is about the inferiority of one race over the other. Douglas is a belligerent and brazen proponents of White Supremacy in these debates. We can takes it on. He invokes the revolution and founders and the declaration. Yes, he does. This is all before the Cooper Union Speech when hes done this very systematically and in a detailed way. But lincoln makes an argument and then never forget that. And he goes on. Than the gettysburg event is learning what its all about. Its got everybody. Almost the words of the gettysburg address in the debates, he says this country is based in a way, he says of the white man, for the white man, by the white man. [laughter] he says it just like that. So lincoln is refuting him. I want to ask you to set the stage for what happened in the 1860 president ial election by talking about the on likeliness of this candidate. Reminding me of another unlikely candidate, barack obama but lincoln was an extremely unlikely candidate. He only served one term in the u. S. Representatives and got beat up for his views there over the mexicanamerican war. He had been out of office for a long time and he was not as but in the minutes from the east. Tell the story how, without much actors campaigning in public view, he ended up becoming the nominee of his new party. The front runner is William Henry, the senator and former governor of new york and hes the most prominent republican in the nation. Lincoln is not very well known. No one in the east is familiar with him except for having seen him in the cooper unit in 1860. They have read his debate with douglas in the newspapers and they read the cooper union and the Illinois Team comes to the convention which takes place in chicago, which is a hilarious story in itself about the different candidates, one of the republicans in the inner cities, new york, cincinnati, the illinois representative says in the meeting of Republicans NationalCommittee Takes place in new york. We are happy candidate so why not have a neutral sitting . [laughter] so the convention is in chicago. Its a very political place. The greatest Railway Depot in the country, the greatest booming economic city in the country and lincolns Political Team is there. But to be a bunch of pics. Led by a judge databases in the Supreme Court. Its the Hotel Downtown but illinois headquarters starts operating. Day and night, all night, men come in and they start crowing during cash around. There is not much campaign financing. Unlike today, it works great. [laughter] no one ever wrote me checks. [laughter] so they are making deals with people feel stuart is not a candidate they are sure about. They think he can lose. Hes been around a long time and he has a lot of enemies. People think hes corrupt even though hes the most notable man of his party and its great ord order. They think his operation from new york is corrupt. The albany lobby is corrupt, his Campaign Manager is corrupt. They want somebody else who can also appeal to others in other states. In pennsylvania, they think stuart cant win. Hes also been staying by the john brown ring. John brown rated Harpers Ferry and executed and stuart painted as a radical. Theres a witchhunt that takes place in washington after the john brown race and theres a committee of the senate thats investigating among that committee, investigating senator jefferson. He called stuart as a witness to find out what he knew about this. If it was, i will say it was conducted, even though it was a witchhunt, it was conducted more fairly. [laughter] a lot of people looking for another available man, the availability was the word they used. Lincoln was the available man and he didnt have many burdens even though he had a long political history. His men are meeting with the men from pennsylvania and indiana. Lincoln sent a telegram. Lincoln sent him a telegram, dont make any deals in my name. Cabinet jobs and he turns to the other men and he says lincolns not here. [laughter] i dont know if any deals were really made but in the end, somehow there were men from indiana and pennsylvania and lincolns candidate. So its a shocker. Abraham lincoln is nominated and no one really knows what he even looks like. Hes covered by those who help them construct public persona. They go back to the trains. First of all, let me pay tribute. [applause] is amazing to me, that he does everything he does on behalf of the public. And has time to read my book. [laughter] you have to make it a little bit shorter next time. Remind me. He is a person. Lincoln believes he has to have, they have a convention to nominate him for the Illinois Party nominating them as a candidate for president. Lincoln is sitting up in the state and suddenly, they bring in two old rails and they say its a complete surprise. His old cousin is there carry one of the rails and they call them the rails splitter and lincoln kind of surprises laughter but the people organize this are all the weeks and they remember the campaign, William Henry of 1840. They wanted to think of a slogan in a persona. So they made him the rail splitter and the lincoln start laughing. Then people say [laughter] the cousin then, after that convention had a business of selling rails. Two dollars apiece. These were the rail. [laughter] i will excuse myself. Your country a great patriot for writing this book. [applause] thank you. We are now ready to open for questions. [inaudible] lincoln comes from nothing. To start with. Lincoln is somebody whose fath father, lincoln says quit blundering we find his name with an x. He has no schooling. Hes desperate for knowledge. I dont know where it comes from. He doesnt know where it comes from. He becomes this person, so thats one thing. Lincoln overcomes deep psychological problems. Hes a depressed