Abraham Lincoln Goes To New York

Inscribed: To Tom Jones Affectionately Andrew A. Freeman

Clean text. Price unclipped ($3.95). Protected by Brodart dust jacket cover.

Book in very good condition. Book has a gouge from outside in left front spine--about 3/4 of inch--that also impacts each page up to page 40. Dust jacket in very good condition some wrinkles along Lincoln's right ear on front, two small missing chips along spine and scratch on top right about one inch long.

The story of Lincoln's famous "Cooper Union speech" of 1860, which propelled him to national recognition was delivered by Lincoln on February 27, 1860, at Cooper Union in NYC. Lincoln was not yet the Republican nominee, as the convention was scheduled for May. It is considered one of his most important speeches. Some historians have argued that the speech was responsible for his victory in the presidential election later that year.In the speech, Lincoln elaborated his views on slavery by affirming that he did not wish it to be expanded into the western territories and claiming that the Founding Fathers would agree with this position. The journalist Robert J. McNamara wrote, "Lincoln's Cooper Union speech was one of his longest, at more than 7,000 words. And it is not one of his speeches with passages that are often quoted. Yet, due to the careful research and Lincoln's forceful argument, it was stunningly effective." Horace Greeley's "New York Tribune" hailed it as "one of the most happiest and most convincing political arguments ever made in this City. ... No man ever made such an impression on his first appeal to a New-York audience."