An introduction by jonathan silverman. I recently joined twitter. [applause] you can feel free to follow me. Soont may tweak something about Abraham Lincoln. It is a great pleasure for me to introduce Jason Silverman. I last met him in springfield we talked about immigrants of the old state capitol. He is the author and editor of 11 books. The beerbook under sign. Is the professor at winthrop university. I wanted to find a little bit about him, i went to no better source than rate my professors. Com. Loved,ell he is well 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, you also have to attend class because every day is something new. Another one wrote that this but you can easy talk to him and he will tell you to take notes. [laughter] in the student remarks that he always begins with a joke. Most are dirty that funny. I just want to warn you, the audience, you have to be careful when you ask questions because someone wrote that i would kill for this man, literally. Do not at go after him too hard. Was thestudent said he best professor, and said for a 52yearold man he is pretty hot. Please join me in welcoming Jason Silverman. [applause] jason that was 10 years ago. Theve not checked lately rate my professor. Com. Myould have to imagine hotness has deteriorated. All i can say today is out. This is an incredible experience for me. John for thatk , as ang interview historian he certainly would back in time. I want to thank the Abraham Lincoln institute for posting this, it is a dream come true. You i grew up in alexandria which is just across the potomac, washington, dc was always a place where field trips came and went. They always held a very dear spot in my heart. Remiss if i didnt tell you that i have been interested in with Abraham Lincoln since the fourth grade. It is an act of defiance on my part. My fourth grade teacher for parents night decided that we were going to have silent vignettes. You still there and they look at famousybe you did figures, one of the ones they chose was a lincolndouglas debate. I got my hopes up tremendously. She said you cannot be Abraham Lincoln, you are not tall enough. You have to be stephen douglas. Well, it was on that day that i decided i was going to be interested in Abraham Lincoln out of defiance if nothing else. Yard am completing my 33 year at the university where him in rooms about full of pack south carolinians. Please forgive me if i look up at the box and say mr. President i made it. [applause] i have been fortunate enough to have done some work in an area that has really not attracted many people. I would like to share some of that with you today. As i tell my students at the beginning of every class, please seatbelts, and lets go back in time to the era of Abraham Lincoln. May 4, 1865. Oak ridge cemetery, illinois. His son is speaking to the clouds, it is peaceful. In wind blows through the prairie to the west. Is onody in springfield the street and they are silent and mournful. Is sosorrow allencompassing they do not know where to go or what to do. , itlandscape is beautiful has been specially cared for for this occasion. There is a tall distinguished looking academics who spoke with a softness that relates to his evangelical days. He is delivering a funeral 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. , about toit i may be it i never will, the probability that we may fail in the struggle from the deter us cause that we believe is just. It shall not deter me. The soul expand and elevate to those dimensions, not wholly on worthy of his almighty architect it is when i contemplate the cause of my country, deserted on all sides, i standing boldly alone hurling defiance at our oppressors. Declaration was of a young Abraham Lincoln who on the day of christmas spoke. The bishop interpreted his words with words that were natural to the nation. This was the margaret who dedicated himself to the great struggle of his life against the slave power. The bishop ordered him accurately, he had honored a long lost speech. He did make one air or. Error. This feature is not about slavery, it was about the banking industry. Nominations should not surprise ,s, for more than four decades he probably talked about economics and labor and used those terms broadly than any other issue including slavery. The bulk of his discussions were and economic focus and they proceeded this, they went unrecorded. The main line of his thinking was survived. Immigration, lincoln absolutely. Whereed in an era immigration was his controversial as it is today. Between 1840 and 1860, more than a half Million People came from the german states, scandinavian countries and ireland. Many more went back and forth across the border from mexico. From an early age lincoln develop an awareness for different peoples and their cultures while no doubt a product of his time. Begins to let himself be blinded by adversity. He retained an affinity for immigrants, especially the germans, irish, the jews, and scandinavians. Immigrants and their plight were never far from his plans. His travels down the Mississippi River exposed him to the sites world that hea could only dream about. Establishedntly he the sympathy for the rest of his to the foreignme born and the enslaved. It must have been an odd sight boy sailingtall down the river looking wideeyed and in all of everything he saw. He is free of the applications to his father in the farm, a he went down on a flat boat with his stepbrother, cousins and lawyer. Sailing on what might have been ght which wast barrels and logged. Off on an adventure of a lifetime. Young first time in his life, he was traveling far. He could not know it, what he would see would shave his thoughts for the rest of his life. First madetrip, he contact with foreigners in the city of new orleans. As one on the road, he probably did not distinguish the , he did seeoples how the immigrants formed a significant part of the american population. Trips to new