Mystery Files (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 9 - Abraham Lincoln - full transcript
Over time, Abraham Lincoln's status has risen to almost mythic proportions, but what's the real story behind the legend?
Abraham Lincoln,
theman who rises from obscurity
to become the 16th
American president,
and arguably, its finest.
Lincoln is consistently rankedby
historians as the greatest
American president.
But his sudden assassination
leads to the
creation of a legend,
but obscures his
true personality.
Through in-depth psychologicaland
medical analysis,
his character is laid bare,
an extraordinary impact
of his early life revealed,
as we open the mystery
files on Abraham Lincoln.
Just five months after
he is elected president
for the second time,
Abraham Lincoln
goes out to this theater
to watch a comedic play.
It is the 14th of April,
1865, Good Friday.
Almost two hours
into the performance,
John Wilkes Booth creepsinto
the presidential box
and shoots Lincoln in
the back of the head
with a derringer pistol.
Lincoln dies the
following morning,
becoming the first US
presidentever to be assassinated.
Lincoln author, Harold Holzer.
On Easter Sunday,
pulpits around the country
are echoing with sermonscomparing
Lincoln to Jesus.
He's died for the nation's sins.
It creates the most
powerful resonance
that elevates Lincoln intoa
mythical, secular saint
immediately.
In Washington,
DCsits the magnificent Lincoln
Memorial, a vast structure
ingranite, marble, and limestone,
dedicated to this
ultimate American icon,
the man who emancipatedthe
American black slaves.
And who, by winning
the Civil War,
prevented the UnitedStates
from breaking apart.
Since his assassination,
Lincolnhas been revered by millions.
But the story of the
man himself is now
eclipsed by the
celebritythat surrounds him.
James McPherson is
one of the world's
leading Lincoln scholars.
Being assassinated when hewas,
in the moment of victory,
made it possible to forgetall
of the criticism of him,
the failures and
frustrationsof the war years,
and to see only the martyr.
Lincoln's life
becomes romanticized,
and the complexities of
hischaracter and motivations
are lost.
Modern investigation, however,
has uncovered a broader
picture of this great leader--
an often ruthless man,
drivento succeed in the traditions
of the American dream,
whose actions in later life
stem from the poorbeginnings
he rose out of.
Lincoln's first
home is in Kentucky
on Sinking Spring Farm.
He quite literally
was born in a log
cabin on the frontier to
afamily of self-sufficient
dirt farmers.
And his upbringingis
basic, His education
extremely limited.
He was always a
little bit embarrassed
about his lack of education.
When Lincoln goes
to Congress, he's
given a questionnaire
to fill out,
listing his past achievements.
And under the heading
education, he writes
deficient, sort of a joke.
But I think it reveals
a sense of regret
that he had barely
a year's schooling.
But experts believe he later
turns what appears to bea
disadvantaged childhood
into a tool for success during
his political campaigns.
He said basically, I'm
humble Abraham Lincoln.
My politics are short
andsimple, like the old woman's
dance.
Just a great line.
The reality,
ofcourse, is very different.
No one who achieved
what he achieved,
who rose from the
obscurityfrom which he rose,
could have been as
self-deprecating
and humble as Abraham
Lincoln professed to be.
His artifice was to
make fun of himself.
It masked usefully
the complexities
of a brilliant mind, and
created a folksy image
that people could alsoadore,
as well as respect,
and maybe not see
the inner workings of
and the ambition behind.
This drive andambition
will become the secret
of Lincoln's success.
And historians believe itcomes
from the very background
Lincoln uses to hide it.
From an early age,
he wanted to do betterthan
his father had done.
His father was basicallysatisfied
with the kind of life
that they led.
Lincoln was extremely
dissatisfied
and wanted to get out,
wanted to move up.
Historian Michael Burlingame
has been investigating
the psychology
behind Lincoln's early life.
Well, the origins
of Lincoln's ambition,
I think are rooted in
a sense of inferiority,
that Lincoln was
quite self-conscious
about being a country bumpkin.
Didn't want to be afarmer
as his father was,
he didn't wanted to be a
carpenter as his father
was, he didn't want to
live in the rural areas
as his father did.
So his initial ambition
was to leave that world.
He achieves
thisthrough reading extensively.
He was one of the
great autodidacts
when it came to education.
