ADDRESS AT COOPER INSTITUTE

February 27, 1860

AT the close of the Revolution Massachusetts abolished slavery, and her example was gradually followed by the other states north of Virginia. At that time in the South also it seemed probable that little by little slavery would disappear until the entire territory of the United States was free. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793, however, increased many times the profit that could be gained from slave labor and arrested the movement for abolition. After the beginning of the nineteenth century the prosperity of the South seemed to depend on the continuance of slavery. In the North the sentiment for abolition meanwhile grew stronger, but the difference of opinion between the two sections was not yet so profound as to prevent the adoption in 1820 of Henry Clay's Missouri Compromise which limited the spread of slavery in the territories north of latitude 36° 30'. In 1830 in Boston, William Lloyd Garrison began to publish The Liberator and thereby initiated in the face of great opposition even in the North an aggressive struggle against slavery.

In 1850 again Henry Clay was able to secure in Congress, with great difficulty, a colorless compromise between the two conflicting sections. Among its terms was a provision that the territories of Utah and New Mexico were to be organized without any Federal action concerning slavery. It was not long, however, before slavery was introduced into these terri

tories through the action of their territorial legislatures. This result enabled Stephen A. Douglas, the leader of the Northern Democrats to secure by the aid of Southern votes the passage by Congress in 1854 of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, a measure that abrogated the Missouri Compromise and left to home rule or "popular sovereignty" to determine whether Kansas and Nebraska were to be free or slave. To combat this measure the Republican party was organized.

In 1857, however, the Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott decision, held that the Constitution recognized slaves as property which Congress must protect. This view, unexpectedly favorable to slavery, was at once adopted by the South in place of Douglas's theory of state authority or "popular sovereignty." The Democrats in the North were unwilling to support the Dred Scott decision as it seemed to place slavery under the protection of Congress and to do away with all future possibility of compromise. Many of the Northern Democrats at this time accordingly were forced from their neutral position and preferring to oppose rather than defend slavery were absorbed by the Republican party.

In 1858 in Illinois Douglas was the candidate of the Democratic party for the United States senate and Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republicans. Lincoln challenged Douglas, who was a highly educated and brilliant speaker, to a series of seven public debates; and Douglas accepted on the condition that he should both open and close each debate. The contest has been called the greatest "intellectual wrestle" that has taken place in America. The speeches were reported throughout the country and the contest was followed with interest everywhere. Although the legislature sent Douglas to the Senate,

the people supported Lincoln. It was generally conceded that he had had the better of the argument, and Illinois went Republican by five thousand majority. All over the North the people were eager to see this young giant of the West who in force of logic and strategic ability had proved his superiority to one of the foremost politicians and debaters of the time.

When Lincoln was invited in October, 1859, by the Young Men's Republican Club of New York City to deliver a political address before their association, he accepted with eagerness. Douglas had recently spoken at Columbus and had reaffirmed his doctrine of “popular sovereignty" for the control of slavery. He had attempted to ground his views upon the authority of the Constitution and the writings of the founders of the republic. He had closed his speech by saying, "Our fathers, when they framed this government under which we live, understood this question as well and even better, than we do now." To these sentiments Lincoln determined to reply; and he worked long and laboriously to make his answer conclusive.

Finally, on February 27, 1860, in the large hall of Cooper Institute, he rose to give his address before a great audience. He was far from feeling confident. He spoke the first sentences with diffidence-But why write the story anew? It is told in the words of one who heard him speak. Joseph Choate says:

"It is now forty years since I first saw and heard Abraham Lincoln, but the impression which he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his great successes in the West he came to New York to make a political address. He appeared in every sense of the word like one of the plain people among whom he loved to be counted. At first sight there was nothing impressive or imposing about him-except that his great staturę

singled him out from the crowd; his clothes hung awkwardy on his giant frame, his face was of a dark pallor, without the slightest tinge of color; his seamed and rugged features bore the furrows of hardship and struggle; his deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious; his countenance in repose gave little evidence of that brain power which had raised him from the lowest to the highest station among his countrymen; as he talked to me before the meeting, he seemed ill at ease, with that sort of apprehension which a young man might feel before presentitng himself to a new and strange. audience, whose critical disposition he dreaded. It was a great audience, including all the noted menall the learned and cultured-of his party in New York: editors, clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, critics. They were all very curious to hear him. His fame as a powerful speaker had preceded him, and exaggerated rumor of his wit-the worst forerunner of an orator—had reached the East. When Mr. Bryant presented him, on the high platform of Cooper Institute, a vast sea of eager faces, upturned, greeted him, full of intense curiosity to see what this rude child of the people was like. He was equal to the occasion. When he spoke he was transformed; his eyes kindled, his voice rang, his face shone and seemed to light up the whole assembly. For an hour and a half he held his audience in the hollow of his hand. His style of speech and manner of delivery were severely simple. What Lowell called 'The grand simplicities of the Bible,' with which he was so familiar, were reflected in his discourse. With no attempt at ornament or rhetoric, without parade or pretence, he spoke straight to the point. If any came expecting the turgid eloquence or the ribaldry of the frontier, they must have been startled at the earnest

and sincere purity of his utterances. It was marvellous to see how this untutored man, by mere selfdiscipline and the chastening of his own spirit, had outgrown all meretricious arts, and found his own way to the grandeur and strength of absolute simplicity.' "That night the great hall, and the next day the whole city rang with delighted applause and congratulations, and he who had come as a stranger departed with the laurels of a great triumph."

It was the last time that Abraham Lincoln spoke as a stranger before any audience. He who had been the leader of the Republicans of the Middle West had now become the foremost Republican of America. He was nominated for the presidency in the convention at Chicago on May 16, 1860, and was elected president the following November.

Lincoln's speech at Cooper Union was influential in unifying Northern anti-slavery sentiment, in insuring the success of the anti-slavery party, and in securing. for America the election of a great president and a great moral leader.

ADDRESS AT COOPER INSTITUTE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

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 in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences and observations following that presentation. In his speech last autumn at Columbus Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, Senator Douglas said;