And after that, he went to the university of virginia where he did his undergraduate work. After graduating from that party school, he turned serious and Research Assistant krauthammer. Buckleys william f. National review, he became editor of that magazine, a post he held since 1997. Hes the author of a book about clinton years as well as a olitical thriller about an and an inibriated journalist. Lincoln unbound, how a young rail splitter saved the american treatment and how we can do it again was published last june. Engagingly written, thought provoking, and deeply insightful, though it does have serious flaw. Far too short. Please welcome mike lowry. He could have left that im a pundit which means i makee roan yous predictions ephemeral political events living. I9s an honor to be here in this place celebrating and discussing honor to be here with so many scholars that i elied on and the research for my book. And one of the great pleasures of the process of writing this been getting to know michael after relying on his work for so long. Crunch time eally for me, when i was desperately on deadline with my book, i was obligation to go on a vacation with my wife and my inlaws. I needed eded all my books, because i didnt nope what was going to come up while i was writing. Inhad two rolly bags and my desperately want to avoid paying an Additional Charge for anything. To make be weighed sure each of them were under the limit. If im correct, it was about 70 books. Of and i think about 30 of them were burlinggame alone. I want to share one vignette it was like. For me, i live in new york city. I was going out to california for a couple of talks. I was on a plane with wifi. And i had my ipad and i was checking my email and i get this email from my saying, did you buy 500 worth at walmart . Book soobsessed with my i immediately thought that she was accusing me of buying my own card. With our credit you know . At walmart. And i think, look, im a im not author, but quite that desperate. It turned out it was a fraudulent charge and had book. G to do with my although you think about it, if someone had stolen my credit own book, that might have been the perfect crime. Noticed this immediately. She monitors like a hawk. I never would have noticed it. Noticed it almost in realtime. Several months ago, i was out of while. For a my wife and i d said, i havent heard from you several hours but i wasnt worried because you were at the hockey game. Every beer i was buying on the screen. Some of you are worried about watching us. Ive been married to her, you get used to it. Not a big deal. So i want to share with you so. Efly 20, 30 minutes or the basic argument of my book. Now occupy this big white house. Referring to the white house. Of your day one children might occupy the white house the way my fathers child has. Such a strange way to put it. So characteristically lincoln, right . A way to avoid saying the way i do. He goes on to talk about how the war is to preserve free institutions of government. Hat you may have equal privileges, key lincoln phrase thate race for life in all is desirable for human aspirations. Will or this the struggle be maintained not only to lose our birthright for one, two, or is worthrs, the nation fighting for to secure such an inestimateble jewel. For me, thats the essential lincoln. Things to any, many know about lincoln. But if you know nothing else, you must e thing that know. I want to talk about the hows whys of that and touch briefly at the end on why i think its so important to this lincoln at this particular moment in our life. Nal and lincoln obviously celebrating now across the olitical spectrum almost without exception. There are some exceptions. But you know, as a great hero of american history. But i think now, people tend in common understanding to misunderstand lincoln. A view of him as just this tribune of the common imbued with e common sense and was an accidental president. The high fa luting precedent lip lincoln is out of the earth. Or Ralph Waldo Emerson said hes an aboriginal man. Nonsense, complete nonsense. This is a guy thats fiercely ambitious, from the beginning. Thing he does t after he leaves home, right, is run for political office. Wonderful notice at his first candidacy. He says everyone has their life. On in my ambition is to be esteemed by to be worthy of their esteem. Which i think is a succinct ully expression of what ambition should be in a democratic society. Lets runs for office, put aside the president ial campaign. Runs for office, 33, 34, 36, 54, 56, and 58. Did i miss any, michael . He was not an accidental politics. In and this is a guy who possessed an extraordinary name and an exceptional memory. Beginning. The he would borrow newspapers and hen he returned them, be able almost to recite linebyline the lines he read in the papers. Had a truly exceptional judgment about people and how the world works. Story he tells. Of the the story irishman who steals the spade, the irishman gets away with the act of theft. Pleased with himself. He has a