ABSTRACT

Harold Holzer tells the story of Lincoln's experience traveling to the Cooper Union in the winter of 1860 to deliver a speech. The speaker's new suit was ill-fitted, wrinkled, and out of style for the big metropolis. Despite first impressions, something happened in that auditorium that propelled Lincoln to a position of leadership and a subsequent place in history. When Dittenhoefer visited with Lincoln the following morning, has referred to the lecture at Cooper Union as "the speech that made Abraham Lincoln president". Lincoln's father was also an accomplished carpenter, yet we have no evidence that Abraham followed in his footsteps. Lincoln himself was not unaware of this philosophical puzzle, as illustrated in his Meditation on the Divine Will and portions of the Second Inaugural Address. Abraham Lincoln clearly experienced an "inward imperative" his whole adult life, and that imperative culminated for him in the Emancipation Proclamation.