person. Hes a person in springfield in his early days without a family. Hes alone, he feels hes humiliated himself in front of the whole community by mishandling his relationship with a young woman named mary who hes broken up with. His friends keep razors from him. They think he might be suicidal. People called melancholy at the time. I dont know what we would call it today. Was undiagnosed. He confided a doctor named henry. Manicdepressive, we dont know. He overcomes it and he becomes he becomes somebody whos incredibly self disciplined. Overcoming all of this, his personality. Hes amazingly self disciplined. And focused and determined and patient and develops a broad and penetrating and acute sense of the world around him. Both of human nature, the people he meets and politics. He was a jokester, he was the center of rooms of parties or political gatherings, telling stories but people also felt he was distant. Even when they felt close to him. Lincoln is observing others, withholding something. I think part of this comes from his own sense of inferiority, a sense that hes overcome depression. He still has depression. Somebody who once sits on the road and comes out of his law practice in 1854, never stops until his death. Just never stops on what he becomes and what he does. He never stops. What role does mary todd pl play . In the second question, are we in the room where the proclamation was written . The tradition going back over 100 years was in this room. Anyone argued it happened throughout the entire house, his commute every day. That was in this room we are here. This is a unique place we are sitting in. Mary todd lincoln was a member of the most distinguished and socially elevated family of springfield. Her sister was married to the son of the second territorial governor of illinois. They lived in the biggest mansion, or was called aristocracy hill. [laughter] marys sister would bring the sisters 1512 springfield so they could meet marriageable young men. Lincoln was not considered one of those. [laughter] but merrick was fixed on him and thought he had a great deal of promise. They had a tumultuous relationship. Mary defends him, she gives him a proper home, she gives him a family and whenever his ambition falters, shell step in. She is ambitious as he has. She had known henry clay as a child. She had said as a child, her current father was in lexington kentucky. She sat as a child she wanted to marry a president and by god, she was going to have Abraham Lincoln. She called the two of them the lincoln party. Our lincoln party. So that was the beginning of the lincoln party. In 1855, lincoln caught himself in the state legislature, getting back into politics. Mary said youre not running through the state legislature. He had been elected. You are going to quit, youre not going to serve beneath you. Youre running for the u. S. Senate. She made him quite for the senate in 1855. He lost in the legislature. The antislavery democrat in order to boxes candidate and it was that that was one of the probe mary actions that helped create we came back Republican Party. So when lincoln lost in 1855, to a distinguished figure in the state, a judge, marys best friend was his wife. She would never speak to her again because he had become the senator and not her husband. So she was fiercely jealous of lincolns position. Even more. [inaudible] is there dialogue . There is. [inaudible] the novel. There was another book about her greatgrandfather, the editor and she wrote a biography. That became the dialogue. Is a novelist. When you write, how do you handle those unknowns . Do you create dialogue . Do you reach conclusions . How do you handle this when you dont really know . I do not create dialogue. I dont make anything up. Theres no fake news in these biographies. [laughter] i rely on as many sources as i can find. Its a matter when i cant get the exact what i need to know, its more than a little frustrating, especially having been a journalist, not being able to call someone up and asked them. [laughter] these witnesses are not available right now. [laughter] i have to have that. There are a lot of sources about lincoln. Other historians, there were many histories created throughout lincolns, about lincoln throughout his life beginning with his law partner who created something. When lincoln died, herndon spoke to everyone who was still alive around springfield together account of whatever it is they remembered about lincoln. There was some historians who did not want to credit but was in those interviews. The idealistic icon of the martyred president. They depicted a young man on their front tier. Its there and there are accounts of witnesses all the way through. Lincolns inner circle and people who knew him and met him and you have to assess what you think is accurate in all of that. Time for just one more. He talked about earlier lincolns time, create your Republican Party. That something you see throughout his career thats very careful and calculated, you might be using political and. Theres opportunity here with the historian, political observer, participant. We have similar moment in our countrys life where theres debate happening over impeachment of the president. Im curious what your view is. The democratic partys. I wont speak for the congressman who speaks very well for himself. His position is well known. I have become more of a contemporary figure now. I generally support with congressman and the others. I have written pieces about impeachment. Spending time away from writing what i should be doing. These two pieces are on a website called just security. Org. They are called open 101 and open, too. They are historical in nature. The first one i analyzed, the clinton and nixon