Lincoln's First Political Speech

[RJNorton]

Thank you to David Lockmiller for sending this photo. David grew up in Decatur, Illinois, and he sent a photo of the plaque which commemorates Abraham Lincoln's first political speech in the summer of 1830.

[LincolnMan]

Never saw that. Thanks David!

[LincolnMan]

If I recall correctly- Lincoln gave this speech while bare-footed. Well, it was summer after all

[LincolnMan]

I think I have been at that spot. There is a statue of the young Lincoln there standing on a stump- or a box?

[RJNorton]

Yes, Bill.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...mrc&uact=8

[Anita]

Thanks to David for posting this. I didn't realize this is considered Lincoln's first political speech.

[RJNorton]

(01-23-2020 09:18 PM)Anita Wrote:  Thanks to David for posting this. I didn't realize this is considered Lincoln's first political speech.

As far as I know there is no known text of the speech, and I have sometimes wondered if this speech is more tradition than fact. If anyone knows of a first-hand account please post.

[David Lockmiller]

(01-24-2020 06:03 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 09:18 PM)Anita Wrote:  Thanks to David for posting this. I didn't realize this is considered Lincoln's first political speech.

As far as I know there is no known text of the speech, and I have sometimes wondered if this speech is more tradition than fact. If anyone knows of a first-hand account please post.

I found this, Roger:

LINCOLN'S
LINCOLN SQUARE SPEECH
in Decatur, IL
1830

by Otto R. Kyle (Transcribed by K. Torp)

In June or July 1830, Abraham Lincoln, then 21 years old, made an impromptu speech on the edge of Decatur's public square, now Lincoln Square. The speech has been acclaimed Lincoln's first speech that got public attention.

Lincoln was barefooted as he came from a nearby farm to join a gathering of people in the square listening to a candidate named Posey making an address. The candidate was John F. Posey of Fayette County, a candidate for the state legislature from the district including Macon County. The square was just a year old and still had stumps of trees that had been cut. There was the usual gathering of wagons and horses as well as people shopping and local townspeople living nearby.

The first wide-spread mention of the Lincoln speech in the Square was in William D. Howell's 1860 campaign biography of Lincoln. Howell wrote about 1150 words concerning the event without giving a source of his information but the account has been accepted as authentic since Lincoln read the account and he did not make any corrections in it.

Howell's biography account says the listeners, disappointed there was no liquor dispensed, persuaded Lincoln to make a response to Posey, "Lincoln took the stump with characteristic modesty", says the Howell report, and begging his friends not to laugh if he broke down, treated very courteously the two speakers who had preceded him, discussed the questions of politics, and in his peroration eloquently pictured the future of Illinois."

John Hanks is reported as having said that he was the one who provided a box to stand on and persuaded Lincoln to speak. Hanks said Lincoln's speech was on the need of navigation of the Sangamon River.

Mrs. Jane Martin Johns in her "Personal Recollections" published in 1912, gives another version of the address. Mrs. Johns came to Decatur in 1849, nineteen years after the Lincoln Square address. There were a number of persons in Decatur who could give her an account of the event. Mrs. Sarah Powers Durfee told Mrs. Johns a story that had been told to her by Mrs. Durfee's mother, Mrs. Almira A. Powers. Mrs. Powers heard the story from Mrs. Landy Harrell who heard Lincoln make the address.

This version of what happened is that Lincoln was working in a field a short distance from the square. Hearing the cheering, he left his oxen in a fence corner and went to the square. He was dressed in a "hickory'' shirt, tight tow linen pants, a straw hat and was bare-footed. Lincoln listened until the speaker finished and then mounted "'a splintered stump" and made a speech that pleased the crowd.

The "Centennial History of Decatur and Macon County, published in 1930, repeats Mrs. Harrell's version of the Lincoln speech. Details about what took place vary but there is no doubt about a speech being made by the barefoot Lincoln, a speech William Powell thought important enough to be included in the first Lincoln political biography nationally distributed.

"Herndon's Lincoln", by William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik, published in 1889 says John Hanks personally described to him (Herndon) what happened at Lincoln's "first attempt at public speaking after landing in Decatur". Hanks is quoted as saying that he was the one who turned down a box for Lincoln to stand on.

Carl Sandburg in his monumental history accepted the Herndon version and devoted one sentence to the event.

