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THE FIRST TEST OF LINCOLN'S NATIONAL GREATNESS

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VERY day that a man lives he is building a reputation-good

or bad. There is sure to come a time when this reputation must

be weighed in the balance of public opinion. In such an hour as this money may be the most worthless thing in the world. Lincoln, at fifty-one years of age, was still poor in money, but becoming very rich in reputation.

When the call came for him to speak in the metropolis of New York, he knew that the greatest test of his life had now come; that he was now to be measured by the standards of the cosmopolitan world.

A great crowd gathered at Cooper Institute, on that memorable night, the twenty-seventh of February, in 1860. No man since the days of Clay and Webster had spoken to a larger assemblage of intellect. On the platform were the dignitaries of the day. There was William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, and David Dudley Field.

The tall, awkward figure of Lincoln rose from his chair. His hair was disheveled; his coat was too large; his arms hung ungainly at his sides, much longer than his sleeves; and one of the legs of his trousers was two inches above his shoes. The vast audience smiled.

Lincoln, for the first time in his life, seemed to be embarrassed. His hands were trembling. His words were first low and stammering. He had read but three pages and was passing to the fourth when he lost his place. For a moment he hesitated. Then turning the manuscript over two or three times, he threw it upon the table. His shoulders straightened. His whole being seemed to be marshalling power. As he advanced toward the audience, he seemed to grow in stature and might. His face flashed with a glow of inspiration. The words rang through the great amphitheatre as he quoted from Frederick Douglass: "It is written in the sky of America that the slaves shall some day be free.”

The audience listened spellbound to his wisdom as he laid before them the entire constitutional and legislative history of the institution of slavery since the nation was founded.

"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. No man had ever made such an impression in his first appeal to a New York audience. Lincoln loomed before the nation as the master of men.

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Photograph of Lincoln taken in 1860 at the time of his "Cooper Institute Speech in New York during his campaign for the Presidency-age 51. Original negative by Mathew Brady of New YorkCollection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C.

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Photograph taken in summer of 1860 for campaign purposes-Original negative owned by Mr. M. C. Tuttle of St. Paul, Minnesota-Print

THE INSPIRATION OF LINCOLN'S PATRIOTISM

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HERE is nothing in this world that merely happens as a matter of chance. Life is filled with surprises as well as disappointments, but back of each one of them is a well-defined cause. The conditions that were now gathering about Lincoln, at fifty-one years of age, were the cumulative results of a long life of work and faith. The distant rumbles of the greatest political campaign the American people have ever waged, could now be heard. Public opinion was now hopelessly divided over slavery. In the great "Wigwam" at Chicago, the Republicans gathered to nominate the standard bearer. Trains from the East brought the great political organizers of the day, and poured their martial bands and drilled clubs into the dusty streets, only to be met by the tremendous onslaught of enthusiasm that inspired the West.

It was now the day for nominations. The great "Wigwam" was a surging sea of men.

"I nominate William H. Seward, of New York, for President," shouted the clear, penetrating voice of the campaign leader from the East. The name of the great statesman was greeted by a storm of applause. "I nominate Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President of the United States.' The words came from the deep, powerful voice of a Westerner. A tremendous cheer broke from ten thousand throats. The balloting began. Nine states of the South did not respond and the silence was greeted with hisses and jeers. The delegates from the East rose en masse from their seats. Seward had received 1731 votes against 102 for Lincolnbut he was short more than a score necessary for a majority. The balloting proceeded again. Once more the East broke into applause, but from the throats of the West there came a challenging ovation. Seward still led with 184 votes, but Lincoln had received 181-and still no majority. The third ballot proceeded. A deep suspense fell upon the multitude. Lincoln had received 231 votes; Seward 180-still 1 votes short of a majority. The "Wigwam" was in deathlike silence. Suddenly the figure of a man sprang to a chair. "Ohio changes its four votes to Abraham Lincoln!" he shouted. The tumult that rose in that auditorium had never before been witnessed in American politics. A deafening roar echoed across the "Wigwam." The multitude was thrown into pandemonium. Men embraced each other and wept. The crowds at the doors took up the chorus, which echoed through the streets until it was heard a mile away. Abraham Lincoln, the quaint, ungainly prophet of the New West, had been nominated for President of the United States.

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Photograph taken at his home in Springfield, Illinois, immediately after his nomination for Presidency in 1860-age 51-Original by Alexander Hesler of Chicago, destroyed during the fire-Print

THE GATHERING OF HUMANITY UNDER LINCOLN

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you want to discover just what there is in a man-give him power. It will either make him or wreck him. Prosperity has ruined more men than poverty. Watch a man when he catches his first glow of success and you will discover just how big or how little he really is.

Lincoln was standing in the door of a shop in Springfield, talking, when a shout went up from a group in front of the telegraph office. An excited boy ran across the square shouting, "Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln, you are nominated!" His townspeople flocked about him, half laughing, half crying. He stood for a moment looking at them curiously. Then he quietly remarked: "My friends, I am glad to receive your congratulations, and as there is a little woman down on Eighth Street who will be glad to hear the news, you must excuse me until I inform her.'

When the delegation from the national convention arrived at the Lincoln home to officially notify him of his nomination, they found a plain two-storied house, with not more than a dozen citizens gathered in front and one of Lincoln's sons perched on the gatepost. Mr. Lincoln was standing in front of the fireplace, his eyes downcast.

The campaign opened with the true Western spirit. Orators stumped the country from one end to the other. Torchlight processions marched through the streets. Campaign songs both ridiculed and eulogized "Honest Abe of the West"-the plain man of the people. The opposing journals jeered at him as a "third rate country lawyer," coarse and clumsy, who could not even speak good grammar. The patriotic press held him before the people as "a man who, by his own genius and force of character, has raised himself from being a penniless, uneducated flatboatman."

The West was exuberant. Seventy thousand excursionists poured into Springfield on a single day to shake the hand of "Our Lincoln." Every road leading to the prairie city was crowded for twenty miles-men, women and children. They brought their tents, camp kettles, and coffee pots. It was a pageant, such as no other American had ever known. The strains of the campaign songs passed along the country roads like trumpet notes. "Our Lincoln is the man! Our Lincoln is the man!"

"Who is this huckster in politics?" demanded a New Englander. "Who is this country court advocate?" Lincoln, without resentment and without humility, calmly replied that his life presented nothing but "the short and simple annals of the poor."

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