Lincoln Home National Historic Site - Celebrating Lincoln (U.S. National Park Service)

2010: Sesquicentennial of Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency

150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln's name was gaining national recognition. His rise to fame was sparked by the "Cooper Union Address," given at the Cooper Union in New York City on February 27, 1860. Lincoln resolutely declared:

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.

His words struck a chord with those who heard and read the speech, and within three months Lincoln had been nominated as the Republican candidate for President in the 1860 election. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the 16th President of the United States, setting in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to the Civil War.

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