reconstruction on "american history tv," here on c-span three. you are watching "american history tv," 48 hours of american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter @ cspanhistory for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. abraham and mary lincoln lived in this spring hill home from 1841 to 1861. lincoln was elected congressman 1860.6 and president in lincoln's sans robert todd lincoln donated the family home to the state of illinois in 1887. coming up we visit the lincoln residential library and museum to learn more about the life of our 16th president.

alan: the city of springfield, so much is built around that legacy of abraham lincoln. springfield is the city of lincoln. his home is here, his speeches, his law offices, and he is buried on the outskirts of town at oak ridge cemetery. he is extraordinarily important. this is the always built in 2005. it had been a dream for many folks in central illinois, presidential library for the greatest president. the purpose is to pass on the legacy of abraham lincoln. he is the man who best encapsulated what it means to be freedom and equality, opportunity. we put him on a pedestal rightly , but he was a human being and had great ambitions to do great things. abraham lincoln was born in 1809 in kentucky. he lived there for a few years.

he was six or seven when he moved to indiana, lived through his teens in indiana. he grew up on the front tier and had a lot of -- the front tier -- frontier. he was determined to move beyond his hard life. you see a young lincoln putting focus on learning as much as he could and fighting -- finding rare books because he knew he wanted to do something more with his life. from an early age, abraham lincoln said he knew slavery wasn't wrong, the nothing was wrong. we believe in, somewhat speculation, he would have seen it growing up in kentucky when he was young. one of the reasons the family left kentucky, the dislike of slavery. as a young man he traveled down to new orleans which at that point was the biggest slave trading market in america.

stayed a block away from the major trading area, so he saw it then and was repelled by it. he saw it as a moral evil, something running founder to the ideas of america. he also saw it in an economic point of view that it made no sense, that people should be able to reap the benefit of what they do for their work. farming out to other formers showed him the injustice. if you are working and you are sweating for that product, you should benefit. you should profit. in slavery that was not the case. a fundamental moral and philosophical repulsion to slavery but also realizing it was unfair in every way. youth and puthis that into effect as president. in 1837.o springfield

he was in the state legislature, a young lawyer, making his way in the world. he was part of that legislative group that ended up getting the state capital moved to springfield. he made that move here. he was active in the social scene. he could be awkward around women. in 1839 met mary todd from lexington, kentucky. he met her at the home of her elizabeth was living, was her name, she had married the son of the former governor of illinois. mary said he came over to her at her dance and said i have been watching you all night, i want to dance with you in the worst way. he was not a good dancer. they immediately took to each other. it was a rocky relationship. they were engaged, broke off the relationship must on mystery about that, then they in 1842.ed and married mary todd lincoln is an amazing

woman. her role with abraham lincoln getting him in politics was important. it is overlooked in the story. she came from a very connected family in connect -- in kentucky, the todd family, very aristocratic. she was friends with henry clay, one of lincoln's titles in the summit. .he had a political background she would talk politics with her father and was well-educated. she saw in lincoln kind of a rough version of what he could be. she realized there was a leader she was seeing a future leader. she prodded and pushed him. she definitely supported him. they were a good political pair. there were issues later in her life but they were one political pair. abraham made a name for himself as a lawyer but also as a politician. he had great ambitions.

a couple times he ran for the u.s. senate, famously in 1858. we know that because the great debates with stephen douglas, his rival. there were seven debates around illinois that really encapsulated the political ideas and debates of the time like nothing else. stephen douglas was a great politician known as the little giant. he was a bigger name than abraham lincoln, but he was a democrat and stood for slavery. he was trying to get the democratic presidential nomination. he had his eyes on that and knew the senate was an important stepping stone to that. two years later in 1860 these men who were rivals for the senate seat were again rivals for the presidency. this time abraham came out on top because of the split of the democratic party. seven debates between douglas and lincoln. it raised his name around the country. he was already very involved or getting involved in the new

