Lincoln's First Speech

Lincoln's First Speech. Looking for Lincoln. In June 1830 farm hand Abraham Lincoln was working on the farm of his relation, William Hanks, just a few blocks from the main square in Decatur. Suddenly, he heard a disturbance coming from the square. Hopping the fence and heading to the noise, Lincoln found people had gathered to listen to John Posey and William L. D. Ewing. Posey was in town to speak for his candidacy to the Illinois General Assembly. Posey then gave his speech, and at the end came a “shout.” Seizing the moment, Lincoln's second cousin John Hanks claimed a man in the audience could “beat that speech to death.” Hanks called on Lincoln to come forward. Barefooted, Lincoln readily accepted, mounted a tree stump (or an upturned wooden box), and proceeded to give a speech defending the Whig Party and its leader, Henry Clay of Kentucky. Lincoln argued for the navigation of the Sangamon River, focusing on the clearing and widening of the river to allow for transportation of farm goods and products. After the speech was over, the cheering crowd signaled that Lincoln's speech had “carried the day.”, Abraham Lincoln had been known known throughout the region as a person capable of making speeches. Witnesses claimed that as he had grown up in Indiana he had given impromptu speeches to farm laborers and neighbors. Later, after he had moved to Illinois, John Hanks stated that Lincoln would give practice speeches to the “trees in the forest.” After Lincoln had given his Decatur speech, both John Posey and William L. D. Ewing indicated to him and the crowd that he was capable of “going far” and “was nobody's fool.” Two years later, as a resident of New Salem in Sangamon County, Lincoln announced his candidacy as a representative to the Illinois General Assembly. His platform focused on opening the navigation of the Sangamon River. Even later, when Lincoln became a lawyer, he continued to argue for the navigability of the Sangamon., Caption: This sculpture of Abraham Lincoln giving his first “official” political speech to an assembled crowd was sculpted by Anthony Vestuto. Mr. Vestuto did the work for the city of Decatur to commemorate the historic Lincoln event. The statue was dedicated in a ceremony on October 12, 1968. Along with this statue, Mr. Vestuto also sculpted the small bronze likeness of Macon County's First Log Courthouse, located on the southwest side of the square across from this statue.