0:01 and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to this special edition of the way to wow shows it's Wednesday uh February uh February 12th sorry think about that for a second and today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday and so as is
0:36 my custom I'm doing a special show to help uh Mark honor and celebrate the Day uh i' I've mentioned this before I think that um when I was a child um we had two president holidays um both were in February there was Lincoln's birth and there was Washington's birthday and Washington's birthday I I want to say is on the the the the 20th um oh that's funny oh uh on the
1:14 17th sorry so um and then um sometime in I think it was the 70s it was replaced by President's Day and and there's sort of an implication there that all presidents are are worth honoring and I have to say um without getting on too much of a soap box um clearly that that is not the case there are there have been good presidents and there have been bad presidents and though and so although as citizens of the United States I think we
1:49 are obligated to respect the Office of the President that doesn't mean that we have to celebrate the presidencies and lives of every man who's held that office and indeed I I I think that um there have been two undeniably great presidents uh George Washington known as the father of our country and Abraham Lincoln known as the great emancipator and so you will find that uh I don't uh
2:25 do a President's Day celebration but I do uh mark both uh George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays and so as as I did um on Martin Luther King Jr day uh I'm gonna focus on on uh the early part of of Abraham Lincoln's life uh to the extent that most people know something about Abraham Lincoln they know about his time as president and and um you know his his impact on the
3:01 American Civil War not that that's not important it certainly is I'll I'll touch on some highlights in that but I think that to truly understand um the the the greatness of Abraham Lincoln we we need to know about the formative events and the formative forces in his life uh and and and I think that those give us the best lessons for for ourselves and what we may be able to accomplish and and also why Abraham Lincoln is is worth honoring
3:39 so I'm gonna as I typically do for these types of holidays honoring an individual I'm going to talk about I'm gonna give a a biography of of Abraham Lincoln talk some of talk about some of the seminal aspects of his early life and then I'm going to finish up by reading uh one of his U most moving speeches um probably his best known speech is the Gettysburg Address I know when I was in sixth grade uh it was still the practice that
4:15 um children memorized great speeches and then had to uh give them to their classmates without you know any paper you had to do it from your head I I remember memorizing the Gettys address and also the midnight ride of Paul Rivier I I still remember large P portions of both they they were I think very fine exercises um but but I'm actually going to read Lincoln's uh second inaugural speech which is perhaps more apt to uh to the
4:52 times um many people have uh likened what's going on in the United States to a civil Cold War um frankly some with relish I I I shudder at the thought um the the the the Civil War in the United States uh was tremendously bloody um hundreds of thousands of Americans were killed and wounded um families were torn apart um and the Cold War meaning the postor War II Cold War was also very horrific to
5:29 put the two of them together is on some level Beyond imagining and I I I would like to think that uh We As Americans can move beyond our our um our our part not move beyond our partisanship but um look beyond our partisanship and remember that we are all citizens of this great country um a country that um is still seeking to align itself with with its its
6:06 principles as as all human endeavor does never never perfect always room for improvement uh and and so um U I think uh Lincoln's second inaugural address is is more appropriate so so looking at looking at his his biography first so Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12th 1809 so what about 216 years ago in a log cabin that that is not myth he was born in a log cabin in Harden County now Laro County in in Kentucky uh to Thomas
6:44 Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln uh he moved with his family to Indiana in 1816 and then to Illinois in 1830 uh Abraham Lincoln grew up in in poverty now that wasn't particularly unusual uh for Americans in the antibellum uh 19th century um but it was still a formative aspect of of of Lincoln so during his youth he he worked on a farm he worked
7:19 as a rail splitter that was someone who chopped trunks of trees into rails that were then uh built in fences and in various other odd jobs in 19 at 19 years old he took a job as a store clerk in New Salem Illinois and and in so doing he started to gain experience both in business um and in leadership so in 1932 um at the age of 23 Lincoln served in the Blackhawk War for for three
7:56 months uh he did not see any combat his duties were uh included building forts burying dead soldiers and protecting settlers now he was a volunteer and as and the way things worked um at this at that time was volunteer enlistments lasted for about a month each right because they were volunteers they weren't getting paid um and and so uh they had other activities to to be concerned about families Farms Etc businesses so for his first enlistment
