クーパー・ユニオン演説（クーパー会館演説、Cooper Union speech or address, known at the time as the Cooper Institute speech[1]）とは、1860年2月27日にエイブラハム・リンカーンがニューヨーク市のクーパー・ユニオンで行った演説。このときリンカーンはまだ共和党の大統領候補に指名されてはいなかったが、1860年の共和党大会(en)が同年5月に予定されていた。リンカーンの行った演説の中でも重要とされるものである。後年の大統領選挙における勝利もこの演説のおかげだという歴史家もいる[2]。
Barondess,Benjamin(1953).Lincoln's Cooper Institute Speech.The Civil War Round Table of New York, Inc..p.6-7.LCCN54-1460.https://archive.org/details/lincolnscooperin00baro."His[Lincoln's] first stop was at Chicago. There, he went to visit his friends Joseph Medill and Charles Ray, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Tribune. On arrival in their office Lincoln produced the manuscript of his proposed speech, written on blue foolscap, and asked them for their comments on his phraseology and use of words. ... Medill and Ray set to work on Lincoln's manuscript and kept at it for hours. They soon amassed a great number of proposed corrections. ... When Lincoln arrived, they handed him a large batch of notes setting forth the corrections they recommended. He glanced through them hurriedly, expressed his thanks, told a few funny stories, and left for New York. After the Cooper Institute speech had been delivered, the New York newspapers arrived, with the text of the address, as delivered. Medill and Ray read it through carefully. When they had finished, Ray said: "Medill, old Abe must have lost out of the car window all our precious notes, for I don't find a trace of one of them in his published talk here." Medill replied: "This must have been meant for one of his waggish jokes.""
