They had
but time to note Mr. Lincoln's unusual height, his rugged,
strongly marked features, the clear ring of his high-pitched
voice, the commanding earnestness of his manner. Then they became
completely absorbed in what he was saying. He began quietly,
soberly, almost as if he were arguing a case before a court. In
his entire address he uttered neither an anecdote nor a jest. If
any of his hearers came expecting the style or manner of the
Western stump-speaker, they met novelty of an unlooked-for kind;
for such was the apt choice of words, the simple strength of his
reasoning, the fairness of every point he made, the force of
every conclusion he drew, that his listeners followed him,
spellbound. He spoke on the subject that he had so thoroughly
mastered and that was now uppermost in men's minds--the right or
wrong of slavery. He laid bare the complaints and demands of the
Southern leaders, pointed out the injustice of their threat to
break up the Union if their claims were not granted, stated
forcibly the stand taken by the Republican party, and brought his
speech to a close with the short and telling appeal:
"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."
The attention with which it was followed, the applause that
greeted its telling points, and the enthusiasm of the Republican
journals next morning showed that Lincoln's Cooper Institute
speech had taken New York by storm.
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