Cincinnati – Abraham Lincoln's first step onto the national stage

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. Today, I highlight the beginning of Abraham Lincoln’s campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination. After losing to Stephen Douglas for the Senate, he tended to his law practice and declined various speaking invitations. However, in September 1859, a request from the Ohio GOP to counter appearances there by Douglas was an opportunity too good to miss.

The fifth and most important of his Buckeye State speeches took place in Cincinnati on the 17th. He received a hero’s welcome, with a torchlit parade to an outdoor downtown venue. The national press covered this event much more than the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Thinking ahead to the presidential election, Lincoln predicted, correctly, that northern and southern wings of the Democratic Party would not agree to support Douglas. He emphasized that, though constitutionally protected where it already existed, slavery was immoral and could not be allowed to spread. The audience applauded and cheered.

He was now a serious contender. And, his Cincinnati speech and two in Columbus helped persuade Ohio delegates to throw their support to Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican National Convention.

Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com. 

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Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.

Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.

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