free spade. A friend comes up in the of the day and says will, patty, you think you stealing that spade . Well let me tell you something, you go and you meet your maker, have to pay for that spade. And the irishman said, well, if youre going credit me that long, i think ill take another. And the reason, of course, that this knowledge of human nature and how the world works is he lived to put it in a life of hard he knocks. Theres the time in the presidency when he writes the hes seen he actor critiquing his performance and shakespeare the plays and what monologues are others. Than a disservice at hes done to lincoln. Apology. N he said dont worry about it, throughout my life, ive of ridicule lot with without much mall lace and kindness, not that i am used to it. Hear these words, i wants a little stab in my heart. You go back to the very to go back ou have to kentucky and indiana where hes raised literally in the middle of nowhere, when his family moved to indiana, theres a story that theres a young was in that vicinity who killed by a panther because her lder brother couldnt kill the beast with a hatchette to the school. Quickly enough. Story about neighbors in the general vicinity who said fire going in their would in at night, they look through the chinks in the log and see the eyes of bears reflected in the fire peering in. So this is not suburban bliss. This is extremely unforgiving environment. His mother, of course, died when milk very young age of sick when your cow wonders out to the forest, eats a poison no one has an idea this happened, the milk is poisoned, and the you die a horrific death in about a week. And in short order, he has to a wooden coffin with her backrf and bury him in the yard with no funeral sermon because theres no minister in to give one until months and months later. Lincoln said of this area to excite an g ambition for education. Name with an x. His step mother, great woman, name with an x. Lincoln told a biographer that barely bungling sign his name and the biographer because he thought it was a critique and such a harsh way to put it. Little formal y schooling. In the white house, he told the of the what be methods time were, which leans very eavily on physical chastisement, right . He tells the story of the oneroom schoolhouse where book of eading the daniel and the story of poor little and one boy stumbles on the name mechach, and abenegro. Blubbering again, and the teacher said now what are you whining about. Reckoned the line, he sees the names coming again. Master, here come the three damn little fellas again. Im sure, boom, right upside the head. This is the thing to understand. We think of lincoln as the rail splitter. As the rail im splitter because of the genius act of branding, right . Republicans nois nominate him as the favorite son for president and haul out some of the rails that lincoln had split. Lincoln never wanted to split another damn rail in his life. He never wanted to see another rail in if he could help it. With every fiber of his being wanted to escape the and make sure te that no one had to, if they didnt want to, live that way ever again. For me, the story that represents the best kernel of lincoln and the key to again one ng him is that he tells in the white house. And he said he had a row boat a teenager idling on the idling on the side of a drives up. Carriage and the two gentlemen in this carriage and they want to meet a steam boat coming down the river. O wharf, they see someone rolling them out. They say lincoln, can you get out to the steam boat. Sure, rows them out, gets them on the luggage. E said just as the boat was about to leave, he realized something, he said wait a to pay me. Forgot and decades later in the white ouse, he says to his shock and surprise each of these guys throws a silver half dollar down of his boat. And lincoln said from that earned realized i had my first dollar. Nd i was more hopeful and optimistic being from that time. Wanted an america where you could earn a dollar and where you had to earn a dollar. And in a nutshell, thats why he doesnt become a democrat. National itor of the review, right . I had to get that in. You cant hiss me for that. One. Ave to give me you have to give me one . No. By he hes surrounded democrats when hes a kid and in his upbringing. Worshipped Andrew Jackson, the great mars of the merican backwoods, the blood thirsty general. I say if you want to tell people, you want to understand Andrew Jackson very briefly. Think of someone with the ersonality of the late arlen vania senator specter known as snarling arlen, but he might kill you. He democrats romanticized the culture, the backwoods, and the farmer. Of the yoeman a democratic journalist said the democrats between the and the whigs is that the emocrats represent the hearty rustics and the whigs represent accountants. Low incoln had the agricultural life up to the net. Hated the political opportunists. Theres a great Early Exchange had with the political antagonist who had been a democrat, sorry, been a whig, witched over, becomes