our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in the free-States?  If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively.  Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored, contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man, such as a policy of “don’t care,” on a question about which all true men do care, such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists; reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did.

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves.  Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

  [Sidenote] “New York Tribune,” February 28, 1860.

The smiles, the laughter, the outburst of applause which greeted and emphasized the speaker’s telling points, showed Mr. Lincoln that his arguments met ready acceptance.  The next morning the four leading New York dailies printed the speech in full, and bore warm testimony to its merit and effect.  “Mr. Lincoln is one of nature’s orators,” said the “Tribune,” “using his rare powers solely to elucidate and convince, though their inevitable effect is to delight and electrify as well.  We present herewith a very full and accurate report of this speech; yet the tones, the gestures, the kindling eye, and the mirth-provoking look defy the reporter’s skill.  The vast assemblage frequently rang with cheers and shouts of applause, which were prolonged and intensified at the close.  No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience.”

[Illustration:  CALEB CUSHING.]

  [Sidenote] Pamphlet edition with notes and preface by Charles C. Nott
  and Cephas Brainerd, September, 1860.

A pamphlet reprint was at once announced by the same paper; and later, in the Presidential campaign, a more careful edition was prepared and circulated, to which were added copious notes by two members of the committee under whose auspices the address was delivered.  Their comment, printed in the preface, is worth quoting as showing its literary value under critical analysis.  “No one who has not actually attempted to verify its details can understand the patient research and historical labor which it embodies.  The history of our earlier politics is scattered through numerous journals, statutes, pamphlets, and letters; and these are defective in completeness and accuracy of statement, and in indices and tables of contents.