Events, Dear Boy, Events…
Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address…
February the 29th…
…1860
Part One…
“ No former effort in the line of speech-making had cost Lincoln so much time & thought as this one…”
“ What is the frame of government under which we live ?…”
One of American political history’s truly towering figures makes his stake for power in his epochal debut New York speech…
Barely a Household Name in his own houshold, 51 year old Abraham, a man ahead of his time & old before his years has spent the previous weeks “Deep in study, writing, reviewing, revising & re-writing…” the speech that he hopes will change not only his life but the lives of millions…
…Nice suit!
…Now all he has to do is deliver…
“…What is the frame of government under which we live..? ”
The lanky Kentuckan lawyer, Lincoln, had aquired especially for the occasion a $100* suite to make a striking impression…
*…Closer to $3,000 in today’s silly money…
“ When he rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed - He was tall, tall, SO tall! & so angular & awkward that I had for an instant, a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man…”
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour…
…Lincoln never said that you ‘orrible little liar !
