todd lincoln -- >> mary lincoln yes. >> mary lincoln didn't like grant too much. >> no. >> and she liked his wife less julia, but my question is she called grant a butcher after cold harbor but in the 1870s curiously enough when grant becomes president, he secures some type of presidential pension for mary lincoln when she's financially struggling a little bit. did she ever -- >> you think grant was the one to secure her pension? >> that's what i found in the reading, yeah. >> well, i would just check my last chapter because -- i believe it was a long campaign on her part. i would say there were congressional persons pushing it more than i would give grant credit. it may have been granted during grant's period but i don't really think he would be someone i would line up as advancing that cause too dramatically. >> that's what i heard. i just wondered if she ever thanked him for that or not. >> did mary ever thank grant for advancing her political fortunes? no. >> or her -- >> any actually had an interesting incident that she was living abroad and it's a very small town kind of very sprin

and she would later befriend mary lincoln. the physical attributes of the district did not recommend it. noah brooks described the streets as canals of liquid mud. it would be difficult to could -- to conceive of a meaner street in architectural adornments than pennsylvania avenue, and as we just heard maybe the architect architectureal recommendations of real estate on pennsylvania avenue remain there. there were, of course, areas of the city which boasted palatial homes, the finest aide of stephen douglass near i street and jersey avenue where his wife adelle a legendary beauty, nearly 25 years his junior held court. equally sumptuous was the mansion built by senator william gwynn from california who spent $75,000 to furnish his home. gwen harbor was arrested on charges of disloyalty when the war began, was imprisoned until 1863. then he went off to paris and became involved in a scheme for the colonization of southerners of the state of son nora in mexico. in consequence, he was sometimes called the duke of sonora. the reti

when you look at the box on the left, the major and his wife and is that mary todd lincoln? >> yes. >> >> yes >> that's the derringer? i go to filmmaking techniques here area the close-up, the cross cutting. this was revolutionary in a way. it used to be you put a camera down and had actors sort of performing in front of them. >> the stage and here comes the assassination. >> shifting points of view. >> john wilkes boothe jumping onto the stage. off he goes. >> cutting between perspectives, close-ups. the camera happens to be there and the narrative. >> it looks like ford theater does. >> yeah, photographs. back in 1915, the audience was spellbound viewing this. and the music, you can hear the music. it was really important to griffith. this was an original score that he had a composer create. >> you said in your book, in boston there was a 40-piece orchestra. >> about 28-piece and in some places 40-piece. >> a 40-piece orchestra in the theater? >> to create the magic of it. the ushers would be dressed in period pieces. the audience were given programs for the movie which wo

in the summer of 1862 according to mary todd lincoln was always a chronic insomnia slept hardly at all. he took late-night rambles around the soldiers home property which is just good declared a national cemetery. and, of course, there he saw the fresh graves of the boys that he sent to war. the site helped galvanize him draft emancipation proclamation. and that document was again, in my opinion but we like today to call the tipping point. for the first time it established that for both the north and south this was a war about slavery. the proclamation also meant the south could not get national recognition from great britain or france which became a moral imperative for them to resist the south. so with no help coming from those quarters, the out i would argue was that the south could not win. there are also those who disagree and i think it's a very worthy argument, i found inviting every book that it's an opportunity to go back to school, and certainly this one was no exception. the biggest lesson i learned was that just as symphonies and paintings can be left unfinished, so can war

mary was very impressed. shields was not impressed and challenged lincoln to a dual. they went out to an island technically part of missouri were doing was legal called bloody island. they were going to have a tool. lincoln is the person who was challenged in the choice of weapon so he chose broadswords. he had longer arms so that dual was aborted. lincoln returned in one piece to springfield and a few weeks later abraham and mary were married. all things leaked to the press. >> good evening carol. my question is lincoln's wiliness in the election of 1864 dangling possible cabinet positions, greeley as postmaster general and minister to france. would he like to speak to those? >> sure. i didn't go though much of the postmaster general shepperd really because i really don't think there's any evidence that could have happened that could've been in the same room even after niagara falls. for the flirtation with james gordon bennett lincoln had made an effort to neutralize james gordon bennett in 1860. he had an emissary from alibi politics visit him in new york and that

