SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – With the nation racing toward civil war, President-elect Abraham Lincoln sat down and wrote an inaugural speech that he hoped would pull America back from the brink. It urged patience. It insisted the North and South must remain friends. It asked everyone to heed their “better angels.”
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is proud to announce that the desk where Lincoln wrote most of that famous First Inaugural Address is now on display, along with an exhibit that explores critical moments in his life through documents in the library’s collection.