impeachments in light of whats discussed in terms of that. I show that i think the, i had some experience with it. The clinton impeachment has very little relevance politically to whats going on now but the nixon nixon impeachment does. If you look at the progress of what happened with nixon, the more the information was presented to the public, the more it moved in favor of impeaching. Theres a direct correlation. It was no surprise that donald trump is resisting all subpoenas right now and preventing witnesses from appearing before the house. The second memo, i wrote about what happened in 1974, after the nixon impeachment because people generally talk only about the nixon impeachment. They forget that gerald ford pardoned nixon a month after he resigned for office. Nixon was never impeached, by the way. He was in the judiciary committee. The evidence was conclusory. He parted him. People can have different views on whether he did the right thing or not. The political result was that it was catastrophic. He never really recovered. What happened is that in the midterm elections in 1974, the democrats had the greatest wave of victories in years. Some of them are still around. My view and that was that the pardon, would be mitch mcconne mcconnell. If the house were to impeach trump on charges of high crimes and misdemeanors. Then the acquittal could be seen as the equivalent of politically, and the party that rendered it. It would hurt them, the republicans in the elections of 2020 in the senate. Thats the argument i made in that argument. You can read those articles online. I got them off my chest. [laughter] but the fight continues. The crisis that lincoln faced was greater in the crisis we are facing now but we can always learn, no matter what. We are in from lincoln. We should always remember the questions of the house divided, presidencies or reactionary Supreme Court, chaotic and divided and fragmented parties. These are the issues lincoln had to face and overcome. Those are the issues i deal with in this. [applause] thank you all for coming. I hope you can join us for the book signing downstairs. Some of you have asked if you can purchase a book and you will have the opportunity to do that as well. [applause] [inaudible conversations] tonight on book tv and primetime, recounts the efforts of the u. S. Ambassador to japan to see the piece between the two countries prior to the attack on pearl harbor. University of massachusetts professor Holly Jackson profiles leaders of americas social and political movements of the 19th century. Cofounder of kick starter provides this for creating a better world. University of maryland president , raymond shares his insights on building an inclusive, high achieving and innovative university. Allen offers his thoughts on how Sexual Misconduct accusations should be handled. That all starts tonight at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2s book tv. You can find more information on your Program Guide or by visiting booktv. Org. Recently on book tv, Fox News Contributor andrew our third offered his thoughts on the inclusion in the 2016 residential election. His a portion of that program. You have an american citizen who is operating as an agent of russia. The only due process that american is ever going to get is that Justice Department and fbi play is straight with the court and the court forces them to comply with their own regulati regulation, which includes making sure you bring the verified information only to the court. If they dont follow their own rule and if the judge doesnt make them follow their own rules, thank you basically have drug meant. You have the surveillance going on against people who are presumed innocent and have a constitutional right and they never find out about it. What we found out in this investigation, was that was precisely what they did but they did it for the purpose of monitoring a political campaign. Thats what this was about. When i started to write what became collusion, i had a different idea about what it was going to be. I thought the way to do this is to compare the Hillary Clinton emails investigations, with the trump russia investigation and ask whether any objective person could look at both of them and say the same degree of justice was on both sides. [laughter] to take the case with a bent over backwards not to make the case where they had a mountain of evidence of parental activity. In a bullet investigation, you like to the fbi, you get prosecuted. The clinton investigation, july and they gave you metal and immunity. No grand jury to speak of, make all kinds of arrangements. In the mueller investigation, they showed up at 6 00 in the morning or before, they need to break into your house and grab the evidence they wanted. In the clinton investigation they said pretty please. If the person said no, they would make a deal to get the evidence but not look at it. Not look at big sections of it. Youre talking about a situation with a bent over backwards not to make a case when they actually had real criminal evidence, they are scorching the earth to find a case where there wasnt one. After two years, they still werent able to do it. My idea was to try to compare these two investigations and post that question. Whether you are liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, can you honestly look at these two investigations and say by the way, these two investigations, which were conducted by the same agent, the same investigators, the same Justice Department personnel and say they did blind justice . Theres not a chance. Thank you for joining us here. I am Laura Shepard director of events. We are pleased to welcome you to the author event for his own book. American disruptor the scandal of life