American Historical Ephemera and Photography

The Address of the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, In Vindication of the Policy of the Framers of the Constitution and the Principles of the Republican Party, Delivered at Cooper Institute, February 27th, 1860, Issued by the Young Men's Republican Union. New York: George F. Nesbitt & Co. Printers and Stationers, 1860. 8vo, 32pp (lacking wrappers, some toning and light creasing, small loss back page). Includes list of the officers of the Young Men's Republican Union and preface by Charles C Nott and Cephas Brainerd dated "New-York, September, 1860."

Issued after Lincoln received the Presidential nomination, Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech was one of his most famous anti-slavery speeches. Harold Holzer, author of the book Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech that Made Abraham Lincoln President, argues that this speech was "the most pivotal public appearance in his career." It was, in may ways, the speech that introduced a western politician to the east, and is perhaps best known for his line: "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." RARE. 

[With:] Two clipped portrait engravings of a "beardless" Lincoln, one appearing above a printed Lincoln signature, and the other taken from the wrapper of the 1860 campaign pamphlet "Life and Public Services of Hon. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, and Hon. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine."