With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition Journey to Washington

Despite the ever increasing demands on his time during this critical election year, Lincoln responded unhesitatingly and on the shortest notice to photographers, painters, and sculptors seeking to capture his image. Leonard Wells Volk made the plaster cast for the life mask of Lincoln at his Chicago studio in March 1860. Volk made the cast of Lincoln’s hand in Springfield a day or two after the tall Illinoisan was named the Republican Party candidate for president. After Lincoln shook hands with hometown well-wishers, his right hand became swollen. When Volk suggested the nominee hold something, Lincoln broke off a broomstick, a portion of which is visible in the casting.

The conflicting emotions of Abraham Lincoln are readily apparent in this impromptu but moving address, which he delivered from the rear platform of the passenger car that waited at the Springfield train station to take him to Washington. The trip had hardly begun before several members of the presidential party encouraged Lincoln to record his remarks for posterity, and he, obliging, scribbled a few lines. The movement of the train and the strain caused by hundreds of handshakes by well-wishers had a marked effect on Lincoln’s penmanship. He turned in frustration to his trusted secretary, John Nicolay, to complete the speech.

Lincoln’s Farewell Address given at the railroad station in Springfield on February 11, 1861, attracted so much attention that it quickly found its way into print, both in newspapers and in broadsides. The printer dated the address February 12, perhaps the date the broadside was issued.