Three centuries and 11 years later, Mr. Lincoln made his own concrete connections to the state when he made a speaking tour of Massachusetts for General Zachary Taylor, the Whig presidential candidate. Lincoln attended the Whig Convention in Worcester on September Providentially, Mr. Lincoln filled a gap in the program the night before the convention began. Lincoln probably came to Worcester at the request of a fellow congressman who faced a serious election challenge that year.
Lincoln scholar Arthur P. The factions grew in strength and hostility until the meeting for the national convention in June, Lincoln had served.
None of them came. But as the sun was descending I was told that Abraham Lincoln, member of Congress from Illinois, was stopping at one of the hotels in town. I had heard of him before, and at once called upon him and made known my wish that he would address the meeting of the evening, to which he readily assented. I further suggested to him that as the party in whose cause we were then united was largely in the minority here, and as there was an unusual bitterness in the antagonistic politics of this community, he should practice much discretion, and leave our side as well in its prospects as he could.
His benignant eye caught my meaning and his gentle spirit responded approval. His address was one of the best it had ever been my fortune to hear, and left not one root of bitterness behind. He probably modeled his speech after one he had given on the floor of the House of Representatives in July. According to Lincoln scholar Louis A. Lincoln use graphic analogies to make his case why Whigs should not abandon their candidate for the Free Soil Party.
He spokes in a clear and cool, and very eloquent manner, for an hour and a half, carrying the audience with him in his able arguments and brilliant illustrations — only interrupted by warm and frequent applause. But he had devoted his attention to the question of the coming Presidential election, and was not unwilling to exchange with all whom he might meet the ideas to which he had arrived. He maintained that Gen. The principle that the people should do what — under the constitution — they please, is a Whig principle.
