Name
Institutional Affiliation
Speech at Cooper Union
The Cooper Union address was a speech given by Abraham Lincoln at the Cooper Union, New York on February 27, 1860 (Hirsch, & Van Haften, 2010). At that time, Lincoln had not yet received the nod to carry the Republican flag for a shot at the presidency. The speech is however regarded as an iconic one, and a factor that propelled him to the position of the head of the country. The central theme of the speech is slavery where he highlights his resentment towards its expansion into western territories and further asserting that even the founding fathers would have supported his position (Lincoln, 2012). The speech was long with over 7000 words, and it also received accolades from various quarters, with many people agreeing that it was well researched (Lamon, 2012).
In assessing the speech, it had three critical parts all which built its conclusion. The first part addresses the legal position of the founders of the nation with regards to the whole issue of slavery. The second part focuses on the voters emanating from the southern states by attempting to clarify issues between the Democrats and Republicans (Wilson, 2010). Here, he criticizes the Democrats for their purported conservative views on slavery and instead holds that the true conservatives are Republicans who share similar views on slavery as the founding fathers of the nation. The third part of the speech aims at addressing the Republicans.
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As previously noted, the primary theme revealed by Lincoln in his speech is about slavery. He uses inferences from the founders of the nation as a model to back his assertions on the whole issue. First, he debunks the claims that it was unconstitutional for the national government to exercise their control over slavery in the territories. Wilson (2010) asserted that he further goes ahead to call on the Republicans to fight slavery with their votes to ensure control of its expansion.
References
Hirsch, D., & Van Haften, D. (2010). Abraham Lincoln and the structure of reason . Savas Beatie.
Lamon, W. (2012). The Life of Abraham Lincoln . Applewood Books.
Lincoln, A. (2012). The life and writings of Abraham Lincoln . Modern library.
Wilson, K. H. (2010). Debating the great emancipator: Abraham Lincoln and our public memory. Rhetoric & Public Affairs , 13 (3), 455-479.