He taught himself an
astonishing amount.
Through applyinghis
acquired knowledge,
he escapes his ruralbeginnings
and enters politics.
But his pursuit of
public life is not
purely for altruistic reasons.
As Burlingame reveals,
his motivations
appear much more personal.
His ambition, I
think at that time,
was not so much focusedon
a particular ideology,
but it was just
winning popularity.
And then this is not the
case just with Lincoln,
but many people go
into political life
as a way of enhancingtheir
sense of self-esteem.
Winning elections and
givingspeeches and being applauded
helps to build up a sense
ofself-worth and self-confidence.
And I think Lincoln is
a classic example of it.
Lincoln's
first political triumph
comes early at the age of 25.
He is elected to the
Illinoisstate legislature in 1834.
And he goes on to run
asuccessful legal practice
as well.
This young, ambitious
politician and lawyer
is a far cry from
the great statesman
he will one day become.
Lincoln as a president willbe
known for his even temper
and empathy.
But 25 years before
becoming president,
the young Lincoln could
be quite different.
The most unattractive qualityin
Lincoln that I've discovered
is a tendency on his
part as a young man,
as a young politician,
to engage in cruelty.
That is, frontier politics,
as it was practiced in his day
involved a great deal
ofpersonal ridicule and sarcasm.
In his 20s and
his 30s, he tended
to be a low road politician.
Lincoln uses hisquick-wittedness and humor
to caricature his opponents,
causing hilarity and
embarrassment in equal measure.
There was a kind of arrogance
in some of thesepseudo-anonymous newspaper
articles that he wrote
in the 1830s and 1840s,
satirizing political opponents.
While such
tactics might prove very
effective in a frontier
state like Illinois,
they were hardly
suitablefor the presidency.
But at some point in his
adultlife, Lincoln clearly changes.
Historians believe
that one event
contributes greatly to
the shift in Lincoln's
behavior and personality.
Once he so insulted
apolitical opponent that he
was challenged to a duel.
In 1842, James Shields,
a victim of some
ofLincoln's cutting remarks,
calls for a physicalcontest
to defend his honor.
The challenger
and Lincoln went
out to a dueling
site outside of Illinois.
Lincoln, as the
challenged party,
was able to choose weapons.
And the gentleman who
challenged him to a duel
was much shorter than Lincoln.
And Lincoln specified
thatthe duel would be fought
with swords, that it wouldbe
fought in a limited space,
in which he could
not move out of,
and a dividing line
whichthey could not cross.
So Lincoln could have stood
onhis side of the dividing line
and turned his opponent intoa
steak tartare with his sword
while the opponent
flailed at him,
and was unable to reach it.
Under these
terms, Shields stands
little chance of victory.
But at the last moment,
wiserheads managed to talk them out
of it, and Lincoln apologizes.
The incident leaves
a lasting impression.
He later said,
when anybody tried to
raisethat episode in his life
and ask him about
it, he would say,
if you wish to remain
my friend, you will not
talk about that subject again.
So he was deeply
embarrassed by that.
So that I think, was
a kind of epiphany.
I think Lincoln learned
something from that.
I think Lincolnrecognized that he needed
to be more responsible
in his dealings
with political opponents.
And that was an experience
thatled him to greater maturity
in his public,
and I thinkprobably to some degree,
in his private life as well.
The incident kicks off a period
of great personal growth,
culminating at the age of 40
and his departure
from mainstream
politics for five years.
During that period,
whichseems on the surface of it
to be very uneventful,
beneath the surface,
Lincoln went through
a tremendous period
of psychological
growth and became
a high road statesman,
ratherthan a low road political hack.
His return to politics,
and the reasons
behind that comeback,
again reveal the
deep-rooted affect
his early life has on
hispolitical and personal
viewpoints.
And what brought
him back in 1854
was the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The US Congress passes an act
that recognizes
the new territories
of Kansas and Nebraska.
It also permits settlers
inthese regions to use slaves.
The act is controversial, because all
the territories were
originallyintended to be slave-free.
Lincoln feels compelled
tostep back into politics.
The speeches he gives
in opposition to the act
show how far Lincoln's
personal development
has come since that day
ofthe duel over 10 years ago.
Right now we're in the
Hall of representatives
of the old State
Capitol in Springfield.
