Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President (Simon & Schuster Lincoln Library)

Winner of the Lincoln Prize

Lincoln at Cooper Union explores Lincoln’s most influential and extensively reported pre-presidential handle — a rare enchantment by the western politician to the japanese elite that propelled him towards 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 whereas reaffirming his opposition to slavery to Republican progressives.

Award-winning Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer locations Lincoln and his speech within the context of the instances — an period of racism, politicized journalism, and public oratory as leisure — and reveals how the candidate framed the speech as a chance to proceed his well-known “debates” together with his archrival Democrat Stephen A. Douglas on the query of slavery.

Holzer describes the big danger Lincoln took by showing in New York, the place he uncovered himself to the nation’s most crucial viewers and took on Republican Senator William Henry Seward of New York, the entrance runner, in his personal yard. Then he recounts an excellent and progressive public relations marketing campaign, as Lincoln took the speech “on the street” in his profitable quest for the presidency.