J.C. Abraham Lincoln

Soon after the 1865 murder of Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Association of Jersey City was formed. It is believed to be the oldest among the many organizations in the country dedicated to the memory, preservation and understanding of Abraham Lincoln. I was in the New Jersey Room at the Jersey City Library on Jersey Avenue this week, and noticed this picture on an easel of the great man. I asked the very helpful librarian he told me about the Jersey City Lincoln association, and that the historic room put the picture up for the centennial of his birth in February. It was now May and still nobody felt like taking down the picture. And why not. We can never think enough about Lincoln. It is generally recognized that the Cooper Union Address he made in Manhattan as a candidate for president was the speech that brought him national attention. According to the Librarian, he supposedly once said, “I wrote that speech on the train from Camden to Jersey City.” Maybe our fair city inspired the conclusion of the speech: “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”