republican party. going out to adjoining states, sometimes further afield, but he was an illinois politician. these raised him to a level of national prominence. 1858 and defeat in before that, lincoln, when he suffers a defeat, thanks that is it, no one will remember me -- he said at is it -- least i could enunciate several principles, say some things on my mind. maybe that will be remembered. that wasn't the case. he goes on, he has thought of running for the presidency and plotted the path to do that. still unlikely he gets elected. what helps him is douglas runs but loses southerners. the democratic party splits, abraham retains the republican party and wins most of the north. the interesting thing is douglas is always his political rival. they had differing views on images like -- issues like

slavery. but douglas then says i am with you, i am for union. i put that in the credit box for stephen douglas that he said i will support you. after that he passed away. elected president in 1860, left springfield in february. the inauguration was in march, rather than january. left springfield, dressed a crown -- a crowd from the back of the train and said hartfield he hadfield remarks -- practiced law, raise a family, owned a home and how much he owed to springfield. you can sense his concern he is never coming back. he is going on to an enormous challenge. when he came into office, often they had a honeymoon time to start their term, he had no such honeymoon. secedeare starting to

from the union. he is immediately confronted with the issue of fort sumter being blockaded by the southerners. what do you do? he said it could precipitate a war. how he traverses that difficult terrain, it is put on his desk when he gets to washington and of course the south fires the first shot and the war against, wantar that lincoln didn't but came anyway at a horrible cost to this nation. but lincoln knew he had to follow in the footsteps of washington, one of his heroes. he realized he had a duty to preserve the union and carry on the ideas they had. the ideas were still incomplete thanks to the horrible evil of slavery. lincoln arrives in washington as the newly elected president ready to take the oath. he has to sneak into the town

because of assassination plot the debt -- against him. he is being attacked by any number of individuals and publications. this is the whispering gallery peewee shows -- we show those here. they are whispered through this part of the gallery. from his looks, his intelligence or lack thereof, this horrible racist thing is spewed about him. you see them blaming him through -- for the thousands and thousands of deaths and casualties. it must have been a burden to him, every move questioned and to be attacked in such a vicious manner from every possible avenue. his own party, he'll most wasn't nominated -- he almost wasn't nominated. he was under attack from the republican party itself. the civil war is part of what we talk about here. in this part of the gallery

called the civil war in four minutes. every week of the war is shown as one second, you see the changing borders and mounting casualty rate in the lower right. it is a phenomenal way of representing how the war progressed. the war to the great toll on the nation and abraham lincoln. we all know the horrible aging he underwent in those four years, five years from his election in 1860 four you can see he looks like a young man to bite -- right before his death, one of the final photos in 1865 he has aged 20 or more years because of the stress of the war. we are fortunate to have life mask of abraham lincoln. we allow guests to touch these and see how big their hand is compared to abraham lincoln's. relatively youthful face in 1860 and this was taken not long before his assassination, very

--ferent and face just very his assassination, very different face then here. what caused the stress, he gets stressed from many fronts. he does go to the telegraph office all the time. he is connected to the front, and he knows the mounting casualty numbers. he visits hospitals with mary in washington area and sees the sick, wounded and dying. oneakes it personally every of those. he gets constant bombardment of letters from families wanting to know where their loved ones are in talking about the horrible toll of the war. in every direction he is getting these stresses. he also has to make constant decisions that he knows may preserve or destroyed the union. these are extraordinarily earthshaking decisions that no man, woman could take easily. you see that as part of his stress as well.

when the war began, when lincoln came into office, the civil war began, he put effort into preserving the union but he understood the real core issue was slavery. he knew he had to take mr. -- take measures against slavery. sadly it was controversial. favorite areas of the theum shows the reading of emancipation proclamation to the cabinet. you see a variety of reactions to that, some happy, some not at all because they feared this proclamation would drive the border states into the confederacy. tot would have been fatal the union. lincoln knew at that point from a principal point of view it was important. it was the wartime measure only tocommander in chief just free those slaves. it was knew that

important to bring african american men into the union fighting forces. they played a role in the final victory of the union in the civil war. lincoln presents the draft of the proclamation to his cabinet. you heard this was a team of rivals, a very intelligent, connected group, and he got a diversity of opinions. were completely against lackey equality but realized it was an important wartime measure -- black equality but realized it was an important wartime measure to make. lincoln had a conversation with god about this. you see a growing religiousness, if that is a word, over time. as an early man, in new salem he was the vigil -- the village atheist. you see this coming to terms with god over time. with the emancipation

