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Campaigning for the Presidency of the United States, Abraham Lincoln crossed the Missouri River from St. Joseph to Elwood, Kansas Territory on December 1, 1859. From there, he was driven in a horse-drawn buggy to Leavenworth.
On December 3, 1859, he spoke in Stockton Hall, then occupying this site. This speech was his first major political address that led to his nomination and subsequent election as President of the United States. Here Lincoln first proclaimed the principles incorporated in his famous speech at Cooper Institue, New York, the following February.
Lincoln left Leavenworth, December 7, 1859, and returned to his home in Springfield, Illinois.
From Kansapedia Lincoln in Kansas (Kansas Historical Society):
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"Leaving Atchison on Saturday morning, December 3, Lincoln was taken to Leavenworth and there a brass band and local dignitaries escorted him to his lodgings at the Mansion House. Speaking that evening, Lincoln reiterated his position that the “new policy” for dealing with the territories as set forth in the Kansas-Nebraska Act was “based on the idea that slavery is not wrong.” This was a failed policy, he insisted, for contrary to its promise, it had not brought a speedy end to slavery agitation or given the people of the territories more control over their own affairs. “All those who believe slavery is wrong,” proclaimed Lincoln, “should unite on a policy, dealing with it as a wrong.” Their policy should contain no ambiguity or “deceitful contrivances,” but, Lincoln insisted, “we are not trying to destroy it [slavery]. The peace of society, and the structure of our government both require that we should let it alone” in those states where it already existed. It was not, however, to be allowed to spread further; this, Lincoln insisted, was simply and “exactly the policy of the men who made the Union. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Lincoln stayed over on Sunday to spend some time with a distant relative, Mrs. Mark W. Delahay, and spoke again on Monday, December 5. He observed the election for state officers under the Wyandotte Constitution on Tuesday, and left the territory the next day. It was a short visit, and one that Lincoln would not have the opportunity to repeat. But his message and bearing had impressed a good many Kansans, and Kansas had made an impression on him. A few months later, when asked if he would advise someone to “go west,” Lincoln replied: “If I went West, I think I would go to Kansas--to Leavenworth or Atchison. Both of them are, and will continue to be, fine growing places.”
Despite a successful Kansas trip, Lincoln did not improve his standing that much in the territory and had to capture the Republican convention of 1860 without the support of the Kansas delegation. Today we sometimes forget that Lincoln was not universally loved by his own generation. Most Southerners despised him, many Northerners questioned his ability and judgment, and his position on racial issues certainly cannot be judged enlightened by today's standards. Indeed, his thinking in this area was conservative even when compared to contemporaries such as Susan B. Anthony, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Charles Sumner. But he was well ahead of the vast majority of Americans, showed a great capacity for growth in this and other areas, and earned the laudatory epithet the “Great Emancipator” and reputation as one of America’s great presidents."