The mid-1850s were a time of political wreckage. The once-mighty Whig Party had crumbled, and the Democratic Party was fracturing along sectional lines. From the ashes of these old alignments rose the Republican Party, a fragile, untested coalition bonded by a single, urgent purpose: the prevention of the expansion of slavery. Lincoln was a key architect of this new organization in Illinois.
He had to bridge the gap between radical abolitionists, who wanted slavery destroyed everywhere, and conservative Republicans, who simply wanted it contained in the South. This required a delicate, masterful touch. At the 1856 Bloomington Convention, Lincoln delivered a speech so powerful that reporters were said to have forgotten to take notes, simply sitting in thrall to his words. It was the "Lost Speech," and it cemented his position as the leader of the Illinois Republicans. He had proven that he could hold a coalition together through the sheer force of his integrity and his ability to define the moral stakes of the debate.