mary todd lincoln, abraham lincoln's wife had several brothers who were confederate officers. jeb stuart, cavalry commander his father-in-law was the union officer. in a letter dated 1862 from tennessee, john boston 80 first ohio infantry, expresses his outrage at his wife's pro-southern father. i think it is a curious thing why your father does not write to you or me. i think their patriotism is not very strong, otherwise he would write. but he does not care one grain if you were dead or alive, and he would rather hear of my death and my coming home. he is afraid to hear cannons roar and rifles crash, for here -- fear that it would break his copperhead bones. he is mad at me for volunteering to serve my country. he would rather hang around the birds nest, then to leave and fight to protect the family. but let the poor devil go for the time being. if i should be so lucky as to come home, i will give him a soldier's blessing, and that will be a rough was satan you may -- a rough blessing, you may be sure. there is a day when he will pay for all of this. john boston, enlisted 18

they seem to have gotten along very well with lincoln. mary kept firing them. the point is, he knew some black people, not a lot. you know that 90,000 document cash of letters. there is a little handful of black people. he knows a few. it is worth 20 out that every black person who could be taught to. johnson was dead, of course. billy gave some interviews. they all formally said that he was a kind man, did not seem to have any racial prejudice, and i like him. there was no black person that knew him and said, he is a bigot. his other chosen profession was a politician. this goes back to the part that we are talking about a while ago. he is running for office as a state legislator in 1858 against stephen douglas. he is very outspoken in his antislavery views. he becomes a one issue politician. all he talks about in the 1850's was the danger of slavery. he is running primarily against stephen douglas. stephen douglas was to be perfectly blunt __ and unabashed, enthusiastic race baiting white supremacist. i'm not being mean. i'm being accurate. stephen douglas kn

they seem to have gotten along well with lincoln. not with mary, i'm sure. mary kept firing them. she fired everybody. the point is, he knew some black people. he didn't know a lot of black people. for example, his law practice. 90,000 documents. thousands of cases. there is a little handful involving black people, ok? i think totally he had less than a dozen black clients. he knew a few black people. it is worth pointing out that every black person who could be talked to after the war -- johnson was dead, of course, but billy gave some interviews. some other people that new lincoln as well. they all said he was a very kind man. did not seem to have any serious racial prejudice. and i liked him. there were no black people who said, yeah, that guy was a bigot. and so, there is that. the chosen profession for lincoln is politician. this one is dicey. it goes back to what we were talking about whenever a part of the speeches and all that stuff, ok? he is running for office. very famously against stephen douglas. he is very outspoken in his antislavery views. guys, he becomes a one-is

a united daughter of the confederacy member named mary carter, related to the lee family by marriage, she actually writes these public letters in the southern church magazine and official organ of the applicable church out of virginia, and i found these at the virginia historical society, these big letters, editorials on the backs of these church newspapers. she writes the bishop of washington dc, and listen to the language. this is published. as you are aware, she writes there is a very serious religious crisis in this country. the young are drifting away from the home and the churches and into criminal currents. the conclusion is inescapable that one of the major causes of the absence of christian qualities in the clergy, they fail to attract the young because their character lacks the discriminating and compelling christian virtues. as illustrating this lack, abraham lincoln is the only american who to my knowledge ever wrote a book to disprove the bible and calls the redeemer of mankind and illegitimate child. yet, he is the only person in this country who has been universally sin

you talk about mary carter pointing out his. of infidelity, -- period of infidelity then not talking about his second inaugural. i don't think i ever read or heard a criticism where i do not hear lincoln's words quoted back to me from charleston in 1858. i am not now, nor ever have been, in favor of equality between blacks and whites. i am paraphrasing. you never hear the balancing idea that he signed the confiscation act, that he believes the slaves had issue. he believed, let us quit quibbling about this race or that race. or, he says how the declaration of independence applies to all people, forever. you get this imbalance, which is the criticism of lincoln. i think that was something i wanted to bring out in the book. another critic of lincoln that is important in the 1930's, is also from illinois. that shifts in the 1930's, largely, prior to the 1930's, the lincoln criticism had been a regional phenomenon. that is understandable, anyway. in the 1930's, edgar lee masters was from illinois, and he published a book called "lin

this is very common to lincoln's critics. they will freeze something he said at one point in time and not balance it out with things he said at another point in time. you see mary carter pointing out his infidelity, and ignoring -- karen brought it up, his second inaugural. if you are talking about the second inaugural, you are talking about god's punishment on the country for slavery. i don't think i ever read or heard a criticism where i do not hear lincoln's words quoted back to me from charleston in 1858. i am not now, nor ever have been, in favor of equality between blacks and whites. i am paraphrasing. but then you never hear the balancing idea that he signed the confiscation act, that he believed that the slaves had interests. he said, let us quit quibbling about this race or that race. or, he says how the declaration of independence applies to all people everywhere, forever. you get this imbalance, which is the criticism of lincoln. i think that was something i wanted to bring out in the book. another critic of lincol