Reinhard H. Lutin in his 700 page one volume "The Real Abraham Lincoln", published in 1960, says George Close, a "Macon County resident" told about Posey not "treating", that Lincoln spoke of the future of Illinois and that W.L.W. Ewing, future acting governor of Illinois and a U.S. Senator, who was present with Posey declared Lincoln was "a bright one". Luthin calls the Lincoln speech "his baptism on the electioneering stump".

Whatever his exact words., the Lincoln Square speech of 1830 is acknowledged by historians as the real start of the Lincoln political career.

(Prepared for the Heritage Committee, Inc, by Otto Kyle, author of "Abraham Lincoln in Decatur" for the occasion of the unveiling of the Lincoln Monument, in Lincoln Square on October 12, 1968.)

[RJNorton]

Thank you, David. What has made me wonder is all the differing accounts I've seen. Here's another account from Following in Lincoln’s Footsteps By Ralph Gary:

"In the summer of 1830, he was working at the farm of either Mr. Shepard, west of Church Street and north of Main, or for William Hanks Jr., near Main and Union. He heard a commotion in the public square, came to investigate, and heard the last part of a political speech denouncing a candidate for the Whig Party. The young farmhand is said to have hopped up on the stump in front of Harrell’s Tavern to speak in defense of the Whig. The splinters hurt his bare feet as he shifted around, but the crowd cheered wildly, and he learned he could speak. A bronze statue stands on the northeast corner and is entitled, “Lincoln’s First Political Speech.” It depicts Lincoln as barefoot with one foot on the stump."

Now how does Ralph Gary know that "The splinters hurt his bare feet as he shifted around?" I don't know, and it's (embellished?) accounts such as Gary's that have made be wonder...

[David Lockmiller]

From Full text of "Abraham Lincoln in Decatur"


Lincoln was not unknown in the village, for in June or
July, 1830, he was called upon to make a speech at a political
gathering that was considered important enough to be in-
cluded in William D. Howells' 1860 campaign biography of
Lincoln. In the copy of that biography, which Lincoln per-
sonally corrected, he changed nothing in the report of the
speech as related by Howells:

"General W. L. D. Ewing, and a politician named Posey,
who afterward achieved notoriety in the Black Hawk war,
had addressed the freemen of Macon the year previous, 'on
the issues of the day.' Mr. Posey had, however, in violation
of venerable precedent and sacred etiquette, failed to invite
the sovereigns to drink something. They were justly indig-
nant, and persuaded Lincoln to reply, in the expectation
that he would possibly make himself offensive to Posey.
Lincoln, however, took the stump with characteristic mod-
esty, and begging his friends not to laugh if he broke down,
treated very courteously the two speakers who had preceded
him, discussed questions of Politics, and in his peroration
eloquently pictured the future of Illinois. There was sense
and reason in his arguments, and his imaginative flight
tickled the State pride of the Illinoians. It was declared that
Lincoln had made the best speech of the day; and he, to his
great astonishment, found himself a prophet among those of
his own household, while his titled fellow-orator cordially
complimented his performance."

John Hanks was there and gave this version:

"After Abe got to Decatur, or rather to Macon County,
a man by the name of Posey came into our neighborhood and
made a speech. It was a bad one, and I said Abe could beat
it. I turned down a box and Abe made his speech. The other
was a candidate — Abe wasn't. Abe beat him to death, his
subject being the navigation of the Sangamon River. The
man, after Abe's speech was through, took him aside and
asked him where he had learned so much and how he could
do so well. Abe replied, stating his manner and method of
reading, and what he had read. The man encouraged him to
persevere."

William Lee D. Ewing and John F. Posey of Fayette
County were two of the ten candidates seeking election as
state representatives to the Illinois Legislature from the dis-
trict composed of Bond, Fayette, Montgomery, Tazewell, and
Macon Counties. Ewing and Posey were elected August 2,
1830 — Posey receiving fifty-four votes, and Ewing eighty-
six, in Decatur.

When L. F. Muzzy, a Decatur city alderman, proposed in
1886 that the "old square" be called Lincoln Square, Captain
Joel S. Post approved, saying Abe Lincoln had made a speech
in North Main Street only a few feet from the square. Lin-
coln and some other young men had come to hear the Ewing
and Posey speeches, Post related, and after the politicians
had spoken, the crowd insisted that Lincoln talk, choosing
his own subject. Captain Post said the subject was "The
Propriety of having Slack Water in Navigation, or Improve-
ment of the Sangamon River."

