In June 1830, while working as a farm hand on William Hanks's farm near the main square in Decatur, Abraham Lincoln heard a disturbance in the square, went there, and found a crowd gathered to hear John Posey speak for his candidacy to the Illinois General Assembly, with William L. D. Ewing also present. After Posey's speech ended and a shout arose, Lincoln's second cousin John Hanks declared that a man in the audience could beat that speech to death and called on Lincoln to come forward. Barefooted, Lincoln accepted, mounted a tree stump or an upturned wooden box, and delivered a speech defending the Whig Party and its leader, Henry Clay of Kentucky. He argued for navigation of the Sangamon River, emphasizing its clearing and widening so farm goods and products could be transported. When he finished, the cheering crowd signaled that his speech had carried the day. Lincoln was already known throughout the region as a capable speaker, and witnesses said that while growing up in Indiana he gave impromptu speeches to farm laborers and neighbors; after moving to Illinois, John Hanks said he practiced by speaking to the trees in the forest. After the Decatur speech, both John Posey and William L. D. Ewing told Lincoln and the crowd that he was capable of going far and was nobody's fool. Two years later, as a resident of New Salem in Sangamon County, Lincoln announced his candidacy for the Illinois General Assembly on a platform focused on opening the Sangamon River to navigation, and later, as a lawyer, he continued to argue for the river's navigability.