Past Banquet Speakers

February 12, 2006

Doris Kearns Goodwin (Author)

February 12, 2005

Mark A. Plummer (Professor, Illinois State University)

February 12, 2004

Martin Marty (Professor, University of Chicago)

February 12, 2003

Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr.  (former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)

February 12, 2002

Allen C. Guelzo (Grace Kea Professor of History, Eastern College)

February 12, 2001

Michael Beschloss (Author)

February 12, 2000

Doris Kearns Goodwin (Author)

February 12, 1999

James B. Stewart (Author)

February 12, 1998

James Fallows (Editor, U.S. News and World Report)

February 12, 1997

Paul Simon (United States Senator from Illinois) (in place of Herbert Mitgang)

"Lincoln and Lovejoy"

February 12, 1996

"Some Folks" (Musical group)

19th Century musical entertainment of the Lincoln period

February 12, 1995

Brian Lamb (CEO, C-SPAN) (in place of Jason Robards)

February 12, 1994

Sam Waterson (Actor) (in place of Frank E. Vandiver)

February 12, 1993

Garry Wills (Historian, Northwestern University), "Lincoln and Leadership"

February 12, 1992

Jack Kemp (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development)

February 12, 1991

Tom Wicker (Journalist, New York Times)

February 12, 1990

Mortimer Jerome Adler (Philosopher, University of Chicago), "Lincoln’s Declaration"

February 12, 1989

Paul Simon (United States Senator from Illinois) (in place of Bill Mauldin, Cartoonist)

February 12, 1988 Entertainment, no speaker

February 12, 1987

James R. Thompson (Governor of Illinois), "Lincoln and the Young Men’s Lyceum Address 150 Years Later."

February 12, 1986

Mario M. Cuomo (Governor of New York), "Abraham Lincoln and Our ‘Unfinished Work’"

February 12, 1985

John Hope Franklin (Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago), The Use and Misuse of the Lincoln Legacy"

February 12, 1984

Mark O. Hatfield (United States Senator from Oregon), "The Oregon Connection of Abraham Lincoln"

February 12, 1983

William Safire (Columnist, New York Times), "Lincoln’s Pundits: If Today’s Columnists Were Writing in Lincoln’s Time" (Delivered on audio tape)

February 12, 1982

Don E. Fehrenbacher (Professor of History, Stanford University), "The Anti-Lincoln Tradition"

February 12, 1981 Entertainment, no speaker

February 12, 1980

Mary Frances Berry (United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare), "Lincoln and Civil Rights for Blacks"

February 12, 1979

William Hedgcock Webster (Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation)

February 12, 1978

Harold M. Hyman (Professor of History, Rice University), "With Malice Toward Some: Scholarship or Something Less on the Lincoln Murder?"

February 12, 1977

Roy P. Basler (Library of Congress), "President Lincoln Helps His Old Friends"

February 12, 1976

Francis Aungier Pakenham, Earl of Longford (British MP), "Lincoln and Kennedy"

February 12, 1975

Herbert Mitgang (Editor, New York Times), "The Character of Abraham Lincoln"

February 12, 1974

D. Elton Trueblood (Earlham College), "The Spiritual Pilgrimage of Abraham Lincoln"

February 12, 1973

Irving Stone (Author), "Mary Lincoln--The Final Judgment"

February 12, 1972

T. Harry Williams (Professor of History, Louisiana State University), "Lincoln and Davis as War Leaders"

February 11, 1971

Wayne Aspinwall (United States Representative from Colorado), "Lincoln’s Life and Character"

February 12, 1970

Bruce Catton (Author), "The Inescapable Challenge Lincoln Left Us"

February 12, 1969

Nelson A. Rockefeller (Governor of New York)

February 12, 1968

Ramsey Clark (United States Attorney General)

February 12, 1967

Everett M. Dirksen (United States Senator from Illinois), "Lincoln Had A Cause"

February 12, 1966

William W. Scranton (Governor of Pennsylvania), "Lincoln of Springfield"

February 12, 1965

LeRoy Collins (Director of Community Service, United States Department of Commerce), "If Lincoln Could Have Talked That Day"

February 12, 1964

Adlai E. Stevenson (United States Ambassador to the United Nations)