Lincoln's celebrated housedivided
speech in June of 1858
was delivered in this
veryhall at the podium just
behind us here.
It was the opening paragraphs
inwhich he said, "A house divided
against itself cannot stand.
I believe this governmentcannot
endure permanently
half-slave and half-free.
I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved.
I do not expect
the house to fall.
But I do expect it will
cease to be divided."
From speeches like these,
his eloquence and
intellectual strength
lifts his political
profileto the national level.
So it established
Lincoln's credentials
as a very powerful spokesmanfor
the anti-slavery cause.
He became an even
moreprominent national figure,
and it really helped
to make him president.
This is the
declaration that spurs
Lincoln onto the presidency.
And it shows a marked shiftin
his personal motivations.
His ambition then,
is not justto achieve fame and applause,
but also to help do
somethingthat would alleviate
the suffering of the
slaves, and to vindicate
the honor of the country.
Through extensive research,
Burlingame has uncovered
what he believes
is the root of Lincoln's
anti-slavery position.
In his speeches,
he emphasized not
so much the
traditional arguments
that abolitionists made.
Instead he emphasizes againand
again and again that it's
an outrage that
somebody goes out
and works in the
hot sun all day,
and somebody else
derives all the profits.
Again, it appears Lincoln's
early experiences in life
areshaping his future actions.
I connected that with the wayhe
was treated by his father.
When Lincoln was a young
man, an adolescent,
his father would rent
him out to neighbors.
And he would dig up stumps
andchop down trees and do other
really backbreaking farm work.
And he might make $0.25 a day.
The law stated the earnings
of any child under the age of21
belong to the child's father.
And then Lincoln
would take at home
and turn it over to his father.
I think Lincoln deeply
resented the fact
that he was yanked out ofschool
and forced by his father
to go and work for others.
And that he unconsciouslythen
identified himself
with the slaves, and
identified his father
with the slaveholders.
Lincoln's
anti-slaverystance also reflects
what he has personally
achieved in rising
from his humble beginnings.
Lincoln himself said thatmany
times that slavery was
an anomaly in a
society that believed
in the rights of all men toget
ahead, because slaves were
of course, as Lincolnonce put
it, fatally fixed
in that condition for life.
They had no hope
of getting ahead.
This strongconviction
from his early years
would stay with him
throughout his life.
And his opposition campaignwould
take him to the center
of national politics.
On the 6th of
November 1860, Lincoln
wins a surprise
victory to become
the 16th American president.
His support comes entirelyfrom
the slave-free states
of the North.
The states in the
South rely on slavery,
and many do not even put
hisname on the ballot paper.
A hint of the discontent
that eventually
leads on to the Civil War.
But Lincoln's
actions in the face
of this war over
the next five years
would place him in manyhistory
books as the greatest
American president.
But he could only have
achieved such status
through extraordinarydetermination
and character.
Investigation of the morepersonal
side of his presidency
reveals just how impressive
his self-control was.
And how the challenges he
facedwere even greater than people
were aware.
In 1862, Lincoln's
son William dies,
apparently of typhoid fever.
The death of Willie,
thethird son during the Civil War,
was particularly hard
onboth Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln,
because he was the
favorite child.
He was the one who was
most like his father.
It was a terrible blow
for both his parents.
It throws Lincoln intoa
depression, a condition that
had plagued his earlier years.
Well, Lincoln's depressionswere
on two occasions
extremely severe.
When his sweetheart dies,
Ann Rutledge, Lincoln goes
into a profound depression.
And his friends were worriedthat
he would kill himself.
Ann Rutledge,
believedby many to be his first love,
died in 1835,
when Lincolnwas just 26 years old.
The specter of
depression remains over
him for the rest of his life.
He was a man of melancholywho,
especially in his younger
years, had suffered
from depression,
and went through
times of depression
as president of the
United States, too.
Combating sucha
condition is difficult.
But recent evidence
suggests Lincoln
is compounding the
problemin the early stages
of his presidency.
Lincoln is taking
something called
blue mass, a strong
medication designed
to ease his melancholy.
It's been speculated that
thatmay have had an effect on his
personality and his temperament,
may have made him more
short-tempered and irritable.
Dr. Norbert
Hirschborn believes
this irritability couldbe
indicative of something
more serious.
