“Lately I have been reading again about Abraham Lincoln”

Calvin Coolidge, speech to the Essex County Republican Club: February 1, 1918.

In this speech, Coolidge exhorts his fellow Republicans to give their full support to President Wilson in order that America triumph in the First World War. He says that excessive partisanship has no place in a wartime environment. He cites Abraham Lincoln’s cooperation with his political rivals during the Civil War as an example for Republicans to follow.