Lincoln at Cooper Union

On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln made a landmark speech in his political career at the Cooper Institute in Manhattan, now known as the Cooper Union Address.  This speech catapulted the Illinois senator onto the national scene and Lincoln scholars such as Harold Holzer believe that this speech secured his nomination as the Republican party candidate.  By extension, this address is seen as a pivotal moment in 1860 that made Lincoln president.  Whether or not this was the moment that Lincoln secured his presidency, the speech is critical to any study of the election of 1860.  It introduced Lincoln to an audience in the East and caught the attention of Republican party leaders there as well.  Lincoln chose to discuss the views of the framers of the Constitution on slavery and states’ rights, a topic that required a great deal of in-depth research.  The speech is heavily grounded in historical fact, and shows Lincoln’s ability to articulate his ideas in a clear, logical fashion.  In addition to the speech, a photograph (seen at right) taken of Lincoln before the address by Matthew Brady became crucial to the presidential campaign as many campaign posters were based on it.  In compiling its digital exhibition celebrating Lincoln’s bicentennial entitled With Malice Towards None, the Library of Congress included the Cooper Union Address and the Cooper Union Portrait in its section on the Road to the Nomination.  This project contains an 1860 copy of the speech as campaign literature.