It came more and
more clear to me
that as a physician,
that if a man like this
comes to me saying,
I take blue mass
and all his friends and
relatives come and say,
well he's behaving reallyradically,
he loses his temper,
he's very sensitive,
he's got atremor when he's under stress,
I would say, I think thiscould
be mercury poisoning.
Blue mass pillsare
known to contain mercury.
Dr. Hirschborn decided to havethe
pills recreated and tested
to see the level of
mercury that would
be absorbed on consumption.
6.6 grams.
Today, mercury is known
to be a highly toxic substance,
and is handled with great care.
But in the 19th century,
it isregularly used in medication.
Had Lincoln been absorbinghigh
levels of mercury,
the side effects would
be extremely serious.
Well, it attaches to the nerves
and poisons it.
It damages the membranes and
theconduction of the brain cells,
in neurological terms.
And then we see
behavioral changes,
and we see neurological changes.
Dr. Hirschborn'sresults
are unequivocal.
So we find that under
any reasonable doses
that he could have
been taking, he's
absorbing a lot of mercury.
The amount's 1,000
times more than what
is now allowed to be absorbedby
our health authorities.
When he is elected president,
Lincoln is slowly
poisoning himself.
However, after five
months in office,
he appears to recognizethe
side effects and stops.
His partner, John Stuart,
his ex-law partner John Stuart,
says later on that Lincoln toldhim
that he's stopped the pills
because they made him cross.
It shows his
great determination.
The striking thingabout
Lincoln as president
is not that he was
psychologically
wounded or debilitated by
histendency toward depression.
The remarkable thing is
thepsychological strength that he
manifested during that period.
This ability
toexamine, learn, adapt, and grow
characterizes Lincoln
throughout his life
and marks him out for greatness.
But it is this
faculty that becomes
the instrument of his downfall.
In his early political
career, Lincoln
stands against racial equality.
He doesn't really
know any people of color
in Springfield, Illinois.
He says, do I believe thatblacks
should serve on juries?
No.
Do I believe that
they should vote?
No.
Do I believe they have
the right to intermarry
with white people?
No.
But oncepresident,
his experiences
of the black community changes.
I think it's really crucialthat he
moves, he changes.
In the White House, he
meets Frederick Douglass
more than once.
They plan emancipation
strategy together.
Frederick Douglassis
a prominent black campaigner
and former slave.
He welcomes Douglass to
the White House in 1865
after his inaugural address.
He says publicly, Douglass,
what did you think of my speech?
There is no one whose opinionl
respect more than yours.
This in front of a
crowd exclusively
made up of white people.
Culturally,
one ofLincoln's greatest moments,
because if there's ever
amoment when he's advancing
toward believing in equality,
at least as an ideal,
that's a moment.
Another vital influence comes
out of the Civil War itself.
I think a major
factor in that was
the contribution of
blacksoldiers to Union victory.
Here were people who
hadfought for their country.
And by doing so, they had
earnedcitizenship in that country.
You can't ask them to fight
and to risk their lives
and then turn around and denythem
the rights of citizenship.
And I think that's what Lincolnwas
basically saying by 1865.
It is the move
towards black suffrage
that leads directly
to his death.
Perhaps because of hisown
childhood experiences,
Lincoln's sense of injusticeagain
impacts on his politics.
In the last speech that he gave,
three days before he was
assassinated, basically
publicly came out in favor
ofsome degree of political rights
for the freed slaves.
But it is a dangerous step.
There was one member
in the audience in 1965
on that April 11th
day who did appreciate
the importance of that speech.
And that was a young actornamed
John Wilkes Booth, who,
upon hearing Lincoln
endorseblack suffrage, at least
limited black suffrage,
turnedto his companions and said,
that means nigger citizenship?
That's the last speech
he's ever going to give.
By God, I'm going
to run him through.
And three days later,
he shot Lincoln.
In death,
Lincoln'smartyrdom is assured.
But this investigation
uncovers the other facet
of this saintly figure.
His personality had
more than one side,
and it was quite complex.
But I think that makes
himall the more interesting,
makes him all the greater,
because it humanizes him.
And we can appreciate
him as a human being,
rather than as
this marble man who
looks down on us from
this tremendous memorial
in Washington.
Immortalized
as the hero of the Union
and the great
emancipator, Lincoln
the man is more
fallible, and yet
more interesting than
his mythical reputation.