a democrat, gets a nice plum job n the land office, builds himself a nice house with a lightning rod on top of it. The story goes of lincoln, this the first lightning rod he had seen in his life and is quite taken with i want. The politicalt of debate with this guy, lincoln goes to his party switching. And he says, you know what . Seek political distinction and accomplishment as much as anyone else in the world. I would never want to find would have to i erect a lightning rod on my from an offended god. What draws lincoln to the whigs . Its basically a nutshell of two things. Program. He economic a cash economy. If you have a cash economy, you have to have banks. Lincoln was pisode embarrassed by, jumps out a window and the Illinois Bank ature to save the from a legislative maneuver. Wasnt high window fortunately. Democratic press mocked him and said his legs were so the ground uched from the window and would have to build a higher legislature so to time lincoln would have draw down the spout when they were trying to escape. Goingnks, they said were to have an industrializing economy. Ot going to be an agricultural nation forever more. You have to knit the country together. You need steam boats, canals, railroads. Its impossible to exaggerate transformative nature of these transportation projects. Arrival, ior to their you can get goods to the market if youre near a river. Get on to the mississippi, might make a makeshift raft and float your leenz. Own to new por in new orleans, youre on the sea and you can go anywhere fairly efficient. A lot of people walk home. Lincolns father made the trip walk home. Thats not the predicate of a market economy. Though,lroads coming in, transformed. Nds are farmer before, from w you can buy goods the east. You need cash. How are you going get cash . You start growing for the market. So instantly someone who might farming for food for himself and his family anymore, because thats not the most crops. Nt use of his so instantly, these farmers players. Arket so that is the whig economic program. Theres also a cultural element the whig program. Belief was that you can create the markets but need people disciplined enough to advantage of them. The great whig talks about how harmony, valued order, purposefulness, and improvement, whig words, the transportation projects, of cour know, called improvements. Theres the physical expression an internal expression in the commitment to selfimprovement. Nother case where Andrew Jackson can symbolize a different way of looking at the world. Whigs, Andrew Jackson is a man of the passions, as i a bad it, which was thing. He was a dueller and a slave gambler and lincoln would have recoiled from all of those things, though he did have scrape with the near duel, right . Shields where lincoln anonymously insults shields, shields finds out about it. Theres a challenge. They go to meet at the duelling grounds and lincoln as a select ed party gets to the weapon and he selects cavalry broad swords which seems choice and some people thought was actually lincolns way of mocking this entire because it seems to ridiculous and right at the end, adjudicated etzes no duel. And someone asks lincoln, why choice pick swords, a that makes no sense, except when you realize that shields is 59. Lincoln chose a sword. Afraid if i chose a pistol, the guy would shoot me. Practical choice. Lincoln throughout his life exemplifies ande advantage for the whig cultural epic at the time when america is in alcohol, soaked in tobacco, when coors language is he norm, he doesnt drink, doesnt smoke, he doesnt chew. He doesnt swear. The occasional blue story. Doesnt swear. He likes to tell a story of how he shared a railway car once with a gentleman from kentucky. He was trying to make friends lincoln. Offers him a fine glass of whiskey. Lincoln says no thanks. Offers a cigar. No thanks, a chew of tobacco, no thanks. The kentucky gentleman in great frustration says, well, sir, can with you a lesson that i learned in my long travels with life. What is it . He who has damn few vices has virtues. In this sense, he has damn few vices. That casual norm. Ty to animals was the he feels embarrassingly tender animals. Owards lincoln was missing, the guy with lincoln. Back what happened to lincoln. The last time i saw him, he was the ng a birds nest on ground. And lincoln catches up to all of these guys, what the hell . What are you doing . Wasting our time chasing after a birds nest that fell out of a tree. Lincoln said literally, if i had not returned the baby birds to not have , i would been able to sleep tonight. That lincoln is feeding this cat with a white house gold fork. No. Said, no, if this gold fork is good enough for buchanon, its good enough enough b for a tab bi. So what does lincoln do with the epic of selfimprovement . Well, he makes himself into a lawyer. Lincoln says how do i become a lawyer. Lincoln would write back things like work, work, work is the main thing. You know, lincoln, his step brother stayed back in the backwoods and was constantly cash