P. J. first question i have is what is the most memorable thing about the building of the Abraham Lincoln hearse . What i learned and our family learned was that its not about the hearse. It is about those building the hearse and it is about the veterans to whom were building the hearse for and that is Abraham Lincoln. Is this your writing paris . [laughter] [indiscernible] p. J. ok. I guess i can read it. I dont know what that one word means though. [indiscernible] p. J. what does that say . How has this impacted our life . Im sorry. Does a big word impact. That is a big word impact. One of them the things that has come out of this is that i have begin to heal. I am not a veteran, but you slowly begin to heal wounds that have surfaced over many years of working with that. Death. It is different from ptsd. He call it cumulative stress syndrome. And with that comes the burden of trying to take peoples grief away. And we cant do that. We can only walk through it with the and that is what
Lincoln i think that what i saw if i could just back up a little bit i do not consider myself a courageous man. If i were out on the battlefield with bullets whizzing past my head, i probably would develop a pair of cowardly legs quite quickly, and they would carry my noble head away. But nonetheless, what i saw was very grave. Right after the close of the mexican war, if you divided this country into four parts, only the southeast was given to slavery. The territory from mexico and the northeast were free. In five years, that equation had reversed. 3 4 of our territory i am not speaking of states in number but our National Geography had been given for slavery, in just five years. That is why the Republican Party was founded to stop the spread. And i came to be convinced that there was a conspiracy to make slavery universal. Now when the threats of secession and war and so on began, i realized that like any soldier, i would have to consider that my life may end up being put on the line
Recreate the hearse that carried lincolns body to his grave site. He discusses the 1865 funeral, as well as the research that went into duplicating the original hearse, which was destroyed in the early 20th century. The Illinois Historical Preservation Agency hosted this 30 minute event. A way to remember, educate, and heal. I want to tell a story about a brief and interesting story, a summary of what has taken place for the last 18 months. Abraham lincoln hearse build. To remember, thank you president lincoln for affording us a reason to remember. To educate, thank you elizabeth simpson, president of the Allstate Capital foundation which afforded us a way to educate by reaching out to me last december for the opportunity to speak you this evening. To heal, thank you katie spindel, chair of the 2015 lincoln funeral coalition, for the opportunity to heal through this project and the upcoming reenactment event. Thank you, our audience, our friends at cspan, our host, justin blanford, for