On February 28, 1860, Abraham Lincoln spoke in Railroad Hall on this site after delivering his famous address at Cooper Union in New York the previous night. To please New England supporters and to visit his son Robert at Phillips Exeter Academy, he undertook a speaking tour that helped his party win spring elections in New England and contributed to his election as President in November. In the Cooper Union Address, Lincoln declared, "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."