strapped and would ask lip con for loans and he would write back the well meaning i assume, but the excoriating letters saying you are destitute because you idle away all your time. Go to work. Go to work is the only way for your case. He goes to work. Its not much of an office. And an inch of dust on it, if you cant find it any place else, look here. A story from a clerk that dropped some coln seeds in the office and just enough dirt in the corner to sprout up as a plant. Lincoln is a small time lawyer but then becomes a big bigtime corporate lawyer. To use todays terms, at all. Economic ental attitudes. Property, worships the rule of law. Such as be anything class conflict and reposes economics. Visits him in the white house said let not him who down the housell of another but labor diligently to build one of his own. Of this was a l profound belief in the dignity labor. In the right to the proceeds of own labor. He quotes genesis. Sweat of thy brow you shall earn your bread. He who makes the corn shall eat the corn. Of any other way is an act theft. Hes a teenager and his father is failing fitzically him ng, his father hires out around the area for lincoln incredibly these physical tasks and as his fathers right, takes the proceeds of lincoln until he was 21. Incoln said, i used to be a lave because i worked and someone else took the proceeds. Thats an absurd selfpitying it tells you but how personally lincoln took this principal and how deep he felt to this opposition to real slavery. The s the famous line from second inaugural address . What is slavery . Toil. Nrequited its someone else working and ou taking all the legitimate proceeds of their work. And for lincoln, this is such a that it the littlewest most crawling understood this principle. A fragment to himself, one of the arguments he worked out that up in his writings or speech about an aunt. He said if an aunt finds a crumb the ground and the ant labors that crumb back to its nest and if you interrupt that ant, you stop that ant and try that ant,e crumb from the ant will fight you. Because even the ant understands now gh its labor the crumb belongs to it. For lincoln, no misunderstanding this principle unless you did it willfully and maliciously. Part of the counteroffer was the idea that there was wage slavery in the north. Folks in the south and some in look, the aying, south has human chattel, sure. But you have wage slaves. People you pay a pittance for a little bit of work every day and no one takes of themselves whatsoever. They have to fend for themselves in this horrible environment. And lincoln rejects this fundamentally, this argument and look, they dont understand how the system works. For se he who labors himself last year labors for another last year labors for year f this year and the after hires someone to labor for him. Advancement are a society of equals. We can read his speeches and his infused with its this profound sense of loss, right . Founders, that the they tolerated slavery. It. Were embarrassed by they didnt mention it directly constitution. Through the g time south. In the 40s and in the 50s, you affirmative ew positive defense of slavery growing up in the south saying ou know what, this is an institution from god. Its good for the slaves. Its good for us. All society. Nd for lincoln, this represented Shameful National backsliding. His think a key part of roject was renewal through restoration. And any time in america, we tend what ship and celebrate was new. This contest, he feels unabashed about talking about what was old. E would talk about those iron men of those of the past. The old men, the noble fathers. Of old declaration independence and peoria. He said he needles to readopt up declaration of independence. He would say things like our epublican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust, let us renew it and wash it white in not the blood of the american revolution. In america, how do we expand opportunity, forge returning to gh deepest ideals. Of course the debate is about nature of the founding, the nature of the revolution and the founders. Moraln, of course, wins a victory with that debate. You know the rest of the story. I love the little talk he gives way to delphia on the washington where he says the founders believed that in due lifted ights should be from the shoulders from all men nd that all should have an equal chance. F this country should not be saved on giving up on that rinciple, as they say, i would rather be assassinated on the spot than surrender it. Riefly, its important for us to reconnect with this lincoln because we have a crisis of i believe it has less to do with inequality, more do with stagnant mobility. People on my side of the aisle celebrate this as the greatest land of opportunity in all of the world. Thats not necessarily true. Some measures of mobility, you have some English Speaking countries that are more mobile are. We we have scandinavian countries that are more mobile than we are. Combination of economic factors and social factors are conspiring to