The week before in 1860, this happened:
Abraham Lincoln Spoke at Cooper’s Union
“Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty
and happiness.” -—Samuel Adams
On February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke at the Cooper Union in New York City.
This speech in many ways first showed Lincoln as a serious and viable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860. Originally scheduled to be given at Henry Ward Beecher's church, it was moved to the recently opened Cooper Union to accommodate a larger crowd.
It was the first in a series of speeches being sponsored by the opponents of New York Senator William H. Seward, who were anxiously searching for an alternative candidate for the Party's nomination. Many at the time stated it was “the pinnacle of his success” in lobbying for the Republican presidential nomination. It was given eight months before the election. The speech was lengthy, and carefully worded. Many concluded that it was a principled stand against the expansion of slavery. But most would miss the point entirely about why the speech was such a success before the large New York City audience of 1500.
It was a success because in the speech Lincoln pledged that the Republican Party would never interfere with southern slavery, thereby eliminating the prospect that large numbers of black people would live among New Yorkers and compete with them for jobs. Slavery’s “presence among us makes that toleration and protection [of slavery] a necessity,”
He stated that the country must keep slavery because it already existed in many states. All the constitutional guarantees of slavery should be “fully and fairly, maintained,” said “the great emancipator,” a line that drew a thunderous applause from the New Yorkers.
“It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.” —Samuel Adams, Loyalty and Sedition, essay in The Advertiser, 1748
The crowd also cheered his support for the Republican Party’s opposition to the extension of slavery into the territories for the same reasons. Many northern whites wanted to keep slaves out of the West to keep blacks out. The North was a pervasively racist society where free blacks suffered social, economic, and political discrimination. Many northern voters sought to bar slaves from the West. This is another reason why New Yorkers cheered Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech. This, and the fact that they knew that he was also a lifelong advocate of “colonization” – of deporting all the free blacks in the U.S. to Africa, Haiti, and Central America.
“Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason.” -—Benjamin Franklin
As a result of the speech and his visit to New York, notoriously crooked and corrupt New York/Tammany Hall political boss Thurlow Weed became the first to assist Lincoln in planning his presidential campaign.
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth-—and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts.” -—Patrick Henry
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PeaRidge:
"As a result of the speech and his visit to New York, notoriously crooked and corrupt New York/Tammany Hall political boss Thurlow Weed became the first to assist Lincoln in planning his presidential campaign." Possibly, our FRiend PeaRidge is here fantasizing about Tammany Hall's notorious Grand Sachem, Democrat "Boss" William Tweed, not long-time Adams Republican, then Whig & Republican, supporter of New York Senator William Seward against Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 convention, Thurlow Weed.
After the 1860 Republican convention, both Weed and Seward did support Lincoln, but Weed opposed Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in favor of a more gradual process.
" After Lincoln's death and the end of the war, Weed and Seward allied with President Andrew Johnson against the Radical Republicans, endorsing Johnson's more conservative approach to Reconstruction.[91]"
Republican Thurlow
Weed (left), not to be confused with Democrat Tammany Hall's William "Boss"
Tweed (right):
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PeaRidge:
"But most would miss the point entirely about why the speech was such a success before the large New York City audience of 1500.
It was a success because in the speech Lincoln pledged that the Republican Party would never interfere with southern slavery, thereby eliminating the prospect that large numbers of black people would live among New Yorkers and compete with them for jobs." This brings us to the matter of the Lost Cause orthodox party line which, as best I can tell, goes something like this:
- Lincoln didn't hate slavery, he hated blacks.
- Lincoln didn't want to abolish slavery, he just wanted to keep blacks out of Northern states & territories.
- By 1860 slavery was already dying out and would have been gone in a few years without Civil War.
- The Morrill Tariff and "money flows from Europe" were the real reasons for secession, not Lincoln's alleged abolitionism.
- The US Constitution provides a clear "right of secession" against which no serious arguments exist.
- All law recognizes that once a group declares its secession, then all Federal properties within that state automatically become Confederate properties.
In many cases a formal declaration of secession is not even necessary to justify seizures of Federal properties.
- Confederate seizures of Federal properties are not acts of war, be they forts, ships, arsenals or mints, and neither are threats against Union officials or firing on Union ships.
But ordering Union ships to resupply Federal troops in a Confederate port, now that's an act of war.
- Lincoln was ruled over by what some call "Northeastern Power Brokers" usually unnamed, but possibly like Thurlow Weed, who, it's claimed, wanted war against Confederates for economic reasons: in order to protect "money flows from Europe".
"Follow the money", they say.
- Politically, Lincoln wanted Civil War so he could destroy the South and achieve permanent Republican domination over it.
- Confederates never seriously threatened the Union, so it was strictly a "war of Northern aggression".
- Lincoln's blood-thirsty generals, notably Sherman, scorched Southern earth and killed millions of Southern civilians.
- Lincoln is the political father of modern Progressive Democrats.
Confederates were, in modern term: patriotic conservative Republicans.
- Lincoln was the devil incarnate, and that's why Southern Democrats must now rule over the Republican party, driving out all "Lincoln worshipers"!
Doubtless there's parts of this theology I've missed, but this is a start...
Progressive Democrat "Ape" Lincoln, versus Conservative Republican Jefferson Davis**:
**according to Lost Cause orthodoxy. ![]()