8:31 he was elected captain of his volunteer company uh and and Lincoln said uh later it was one of the most gratifying moments of his life to be recognized by his fellow volunteers for that leadership position he en reenlisted twice after that as a private and he served until the war ended on August 27 1932 so he had both business and Military experience uh by the time that he was you know in his early to mid
9:08 20s uh Lincoln had very minimal formal education uh formal schooling a again as Was Not Unusual at this time in the United States but he was a voracious reader and I I I I emphasize this that so many of the great men in history who grew up poor uh were largely self-taught through Reading and that includes Dwight Eisenhower for example um now he did um
9:45 George Patton didn't grow up poor um but he almost surely was dyslexic and so he did very poorly in school and so he ended up in large part educating himself also through being a voracious reader I think it's in in even in today's world where information seems so easy to come by and we have uh AI large L AI large language models to do so many things for us um it still behooves us to be well
10:20 read that that is an I would argue that an educated person is a well- read person as as opposed to a person who has for for example graduated high school or college or something like that um Lincoln was self-educated he learned again through reading books and he developed a deep interest in the law and politics he studied law independently and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1936 after which he established a law practice in Springfield Illinois now
10:57 it's interesting to not there were law schools um back then but of course Lincoln could not afford law school um and even today although it's extremely unusual it's my understanding that you don't have to go to law school to qualify to sit for the bar you could study on your own and maybe again with the development of of large language models Ai and all these kind of things maybe people will start doing that again it'll be interesting thing to see so William hearnen was uh Lincoln's best
11:34 known law partner lifelong law partner and hearnden was instrumental in preserving Lincoln's true life story so uh after Lincoln's death hearnen conducted interviews with people who knew Lincoln the family members uh childhood friends colleagues and in 1889 he wrote eren's Lincoln it was one of the earliest and and most detailed biographies of of President Lincoln of Abraham Lincoln
12:09 so uh in 1834 uh Lincoln was elected to the Illinois State Legislature as a member of the wig party so I'm gonna I'm gonna digress and talk about the wigs for for just a minute and then I'm going to go back to Lincoln's biography because I think it's important to understand so the wig party was kind of a a predecessor to the Republican Party although it was not a direct transition so the wig party was active from the
12:44 1930s to the early 1950s and it was founded primarily in opposition to Andrew jackon and the Democratic party so the wigs supported a a strong Federal government internal improvements such as roads and canals and economic modernization okay now what divided the wig party was the issue of slavery so Northern wigs were abolitionist and
13:20 Southern wigs wanted to maintain the institution of slavery and the split essentially became irreparable in 1954 with the passing of the Kansas Nebraska Act which allowed slavery to expand into new territories based on the idea of popular sovereignity meaning that each state should get to decide whether it was going to allow slavery within its borders so many former uh many yeah former uh
13:58 Northern wigs um who were opposed to the spread of slavery joined abolitionist Democrats and free soilers free soilers were people who wanted slavery abolished to form the Republican party in 1954 and and and and this this is the this this is the I think important idea which is that unlike the wig party which was not an overtly anti- or pro-slavery party the
14:34 Republican party was founded an as an anti-slavery party it it sort of brought together all the all the anti-slavery elements uh into um into one party um really from kind of across the political Spectrum um and and the Democratic party um became essenti Al the pro-slavery party um because abolitionist Democrats generally speaking moved to the Republican party so Abraham Lincoln who had been um a a
15:13 wig for his political career up until that time and in fact was was the uh probably the the not probably he was the leader of the wig party in Illinois um became one of the leading figures in the Republican party so Southern wigs uh now you know now with the collapse of the wig party uh they either join the Democratic party or the short-lived what was known as the no nothing American party um which was a very nativist uh
15:50 Pro um party meaning it was very sort of America only for natural-born Americans um that party essentially disintegrated um and so the Republican party did inherit several of the wig party's uh policies including things like a strong uh national government and internal improvements um it was primarily an anti-slavery party that and and and that's you know that's that's
16:25 where it really sort of made its Mark so um so now going back to Lincoln's uh biography he again he was elected to the Illinois uh State Legislature in 1934 as a wig he served uh four terms of two years each and until 1942 um and during his time in the Illinois legislature he opposed the expansion of slavery and in fact in fact even co-signing a protest against pro-slavery
17:00 resolutions in 1837 so uh four years after leaving the Illinois State Legislature Lincoln was elected to the US House of Representatives also as a member of the wig party he served one term in Congress which was what he had promised the wig party in Illinois that he was due uh that that that he I'm sorry that he promised the Illinois wig party he would only serve one term so um among his accomplishments as a as a one-term