orleans for especially important in his development, they formed the longest journeys of his life. His First Experience with a major city, his only visit to the deep south. His sole exposure to the region rampantly slavery and slave trading. The closest the ever came to immersing himself in a foreign culture. Spoke of his trip save for a brief description of preparation. Others did, and interviewing john hanks, the cousin of his biological mother went on his second trip when he departed. Was recorded as saying they landed in new orleans, i can say it is on this trip that he formed this opinion it put a fire in him then and there. I have heard him say that office. His flat boat journeys exposed him for weeks on end of the vastness of american life. No trips whatever match those. They immerse you in the relationship between transportation and Economic Development in the west. That a bettertood Transportation System would improve the Economic Life of illinois, raise Living Standards for everybody and raise property values. His rubber journeys river also show that the state could accelerate wealth ands for to spread throughout the state. Seeing america firsthand from a lincoln theansfixed 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 the places where 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 foreign city in the states. While lincoln would take a day trip to niagara falls, new orleans would represent the closest he went to another country. Falls, say, on, niagara that is not like leaving the country. With the different religions he ,xperienced in his early life these early trips made him and golf in the different cultures of the south. It gave him Something Like no other experience in his life. With this social and economic political landscape, there was a Young Lincoln in 1828. Evidence of ethnic tension had been obvious to any visitor. In the street or in conversation. Sawpapers that i am sure he that decried immigrants. Editors promised that their views would be purely american. And obvious nod to the parties that would try to exploit this in 1850. He would see firsthand the the immigrants would have for being foreignborn. Present whenent many people were not considered native born. The creel people became treated harshly. Impression that lasted an entire life in him. See therleans he would largest concentration of free people of color. Among them some of the wealthiest and most well people of african ancestry ever. Onnever specifically, did the citys diversity, he came edited thehe hand section of that in 1860. After marveling at the many creelplanters of louisiana, it is a cosmopolitan where they have the polished old world exile of france. Withund himself enthralled 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. New orleans would even follow lincoln to springfield. Orville found new orleans to be a hostile place for 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. Well approaching the village of new salem he overtook a tall man wearing a flannel shirt 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. Lincoln was taken to his boardinghouse and told the people there of his is this an situation. That opened the way for him to have an evenings work on the borders. Lincoln convinced him to settle in springfield, get married, raise a family and prosper as a barber. It was orville who groomed him , justs attorney days before his final departure from springfield to become president of United States. Likely heears it is enjoyed many conversations on east adams street, about new orleans, immigrants, slavery on the Mississippi River. This bilingual man became his friend. Substance of be a genuine friendship because in 1863 there was a letter of gratitude written to lincoln for the emancipation proclamation. Improper it may not be 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. First likelihood lincoln learned about haiti in 1831. Three decades later president Abraham Lincoln would officially established 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 a massive later freed one of his first people of color. Black andy a free while traveling in new orleans found the same hostility towards him that orville had found years earlier. Not having the payment to travel easily, he was arrested and imprisoned. Contact with the attorney benjamin jonas, he was contact athat he 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. He was one of the first jewish settlers and the springfield region. He wrote up river to lincoln and his mother. Movedncoln was very much 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 they returned with the report that the governor as you say he had no constitutional right to act. Excitement,h good by almighty i will have that or i will write until you do have a right to have me on the premises. Lincoln racked lack any further records. They drafted 60 and . 30 at the metropolitan bank, in 1857 they s to benjamin jonass office in new orleans. Releasedjune he was who returned safely to springfield. Amonghelby then became the first freed by Abraham Lincoln. Have resulteduld in his forced enslavement and if he wasforced labor not released. Instead he wanted to take action for everyone not just shelby. He says lincoln is one of my most valuable friends, their friendship dated back to the 1830s. Lincoln never forgot nor did he ever minimize the role of thoseal development that experiences as a flat Boat Operator play. While on the campaign trail he cast his flat boat travels as a dues paying experience, assuring his political supporters that statureence of a rising make him no less or note less tolerant of the other people. Me as a ago he knew strange and uneducated boy working on a flat boat, at 10 a as a i was put down candidate with this distinction. Yes, sure. Lincoln return to the same theme. Free society is such that a poor man knows his condition. He knows there is no fixed condition. Ashamed to have this laborer working