Matthew Brady
Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 208th birthday. Most Americans when they think of places important to Lincoln focus on Illinois or Kentucky or maybe even Washington, D.C. Not many would think of New York City. But New York was crucial to Lincoln’s presidency.
It was here on February 25, 1860 that he gave a speech to the Young Men’s Central Republican Union. Originally to be held in Brooklyn at Plymouth Church, due to a delay in Lincoln’s answering the invitation, it was moved to the much bigger Great Hall at Cooper Union. Although William Seward, staunch abolitionist and former governor of New York was the favorite candidate of the new Republican party, interested New Yorkers came to hear Lincoln for themselves. The crowd was skeptical but by the time he finished his reasoned position on the constitutionality of slavery with the famous words, ” the right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it,” (1) he had won the audience over.
The national papers carried the speech and the positive audience reaction. Over night, Lincoln became a serious candidate for the presidency of the United States. He also strolled over to Matthew Brady’s photo studio on Broadway and took the famous “Cooper Union” photo. This was made into cards, posters and appeared in newspapers across the country giving a face to the new national figure.
As Lincoln himself said, “Brady and the Cooper Union speech made me President.”(2) Even though he lost New York City in both elections, we can at least take some credit for aiding the career of one of our greatest presidents.
- http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/cooper.htm
- Holzer, Harold, ed. Lincoln and New York. Philip Wilson Publishers, 2009, 10.
Bowery & Canal 