stepped forward and began a simple address that quickly charmed
the roomful of youngsters into silence. His language was
singularly beautiful, his voice musical with deep feeling. The
faces of his little listeners drooped into sad earnestness at his
words of warning, and brightened again when he spoke of cheerful
promises. "Go on! Oh, do go on!" they begged when at last he
tried to stop. As he left the room somebody asked his name.
"Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois," was the courteous reply.



VI. THE NEW PRESIDENT

Lincoln's great skill and wisdom in his debate with Douglas
turned the eyes of the whole country upon him; and the force and
logic of his Cooper Institute speech convinced every one that in
him they had discovered a new national leader. He began to be
mentioned as a possible candidate for President in the election
which was to take place that fall to choose a successor to
President Buchanan. Indeed, quite a year earlier, an editor in
Illinois had written to him asking permission to announce him as
a candidate in his newspaper. At that time Lincoln had refused,
thanking him for the compliment, but adding modestly: "I must in
candor say that I do not think myself fit for the Presidency."
About Christmas time, 1859, however, a number of his stanchest
Illinois friends urged him to let them use his name, and he
consented, not so much in the hope of being chosen, as of perhaps
receiving the nomination for Vice-President, or at least of
making a show of strength that would aid him at some future time
to become senator. The man most talked about as the probable