The Very Day Abraham Lincoln Returns from His Triumphant Cooper Union Tour East, Which Made Him a Major Contender for the Republican Nomination in 1860, He Writes Himself a Check

Until the dawn of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was little known in the East, with its huge population, communications centers and abundant financial institutions, and therefore never considered as a realistic Republican nominee for president. The most that can be said of his name recognition then is that some people in the East did know him as the able opponent of Illinois Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, and thus as the protagonist in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates. When his name was mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, it was in his home region, the West, and particularly Illinois. But that would never be sufficient for him to snare the prize of the nomination.

In October 1859 Lincoln accepted an invitation to lecture at Henry Ward Beecher’s church in Brooklyn, New York, and chose a political topic which required months of painstaking research. His law partner William Herndon observed, “No former effort in the line of speech-making had cost Lincoln so much time and thought as this one,” a remarkable comment considering the previous year’s debates with Douglas. Lincoln’s carefully crafted speech would examine the views of the 39 signers of the Constitution on the issue of slavery in the territories. When Lincoln arrived in New York, the Young Men’s Republican Union, sponsor of the speech, moved its location to the Cooper Institute. The Union’s board included members such luminaries as Horace Greeley and William Cullen Bryant. Lincoln, as an unannounced presidential aspirant, attracted a capacity crowd of 1,500 curious New Yorkers, interested in seeing in person and hearing the man who had taken on the vaunted Douglas and beaten him in the popular vote.

The date was February 27, 1860. Lincoln rose to deliver the Cooper Union Address, the speech that would make him president.

Lincoln gave other speeches out East and sat for a session with photographer Matthew Brady. On March 14, he returned to Springfield.

Partly printed autograph document signed, Springfield, March 14, 1860, a check in the amount of $24 written to himself on his account at the Springfield Marine and Fire Insurance Company. One can readily speculate that, just returned home and ready cash exhausted, he by this check replenished his supply. A fascinating document, with its potential link to his trip to deliver the Cooper Union Address.