President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped in Albany on February 18, 1861, on his way to his inauguration in Washington, D.C., where a large, boisterous crowd greeted him. Speaking at the old State House to the New York Legislature, he said, "I hold myself without mock modesty, the humblest of all individuals that have ever been elevated to the Presidency....You have generously tendered me the united support of the great Empire State." He declined to enter into any explanation of any particular line of policy regarding the nation's present difficulties, believing it wise to keep his thoughts on the impending Civil War to himself until his inauguration about two weeks later. Lincoln later dined with Governor Edwin D. Morgan and spent the night at the Delavan House, located where the federal courthouse now stands on Broadway.