A man who is therefore
to some, the greatest
American who ever lived.
theman who rises from obscurity
to become the 16th
American president,
and arguably, its finest.
Lincoln is consistently rankedby
historians as the greatest
American president.
But his sudden assassination
leads to the
creation of a legend,
but obscures his
true personality.
Through in-depth psychologicaland
medical analysis,
his character is laid bare,
an extraordinary impact
of his early life revealed,
as we open the mystery
files on Abraham Lincoln.
Just five months after
he is elected president
for the second time,
Abraham Lincoln
goes out to this theater
to watch a comedic play.
It is the 14th of April,
1865, Good Friday.
Almost two hours
into the performance,
John Wilkes Booth creepsinto
the presidential box
and shoots Lincoln in
the back of the head
with a derringer pistol.
Lincoln dies the
following morning,
becoming the first US
presidentever to be assassinated.
Lincoln author, Harold Holzer.
On Easter Sunday,
pulpits around the country
are echoing with sermonscomparing
Lincoln to Jesus.
He's died for the nation's sins.
It creates the most
powerful resonance
that elevates Lincoln intoa
mythical, secular saint
immediately.
In Washington,
DCsits the magnificent Lincoln
Memorial, a vast structure
ingranite, marble, and limestone,
dedicated to this
ultimate American icon,
the man who emancipatedthe
American black slaves.
And who, by winning
the Civil War,
prevented the UnitedStates
from breaking apart.
Since his assassination,
Lincolnhas been revered by millions.
But the story of the
man himself is now
eclipsed by the
celebritythat surrounds him.
James McPherson is
one of the world's
leading Lincoln scholars.
Being assassinated when hewas,
in the moment of victory,
made it possible to forgetall
of the criticism of him,
the failures and
frustrationsof the war years,
and to see only the martyr.
Lincoln's life
becomes romanticized,
and the complexities of
hischaracter and motivations
are lost.
Modern investigation, however,
has uncovered a broader
picture of this great leader--
an often ruthless man,
drivento succeed in the traditions
of the American dream,
whose actions in later life
stem from the poorbeginnings
he rose out of.
Lincoln's first
home is in Kentucky
on Sinking Spring Farm.
He quite literally
was born in a log
cabin on the frontier to
afamily of self-sufficient
dirt farmers.
And his upbringingis
basic, His education
extremely limited.
He was always a
little bit embarrassed
about his lack of education.
When Lincoln goes
to Congress, he's
given a questionnaire
to fill out,
listing his past achievements.
And under the heading
education, he writes
deficient, sort of a joke.
But I think it reveals
a sense of regret
that he had barely
a year's schooling.
But experts believe he later
turns what appears to bea
disadvantaged childhood
into a tool for success during
his political campaigns.
He said basically, I'm
humble Abraham Lincoln.
My politics are short
andsimple, like the old woman's
dance.
Just a great line.
The reality,
ofcourse, is very different.
No one who achieved
what he achieved,
who rose from the
obscurityfrom which he rose,
could have been as
self-deprecating
and humble as Abraham
Lincoln professed to be.
His artifice was to
make fun of himself.
It masked usefully
the complexities
of a brilliant mind, and
created a folksy image
that people could alsoadore,
as well as respect,
and maybe not see
the inner workings of
and the ambition behind.
This drive andambition
will become the secret
of Lincoln's success.
And historians believe itcomes
from the very background
Lincoln uses to hide it.
From an early age,
he wanted to do betterthan
his father had done.
His father was basicallysatisfied
with the kind of life
that they led.
Lincoln was extremely
dissatisfied
and wanted to get out,
wanted to move up.
Historian Michael Burlingame
has been investigating
the psychology
behind Lincoln's early life.
Well, the origins
of Lincoln's ambition,
I think are rooted in
a sense of inferiority,
that Lincoln was
quite self-conscious
about being a country bumpkin.
Didn't want to be afarmer
as his father was,
he didn't wanted to be a
carpenter as his father
was, he didn't want to
live in the rural areas
as his father did.
So his initial ambition
was to leave that world.
He achieves
thisthrough reading extensively.
He was one of the
great autodidacts
when it came to education.
He taught himself an
astonishing amount.
Through applyinghis
acquired knowledge,
he escapes his ruralbeginnings
and enters politics.
