Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln PresidentWinner of the Lincoln Prize Lincoln at Cooper Union explores Lincoln's most influential and widely reported pre-presidential address -- an extraordinary appeal by the western politician to the eastern elite that propelled him toward the Republican nomination for president. Delivered in New York in February 1860, the Cooper Union speech dispelled doubts about Lincoln's suitability for the presidency and reassured conservatives of his moderation while reaffirming his opposition to slavery to Republican progressives. Award-winning Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer places Lincoln and his speech in the context of the times -- an era of racism, politicized journalism, and public oratory as entertainment -- and shows how the candidate framed the speech as an opportunity to continue his famous "debates" with his archrival Democrat Stephen A. Douglas on the question of slavery. Holzer describes the enormous risk Lincoln took by appearing in New York, where he exposed himself to the country's most critical audience and took on Republican Senator William Henry Seward of New York, the front runner, in his own backyard. Then he recounts a brilliant and innovative public relations campaign, as Lincoln took the speech "on the road" in his successful quest for the presidency. |
From inside the book
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... campaign. Another issue, the controversy that erupted in 1860 over Lincoln's Cooper Union honorarium, continues to elicit interest —perhaps because modern politicians so often earn enormous fees for their speeches, a practice that ...
... campaign. Another issue, the controversy that erupted in 1860 over Lincoln's Cooper Union honorarium, continues to elicit interest —perhaps because modern politicians so often earn enormous fees for their speeches, a practice that ...
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... campaign. It seeks to ask and answer the question from which historians have long shied: Why did this voluminous, legalistic, tightly argued, fact-filled address prove so thrilling to its listeners, so irresistible to contemporary ...
... campaign. It seeks to ask and answer the question from which historians have long shied: Why did this voluminous, legalistic, tightly argued, fact-filled address prove so thrilling to its listeners, so irresistible to contemporary ...
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... campaigns of the rural West to the urban East, where theaters, lecture halls, and museums vied with politics for public ... campaign: an image-transfiguring Mathew Brady photograph. Its later proliferation and reproduction in prints ...
... campaigns of the rural West to the urban East, where theaters, lecture halls, and museums vied with politics for public ... campaign: an image-transfiguring Mathew Brady photograph. Its later proliferation and reproduction in prints ...
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... campaign tirades,” unfairly labeling Chase an outright abolitionist (the political kiss of death for mainstream Republicans), Briggs sent along the text of a speech that his hero had delivered as a senator back in 1850, clarifying his ...
... campaign tirades,” unfairly labeling Chase an outright abolitionist (the political kiss of death for mainstream Republicans), Briggs sent along the text of a speech that his hero had delivered as a senator back in 1850, clarifying his ...
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... campaigns, he reported to Lincoln, and he had “no doubt of the success of Republicans in this State.” But Seward was ... campaign was over, and Lincoln was again on the road, when Briggs's new letter caught up with him. He had gone to ...
... campaigns, he reported to Lincoln, and he had “no doubt of the success of Republicans in this State.” But Seward was ... campaign was over, and Lincoln was again on the road, when Briggs's new letter caught up with him. He had gone to ...
Contents
Chapter Three Some Confusion in the Arrangements | |
Chapter Four Much the Best Portrait | |
Chapter Five Nothing Impressive About Him | |
Chapter Six The Strength of Absolute Simplicity | |
Epilogue | |
Acknowledgments | |
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Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President Harold Holzer Limited preview - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln Papers antislavery appearance applause Astor House audience Beecher believed Bowen Brady Brady’s Briggs Brooklyn campaign candidate Charles Chicago Collected Constitution convention Cooper Institute Cooper Union address Cooper Union speech copy crowd declared deliver Democrats Douglas Douglas’s East editor election Exeter fathers who framed February 27 federal territories framed the Government Frémont friends George George Haven Putnam Hall Hampshire Harper’s Harper’s Ferry Haven Henry Herndon Herndon’s Lincoln Ibid Illinois insisted invitation James John Brown Journal later lecture letter Library of Congress Lincoln-Douglas debates Lincoln’s Cooper Union Lincoln’s speech March Mason Brayman Mathew Brady McCormick never New-York newspaper nomination Nott orator original pamphlet photograph political popular sovereignty president presidential Press and Tribune printed prohibition published reported reprints Republican party Republican Union Robert Senate Seward slavery slaves South Southern speak speaker Springfield trip votes Ward Hill Lamon Washington White William H words York Tribune