I have been fortunate enough to secure (only, however, after this monograph had been put into type) a copy of the pamphlet printed in September, 1860, by the Young Men's Republican Union of New York, in which is presented the text, as revised by the speaker, of the address given by Lincoln at the Cooper Institute in February,--the address which made him President. This edition of the speech, prepared for use in the Presidential campaign, contains a series of historical annotations by Cephas Brainerd of the New York Bar and Charles C. Nott, who later rendered further distinguished service to his country as Colonel of the 176th Regiment, N.Y.S. Volunteers, and (after the close of the War) as chief justice of the Court of Claims. These young lawyers (not yet leaders of the Bar) appear to have realised at once that the speech was to constitute the platform upon which the issues of the Presidential election were to be contested. Not being prophets, they were, of course, not in a position to know that the same statements were to represent the contentions of the North upon which the Civil War was fought out. I am able to include, with the scholarly notes of the two lawyers, a valuable introduction to the speech, written (as late as February, 1908) by Judge Nott; together with certain letters which in February, 1860, passed between him (as the representative of the Committee) and Mr. Lincoln. The introduction and the letters have never before been published, and (as is the case also with the material of the notes) are now in print only in the present volume. I judge, therefore, that I may be doing a service to the survivors of the generation of 1860 and also to the generations that have grown up since the War, by utilising the occasion of the publication of my own little monograph for the reprinting of these notes in a form for permanent preservation and for reference on the part of students of the history of the Republic. G.H.P. NEW YORK, April 2, 1909. CONTENTS I. THE EVOLUTION OF THE MAN II. WORK AT THE BAR AND ENTRANCE INTO POLITICS III. THE FIGHT AGAINST THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY IV. LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT ORGANISES THE PEOPLE FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF NATIONAL EXISTENCE V. THE BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR VI. THE DARK. DAYS OF 1862 VII. THE THIRD AND CRUCIAL YEAR OF THE WAR VIII. THE FINAL CAMPAIGN IX. LINCOLN'S TASK ENDED APPENDIX--LINCOLN'S COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS: INTRODUCTORY NOTE CORRESPONDENCE WITH ROBERT LINCOLN, NOTT, AND BRAINERD INTRODUCTION CORRESPONDENCE WITH LINCOLN TITLE PAGE OF ORIGINAL ISSUE OFFICERS OF THE REPUBLICAN UNION PREFACE TO THE LINCOLN ADDRESS THE COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS INDEX FOOTNOTES I THE EVOLUTION OF THE MAN