The Fathers and Saviors of Our Country: A Presidential Sale

One page, oblong 8vo (222 x 108 mm).

THE BANK DRAFTS THAT MADE ABRAHAM LINCOLN PRESIDENT.

The future president opened an account with the Springfield Marine & Fire Insurance Co. bank in 1853, and it was the only bank he used for the rest of his life, despite his representing two clients who sued the bank in the Sangamon County Circuit Court. It was one of two drafts purchased by Lincoln the day before departing for New York for a speaking engagement at Cooper Union; the first was used, while this one was retained.

The Cooper Union Speech was delivered on 27 February 1860 and is widely considered to be the speech that secured Lincoln's nomination for president at the Republican National Convention the following May. In this speech, he elaborated on his views regarding slavery and stated that he opposed its further spread. In one of the speech's most powerful passages, he states that in the event of a Republican victory, "you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, 'Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!' To be sure, what the robber demanded of me—my money—was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle."