Remembering Lincoln's Stop In Hartford

As Connecticut prepares for President Barack Obama's arrival tomorrow, the city of Hartford can also mark the anniversary of another president's visit 154 years ago.

Of course on March 5, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was not yet president. He was still just a former state legislator from Illinois who had recently gained attention as a Republican campaigner and debater of Stephen A. Douglas. This stop on a Northeastern speaking tour would be his first and only trip to Hartford.

Lincoln's first stop was to see his son Robert at school in New Hampshire. He then traveled to New York to give what would quickly become a famous address at Cooper Union. In this pivotal speech, the future president laid out the moderate anti-slavery position: not a call to abolish slavery, but to confine it to the Southern states. Spectators in the packed hall were transfixed, and newspapers printed the full speech.

Lincoln returned to New Hampshire to give more speeches before catching the train to Hartford. Some accounts say Lincoln was taken from the train station straight to City Hall, while others have him stopping in a bookstore on Asylum Street.

In any case, at City Hall (then on Market Street) Lincoln was joined by Connecticut Governor William A. Buckingham and other Republican leaders. The audience could barely fit in the building; many people who came to see Lincoln were turned away. He spoke for more than two hours on the moral wrongs and financial realities of slavery, and on politics and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and the approving crowd alternately listened, laughed, and applauded.

Afterwards, Lincoln was escorted from City Hall by a large group of marching young men bearing torches. These were the Wide-Awakes, a new Hartford political club formed to support Governor Buckingham's reelection campaign. Chapters of Wide Awakes would soon pop up in other states and quickly become associated with Lincoln's run for the White House later in the year.

Editorial opinions on Lincoln's Hartford performance were mixed. The Courant praised the Illinois lawyer's words, while the Hartford Times derided his physical appearance and anti-slavery message.

On March 6, after touring the Sharps Rifle Works and Colt Armory, Lincoln boarded a train to New Haven, where he spoke to another packed house, and continued to travel throughout New England, communicating the ideas that would propel him to the highest office in the nation.

For more on Lincoln's stop in Hartford, read this article in the Hog River Journal (now Connecticut explored) and this page on Abraham Lincoln's Classroom.