17:36 congressman were he was a vocal critic of the Mexican-American War he supported the Wilmont Proviso which is essentially establish well sought to establish a ban on slavery in any territory um that that was um gained from Mexico um it didn't the Wilmont Proviso did not pass um but it did show Lincoln's early opposition to slavery's expansion he also proposed a plan for gradual emancipation of slaves in Washington DC in the nation's
18:13 capital he introduced a bill to do so um and that that would have compensated um slave owners for the emancipation of their for for the freeing of of of blacks um but again there was insufficient support for that bill and and it did not pass um he spoke out against the slave trade and especially he was especially a harsh critic of the slave markets in Washington DC if you can imagine in the nation's capital he called it a stain on the nation's capital now that may not sound like very
18:48 harsh criticism but for the time that that was pretty brutal um pretty brutal criticism of of the practice so in um uh let's see in he so let's see he was uh I'm I'm losing track of the of his thing here okay so in N 1849 um uh Lincoln um left Congress and he returned to Springfield and and his law practice um and then um he basically
19:24 practiced law uh for the next uh almost 10 years um he he be actually was fairly successful as a lawyer um he represented a lot of railroads which were expanding tremendously at the time uh and uh across the country um so he he was kind of like what we would call a corporate lawyer today um in 1950 I'm sorry in 1858 not 1958 in 1958 Lincoln gained
20:01 national attention as the Republican candidate for Senate in Illinois he ran against Steph Douglas who was the Democratic candidate and they did a series of debates uh in order to explain to the people in Illinois their positions and and why you know each one thought he should be elected so um Douglas the Democrat promoted preserving the union interestingly enough so he was at least he claimed he was a moderate Democrat uh
20:37 he also um he was uh in favor of of each state um deciding whether it would allow slavery within its borders and he was a pretty notorious white supremist um now we we tend to think of of the South as as being the the you know seat of white supremacy um that is not exactly correct um Illinois Indiana Iowa um these
21:12 Northern Midwestern states um were were as as um in many cases virulently um nativist and and white supremists as as any state um in in the South and indeed um the American Nazi party was a very big element in those same three states moving into the 20th century so Lincoln who also of course was in favor of preserving the union he argued against the expansion of slavery into new
21:48 territories he also emphasized the moral evil of slavery and he advocated for uh basic rights for black people as well as free labor so uh Lincoln was very much an advocate of the idea that there should not be slavery and indeed um each individual should be allowed to sell his labor for uh you know to do whatever he wanted for whatever price he he was willing to uh you know willing to take now this is sort of a um a precursor to
22:26 the um what was long time um uh um I'm I'm losing the word but uh Republicans historically were anti-union um because they they felt that uh unions restricted the ability of an individual to sell his labor freely now we we've seen in the last election a little bit of a shift there uh with with President Trump and vice president Vance it'll be interesting to see how that play plays out and and if there if that really is uh the harbinger of of some
23:03 kind of realignment but but historically um Republicans were were in favor of Free Labor um so although Lincoln lost the senate race his Senate race um the the debates really made him a rising star within the Republican party so not not unlike Ronald Reagan in that respect and and um I don't think I've ever talked about Ronald Reagan or if I have not that much so prior to uh running for
23:41 governor of the United States uh Ronald Reagan was a spokesman for uh ge and he traveled all around the country talking to people about uh progress and the kind of things that American industry in particular GE could do to benefit Americans and this sort of this this this this years of of of speaking to people and and and four people and talking about their you know what benefits um you know people could expect
24:18 I think really gave um uh Ronald Reagan the ability as a politician to do the same thing um Reagan as as you may know was called the Great Communicator so in in the same way the although not focused on the same subject because the Lincoln Douglas debates were focused on polit political issues the the debates really honed Lincoln's ability to speak to people about the issues of the day and they also gave him an an opportunity to
24:54 really hone his arguments especially his his uh anti-slavery arguments so um and and now we we come to the part of of Lincoln's uh pardon me career that that we that most of us know about so he was elected the 16th president 16th wait a minute yeah 16th president I'm pretty sure 16th president of the United States in 1960 now interestingly enough he won only 40% of the popular vote v um but he won
25:29 the Electoral College and that's that's as we've seen that's what matters and um his election uh triggered the uh secession of uh of the South uh from the union and led to um the the the Civil War so um so Lincoln was inaugurated as president on March 4th 1961 back then in op ation took place in March whereas today it's it's in January January 20th if if the uh if memory serves so the the