But his pursuit of
public life is not
purely for altruistic reasons.
As Burlingame reveals,
his motivations
appear much more personal.
His ambition, I
think at that time,
was not so much focusedon
a particular ideology,
but it was just
winning popularity.
And then this is not the
case just with Lincoln,
but many people go
into political life
as a way of enhancingtheir
sense of self-esteem.
Winning elections and
givingspeeches and being applauded
helps to build up a sense
ofself-worth and self-confidence.
And I think Lincoln is
a classic example of it.
Lincoln's
first political triumph
comes early at the age of 25.
He is elected to the
Illinoisstate legislature in 1834.
And he goes on to run
asuccessful legal practice
as well.
This young, ambitious
politician and lawyer
is a far cry from
the great statesman
he will one day become.
Lincoln as a president willbe
known for his even temper
and empathy.
But 25 years before
becoming president,
the young Lincoln could
be quite different.
The most unattractive qualityin
Lincoln that I've discovered
is a tendency on his
part as a young man,
as a young politician,
to engage in cruelty.
That is, frontier politics,
as it was practiced in his day
involved a great deal
ofpersonal ridicule and sarcasm.
In his 20s and
his 30s, he tended
to be a low road politician.
Lincoln uses hisquick-wittedness and humor
to caricature his opponents,
causing hilarity and
embarrassment in equal measure.
There was a kind of arrogance
in some of thesepseudo-anonymous newspaper
articles that he wrote
in the 1830s and 1840s,
satirizing political opponents.
While such
tactics might prove very
effective in a frontier
state like Illinois,
they were hardly
suitablefor the presidency.
But at some point in his
adultlife, Lincoln clearly changes.
Historians believe
that one event
contributes greatly to
the shift in Lincoln's
behavior and personality.
Once he so insulted
apolitical opponent that he
was challenged to a duel.
In 1842, James Shields,
a victim of some
ofLincoln's cutting remarks,
calls for a physicalcontest
to defend his honor.
The challenger
and Lincoln went
out to a dueling
site outside of Illinois.
Lincoln, as the
challenged party,
was able to choose weapons.
And the gentleman who
challenged him to a duel
was much shorter than Lincoln.
And Lincoln specified
thatthe duel would be fought
with swords, that it wouldbe
fought in a limited space,
in which he could
not move out of,
and a dividing line
whichthey could not cross.
So Lincoln could have stood
onhis side of the dividing line
and turned his opponent intoa
steak tartare with his sword
while the opponent
flailed at him,
and was unable to reach it.
Under these
terms, Shields stands
little chance of victory.
But at the last moment,
wiserheads managed to talk them out
of it, and Lincoln apologizes.
The incident leaves
a lasting impression.
He later said,
when anybody tried to
raisethat episode in his life
and ask him about
it, he would say,
if you wish to remain
my friend, you will not
talk about that subject again.
So he was deeply
embarrassed by that.
So that I think, was
a kind of epiphany.
I think Lincoln learned
something from that.
I think Lincolnrecognized that he needed
to be more responsible
in his dealings
with political opponents.
And that was an experience
thatled him to greater maturity
in his public,
and I thinkprobably to some degree,
in his private life as well.
The incident kicks off a period
of great personal growth,
culminating at the age of 40
and his departure
from mainstream
politics for five years.
During that period,
whichseems on the surface of it
to be very uneventful,
beneath the surface,
Lincoln went through
a tremendous period
of psychological
growth and became
a high road statesman,
ratherthan a low road political hack.
His return to politics,
and the reasons
behind that comeback,
again reveal the
deep-rooted affect
his early life has on
hispolitical and personal
viewpoints.
And what brought
him back in 1854
was the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The US Congress passes an act
that recognizes
the new territories
of Kansas and Nebraska.
It also permits settlers
inthese regions to use slaves.
The act is controversial, because all
the territories were
originallyintended to be slave-free.
Lincoln feels compelled
tostep back into politics.
The speeches he gives
in opposition to the act
show how far Lincoln's
personal development
has come since that day
ofthe duel over 10 years ago.
Right now we're in the
Hall of representatives
of the old State
Capitol in Springfield.
Lincoln's celebrated housedivided
speech in June of 1858
was delivered in this
veryhall at the podium just
behind us here.
