On this day, February 27, 1860, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Cooper Union speech.

[NNadir]

1. It was, without question in my opinion, one of the most important...

...speeches ever made, standing in its eloquence, along side the other two great speeches he made, the Gettysburg Address and the 2nd inaugural.

The first inaugural isn't all that far behind the three, but it is alleged that Seward, not Lincoln was the author of the "mystic chords of memory...touched....by the better angels of our nature." I'm not convinced that locution was Seward's since it has a Lincolnian feel.