Lincoln's Bloomington: Interactive Cemetery Walk
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Lincoln's Bloomington

Through his travels on the Eighth Judicial Circuit and campaigns, Bloomington is a significant site of Lincoln's legacy in Illinois

Back to Lincoln's Bloomington Contemporaries

Featured Biographies in Lincoln's Bloomington

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Jesse W. Fell
David Davis
Sarah Davis
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Ezra Prince
Emily Hanks Loomis
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Allen & Sarah Withers
Asahel & Mary Gridley

Lincoln's "Lost Speech" (May 29, 1856)

Lincoln gave a 90 minute speech at Illinois' First Republican Convention in Bloomington, Illinois. The text of the speech has been lost, but many recollected accounts give an idea that the speech was remarkably anti-slavery.
"I have heard or read all of Mr. Lincoln's great speeches; and I give it as my opinion that the Bloomington speech was the grand effort of his life," remembered Lincoln's law partner William Herndon, who was in the audience that night.

"His speech was full of fire and energy and force," added Herndon. "It was logic; it was pathos; it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity, truth, and right set ablaze by the divine fires of a soul maddened by the wrong; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, backed with wrath."


Related Documents and Articles:
  • Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Michael Burlingame
  • Lincoln's Bloomington, Guy C. Fraker
  • "Bloomington was the Scene for Lincoln's 'Lost Speech,'" Bill Kemp 
  • Recollection of the Lost Speech by H.C. Whitney, presented at the Annual Lincoln Dinner of the Republican Club in New York, 1897.
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Major's Hall

Lincoln and the "Convergence of Purpose"

  • This sculpture celebrates Lincoln's connections to Bloomington-Normal and McLean County
  • Features Lincoln and his close friends, Jesse Fell and David Davis sometime in the 1850s.
  • The sculptor was challenged to depict the influence that Fell and Davis had on Lincoln's run for the presidency.
               - Fell worked to convince Lincoln to run for the office and write an autobiography
               - Davis led the team of the Lincoln's supporters at the Chicago convention
  • Dedication of Lincoln-Fell-Davis Statue, Richard Wilson
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First Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions (April 6, 1858)
Lincoln and Economics

This speech given by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 was given several months prior to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Though the speech seems very apolitical, historians like Michael Burlingame point out that even this speech and those in a similar series (the Second Lecture, etc) contain hidden political meaning and commentary.
Related Documents and Articles:
  • Second Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions (February 11, 1859)
  • Young America Movement
  • Lincoln's Economics and the American Dream, A Reappraisal, Stewart Winger
Read “Abraham Lincoln, First Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, April 6, 1858” by Abraham Lincoln on News Genius

Created by Megan VanGorder, 2014
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