Abraham Lincoln Speech 2 Dec 1859 -- Atchison KS
N 39° 33.966 W 095° 07.156
15S E 317952 N 4381745
On 02 Dec 1859 Abraham Lincoln came to this city, a trailhead and bastion of Free Soilism in the Kansas Territory to hone a speech. In 1917 the local DAR chapter created a commemoration of that speech which sits on the county courthouse lawn.
Waymark Code: WMGRBB
Location: Kansas, United States
Date Posted: 04/04/2013
Views: 13
In Dec 1859 Atchison KT was a major town in the Kansas Territory. It had been the site of some difficult political struggles between the Border Rufffians of MO (pro-slavery activists) and Free Soilers (anti-slavery activists) over control of the town, which would influence whether KS Territory would join the United States in the future as a free state or a slave state.
On 02 Dec 1859 Abraham Lincoln journeys to Atchison while campigning for President, and made a speech "on the issues of the day" at the local Methodist Church (which used to be across the street).
In 1917 the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution affixed a plaque on a glacial erratic pink quartzite boulder (which are regularly found in this area) commemorating this speech. The boulder sits today in a place of pride on the NE corner of the Atchison County courthouse lawn in Atchison KS.
The plaque reads as follows:
"To Commemorate
an Address Given Near this Corner
By
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On the Issues of the Day the
Night of December 2, 1859
Erected by the Atchison Chapter, D. A. R.
Octobver 2, 1917"
From the Wonders of Atchison website, this story of Lincoln's time in Atchison, then a tough transient town of Pony Express riders, trail drivers, steambioat captains, and the like: (
visit link)
"6) Lincoln in Kansas:
(1859) In December of 1859 presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln came to Kansas to get a feel for the West, and test the waters with a speech he was preparing that he hoped would change the course of the 1860 election in his favor.
Lincoln arrived in Atchison County on a cold December 2nd in an open carriage wrapped in a borrowed buffalo robe. He spoke that night to an overflow crowd at the original Methodist Church (across the street to the north of today’s Atchison County Courthouse) who demanded that he continue when he asked if they wanted him to go on after an hour and 15 minutes.
That night after the speech and the public greetings with local officials Lincoln retired to the Massasoit Hotel and relaxed playing billiards with Thomas Murphy, the proprietor.
When John Ingalls went to pick up Lincoln in the morning to tour the town and meet with other officials, he found Lincoln in the Express office of the Hotel by the stove with one boot dangling off his foot trading stories with the stage drivers, express riders and working people of the town." [end]