Lincoln at Cooper Union

[matthew mckeon]

This is a description of the Cooper Union speech in New York City, by then dark horse candidate for president Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Holzer writes that Lincoln established himself as a serious presidential contender by making a well researched, logical and carefully crafted address, 90 minutes along, on the federal power to regulate slavery in the territory, and keep slavery from the territories.

Lots of good stuff about train travel, the style of politics in 1860s, the role of newspapers and the impact of photography. Worth reading.

[samgrant]

2 Speeches:

Volume 55, Number 7 · May 1, 2008

Two Speeches on Race

By Garry Wills


"Two men, two speeches. The men, both lawyers, both from Illinois, were seeking the presidency, despite what seemed their crippling connection with extremists. Each was young by modern standards for a president. Abraham Lincoln had turned fifty-one just five days before delivering his speech. Barack Obama was forty-six when he gave his. Their political experience was mainly provincial, in the Illinois legislature for both of them, and they had received little exposure at the national level—two years in the House of Representatives for Lincoln, four years in the Senate for Obama. Yet each was seeking his party's nomination against a New York senator of longer standing and greater prior reputation—Lincoln against Senator William Seward, Obama against Senator Hillary Clinton. They were both known for having opposed an initially popular war—Lincoln against President Polk's Mexican War, raised on the basis of a fictitious provocation; Obama against President Bush's Iraq War, launched on false claims that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs and had made an alliance with Osama bin Laden."

See entire article here:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21290


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