Lincoln's Lost Speech

Traditionally regarded as lost because it was so engaging that reporters neglected to take notes, the speech is believed to have been an impassioned condemnation of slavery.

Lincoln's Lost Speech was given at the since demolished building at the corner of East and Front Streets in downtown Bloomington, Illinois, known as Major's Hall on May 29, 1856.

[7] The traditional reason given for the lack of any written recollection of the Lost Speech is that Lincoln's skilled and powerful oration had mesmerized every person in attendance.

In a book, limited to 500 copies and bound in white boards, the speech was reproduced by the Republican Club of the City of New York as a souvenir for its annual Lincoln Dinner on February 12, 1897.

Ida Tarbell sought out Joseph Medill, who was present at the Lost Speech, and he claimed that Whitney's version displayed "remarkable accuracy".

[12] In modern times, Lincoln researcher and director of the Chicago Historical Society Paul M. Angle exposed Whitney's version of the speech and his claims of its validity as a "fabrication".

[13] Given at the first state convention, which essentially founded the Illinois Republican Party, the speech thrust Lincoln into the national political limelight.