Today in 1856, Abraham Lincoln visited Kalamazoo to campaign for John Charles Fremont. His speech, initially lost to history, was rediscovered in 1930 by Tom Starr in a 1856 Detroit Advertiser at the Detroit Public Library. Lincoln emphasized the importance of emancipation, stating, “Shall we say, 'Let it be'? No – we have an interest in the maintenance of the principles of the Government, and without this interest, it is worth nothing.”
TRANSCRIPT
Abraham Lincoln only once set foot on Michigan soil when he visited Kalamazoo on August 27, 1856 to campaign for Presidential Candidate John Charles Fremont. For a long time, Lincoln’s speech in Kalamazoo seemed lost to time. But then in 1930, Tom Starr, a Lincoln enthusiast from Royal Oak found a bound volume of 1856 Detroit Advertiser issues. It had fallen behind the shelf at the Detroit Public Library. While paging through it, Starr discovered that the Advertiser had published a verbatim transcript of Lincoln’s Kalamazoo speech. One portion gives a good guide as to how important emancipation was to the future president. "Turning to the South,” he said “we see a people who, while they boast of being free, keep their fellow beings in bondage...Shall we say, "Let it be"? No – we have an interest in the maintenance of the principles of the Government, and without this interest, it is worth nothing." Abraham Lincoln today in 1856 in Kalamazoo.