d to this report by Hon. Edward W. Baker, of
Barry, Illinois, who having undertaken to discover in the Chicago
Historical Society another matter relating to Lincoln, in which we were
both interested, found this address and reported it to me, with an
inquiry whether I had knowledge of it. I made search of the daily papers
of the period and found not only the address, but the correspondence and
notable items as here given.

Lincoln must have been glad of this opportunity to speak out of his
heart his words of sincere admiration for a man whom he had helped to
elect President of the United States. From the outset Lincoln had
believed in Taylor, while many other Whigs refused to support, or
supported with languid interest, a candidate who was a slave-holder and
who had borne a conspicuous part in the Mexican War.

Taylor was nominated by a Whig Convention, which met in Philadelphia,
June 7, 1848. The party was so divided that it could not put forth a
distinctive platform. Even an attempt to unite upon an expression
concerning the Wilmot Proviso was regarded as so divisive that it was
not permitted to come to a vote. The real platform was General Taylor,
and his popular nickname, "Old Rough and Ready." Although Taylor was no
politician and a stranger even to the ballot-box, he regarded himself as
a Whig, but he took pains to explain that he was not an "ultra Whig."
Daniel Webster called him "an ignorant old frontier Colonel," but not
only Webster, but Clay and Seward, joined in his support. Many a Whig
who voted for Taylor accepted him as the choice of two evils. Lincoln,
however, was enthusiastic in his support of the nominee. He went into
the campaign, as Nicolay and Hay remind us, with "exultant alacrity."
They say:

He could not even wait for the adjournment of Congress to begin his
stump speaking. Following the bad example of the rest of his
colleagues, he obtained the floor on the 27th of July and made a
long, brilliant and humorous speech, upon the merits of the two
candidates before the people.--(_Abraham Lincoln: A History_, vol.
I, p. 279.)

This was Lincoln's noted "coat-tail speech," in which he paid his
respects to General Cass, the candidate of the Democrats.

Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, Lincoln went to New
England, where he delivered speeches in favor of Taylor, and opposing
not so much the Democrats as the Free-Soilers, whose hostility was
weakening and t