1953-1963 No banquets held

February 12, 1952

Allan Nevins (Columbia University), "Part of the National Wealth"

T. V. Smith (Maxwell School, Syracuse University), "Lincoln: Public and Private"

Adlai E. Stevenson (Governor, State of Illinois), "Lincoln as a Political Leader"

February 12, 1951

James Garfield Randall (Professor of History, University of Illinois), "Lincoln and the Governance of Men"

February 13, 1950

David C. Mearns (Assistant Librarian of Congress), "Our Reluctant Contemporary: Abraham Lincoln"

February 12, 1949

Dumas Malone (Professor of History, Columbia University), "Jefferson and Lincoln"

February 12, 1948

Lloyd Lewis (Chicago), "Lincoln’s Legacy to Grant"

February 12, 1947

Avery O. Craven (Professor of History, University of Chicago), "The Civil War and the Democratic Process"

February 12, 1946

Edgar Curtis Taylor (Headmaster, Taylor School, Clayton, MO), "Lincoln the Internationalist"

February 12, 1945

Stanley Pargellis (Librarian, Newberry Library, Chicago), "Lincoln’s Political Philosophy"

February 12, 1944

D. Graham Hutton (Director, British Information Services, Chicago), "Lincoln Through British Eyes"

February 12, 1943

Benjamin P. Thomas, Harry E. Pratt, and Paul M. Angle, "Abraham Lincoln Association: Past, Present, Future"

February 12, 1942

F. Lauriston Bullard (Editorial writer, Boston Herald), "Lincoln’s ‘Conquest’ of New England"

February 12, 1941

Charles W. Gilkey (Dean, University of Chicago Chapel), "Lincoln’s Philosophy of Life"

February 12, 1940

William Allen White (Editor, Emporia Gazette), "We Are Coming Father Abraham!"

February 11, 1939

James Weber Linn (Professor of English, University of Chicago), "Such Were His Words"

J. V. Moldedhawer (Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, New York), "The Lincoln of the Second Inaugural"

February 12, 1938

John McAuley Palmer (Brig. Gen. United States Army, Retired), "Abraham Lincoln, Commander-in-Chief"

Evan A. Evans (United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Chicago), "‘Let Us Have Faith That Right Makes Might’ "

February 12, 1937

Harold C. Jaquith (President, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois), "The Persistent Personality of Lincoln"

Charles Nagel (St. Louis, Missouri), "My Recollections of Lincoln"

February 12,1936

Andrew C. McLaughlin (Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago), "Lincoln, the Constitution and Democracy"

T.V. Smith (Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago), "A Philosopher Looks at Lincoln"

February 12, 1935

Tyler Dennet (President, Williams College, Massachusetts), "Lincoln and the Campaign of 1864"

Benjamin P. Thomas (Executive Secretary, Abraham Lincoln Association), "Lincoln’s Humor: An Analysis"

February 12, 1934

Frederic L. Paxson (Professor of History, University of California), "The Promise of the First Republican Administration: Abraham Lincoln, 1860"

February 13, 1933

Joseph Fort Newton (Rector, St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), "The Spiritual Life of Lincoln: An Interpretation"

February 12, 1932

John Maxcy Zane (Chicago, Illinois), "Lincoln, the Constitutional Lawyer"

Louis A. Warren (Lincoln National Life Company, Fort Wayne, IN), "The Environs of Lincoln’s Youth"

February 12, 1931

Carl Sandburg (Chicago, Illinois), "Lincoln’s Genius of Places"

Henry Horner (Judge, Probate Court, Cook County, Illinois), "The Universality of Lincoln"

February 12,1930

John Callan O’Laughlin (Editor-in-Chief, Copley Press, Washington, D.C.), "Lincoln and the Press" (read by A.W. Shipton of the Illinois State Journal)

Allan Nevins (Professor of History, Columbia University), "Lincoln’s Plans for Reunion"

February 12, 1929

Mary E. Humphrey (Springfield, Illinois), "Springfield of the Lincolns"

Claude G. Bowers ( Editorial writer, New York Evening World), "Lincoln and Douglas"

February 12, 1928 

Paul M. Angle (Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association), "Abraham Lincoln: Circuit Lawyer"

Arthur Charles Cole (Professor of History, University of Wisconsin),"Abraham Lincoln and the South"

