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asked my advice and that of other friends as to the subject and character of his address.
We all recommended a speech on the political situation.
Remembering his poor success as a lecturer himself, he adopted our suggestions.
He accepted the invitation of the New York committee, at the same time notifying them that his speech would deal entirely with political questions, and fixing a day late in February as the most convenient time.
Meanwhile he spent the intervening time in careful preparation.
He searched through the dusty volumes of congressional proceedings in the State library, and dug deeply into political history.
He was painstaking and thorough in the study of his subject, but when at last he left for New York we had many misgivings — and he not a few himselfof his success in the great metropolis.
What effect the unpretentious Western lawyer would have on the wealthy and fashionable society of the great city could only be conjectured.
A description of the meeting at Cooper Institute, a list of the names of the prominent men and women present, or an account of Lincoln in the delivery of the address would be needless repetitions of well-known history.1 It only remains to say that his speech was
1 On his return home Lincoln told me that for once in his life he was greatly abashed over his personal appearance. The new suit of clothes which he donned on his arrival in New York were ill-fitting garments, and showed the creases made while packed in the valise; and for a long time after he began his speech and before he became “warmed up” he imagined that the audience noticed the contract between his Western clothes and the neat-fitting suits of Mr. Bryant and others who sat on the platform. The collar of his coat on the right side had an unpleasant way of flying up whenever he raised his arm to gesticulate. He imagined the audience noticed that also. After the meeting closed, the newspaper reporters called for slips of his speech. This amused him, because he had no idea what slips were, and besides, didn't suppose the newspapers cared to print his speech verbatim.
The Herndon's Lincoln Pubishing Company, Springfield, Ill., 1888.
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