It was the opening paragraphs
inwhich he said, "A house divided
against itself cannot stand.
I believe this governmentcannot
endure permanently
half-slave and half-free.
I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved.
I do not expect
the house to fall.
But I do expect it will
cease to be divided."
From speeches like these,
his eloquence and
intellectual strength
lifts his political
profileto the national level.
So it established
Lincoln's credentials
as a very powerful spokesmanfor
the anti-slavery cause.
He became an even
moreprominent national figure,
and it really helped
to make him president.
This is the
declaration that spurs
Lincoln onto the presidency.
And it shows a marked shiftin
his personal motivations.
His ambition then,
is not justto achieve fame and applause,
but also to help do
somethingthat would alleviate
the suffering of the
slaves, and to vindicate
the honor of the country.
Through extensive research,
Burlingame has uncovered
what he believes
is the root of Lincoln's
anti-slavery position.
In his speeches,
he emphasized not
so much the
traditional arguments
that abolitionists made.
Instead he emphasizes againand
again and again that it's
an outrage that
somebody goes out
and works in the
hot sun all day,
and somebody else
derives all the profits.
Again, it appears Lincoln's
early experiences in life
areshaping his future actions.
I connected that with the wayhe
was treated by his father.
When Lincoln was a young
man, an adolescent,
his father would rent
him out to neighbors.
And he would dig up stumps
andchop down trees and do other
really backbreaking farm work.
And he might make $0.25 a day.
The law stated the earnings
of any child under the age of21
belong to the child's father.
And then Lincoln
would take at home
and turn it over to his father.
I think Lincoln deeply
resented the fact
that he was yanked out ofschool
and forced by his father
to go and work for others.
And that he unconsciouslythen
identified himself
with the slaves, and
identified his father
with the slaveholders.
Lincoln's
anti-slaverystance also reflects
what he has personally
achieved in rising
from his humble beginnings.
Lincoln himself said thatmany
times that slavery was
an anomaly in a
society that believed
in the rights of all men toget
ahead, because slaves were
of course, as Lincolnonce put
it, fatally fixed
in that condition for life.
They had no hope
of getting ahead.
This strongconviction
from his early years
would stay with him
throughout his life.
And his opposition campaignwould
take him to the center
of national politics.
On the 6th of
November 1860, Lincoln
wins a surprise
victory to become
the 16th American president.
His support comes entirelyfrom
the slave-free states
of the North.
The states in the
South rely on slavery,
and many do not even put
hisname on the ballot paper.
A hint of the discontent
that eventually
leads on to the Civil War.
But Lincoln's
actions in the face
of this war over
the next five years
would place him in manyhistory
books as the greatest
American president.
But he could only have
achieved such status
through extraordinarydetermination
and character.
Investigation of the morepersonal
side of his presidency
reveals just how impressive
his self-control was.
And how the challenges he
facedwere even greater than people
were aware.
In 1862, Lincoln's
son William dies,
apparently of typhoid fever.
The death of Willie,
thethird son during the Civil War,
was particularly hard
onboth Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln,
because he was the
favorite child.
He was the one who was
most like his father.
It was a terrible blow
for both his parents.
It throws Lincoln intoa
depression, a condition that
had plagued his earlier years.
Well, Lincoln's depressionswere
on two occasions
extremely severe.
When his sweetheart dies,
Ann Rutledge, Lincoln goes
into a profound depression.
And his friends were worriedthat
he would kill himself.
Ann Rutledge,
believedby many to be his first love,
died in 1835,
when Lincolnwas just 26 years old.
The specter of
depression remains over
him for the rest of his life.
He was a man of melancholywho,
especially in his younger
years, had suffered
from depression,
and went through
times of depression
as president of the
United States, too.
Combating sucha
condition is difficult.
But recent evidence
suggests Lincoln
is compounding the
problemin the early stages
of his presidency.
Lincoln is taking
something called
blue mass, a strong
medication designed
to ease his melancholy.
It's been speculated that
thatmay have had an effect on his
personality and his temperament,
may have made him more
short-tempered and irritable.
Dr. Norbert
Hirschborn believes
this irritability couldbe
indicative of something
more serious.
It came more and
more clear to me
that as a physician,
that if a man like this
comes to me saying,
I take blue mass
and all his friends and
relatives come and say,
well he's behaving reallyradically,
he loses his temper,
he's very sensitive,
he's got atremor when he's under stress,
I would say, I think thiscould
be mercury poisoning.
Blue mass pillsare
known to contain mercury.
Dr. Hirschborn decided to havethe
pills recreated and tested
to see the level of
mercury that would
be absorbed on consumption.
6.6 grams.
Today, mercury is known
to be a highly toxic substance,
and is handled with great care.
But in the 19th century,
it isregularly used in medication.
Had Lincoln been absorbinghigh
levels of mercury,
the side effects would
be extremely serious.
Well, it attaches to the nerves
and poisons it.
It damages the membranes and
theconduction of the brain cells,
in neurological terms.
And then we see
behavioral changes,
and we see neurological changes.
Dr. Hirschborn'sresults
are unequivocal.
So we find that under
any reasonable doses
that he could have
been taking, he's
absorbing a lot of mercury.
The amount's 1,000
times more than what
is now allowed to be absorbedby
our health authorities.
When he is elected president,
Lincoln is slowly
poisoning himself.
However, after five
months in office,
he appears to recognizethe
side effects and stops.
His partner, John Stuart,
his ex-law partner John Stuart,
says later on that Lincoln toldhim
that he's stopped the pills
because they made him cross.
It shows his
great determination.
The striking thingabout
Lincoln as president
is not that he was
psychologically
wounded or debilitated by
histendency toward depression.
The remarkable thing is
thepsychological strength that he
manifested during that period.
This ability
toexamine, learn, adapt, and grow
characterizes Lincoln
throughout his life
and marks him out for greatness.
But it is this
faculty that becomes
the instrument of his downfall.
In his early political
career, Lincoln
stands against racial equality.
He doesn't really
know any people of color
in Springfield, Illinois.
He says, do I believe thatblacks
should serve on juries?
No.
Do I believe that
they should vote?
No.
Do I believe they have
the right to intermarry
with white people?
No.
But oncepresident,
his experiences
of the black community changes.
I think it's really crucialthat he
moves, he changes.
In the White House, he
meets Frederick Douglass
more than once.
They plan emancipation
strategy together.
Frederick Douglassis
a prominent black campaigner
and former slave.
He welcomes Douglass to
the White House in 1865
after his inaugural address.
He says publicly, Douglass,
what did you think of my speech?
There is no one whose opinionl
respect more than yours.
This in front of a
crowd exclusively
made up of white people.
Culturally,
one ofLincoln's greatest moments,
because if there's ever
amoment when he's advancing
toward believing in equality,
at least as an ideal,
that's a moment.
Another vital influence comes
out of the Civil War itself.
I think a major
factor in that was
the contribution of
blacksoldiers to Union victory.
Here were people who
hadfought for their country.
And by doing so, they had
earnedcitizenship in that country.
You can't ask them to fight
and to risk their lives
and then turn around and denythem
the rights of citizenship.
And I think that's what Lincolnwas
basically saying by 1865.
It is the move
towards black suffrage
that leads directly
to his death.
Perhaps because of hisown
childhood experiences,
Lincoln's sense of injusticeagain
impacts on his politics.
In the last speech that he gave,
three days before he was
assassinated, basically
publicly came out in favor
ofsome degree of political rights
for the freed slaves.
But it is a dangerous step.
There was one member
in the audience in 1965
on that April 11th
day who did appreciate
the importance of that speech.
And that was a young actornamed
John Wilkes Booth, who,
upon hearing Lincoln
endorseblack suffrage, at least
limited black suffrage,
turnedto his companions and said,
that means nigger citizenship?
That's the last speech
he's ever going to give.
By God, I'm going
to run him through.
And three days later,
he shot Lincoln.
In death,
Lincoln'smartyrdom is assured.
But this investigation
uncovers the other facet
of this saintly figure.
His personality had
more than one side,
and it was quite complex.
But I think that makes
himall the more interesting,
makes him all the greater,
because it humanizes him.
And we can appreciate
him as a human being,
rather than as
this marble man who
looks down on us from
this tremendous memorial
in Washington.
Immortalized
as the hero of the Union
and the great
emancipator, Lincoln
the man is more
fallible, and yet
more interesting than
his mythical reputation.
A man who is therefore
to some, the greatest
American who ever lived.