Abraham Lincoln tests his speech on slavery during a visit to Atchison, Kansas

In Atchison, Kansas, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech to an overflow crowd in the Methodist Church Auditorium. He spoke for two hours and twenty minutes and used substantial portions of the famous speech he knew he was going to give three months later at the Cooper Union in New York. This was the fourth of five talks in less than a week in Kansas.  Lincoln had learned John Brown had that morning been executed in Virginia and told the crowd that Brown had paid the just penalty for treason. (By John Osborne)