Supporters of president lincolns cottage. I wanted to take a moment to recognize two members who have been dedicated supporters since before we were open to the public. Eric reese has been a member for 12 years. Can you wager and please . [applause]and wayne for 13 years. [applause] and thank you to the other members for them. I didnt want to name everyone but i thought since you two have been been giving since before 2008 has been special. At the conclusion of tonights q a, we invite you to the book signing which will be downstairs in the library. We welcome Sidney Blumenthal, all the powers of earth the political life of Abraham Lincoln vol. Iii 18501860. He is the author of the selfmade mad and. Is the former assistant and cedar advisor to president bill clinton and Senior Advisor to former secretary of state, hillary clinton. Hes been a National Staff reporter for the Washington Post and editor and writer for the new yorker. His books include the rise of the clinton wars and a permanent campaign. Born and raised in illinois, he moved to washington d. C. Congressman jamie raskin proudly represents and the house of representatives. [applause] the district includes montgomery, carol and frederick counties. He was sworn into his second term at the start of the 116th congress on january 3 of this year. Hes a graduate of harvard and is a professor of constitutional law for 25 years. He and his wife really very nearby with their dog. [laughter] lincoln had a fascinating rise in the 1850s, the years that mr. Blumenthal features. At the start, he was a successful lawyer who decided to return to politics with the passage of the kansas nebraska act. By the end, he was the Republican Partys first ever president eddie to take the white house at the nations most dangerous moment. There were rhetorical battles with Stephen Douglas. Lincolns divided speech. Its telling that mr. Blumenthals project went from a trilogy to a fivepart series. Right around the time he was working on this volume. The result is a highly detailed and informative description of lincolns decisive prepresident ial years. And we have two the bone of the juggle and struggle of politics to discuss it in. Please join me in welcoming Sidney Blumenthal and congressman raskin. [applause] i get to ask Sidney Blumenthal questions which is awesome in itself. That i get to pose the questions. I make no pretense of objectivity. Im a huge fan of this extraordinary series that Sidney Blumenthal is writing and i find it dazzling. I hope every american goes out and reads of this book. Its remarkable. Let me start with this. You call one of your chapters about Stephen Douglas which was lincolns lifelong nemesis in some sense. You give it the title, vaulting ambition. Thats a freeze lifted from macbeth. Phrase. That wasnt poked by senator Charles Sumner and you picked it up. I raise it because lincoln was a profoundly ambitious man in his own way. I wonder if you would be willing to define and characterize of the ambition of Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln and talk about the ways in which of your ambitions were intertwined over the course of their careers. Thank you jamie. Its my great pleasure and honor to be here with my friend, jamie raskin who represents the eighth Congressional District of maryland. To be here in this special place in the room and i wish to thank the staff of the Lincoln Cottage for holding this event and inviting all of us here. Stephen a douglas and Abraham Lincoln were in locked in a rivalry since the 1830s. Douglas shot like a star into the firmament, early on. Rows and rows and rows. And lincoln said of the little giant, i want between his legs as though hes a colossus. And yet, incorporated and law partner, william london said lincolns ambition was like a little engine that nuno sees. Nuno stopped. We are dealing with two extraordinarily ambitious people. Lincoln was envious of douglas. Douglas ran for president for the nomination of his party. The Democratic Party in 1852, in his late 30s. And lincoln at that time, was already obscure. He finished his one term in congress. He had no prospects. He would stare for long periods of time into space. He felt defeated. He said, what is there to do and what is to be done . How can ones life have any meaning . He solves his wife he saw his lifes meaning in terms of service. So his private ambition was linked to a public ambition. And became more and more so over time as the crisis group. The ordinary word people use is evil. They say lincoln default. But there was something deeper going on. Lincoln was always, slavery. He didnt think it was an issue that would grip the country. One of the most interesting things in their relationship is that douglas through his own ambition bid and that douglas is a ferocious figure. Hes a formidable figure. Hes a man of great accomplishment. Hes a selfmade man himself. It comes from vermont, the frontier state of illinois. On his own, he becomes this fullblown character who becomes a judge of the state Supreme Court. Its elected to congress, becomes a senator. States, controls it. And becomes a major figure on the national stage. Takes over from henry clay as he falters both physically and politically in passing the compromise of 1850. He makes a turn of money too. He controls the lobbies in washington and he owns real estate in chicago. He happens to sell lakefront property to the Illinois Central Railroad for a nifty profit after sponsoring the Illinois Central Railroad act. [laughter] douglas pleases the path to lincoln through his ambition. And in his fears ambition, he knocks down all the barriers. And opens up the issue of the extension of slavery in the territories. And rips the country apart. A house divided. And while his ambition is vaulting, and he faults lincoln out of his obscurity because of it. He catapult him. How counseling was that on honest abes part . You report he would show up at douglas rallies. When they ended up doing the lincolndouglas debates in the senate race. That did lift lincoln out of obscurity to national fame, right . Jumping forward. 