Considering the moment this picture was taken, it is arguably one of the most remarkable photographs in American history.

The date was February 27, 1860. The Republican Party was entertaining potential candidates for its nominee to be President of the United States. The most prominent front-runners had already appeared by the time they invited Abraham Lincoln to come to New York. Having run and lost for Senate twice, he had a reputation in Illinois, but outside of his home state, he was generally unknown. That evening, in a widely-publicized event, more than fifteen hundred sophisticated, eastern establishment Republicans would gather to hear him speak.

By way of background, the entire country was in a state of turmoil and upheaval. A heated battle was raging over the future of slavery, tearing North and South apart. Lincoln, a gifted lawyer, had crafted a meticulous speech against it. He had been working on it for months and was fully prepared to deliver it forcefully.    

That afternoon, he had walked over to Matthew Brady’s photography studio. And in a quiet moment, this portrait was taken, capturing the image of the unlikely man who was about to bear the awful burden of leading the country through its most agonizing time.

In the photo, Lincoln has a solid look of certainty about him. Many of us rely on external events and other people’s opinions to bolster our own self-confidence. But the man in this picture was clearly on his own, and he knew it. Still, he seems to have the countenance of someone whose strength comes from within, an inner clarity aligned with a higher purpose.  

What actually happened a few hours later at the Cooper Union Great Hall is a matter of history. Lincoln was introduced, and when he got up to speak, the crowd virtually gasped at the sight of him. In person, he was not a good-looking man.

His enemies often called him “the ape from Illinois,” and even Nathaniel Hawthorne, a great admirer, said Lincoln was the homeliest man he had ever met. Lincoln, himself, often joked about it. In a debate for Senate, when Stephen Douglass called him two-faced, he retorted, “If I had another face, do you really think I’d wear this one.”  

Besides his unseemly features, he was awkwardly tall and skinny, and his out-of-style suit didn’t really fit him. On top of that, when he began speaking, his twangy accent made him sound like a common country bumpkin.

“Meester Prez-E-Dent,” he began, as the shocked audience looked on in silence. But within a few minutes, he had them. 

As an eyewitness wrote, "When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed. He was tall, tall, -- oh, how tall! and so angular and awkward that I had, for an instant, a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man." However, after a few minutes, “his face lighted up as with an inward fire; the whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities. Presently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet like the rest, yelling like a wild Indian, cheering this wonderful man."

The battle over slavery was dividing the nation. Its proponents claimed it was protected by the US constitution and the federal government had no right to limit it. Using historical half-truths, they had constructed a devious pro-slavery argument. In his passionate speech, methodically, point by point, Lincoln shot it full of holes, to the delight of the party faithful. He ended with an emphatic statement about the integrity of true democratic debate, which is more relevant today than ever.

He said that if someone disagreed with him, “he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truthful evidence and fair argument. But he has no right to mislead others who have less access to history and less leisure to study it…”  

It’s a story as old as politics itself. The deft, black-art of stoking emotions by manipulating facts and disregarding the truth, has always been the hallmark of a tyrant. A harbinger of impending danger, it takes real courage to stand up to it. And that night, before his transfixed audience, Lincoln did just that. His speech was gripping, his presence was unexpectedly magnetic, and the crowd basically fell in love with him. As he stood tall, accepting the party’s thunderous standing ovation, the Lincoln Legend was born, and the destiny of the nation was set.   

The next day, the influential New York Tribune wrote, “No man ever made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience.”

Of course, no one knew what was coming next, but things started to move quickly. In less than 90 days, Lincoln had the nomination sewn up and within another few months, he was elected president. The South almost immediately began to secede and just 45 days after the inauguration, the gruesome Civil War broke out.

The massive and tragic conflict created the bloodiest four years in American history, with Lincoln at the very center of it. His brilliant leadership effected every aspect and while he kept his sworn duty to preserve the Union, as much as possible, he took the high road. Even though the horrible drama played out over 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln is still the most beloved and respected American president in history.

I often find myself staring into the gaunt face of the man in the photograph, taken that fateful February afternoon in Brady’s New York studio. At that point, just hours before he stepped onto the world stage, no one in the great, eastern metropolis knew him. But looking into the eyes of the tall figure in the picture, it’s clear that even though he was unknown to the public, he clearly was no stranger to himself.