February 12, 1927

Paul M. Angle (Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association), "Where Lincoln Practiced Law"

William E. Dodd (Professor of History, University of Chicago, "Lincoln’s Last Struggle--Victor"

February 12, 1926

Paul M. Angle (Executive Secretary, Lincoln Centennial Association), "The Building of the Lincoln Monument"

Michael Pupin (Professor of Electro-Mechanics, Columbia University), "The Revelation of Lincoln to a Serbian Immigrant"

February 12, 1925

A. L. Bowen (Springfield, Illinois), "A. Lincoln: His House"

John H. Finley (Editor, New York Times), "The Education of Abraham Lincoln"

February 12, 1924

Henry A. Converse (Springfield, Illinois), "The House of the House Divided"

Andrew C. McLaughlin (Professor of History, University of Chicago), "Lincoln as a World Figure"

February 12, 1923

Brig. Gen. Ronald Storrs (British Civil Governor of Jerusalem), "The Esteem in Which Lincoln is Held in the Near East"

John H. Walker (President, Illinois State Federation of Labor), "Lincoln, Friend of the Common People"

Frank O. Lowden (formerly Governor of Illinois), "Lincoln, the American"

1922 No meeting or banquet held

February 12, 1921

William C. Sproul (Governor of Pennsylvania), "Lincoln and the Present World Outlook"

Don Frederico A. Pezet (Peruvian Ambassador to the United States), "Lincoln as Viewed by Latin America Today"

1920 No meeting or banquet held

February 12, 1919

Clinton L. Conkling (Springfield, Illinois), "Lincoln in His Home Town"

February 12, 1918

William Renwick Riddell (Justice, Supreme Court of Ontario), "Abraham Lincoln"

Thomas Power O’Connor (Member of Parliament from Ireland), "Address"

Addison G. Proctor (Youngest Delegate to the Republican Convention of 1860 of Kansas), "The Nomination of Lincoln"

Hugh S. Magill, Jr. (Director, Illinois Centennial Celebration

February 12, 1917

John Grier Hibben (President, Princeton University), "The Spirit of Lincoln in the Present World Crisis"

 Thomas Sterling (United States Senator from South Dakota), "Lincoln, the Man and His Great Achievement"

February 12, 1916

James Hamilton Lewis (United States Senator from Illinois), "Lincoln: The Fulfillment of Prophecy"

Lawrence Y. Sherman (United States Senator from Illinois), "Lincoln and the Commonplace"

William A. Quayle (Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church), "Lincoln and Tomorrow"

February 12, 1915

Archbishop Glennon (St. Louis, Missouri), "Abraham Lincoln the Man and the Democrat"

Gutzon Borglum (Sculptor, New York), "The Beauty of Lincoln and His Place in Art"

Samuel Fallows (Bishop, Reformed Episcopal Church; Department Commander, Illinois Grand Army of the Republic), "Lincoln the Height of America"

February 12, 1914

Joseph T. Robinson (United States Senator from Arkansas), "Mr. Lincoln’s Title to Enduring Fame. A Tribute from the South"

Percival G. Rennick (Peoria, Illinois), "Lincoln: The Kindliest Memory of the Land"

Dr. Stephen S. Wise (New York), "Lincoln: Man and American"

February 12, 1913

Count J. Von Bernstorff (German Ambassador to the United States), "Lincoln as Germany Regarded Him"

Joseph W. Bailey (United State Senator from Texas), "If Lincoln Lived in This Day"

February 12, 1912

 Henry Cabot Lodge (United States Senator from Massachusetts), "Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution"

Frank B. Willis (United States Representative from Ohio), "Abraham Lincoln: The Man"

February 11, 1911

 William Howard Taft (President of United States), "Abraham Lincoln"

Martin W. Littleton (New York), "The Two Great Leaders"

February 12, 1910

Booker T. Washington (Tuskegee Institute), "Some Results of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation"

February 12, 1909

J.J. Jusserand (French Ambassador to the United States)

"Abraham Lincoln as France Regarded Him"

William Jennings Bryan

"The Royal Art of Government"

James Bryce (British Ambassador to the United States)

"Some Reflections on the Character and Career of Mr. Lincoln"

Jonathan P. Dolliver (United State Senator from Iowa)

"Our Heroic Age"