Abraham Lincoln's Lost Speech

INTRODUCTIONThe lost speech of Abraham Lincoln was delivered at the first Republican State Convention of Illinois at Bloomington on the 29th of May 1856. The excitement caused among the audience by the speech was so great that the reporters forgot to take their notes and for many years it was generally supposed that no record of the speech had been preserved. It appears however that Mr. H. C. Whitney then a young lawyer of Illinois did take notes of the speech which he preserved; and after a lapse of forty years they were transcribed and were published in McClures Magazine for September 1896 together with a letter from Mr. Joseph Medill of the Chicago Tribune who was present at the Convention and confirms the accuracy of Mr. Whitneys report.By the kind consent of Mr. Whitney and through the courtesy of Mr. S. S. McClure the speech is now reproduced by the Republican Club of the City of New York as a souvenir of Lincoln for its Annual Dinner on the 12th of February 1897.