Buss. Since your last annual assembling, another year of health and bountiful harvest has passed. And while its not pleased the almight toy bless us with a return of peace, we can but press on, guided by the best light he gives us trusting in his own time and wise way all will yet be well. Thats from the archives of you portraying Abraham Lincoln. Whats the value of understanding history through reenactment . It reaches a population that may not pick up a book but they want to come and have an experience. Theyre not readers, they dont pick up the written word but they want the experience. How many years have you been portraying Abraham Lincoln . 33 this year. Started extremely small but i wish i could tell you there was a grand plan, and its certainly not mine. How did it get started . I was on the board of the illinois education association. We were going to have the National Convention in new orleans and one of the Board Members came up to this skinny, skinny man with a black beard and said, you know, if you dressed, we could all come on the floor of the convention and they would know illinois had arrived. And i was intrigued. And i said lets try this, and that was the only thing i did in 1986. But then worked at freeport with the debate and such. People wont understand the reference to freeport and the debate. Will you tell that story . The debate site, second debathe site. 1858 debate series. With stephen douglas. My whole life was a parking lot with a boulder dedicated by teddy roosevelt. Longtime resident said we can do better. We turned that over to green space, lifesized statue of lincoln and douglas in debate. To set the stage for people, 1994, cspan went to all the towns in illinois and asked them if the towns put on the debates, well bring the cameras and televise the debates in its entirety. How many of those did you play lincoln . Two of seven. Number two and number three. What preparation did you need to do for a threehour debate televised live . The essential question that gnawed and still gnaws, who were lincoln, who were douglas and why . Why was that so pivotal . And youve got to get right with lincoln, according to senator paul simon, and ive done my very best. Is portraying lincoln a fu fulltime job for you . Is now. And was it for most of those years that you did it . If things could be scheduled, and that was all word of mouth. Marketing and such. That was far enough in advance that it could be scheduled handily. From that very First Experience at the illinois education meeting, how did you inhabit lincoln . How did you learn enough to be able to be comfortable in your portrayal . As lincoln himself said, work, work, work. Thats the thing. But literally, everything thats been published in the last 30 years, ive had good fortune to even meet the authors and to ask those critical questions. Why . But also to go back to the primary source documents to understand what was happening in the times, to understand why lincoln reacted, why douglas was bringing forward his own work, and how those two met, but how lincoln, in his times, lincoln in his relationships. How much of his repertoire can you interpret . It started small, with the linco Lincoln Douglas debates, but then i had calls, will you come and talk about the war . Will you come and talk about the indiana years . Will you come and talk about the final months . And so you find that written work and you consume it. And then it comes forward. Somebody said once, they said its a gift. And someone else said if you dont share the gift in its pure form, its not moral. And i took that very seriously. How did you become lincoln physically, and how do you do it today . The coat fits, the vest fits and that voice, what is a Central Illinois nasal twang. I struggled with that. But we climbed the hill and made it to the top. Lets go back and watch a little bit more of that event and listen to the voice specifically, because i would like to have people focus on that, and then have you talk about how you captured something that wasnt captured by any devices at the time. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed. This could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just. A way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and god must forever bless december 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln. [ applause ] so, what did you have to work with, to interpret his voice and how it might sound . I did undergrad at ball state. A number of those classmates i had came out of southern indiana, central indiana, but i was at a hotel in springfield, illinois, years back, and the waiter brought coffee. It was 6 15 in the morning. And he came to the table and he said, you want coffee . And i was stunned. And i said where are you from . And he said springfield. I said how long have you lived here . My whole life. And i thought, this is this is what ive waited for. And it was from the descriptions of the letter writers at the time. But when i met david donald at gettysburg for the Richard Nelson award of achievement, he wanted to hear it. And i thought what do you say to the author of a lincoln biography that was just awarded the pulitzer . I thought about that a while but i gave him the voice and he smiled that smile that is ever so david donald and he said its as i expected. Dont ever change it. So can you give us a full line right here in abraham li lincolns voice as you interpret it . If we could first know where we are and whether were attending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. Thats very nasal. And how the descriptions at the time described it as being high and very nasal . High pitched and a nasal, ready twang. Ive got to go back and find where i read that but one of the other writers in the letters in those days, they would say dear cousin. Heard lincoln today, most god awful voice i ever heard, but his message was pretty good. And they said it was that falsetto voice, but when you do it in quincy, illinois, for example, on the block of washington square, you remember that . We saw no grass from the plymouth and somebody said how did that work in your day . So without microphone, we spoke to 2500 people on the square, and even the policemen on the other block could hear it. We asked him from the platform. Because the voice rose above the crowd . And it carries. What other characteristics do you share with lincoln, height, weight, that sort of thing . 65, 174, 175 pounds. This beard doesnt do him justice today, but with a little work, as we saw in the clip. And then i think when the hat comes on at the end and youre ready to go out the door, hes there as a channel. Ive never had the experience that suddenly lincoln is among us, because its an academic assignment. What is it that we need to do . So im constantly aware of that, but when were ready and the beard is right and the other set of glasses is right, we see what it looks like. How long does it take you to become lincoln . An hour. Ive tried to shave it, but shave the time down. I just cant do it. And theres a methodology there that its step by step and its got to be the same every time. What is the most poignant place that youve ever played lincoln . Ive got to say since ive been asked to do gettysburg at gettysburg now, to stand on that d dias and you can see the stones of the cemetery, that is a consuming moment. And you contemplate the death and all that that meant. And it has to be right. Its not i greet the crowd. I thank them to coming for the commemoration. Its not a celebration. Its not high fives and lets just have pictures taken, but its solemn and weve got to get it right every time. Just as there have been more books published about Abraham Lincoln than any other president , theres probably more people interpreting Abraham Lincoln than any other president. People would be surprised there are many people out in the field doing this. Approximately how many . You have an association, i believe. Theres an association and i believe there are about 100, all about the country, and that keeps that memory alive. And what do you when you gather together in your conventions, what do you talk about . Getting it right and where the venues have been, what the next steps are, what the new publications are saying. If there are issues that have been brought up in the past, how is it handled . So its kind of a collaboration, if you will, and everything is put on the table and hashed back and forth, and then we go out again. When you do a question and answer as Abraham Lincoln, what is the most often asked question of you . They want to hear gettysburg, and think about all that that means. But i would say nearly every time in that q a, will you give us gettysburg . Would you say that over the course of the 30 years youve been doing this the interpretation of lincoln has changed or become more nuanced . Are there any issues were dealing with as a society that youve had to rethink with lincoln . Actually, its deepened it, because in the current politics, with division, it parallels those times prior to the war. When you talk about divided politics, its the 1850s all over again. When folks say how did you do it in your time, what was that we need to work together. We must not be enemies, but friends. In closing, as we think about Abraham Lincoln on his Birthday Week and on president s weekend, what is the essential lincoln . What do you think is his message of our time that you most want people to be thinking about . Let us bind up the nations wound wounds and i think the anger we see and hear, and i run into it like this, not necessarily lincoln, that working together and that its all right to reach across the aisle, as lincoln did, team of rivals, democrats in the cabinet of a republican administration. And those lessons. Have a discussion about what we agree on, work on what we dont agree on, that will take us the next step. George buss, weve known you at cspan since 1994 when you helped us put on the Lincoln Douglas debates. Thank you on this president s weekend for talking about Abraham Lincoln and how you bring him to life. Thank you for bringing me back. Since the early 1980s, artist wendy allen has made use of styles to paint over 400 portraits of Abraham Lincoln. Next on American History tv, using music, photographs and video, wendy allen shows examples and discusses her influences and reasons for painting