the most memorable moment of this week for me is hearing senator corey gardener saying you need to be firm in your principles, but flexible in the details. i think i really reflects, like, the solution, like the harsh polarization we're seeing across our country. and a methodology if all the state legislatures could attempt, we could come together as a country and solve many out of our pert e pert innocent issues. i any at the point where we have people who are willing to cross the aisle, who are willing to make these decisions with people who they may not often agree with,that's essential to maintain the security the integrity of our nation as we go on. >> high school students who generally rank academically in the top 1% of the united states were in washington, d.c. as part of the united states senate youth program sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on cpn's q&a. >> 150 years ago this month, president lincoln gave his second inaugural address on the east front of the u.s. capital. the country was still in the midst of theive war, but thousands gathered to hear the 349 peek. the library of congress is displaying the president's man ewe self-incriminate and reading copy for a limited time due to their delicate condition. up next a visit to the lie braer's conservation lab to view the documents and learn about their importance. this is about 15 minutes. >> the ole case of this address was march 4, 1865 for lincoln's second inaugural. people were expecting, i imagine, a much more sell bratorial kind of a speech. the war hasn't been -- it wasn't over. it would still continue for a little more than a month. you would expect someone to have more of a triumphant address. but, actually, what you see in lincoln's first inaugural is just over 700 words. and, instead, he says essentially, the war was caused by slavery, but it was a national sin. so god is the one who is determining how much longer this war is going to continue. and, when ever lash taken -- every drop of blood from the lash is congressmen tated, then he'll say alass, the war is over. then it's up into god's hands and he ends with that famous line with malice toward none and charity from all. with firmness from the right as god gives us to see the right and then to bind out the nation's womb, to care for his orphan and widow. essentially, it starts with what was the past? what caused the war? where are we currently in the present, which is this will continue until god determines otherwise. and then it works in the future with what we should do in the future. so essentially, it's a bit about his recon sfrux plan that we're not going to be -- or at least he didn't want to be vindictive or vengeful. lincoln always believes there should be a more charitable end. so there is's a lot going on in those woshds. what lincoln would often do is try them out in letters and speeches and then they would get woven out. this is abraham lincoln's handwriting. flynn would have been the typesetter who actually put this in to type. lincoln got back in uncorrected proof, which he then decided to cut and paste to show how he wanted to read the address. so you see that in four paragraphs, in the manuscript draft, he's cut it up in little sections so he could know how he wanted to read the address, what the pacing was and what i always think is the most interesting of how he wanted to read it. if you see any of the other copies and the word cane is just at the oend of this paragraph. he's describing four years ago on my first inaugural, we had many more reasons to have a longer address. he accounts for the reasons why the war had started. one thing you can always learn about lincoln it's more of a light hearted way. lincoln wrote for how people were going to hear his speech not necessarily sitting by with a book of grammar. so he would write how he wanted his audience to hear something. so if he wantd them to take a pause, he'll add a comma. the printer is looking from more of a grammatical point of view. so when you get to the reading parts, he's adding commas again. you also see he's attempting to write in a poetic or lyrical way. all nations sounds much better than with the world. so, again for a very small address, there's -- he said the southern half, in regards to slavery. there was slavery in this southern half. well half of the nation wasn't the confederacy. there's a dpramatic difference in terms of who he's talking about. >> people have asked well are there other copies in the second innaug ral. i'm only aware of him writing out one paragraph, but again, people didn't know how short of a time he had left. >> and how did the library of congress come to own these two copies? >> well, we know exactly how the manuscript draft came to us. that on the reverse of the fourth page, it's actually inscribed by lincoln in april, 1865 to his secretary, john haye. it was through the haye family that the man ewe self-incriminate came into contact. with the reading copy, i'm still looking for the exact confirmation as to how it got here. >> what does the library of congress do to preserve this document? >> we keep it with a specifically-designed vault with the optimum control security measures are always in place, obviously. we try the really manage the amount of display time. as you can imagine, it's popular, it's always very exciting to see it. but we do pay the price for displaying these items. because of the key phrases on the address, the fourth pages have been on display multiple amount of times, for years, 5:00 which youly, at a time. sometimes ten years. that has really made an impact on the document. all of those things combined causes discolor ration to take place. the other thing we keep a really close eye on is the ink. the ink is brown. that is not the original color of the ink. the original color was actually black. it was made of goals. it's corrected by insects who would put eggs in trees. over time and under the wrong circumstances, it turns brown. because of the highly acidic nature of this ink and the excess of iron in it, it can eat its way to the back. so what can we do about that? we can keep it under cool and dry symptoms. what we don't want to do is introduce anymore water, as we did with this document and others, as well. it's unclear when it was treated and when it was lined, but the lining was removed. but that's good. it sometimes creates a little bit of a halo effect around the ink. i do want to point out one more thing that is necessary. the reading is done with animal glue that's made of cattle hide and bones. that's -- that sort of looks like this. you would actually use it in a warm manner. if it's cool or dry, it's very, very hard to handle. the good news is that there isn't an awful loft of treatment. but the bad news is some severe damage has already occurred. >> our records i believe show that it was 1959 when all four of the man ewe skript documents as well as the reading copy is on display. this is an opportunity to see these, once again for a very brief period of time. march 4 was the ses kwee centennial reading day. just theic to make sure i get the quoting quite right he said a little over a month later, i expect the ladder, meaning his inaugural address to wear as well perhaps better than anything i've produced. but i believe it's not immediately popular. the reason why is men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the all mighty and them. so when you're looking at this address, lincoln is basically saying everyone is responsible. so if that's not what you're expecting to hear for a nation that's on the brink of winning a civil war, you could understand why it may not be popular. but lincoln is correct. the second inaugural address tend to be the two documents that people mean the most of lincolns and they are the two that are inscribed at the lincoln memorial.

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