Omaha daily bee., 1896-06-14
LIKE A GIANT INSPIRED
Lincoln's Address at the Organization Of
the Republican Party in Illinois.
THE AUDITORS WEPT AND CHEERED
Graphic Description of Famous
Convention Held in 1856 TO start
New Purty-Notcs of II Long
Lost speech Discovered.

litical conventions one Of more dramatic
interest than that at which on May ~,
1856 the republican party was born In III
nois In this convention Abraham Lincoln
delivered the greatest speech in his career.
that known as his Lost Speech. Other
states were earlier in organizing oranch
OF the new party devoted to preventing the
extension of slavery, but in no state hau
there been more earnest anti-Nebraska agi-
tation in none was there more determined
set of men ready for resistance when the
moment came. These men were the hard
headed honest hearted. great.souled mem
bers of all existing parties These were
abolitionists like owen Lovejoy, democrats
like John NJ. Palmer, wings like David
Davis In their own counties they had
openly declared that they would bolt their
respective parties rather than accept the
Nebraska bill letting slavery into free SOIL
and when a few of their number called
convention, on May 30, 1856, at Bloomington
Ill. for the express purpose OF organizing
a new body, they went there in BODY ready
GIVE US LINCOLN"
The events of the days just before the
convention had steeled the weakest of them
Kansas was in the hands of a pro-slaNery
mob, her governor a prisoner. her capitol
in ruins, her voters intimidated. Inc news.
papers they were reading daily were nlleu
| in the senate by Brooks One of the very
men whom they had expected to be leader
| in their own convention was lying at nome
prostrated by a cowardly blow from po-
| litiCal opponent. Little wonder then that
| they came resolved upon actions which
would stay the flood of evil and OF disor-
ganization which they saw threatening the
| land. The convention was opened with
Senator j. NJ. Palmer in the chair. It's WORK
of organizing and nominating was carried
| through harmoniously, but the members teIt
| the need of some powerful matchmaking
| force which would yield into one their dis
! cordant elements. In spite of their best
intentions, their most manful efforts, they
| knew in their hearts that the conventions
were still made up OF political enemies
| that the whig was still a whig, the demo
| crat democrat, the abolitionist abolitionist.
| Man after man was called to the platform
| to speak and many noble speeches were
made but none yet had touched their
| hearts and converted them to pure repub-
licanism. Then suddenly there was call
| raised OF a name not on the program
| Lincoln"-"LinColn"- us Lincoln
The crowd took it up and made the hall
| ring until a tall figure rose in the PACK
| of the audience and slowly strode down the
| aisle an indulgent smile on his lips AS
| he turned to his audience there came grad
| ually great change upon his face There
| was an expression Of intense emotion,
| SAYS one of his hearers, who is still living.
| 1T was the emotion OF a great soul. Even
I
| to realize II was a crisis in his life. LIN
| coins extraordinary human insight and
| sympathy told him as he looked at his
audience that what this body OF splendid
| earnest but cropping men needed was TO
feel that they had undertaken cause OF
| such transcendent value that beside 1t all
| previous alliances ambitions and duties
| were as nothing. II he could make them
see the triviality OF their diherenceS as
| compared with the tremendous principle OF
| the new party he was certain they would
| go forth republicans in spirit as well as
| in name.
A GIANT INSPIRED.
He began his speech, then, deply moved
| and with profound sense of the Importance
| of the moment. At first he spoke slowly
| and haltingly but gradually he grew in
force and intensity until his hearers,
| thrilled, arose unconscously from their
| chairs and with pale faces and quiVerlng
lips pressed toward MIN. Starting from the
| hack of the broad platform on which he
| stood his hands on his hips he slowly ad-
vanced toward the front. his eyes blazing,
his face white with passion, his voice re-
sonant with the force of his conviction. AS
he advanced he seemed to his audience
fairly TO grow. and when at the end OF a
period he stood at the front line Of the
stage hands still on his hips. head back
raised on his tip toes he seemed ike
giant inspired. AT that moment ne was
the handsomest man i ever saw, says ohe
OF his hearers.
So powerful was his effect on his audience
that men and women wept as they cheered'
and children there that night still remem-
her the scene, though at the time they un-
derstood nothing of its meaning. AS he
| went out there came upon the convention
the very emotion he sought 10 arouse
EVERY one in that before inconEruous as
sembly came to feel as one man, to think as
one man and to purpose and resolve as one
man" SAYS one OF his auditors He had
made every man OF them pure republican
He did something more. The Indignation
which the outrages in Kansas and through
out the country had aroused was uncon-
trolled Men talked passionately OF war
Il was at this meeting that Lincoln
after firing his hearers by an eN-
preston which became watchword OF the
campaign: I'VE won't go out oi Ihe uhloh
and YOU shant." poured oil on the wrath
of the Illinois opponents OF the Nebraska
hill bv advising ballots, not bullets,
REPORTERS FORGOT TO REPORT.
Nothing illustrates better the extraor-
dinary power OF Lincoln at Bloomington
than the way he stirred up the newspaPeI
reporters II was before the stenographer
had become acclimated in Illinois though
, long hand reports were regularly taken vi
! course all the leading papers OF the STATE
leaning toward the new party had had repor{eTi p Nr
! Ioseph Medil, now editor OF the Chicago
! Tribune, and even then-now torty years
: ago-its representative. 1T was my journal
iStiC duty says MT meulll' 'hoHe'
! delegate to the convention, to make long
: hand report of the speeches delivered fol
: The Chicago Tribune. ! did make feN
paragraphs of report of what Lincoln saiC
in the first eight or ten minutes, but
became so absorbed in his magnetic orator!
, that / forgot myself and ceased to tax
I notes and Joined with the convention II
I Cheering and stamping and clapping to th'
= end OF his speech.
d "I well remember that after Lincoln haC
o sat down and calm had succeeded tn
I tempest / walked out OF a sort OF hypnotl
] trance and then thought of my report TO
y | the Tribune. There was nothing writer
. hut an abbreviated introduction.
d at was some sort OF satisfaction TO NM
I that | had not been 'sccoped. as all IN
! newspapers men present had been equal.
= carried away by the excitement caused b.
l the wonderful Grafton and had made n
- report or sketch of the speech.
o a number OF Lincoln's friends, youn
c LAWYERS. most OF them were accustomed L
e taking notes of speeches, and, as usual
+ sharpened their pencils as he began Il al
+ tempted for about fifteen minutes says MI
n Herndon, Lincolns law partner, 'as wa
= usual with with me then, to take notes
! but at the end of that time threw pc
e and paper away and lived only in the in
u -riration of the hour" The result of this eN