proclamation, we see a very religious man. civil war is over, lee has surrendered, essentially the war is over. great jubilation, lincoln goes to richmond and walks the streets of richmond, the rebel capital. he says a few words to the white house, then decides one of the things he loves to do is go to the theater. he decides to take mary to apply at ford's theater, our american cousin. they go there and after 10:00 entershn wilkes booth the area where the president is sitting with mary along with major rathbone and clara harris, shoots the president point-blank in the head. he dies back to taken springfield, where he's going to be buried, a trip some 1700 the rail. we say it's the most prolonged,

most elaborate, repeated ceremony in american history. thousands turn out to pay their the slain president. one of the final sections of our we call journey two in museum represents lincoln lying in state at the state capitol end in springfield at the of his long journey back from washington. it's very interesting to me, even though this obviously is a replica of that scene, the old state capitol is down the road can go and visit it. it's a beautiful place. if they're a loud school group, they will quiet down immediately upon entering show president to president lincoln. tens of thousands of people came lincoln, to pay respects to president lincoln. he was buried the next day at the cemetery. in terms of his burial site, there was a lot of debate. some wanted to bury him in chicago. there's a great back and forth with mary. she determined where it was gonna happen. she wanted it to be in oak ridge

cemetery. a few years later, there was a plot to steal his body. thankfully, that was foiled. many years later, they built the cemeteryat oak ridge where he is safely buried, along with mary. and everyone in the family, represent for robert todd, is buried at arlington national cemetery. when visitors come, it's a great experience, i hope for everyone. you can learn about president lincoln, about his times, about the civil war. i hope they leave realizing at that lincoln is still very relevant to us today. that the ideas that he stood for that we as a ideas nation say we aspire to today. he can be a great model for all us, of how we attain those principles. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to illinois, to learn about its rich history. learn more at c-span.org/cities tour. you're watching american history t.v., all weekend, every

weekend, on c-span 3. in americand history t.v.? visit our website, c-span.org/history. you can view our tv schedule, preview upcoming programs and college lectures, museum more. archival films and american history t.v. at c-span.org/history. theunday on reel america, film booker t. washington, the life and the legacy, produced in 1986 for the national park service by harlem-born actor william grieves. here's a preview. ♪[music] obstacles and difficults he confronts in tuskegee institute, washington maintains an optimism about this place that most find hard to accept. his first impressions of the town fill in with a sense of opportunity.

>> before starting with it almosti found impossible to locate on any map. but instead of finding my work low, marshy countries i tuskegee a find beautiful, high and healthy town. as a rule, the colored people through this section are poor and ignorant. the one encouraging thing is that they see their weaknesses desirous of improving. >> i'm glad you came today. i wanted you to see for yourselves that i personalized filling the rooms. to influencey important individuals and win their support for his visionary goals far exceed the modest hopes of his most ardent this backwards school. next group on students and the one following that. i found a farm for sale.

100 acres. we'll have space for shops and classrooms. advance several hundred to secure the property. >> where are you going to get money?nd of >> i've contacted james general marshall of massachusetts. fixed, like many wealthy white people in the strongly believes very in the work here. he has sent the money. >> booker, you're always three ahead of everybody. [laughter] >> i suppose your yankee benefactor will put up buildings too? >> no, sir. we will. if we need bricks, we'll make them. documentary entire on civil rights activist booker t. washington this sunday eastern on reel america, only on american history t.v. where history unfolds daily. a 1979, c-span was created as

public service by america's cable television companies. to bring, we continue you unfiltered coverage of house, thehe white supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the countries. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> next, former nasa chief historian, roger launius, talks the apollo program. he describes how the cold war influenced the first missions excitement over the alone landing in 1969. legacy explores apollo's and speculates on the future of space travel. we recorded this 15-minute interview at the annual american historical association meeting in chicago. launius as a space historian and former chief historian for nasa, let's talk