Captain Post did not come to Decatur until 1839, nine
years after the speech was made, and if that was the correct
subject of the speech he must have obtained his information
from others. It would have been possible for him to have
learned of it directly from Lincoln, as Post started practicing
law in Decatur in 1841, continued until 1846, and then re-
sumed after the Mexican War. Not only did he meet Lincoln
in the courtroom in Decatur, but he was associated with him
in a number of cases and frequently was with him on the
circuit.

Lincoln perhaps had made other speeches in Decatur be-
fore this one, for the crowd evidently knew he could talk to
audiences. Probably he would not have been urged to speak
at the same meeting with Ewing and Posey unless his friends
knew he could make a good showing.

When Edwin T. Coleman wrote his History of Decatur
in 1929 for The Decatur Review, he included an account of
a Lincoln speech at a time when a General Whiteside was in
the village making a political roundup. Coleman said the
speech was made in front of Isaac C. Pugh's [name emphasis
for reference to last lines of this post] store on West
Main Street. Although Pugh came to Macon County in 1829,
his store in West Main Street was not licensed until April 2,
1831, after Lincoln left Macon County. [/b]

According to the legend repeated by Coleman, after
Whiteside had spoken, some of the younger members of
the crowd called for Lincoln. Lincoln spoke on the naviga-
tion of the Sangamon, after which Whiteside is reported to
have said to Pugh:

"Who is that young fellow?"

"His name is Abe Lincoln, but outside of that I don't
know anything about him," replied Pugh.

"He's nobody's d--d fool and some of these days that
fellow is going to be heard of."

This obviously is another version of the Sangamon navi-
gation speech made at the time of the Ewing-Posey visit.
Election records do not show any man by the name of White-
side as a candidate for office in or from Macon County at
that time. There was a James A. Whiteside elected in 1830
to represent Pope County in the State Legislature and a
John D. Whiteside was elected the same year to represent
Monroe County. One of these two men may have been in
Decatur in the interest of one of the candidates for governor
that year but it seems doubtful.

The Lincoln speech for the Ewing-Posey audience prob-
ably was given in front of the Renshaw store on North Main
Street just off the old square. The tavern was located there
and the loafing was done nearby. Legend has it that cards
were played on a log in front of the store. Since the election
was on August 2, 1830, the speech probably was made in
June or July.

Posey may have been impressed by the Lincoln speech as
was Mr. Ewing, for in January, 1831, Representative Posey
introduced a resolution in the Legislature "that the commit-
tee on internal improvements be instructed to inquire into-
the expediency of opening the navigation of the Sangamon
River as far as Decatur in Macon County."

Little known fact: My grade school was Pugh School in Decatur, Illinois.
The school was named after Colonel Isaac C. Pugh of Civil War fame.

[Amy L.]

Thank you David and Roger for compiling all these sources; they're fun to read!

Just last night I came across this Posey-Ewing debate in Douglas Wilson's Honor's Voice.
Wilson wrote, "While not a campaign speech in his own behalf, it was offered in a political context and apparently was effectively presented and well received. ...William G. Greene says Lincoln himself spoke of this early effort. 'His first Stump Speech ever made I have heard him say was in Macon Co. ... this was no Political Speech but an Experermenter...  I have often heard [Mr. Lincoln] regret that he had no copy of it as it was Extempo.' " (p.146)

[David Lockmiller]

(01-27-2020 05:41 PM)Amy L. Wrote:  Thank you David and Roger for compiling all these sources; they're fun to read!

Just last night I came across this Posey-Ewing debate in Douglas Wilson's Honor's Voice.
Wilson wrote, "While not a campaign speech in his own behalf, it was offered in a political context and apparently was effectively presented and well received. ...William G. Greene says Lincoln himself spoke of this early effort. 'His first Stump Speech ever made I have heard him say was in Macon Co. ... this was no Political Speech but an Experermenter...  I have often heard [Mr. Lincoln] regret that he had no copy of it as it was Extempo.' " (p.146)

Thank you, Amy. Good work. Now, we know how much Abraham Lincoln appreciated the affect of his "first political speech." Who knows what might have been, had not Lincoln made that little speech and received the positive feedback that it engendered.