Pre-Inaugural Visit “As the journey proceeded, there was no loss of popular support, and Lincoln seemed to grow and mature as a man destined for leadership,” wrote Albert Shaw in Abraham Lincoln: His Path to the Presidency. Shaw stressed that the trip was… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Printing and Publicizing the Speech “The gray-bearded poet-editor of the Evening Post introduced Lincoln to the Cooper Institute audience Monday night. Greeley was seated on the stage, ready to say a few words after Lincoln finished. When Lincoln walked to the front of the stage, he looked down on men busy with…” Abraham Lincoln and […]

Historian’s Comments Biographer William E. Barton: “Lincoln delivered an address devoid of all the characteristics of stump oratory. It was a carefully reasoned, thoughtful discourse, addressed to the intelligence and conscience of his hearers. He surprised his audience by…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Remainder of Speaking Tour Mr. Lincoln saw the newspaper reaction to his Cooper Union speech before he left New York City to visit his son Robert in Massachusetts. Along the way, Mr. Lincoln gave additional speeches in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Mr. Lincoln wrote Mrs. Lincoln… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

After the Speech It was a snowy, cold night outside when Mr. Lincoln spoke at Cooper Union. But inside the lecture hall, the response was warm. Historian Benjamin Thomas wrote: “as the intense figure on the rostrum uttered [the] stirring peroration, men and women… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

The Cooper Union Text Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens of New York: The facts with which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, it will be the… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

The Speech Historian Benjamin Thomas wrote: “All day on February 27, 1860 Lincoln was entertained at the Astor House as a visiting celebrity. That night, despite a snowstorm, fifteen hundred persons filed into Cooper Union, the largest assemblage…” Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Arrival in New York City “On that famous visit no one met Lincoln when he stepped off the ferry at Cortlandt Street. Instead, he unobtrusively found his own way to the Astor House. The next day was Sunday, and Lincoln took a two-cent ferry ride to Brooklyn to hear the…” Abraham Lincoln and New York […]

Before the Speech Mr. Lincoln’s law partner, William H. Herndon recalled that one morning in October, Mr. Lincoln rushed into their office “with the letter from New York City, inviting him to deliver a lecture there, and asked my advice and that of other friends as to the… Abraham Lincoln and New York >

Cooper Union Speech The Cooper Union speech which Abraham Lincoln delivered on February 27, 1860 “probably did more to secure his nomination, than any other act of his life,” wrote contemporary biographer Isaac Arnold, who was like Mr. Lincoln a prominent… Abraham Lincoln and New York >