Speech · 1860

Cooper Union Address

Speaking at the Cooper Institute in New York City, Lincoln showed through detailed research that at least 21 of the 39 men who signed the Constitution — a clear majority — had acted on the understanding that the federal government could control slavery in the federal territories. He denied that Republicans were sectional radicals, rejected any link between the party and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and urged Republicans to stand firm against the expansion of slavery.

“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Abraham Lincoln, February 27, 1860

Why it matters

Widely reprinted as a campaign pamphlet, the address introduced Lincoln to Eastern Republicans and helped make him a leading contender for the party’s 1860 presidential nomination.

Read the full text at millercenter.org

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

slavery constitution territories elections

From the library

Related Documents

PM·DOC·1860·022Official GOP Position1860 Republican Platform

Party platform · May 17, 1860

Republican Party Platform of 1860

Adopted at the Chicago convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln, the platform declared that the normal condition of all U.S. territory is freedom, denied that Congress, a territorial legislature or any individuals could give slavery legal existence in a territory, and denounced threats of disunion, while affirming each state’s right to control its own domestic institutions. It also called for tariffs that would encourage American industry, a homestead law, a Pacific railroad and river and harbor improvements, and opposed any change to naturalization laws that would abridge the rights of immigrants.

Held by The American Presidency Project (UCSB)Open archive

PM·DOC·1858·020Primary Source

Speech · June 16, 1858

“House Divided” Speech

Speaking to the Illinois Republican State Convention in Springfield, which had named him its choice for the U.S. Senate, Lincoln warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” and that the government could not endure permanently half slave and half free. He argued that the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision pointed toward making slavery lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South.

Held by National Park Service (Lincoln Home National Historic Site)Open archive

PM·DOC·1857·019Primary Source

Court opinion · March 6, 1857

Dred Scott v. Sandford

In a 7–2 decision, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held that Black Americans descended from enslaved Africans, whether enslaved or free, were not and could not become citizens of the United States and so could not sue in federal court. The Court further held that Congress lacked power to prohibit slavery in the federal territories and that the Missouri Compromise’s restriction was unconstitutional; Justices John McLean and Benjamin R. Curtis dissented.

Held by National ArchivesOpen archive