create the over time for an impermeable class divide in this become in re we have a different context what lincoln to as a society of classification and castes. So the question is not whether it would be a rich country, a time. Ountry for a long not whether it. S a powerful country for a long time. Is will we be a good country . Will we continue to be america. Continue to be lincolns america where a bright kid literally from nowhere can make of himself and rise to unimagined heights. I always d like to like to conclude with the famous the licium address where he talked about even then when this century was an immature country in many vulnerable to military assault. Take all of the armies in the world, put them together. Ut the great estrogen in the history of the world, napoleon, put them ahead of that army and step my could not take a from the blue ridge mountains, not take a drink from the ohio arms. By force of and goes on to say, if the destruction be our lot, we author, must be the the finisher, as a nation of to all , we must live time or die by suicide. Believe that the spirit and the example of abraham show us how to live. Thank you very much. [ applause ] of. Rich has consented graciously to answer questions. O if you would, step up to microphones. We have them driblted to the right and to the left. Keep your questions relatively brief. Thank you very much. I agree with your point about to live up to the spirit of lincoln. Considering how Abraham Lincoln and d voting and elections trying to increase the electorate. He view some Hypothetical Party that might be trying to limit the ability of ballot box t to the now . Question. R that thank you very much for that question. I hesitate to get into it of the this is one contemporary the questions what would lincoln think about events, if i give you my answer, i have to get to the merits of what i think about the contemporary issue and well to an argument about that. It wouldnt be very useful. Out of prudence or course dis, some combination both, ill take a pass on that one. But i appreciate the question. Other unpalatable questions from the audience . The audience isnt boycotting further questions until i answer this one. How did he acquire the great knowledge and abilities that he had. Does one account for a general a dissatisfied with the fact that commands only 3,000 people from lincolnsponse quoting the essay on man, that, know, one must be you now, perform ones assigned tasks to the best of his ability . Ow does he i can see how he acquires the bible and shakespeare in every home. He know to reach into his knowledge and reading and produce pope . Him to read pope . Yeah. Thats a great that. S a great question. Just talented. I think he was aware of himself. The more discerning people including his step mother realized it from the beginning. Measure e who took his superficially had no idea. He looked like a complete clod with his high water pants it. All of the rest of so one is having extraordinary mind. Just simply reading. Nd thats the basis hoff education. And lincoln proves you dont have to sit in the classroom to it. It takes extraordinary discipline to do it on your own if youre not in a classroom. It. He did so for me, going through reading ccounts of what were in these kind of basic readers that kids would read then is just heart breaking. The level is so high. You know . The very best literature thats the very best speeches ever given in american history, and you read one of pretty d youve got a good education right there. So that was that was two of the things. One is naturally very talented. Two, he had the drive to go out nd find this stuff and read it on his own. And i believe ive read somewhere that when lincoln was the first congress, thing he did was go to Library Check out a book of euclid. Ow many of our fine representatives today do you think are doing the elfeducation and that whig word, improvement never ended. And whig reading also wasnt whig leisure pursuit, reading was a real act of iron discipline. You know . Its something you did for a reason, not just to entertain yourself, and the reason was to make yourself better. Did religion have a role in work ethic . I think he was not a fan of organized religion so much. But did religious faith or spirit play a role in his work ethic . Thats a great question. Yeah, this is really disturbing. Because my book came out in june talks e given many, many before and ive had three questions ive never gotten in this audience which is very, very rare. I i wants not something i focused on very much. Ecause theres one aspect to that you can write an entire book on it. Been written on it obviously. My superficial answer would be religioust think that motivation played any role in his in his early efforts at selfimprovement. A time when he was at the very least more religious would be subsequently. He did acquire a faith, not an rthodox christian faith, but a faith in god. Hypocriful perhaps that he feels hanging out with kind of freethinking types and a tract t wrote attacking organized