These speeches were made in 1854. It is now worth while to skip over
two years to record another epoch-making speech, one which in spirit
and temper belongs here. For it shows to what intensity Lincoln was
aroused on this vast and ever-encroaching subject of slavery. This was
at the convention which was held in Bloomington for the purpose of
organizing the Republican party. The date of the convention was May 29,
1856. The center of interest was Lincoln's speech. The reporters were
there in sufficient force, and we would surely have had a verbatim
report--except for one thing. The reporters did not report. Let Joseph
Medill, of the Chicago _Tribune_, tell why:

"It was my journalistic duty, though a delegate to the convention, to
make a 'long-hand' report of the speeches delivered for the Chicago
_Tribune_. I did make a few paragraphs of what Lincoln said in the
first eight or ten minutes, but I became so absorbed in his magnetic
oratory, that I forgot myself and ceased to take notes, and joined with
the convention in cheering and stamping and clapping to the end of his
speech.

I well remember that after Lincoln had sat down and calm had succeeded
the tempest, I waked out of a sort of hypnotic trance, and then thought
of my report for the _Tribune_. There was nothing written but an
abbreviated introduction.

It was some sort of satisfaction to find that I had not been 'scooped,'
as all the newspaper men present had been equally carried away by the
excitement caused by the wonderful oration, and had made no report or
sketch of the speech."