26:06 the the for all intents and purposes the country was already engaged in a civil war um and and he faced the immediate challenges of not only forming his own government uh which was which was a much more difficult task back then because this was before civil service and so there were thousands of positions that uh Lincoln needed to fill By Appointment um but also had to uh essentially uh direct the North's efforts during the Civil War so um in uh
26:43 on January 1st 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves in the I I believe the Emancipation de aration actually says in the states under Rebellion against the United States right the Confederate States but um uh now it was it was somewhat controversial um in its time there were those that argue that Lincoln did not have the authority to do so Lincoln's position
27:18 was these states are under rebellion and since they're under Rebellion I have essentially martial law Authority and and that's why I can issue an Emancipation Proclamation for the states that are in Rebellion now a lot of people have said see this this shows that he he wasn't uh truly anti-slavery because he let slavery persist in the border states Tennessee Etc and and um in in areas in the north uh where it ENT where it existed um the the reality is
27:54 that um Lincoln almost for sure did not have the authority to uh to uh ban slavery throughout the country um that that would take a constitutional amendment and with respect to the border states where were they in Rebellion or not in Rebellion that that's that was somewhat somewhat of a debatable question but he also needed to keep he wanted to keep them essentially in the union and not further strengthen the Confederacy and so rather than risk
28:29 expanding the conflict and making the situation worse um Lincoln took the position that um since the border states were not an active Rebellion against the United States he didn't have the authority to emancipate slaves there either now the Emancipation Pro Proclamation is of course where Lincoln's uh you know name as the great emancipator um comes from so um among the his other accomplishments as president was he promoted the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution which would have which
29:05 would permanently abolish slavery um he also um of course um sought to unify the northern states and prosecute the Union's war effort um to that end he had uh minimally very bad luck with his um the the men he initially uh chose to uh lead the Union forces mlen and and and others uh finally he hit upon uh Ulisses
29:40 S Grant um and he made him Commander over the Union Army uh this was a controversial move U many thought that Grant was a drunkard and unfit to uh to command the Union Army um and Lincoln's response because uh Grant was winning victories was um please tell me what it is that Grant has drinking so I can send a case of it to my other General so um among Lincoln's greatest traits was he did have
30:16 um a wonderful sense of humor so uh Lincoln was uh reelected to the presidency in 1864 uh during the Civil War despite all of the um I mean the the the the war was not going um particularly well uh uh even as late as 1864 although things were starting to turn around once uh ulyses srant took over um and and there were Democrats in the north of course who were absolutely opposed to Lincoln
30:53 as president but but he was he was reelected um other things that he did just moving away from the Civil War and slavery theme for a minute was um he supported the creation of the national Banking Act in 1863 that established a uniform currency um this was something that had bedeviled Commerce in the United States for decades uh he created the homestead Homestead Act in 1862 that provided 160 acres of land to settlers willing to farm it for five years um he pushed for
31:28 the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad which would connect the eastern and western United States in the event um that was not completed until after he was killed um and he advocated for land grant colleges with the moral act uh which essentially provided federal lands to State universities to promote uh higher education and in fact many of the early state colleges and universities were known as land grant colleges many of them focused on training teachers and on uh farming and
32:04 agricultural uh knowledge uh which were very important to the country at that time so uh and as well uh he he really uh he really advocated for post-war reconciliation and reconstruction and and the healing of sectional divisions um his most notable as I mentioned uh at at the beginning of the show was the uh Gettysburg Address that he delivered on November 19th 1863 where he uh mourned the loss of uh
32:43 tens of thousands of uh soldiers um in in what was uh an extraordinarily bloody battle of the Civil War and in the Gettysburg Address if if you remember uh if you remember it at all um it was it was he he really redefined the Civil War as a fight for equality and democracy it really evinced his deeply held belief uh in in democracy and the idea that the government should be of the People by the people and for the people those those are the famous words
33:19 of the Gettysburg address um on April 14th 1865 while he and his wife were attending a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington DC Lincoln was assassinated by John wils Booth um an actor himself and and uh um he felt Lincoln was a tyrant because among other things Le Lincoln had suspended the red of habus Corpus and other things um Lincoln did not die immediately but he was taken across the street to a rooming