on a flat boat. Just what may happen to any man. Personal and a littleknown episode of his life, he became friends with a reverend. A professor at Illinois University lutheran school. Son attendedest class with the reverend. He would frequently call on him to discuss 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 much of a better student. Like you of look at me are full of it. Lincoln even served on the border of the directors of the school. He had experience as member of the city council. Ofwas an outspoken opponent slavery. Beliefs,ed political as he became a loyal and consistent supporter of lincoln on the press and on the stump. One of the first soldiers involved in the battles of the civil war. Lincolns philosophy was far more complicated than me with that which related to the free labor economy. He was a price of his time an environment, despite whatever constituents are represented, irish, dutch it is monolithic. Lincoln on the other hand are seated to see every group is distinctive in its own right. Because he saw the diversity of these groups rather than just assigning them as four underscore savages, his groupsnship with these was as inconsistent as the man himself. Had anst westerners he opinion of latin america, it was never flattering. In his debate with stephen the conceptttacked 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 were 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. I know that the mexican people are a race of mongrels. Is notstand that there one person there that is not your white, 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 of the question which would bring him somewhat into collusion and collision with his inferior race. Is made forwance 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 seem to unnecessary, they were fighting against one of the worst governments of the world. Their problem was that the real people had not asked for assistance they were neither desirous of or looking for similar liberty. ,e liked to make references extolling the innovation and brilliance of what he called the theg america as opposed to old countries. Get the less i like him using that phrase. My wife of 31 years makes reference to that many times, every time she says that, i think i have become an old man. I wish he had become a different phrase. He concluded with a habit of , people almost instantly discovered california which have 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. One who 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. As havingzed asia human beings, but he said it was an ancient crumbling civilization whose time is long past. Originated in asia, they have worked their way principally westward. Behindow the people are and utterly behind the people of europe. While we here in america think we discovered an invented faster than anyone. Recognizing that perhaps he was on thin ice he concluded, he may think this is arrogant. They do not deny that russia has access to show hurt steamboats and railroads well in other parts of the asian area they barely know those exist. In these ancient inhabited countries, there is a real notion ofold smothering the intellect of man. Well neither respecting or appreciating the countries of latin america, wink and like any nationalist understood his audience by extolling the virtue of the United States. At the expense of degrading other people it was lincolns intention to convince his americans that they would be on the next great stage of history. Strategy tossful flatter voters during his assented to politics. Did put to his credit his money where his mouth was. Agoas not discovered long that during his first term in the house of representatives, he joined Many Americans and contributing 10 which is 500 of todays money to the irish find of the great famine. Hisaps this is because First Teacher had been of irish descent. Ofwas described as a man excellent character, deep piety and a fair education. He had been reared catholic but made no attempts to proselytize. 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 amongst the earth, then i am done. Valid was therite lament of the irish immigrant set to music. While many of his quips are famous, he often resorted to perhaps a bit insulting to make a point. His first reported john of a poor irishman came in his congressional speech talking about sensible improvements when he described a white mans new boots. Untill never get them on i wear them a day or two and stretched them a little. War, onehe contemporary result around a cabinet meeting. General grant had just returned with an account of the south, a good feeling was manifested by the officers of the army. They were ready to lay down their arms and get to work. Someone said about rounded up Old Jefferson davis, lincoln said i hope you would disappear like pattys fleet, i hope he is not there. Consistent with desire to not have any show trials or punitive missions. For reconciliation he often used jokes, maybe to soften the message of mercy or to have a helpful blindness to pass on. Racist ornot very part certainly compared to his contemporaries. Who shows sympathy and awareness for the one mans plight chiding him a little bit. Nearly everyone especially poor immigrants understood the preference of fleas and ill ill fitting footwear. Lincoln refused to have an antiimmigrant stanford when he ran for president , he wanted to change any state legislation that had previously been against immigrants that impaired in any shape or form. He advocated for a full and efficient protection of the rights of all classes of citizens for their native or naturalized at home and abroad. Throughout his life no immigrant , theyoser to lincoln marched right to the white house. If the germans led lincoln to victory, they nonetheless provided great support. Lincoln enjoyed the germans and the 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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