1854, lincoln is back into politics. Hes in the resistance. He says, we grabbed whatever we could that was nearby. And acts. And we ran toward the sound of the battle. And hes battling the extension of slavery in the territories. So by 1856, he found the Illinois Republican party. His old party has fallen apart and lincoln and many others in the state have to put this Party Together from different pieces and hostile personalities. He uses that as his platform to run for the senate against douglas. In 1858. In order to get douglas to debate him, lincoln stopped him. [laughter] stalked. Hes holding rallies of thousands of people in open fields. And lincoln is standing on the front. Lincoln jumped onto trains, hes in the back car. Hes going going to the next stop. He standing under a balcony while douglas is speaking from a chicago hotel. And finally, he goes douglas into the famous debates. Lets talk about the Political Parties for a second. And lincoln was instrumental in the creation of the Republican Party. He really put these pieces together as you tell the story. Tell us first, why were they afraid to use the name republican in illinois. You say that was controversial in some places for a while. What made him such a diehard wig . And tell everybody why he hated the know nothing so much. So this is a period in which once slavery breaks out as an issue in the country, both parties fragment. There are two parties. The whig party and the Democratic Party. The weight party breaks apart into the northern and southern parts. But it breaks apart into more parts. And a lot of waves in the north in the border states join another party. In a movement called the know Nothing Party or the american party. This is an antiimmigrant nativist party. This party is a reaction to the great wave of immigration of the irish and germans. They come for different reasons. The irish come because of the potato famine and the germans come because of the failed liberal revolutions of 1848. They are politically liberal. They come into the United States. And the know Nothing Party has a platform. Its one plank. The plank is only nativeborn protestants, protestants, should hold Public Office in the United States. No catholics. And you have to be nativeborn. So it excluded all the immigrants from ever running for office in the United States. Lincoln was proimmigrant. Lincoln lowes at need loathed nativism but he didnt denounce them publicly. Because they thought he would break up they would break up and he could coax them into a new formation. He bided his time. Lincoln is a patient politician in causeandeffect. And he waits for the effect. Understanding the cause. He does that with nativism. He thinks they will join a greater cause against slavery. At least some of them if i just waited out and i could create the party. He is pushed by the leading abolitionists in illinois. And owen lovejoy who is a minister whose brother was the first great martyr, and antislavery editor who was murdered in 1837. By a proslavery mob. Lovejoy 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 important in terms of thinking about lincoln all the way through his career, even through the emancipation proclamation which is, lincoln is patient about when he steps politically because he wants to step on solid ground. Wants to hold background on the principled basis. And thats why the abolitionists distrusted him. In illinois, they understood him. And the new york abolitionists were always wary of lincoln, even through the 1864 election. But the illinois abolitionists who came to know him, trusted him implicitly. They came to understand. They went to him initially because they understood they needed a politician they could trust. They understood they couldnt do this on your own. Quick break just from lincoln specifically. I want to ask you a question about judgment and decisionmaking. Youre making a decision that i have not seen in this third volume. You devoted a lot of time in the political repercussions and fallout. And also lots of lots of pages to john brown. And then the hanging of john brown what the effects were. Talk about the decision you made to do that and how that relates to writing what you describe as a political biography, as opposed to just a biography. Lincoln does not enter until really almost 200 pages. [laughter] its a long book. You have to bear with me. Its gripping along the way. The story is the creation of the crisis in politics. What happens with Charles Sumner which is the abolitionist senator from massachusetts. Who delivers a speech on the floor of the senate on may 19, 1826. Call the crime against kansas. Who according to sumner was raped on the proslavery forces claiming it as a territory and as a state for slavery. Engaged in violence against the settlers there. And undistinguished congressman. Who was a scion of sleeve slave owning wells who was encouraged to do this act by the leading powers of the south who control the congress. Some of them are in a common mess. Known as the f street mouse. Thats their name. And there the chairman of all the committees and they run the congress and country. They are the collective Mitch Mcconnell of the day. [laughter] and Stephen Douglas was desperate to win