33:54 house where he did die not too long not too long after that so he was uh 54 years old uh sorry um uh 56 years old um when when he died and uh the his his assassination absolutely shocked the country um many Americans especially black Americans deeply mourned um the the the murder of of of Abraham Lincoln and his his legacy lives on today right
34:31 we are we are celebrating his birthday today in recognition of uh his greatness a as a president and a leader as as someone who uh maintained the union the United States um a a as as one nation as well as a man who advocated against the moral EV moral evil of slavery and and and did the best he could um in terms of um freeing uh
35:07 black people in the United States and and and setting them on the road um to dignified successful lives um he didn't live to see that of course um but um I think that there's there's no doubt that that Lincoln uh was a seminal uh figure in the emancipation of of of slaves um and and um one could imagine that looking down from heaven um Lincoln was
35:44 gratified to see um uh someone he knew well he invited him to the White House Frederick Douglas um Booker T Washington other great leaders um uh take in hand um their former slaves who were now free Americans and continue the struggle uh for for equality um and equal treatment under the law so um I'm going to read as I mentioned Lincoln's second inaugural address I think I've shown you this book
36:20 before the American reader uh words that moved a nation edited by Diane ravich if if you love this country this is a musthave book it has so many of the great speeches and poems and writings about our nation um it it it is truly an inspirational book uh to read and I'm going to read um um again Lincoln's uh second inaugural address um you'll you you
36:58 won't recognize I suspect um the first part of it but the last part of it I I suspect you will have heard uh before at this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper now at the expiration of four years during which public de
37:33 declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation little that is new could be presented the progress of our arms upon which all else chiefly depends is as well known to the public as to myself and it is I trust reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all with high hope for the Future No
38:10 prediction in regard to it is ventured on the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending Civil War all dreaded it all sought to avert it while the augural address was being delivered from this place devoted altogether to saving the union without War Insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without War seeking to dissolve the union and divide
38:47 Effects by negotiation both parties deprecated War but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive and the other would accept War rather than let it perish and the war came 1/8 of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it these slaves constituted A peculiar and Powerful
39:22 interest all knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war to strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would Ren the union even by War while the government claimed no more to do uh no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it
39:57 has already attained neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease each looked for an easier Triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding both read the same Bible and uh both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes his Aid against the other it may seem strange that any man should
40:33 dare to ask a just God's assistance in ringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces but let us judge not that we be not judged the prayers of both could not be answered that of neither has been answered fully the almighty has his own purposes woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense
41:10 cometh if we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the Providence of God must needs come but which having continued through his appointed time he now Wills to remove and that he gives to both North and South this terrible War as the woe doe to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those Divine attributes which the
41:46 Believers in a living God always ascribe to him fondly do we hope fervently do we pray that this Mighty scourge of War may speedily pass away yet if God Wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the Lash shall be paid by another drawn with the
42:23 sword as was said 3,000 years ago so still it must be said the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous Al together with malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds to care for him who shall who
42:58 shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish cherish a just and Lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations so I think we can see from from this speech that Lincoln was committed to seeing the
43:34 Civil War through as much as he deplored the destruction the death that it was causing and he was determined to see slavery end and in the end uh for his morals and for his commitment Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and so I I hope that today um you will take a few moments to
44:09 think about Abraham Lincoln his legacy um the changes that have happened in this country over the 160 years uh since the end of the Civil War think about the work still to be done and honor Abraham Lincoln for the great president and the great man that he was so I thank you very much for joining me today on this uh Abraham Lincoln's
44:44 birthday celebration I wish you a meaningful and wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do Marie darling You Are My Bell courage at all times my friends