On November 30, 1859, Abraham Lincoln arrived at the St. Joseph, Missouri, train station, crossed the Missouri River by ferry into Elwood, and that evening spoke at the Great Western Hotel condemning slavery. On December 1, in bitter cold, he traveled by open carriage to Troy, where he spoke for nearly two hours, then went about ten miles to Doniphan for another speech. On December 2, he was driven to Atchison and addressed a large crowd at the Methodist Church for two hours and 20 minutes, as news arrived that abolitionist John Brown had been executed earlier that day. On December 3, a brass band and local dignitaries greeted him in Leavenworth, where at Stockton Hall he repeated that slavery was wrong but said his side was not trying to destroy it and that peace in society and the structure of government required leaving it alone in states where it already existed. On December 4, he visited a distant relative, Mrs. Mark Delahay, and her husband at their Leavenworth home. On December 5, he gave his final Kansas speech in Leavenworth and mentioned the election for state officers under the Wyandotte Constitution that would take place the next day. A few months later, on February 27, 1860, Lincoln delivered the Cooper Union Address at New York City's Cooper Union, a carefully researched speech that helped bring him to national prominence before the Republican Convention. In it, he argued against the westward expansion of slavery and challenged Stephen A. Douglas's claim that Democrats were conservative by saying that most of the Founding Fathers agreed with stopping slavery's spread. Many historians credit the address as contributing to his victory later that year. In 1860, Lincoln became president, though he did not win any of Kansas's six votes at the Republican National Convention. During his Kansas trip, he traveled farther west than at any other time in his life.