their approval in order to gain the nomination because they were the powers that be. And they never trusted douglas because he was always out for himself. What help what happens with sumner is, he bashes him on sumners head while hes seated at a wooden desk and almost kills him. He falls on the floor of the senate. Blood flows through the senate. And whats important about this politically. Sumner is the leading order against slavery in the United States senate and the congress. He represents the commonwealth of massachusetts. He represents the idea of the United States. As opposed to the southern idea of the nation. And he is almost killed. Sumner believed in a certain kind of politics. He believes in moral politics, moral suasion. He believes in humiliating his enemies. And hes got to this position in massachusetts, elected to the senate. He is in politics, but not really of politics. Once he is passed on the head and spent several years trying to recover. By the way, Stephen Douglas watched the whole thing. And tentatively watch the near caning to almost death of Charles Sumner. Without moving a muscle to interfere. So, he was not disapproving. An extraordinary scene. Charles sumner is recovering. He travels around. No one knows how her tears. Medically, what brain trauma is. No one could diagnosed as pretty travels around europe trying to recover. He finds his himself in the home of an old friend. An aristocrat who is written democracy in america and the jacksonian era. The study has two portraits, washington and hamilton and thousands of books. Sumner and tocqueville sit there. How slavery must inevitably ends. Tocqueville says, how . Sumner says, i dont know. But i know it must end. Tocqueville says, the man is a profit. And then in my book, we moved to lincoln. I call a chapter on lincoln, creation. Lincoln is on the train. Hes a lawyer. Hes just wrapped up 10 cases in decatur, illinois. 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 wigs in these cars coming as delegates. Any old friends. He wants the widest coalition. I do that. [laughter] yeah. You know, in illinois, the abolitionists while not necessarily new england, understood they needed somebody like lincoln. Even at that point of great political experience. He put together this new party and no one knew what it would be. The reason interesting question earlier. About the word republican. It was too radical to use. Why . Fax it was associated with radical abolitionists. Would never refer to the Republican Party. He would refer to the black Republican Party. And so, in the beginning, it was called the peoples party. And it took a long time for the republicans in illinois to fully accept the use of the word republican. Not exactly like today. The radicalism of the origins of this party. Lincoln, as you are implying was profoundly sensitive to language. He basically missed out on formal schooling. She was a passionate reader. Shakespeare fanatic. You also are somebody whose major illustrious career on language. Talk about the importance of language and particularly speeches in the development of lincoln as a politician over the course of his career. Speeches were absolutely crucial for the rise of Abraham Lincoln. And it was important for politicians of the time. We may forget that in the leading universities of the time, oratory was a major subject. And it was considered part of being a public person. Learning what oratory was. Lincoln never received almost any form of formal education. So he picked it up on his own. He would spend not simply hours, days, but weeks, studying. Working on his own, his speeches. You can mark lincolns rise through these speeches. In which he lays out the entire history, constitutionally. Lincoln is a lawyer. And he wants to know what the argument is of his opponent and he wants to knock it down and be thorough and logical. Npr minded. And he always appeals, fairminded. He makes an appeal to the facts and the evidence as a lawyer. As to a jury. He regards douglas as an illogical liar. A demagogue. Which he was. And a very clever and capable one. So lincoln does the whole constitutional history in his very first speech. And then speech by speech, you can mark lincolns rise. The famous speech at the bloomington convention. Probably lost because lincoln didnt want it reported because it was too radical. It was a lot easier to lose speeches in those days. There was no cspan. The house divided speech. The house divided against itself cannot stand. Half slave and half free. That really reframed the National Debate and understanding of what the country is going through. Has accepted speech of him running against douglas. All of lincolns advisors, except for his law partner, urged him not to give the speech. They told him it was too advanced to give that speech. He gives that speech, the first of its kind before gives that speech saying theres an conflict in the country. That comes from the bible. It comes from two parts of the bible and lincoln adapted. Lincoln knows the bible, he knows shakespeare. He and his partner probably have the best private library in springfield. He gets journals from england. Hes reading the new york tribune. Hes reading all sorts of things but in the tribune, is even reading its correspondent in london. Thats in her book your book. Is a wide reader. So, and lays out the entire history and investigation hes done on his own of the founders and their antislavery backgrounds in order to refute the dred scott decision. Delivered by judge of maryland. The chief justice of the Supreme Court. [indiscernible] who said the black man had no rights that the white man is bound to respect. The Cooper Union S