religion and his friends thought this would career. His political and made him burn it. Thats true whether or not, thats one story. In the first race for congress, actually that he was an infidel and a nonbeliever was one of the charges against him. In that campaign. Shows politics hasnt changed couple of n a centuries. Yes, sir . Hi. Im i want to thank you for your really great talk. Free ptured, i think, the labor idea in lincoln really beautifully. Ive always tried to one of tried to do is figure out what happened to the ideas, where it went. One of the striking things about lincoln and free labor is that speeches that you sketched out that he gives, he becomees if you dont your own master, you only have one of two things to blame improv dense, your own failure to work hard, or singular misfortune. Neither one can be blamed on the system, he says. Idea isgular misfortune an interesting one. And i imagined what lincolns to, labor idea is blind because it doesnt matter as much in the 1850s, is the 20th problem of risk. Risk social risks, the kinds century we see 20th societies responding to is something that free labor,ology labor thinking just hasnt grappled with. It be me thinking can transported as it were to the 21st the risk problem. Point, a very well stated. And i dont have, again, i cant answer any of these questions. I dont have a great answer for you. Unknowable where lincoln ends up, you know . 150 years later. If youre if youre a liberal making the case for kind ownership for lincoln, which president obama does, hes done the way,ood job at, by i live in manhattan as i mentioned earlier in a doorman theres a doorman immigrant from ireland that my wife and i, we havent direct politics from him. From his occasional bitter emarks, we kind of figure hes one of us. I gave him my book, he was quite delighted. Wrote a id, oh, you book about lincoln, i thought you were a republican. I was like wait a minute, no, no please youre the e if president or on the left making ownership r lincoln, of lincoln, you say he is at the for cusp of support government activism in his context and in his time. Have stayically would in that place as the case for government grew and government hed end up e and basically where the progressives are today. Case would be if you just ake lincoln as you find him, and take account of this free ideology, heres something that has much more appreciation than the economics left does. Much more appreciation from up boot straps individualism who has much greater tolerance for inequality. Much more realistic appreciation for human nature. A much more strict view of the it titution and the limits places on what government does. Nd a great appreciation of natural rights. Ultimately, its unknowable. Which is one of the reasons why ts a fun debate and its raised for decades and decades now and makes an excellent point. Thank you. Tendency in some cynical circles saying lincoln was a sellout. Raised in the Hard Scrabble frontier, then he becomes a fat cat lawyer. Fact, lincoln represented railroads and he represented people suing railroads. Of the school who believed that as a lawyer, you came ed whatever job along. Of a belief that he was a railroad lawyer. This is great. You dont know how many times nightmare that i give speech on lincoln and michael burlinggame is going to correct me. So im going to shrink off the stage now. Recently. That a member of Congress Asked me in ront of a bunch of other members of congress, how would lincoln feel about the pending legislation regarding immigration. Well, i dont think he would have supported the democratic position. Nd i dont think he would have supported the republican position. Think he would have been emphatically endorsed the whig position. Here here i cant resist the opportunity of asking you the ame question i asked you the other night. See, something finally im prepared for. The Lincoln Group of dc. You have this wonderful store of many of them so om herndons e fr informants. You used the informants and how you chose hich stories to treat as credible and worth sharing today. Thank you. Rely a lot on herndons informants. Its one of my favorite research materials. Its so immediate. These are people who knew lincoln, quite intimately. People voice of how spoke at the time is just captured in these in these letters from herndon. Herndon. Recognize a ist, i colorful quote. Them. Are somany of one of the secondary sources in the book written by one of the id say, ere today, oh, thats interesting. You go to herndons informants, it spelled out more, see more colorful quotes so i took that as i could while careful about it. Gautzy memory. Some of it is exaggerating effect. For some is being untruthful because they dont want to say anything about the martyred president. Its a wonderful resource to look through. Thank you. Well, lets give him another round of applause. Thank you very much. Youre watching american istory tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. Today at 6 00 and 10 00 p. M. Eastern, house of historian matt