February 21, 1861. Ezra Cornell to Mary Ann Cornell: "Tuesday I was coming down Broadway just before 3 P.M., and the gathering crowd along that popular thoroughfare reminded me that the Prest Elect was to arrive in the city at 3 and triumverate through Broadway to the Astor, I therefore turned into the Musuem when I reached that curiosity shop and got a window commanding the Astor from which I could notice the progress of the Nations Hope from Chamber Street to the Astor. At that distance I saw Mr. Lincoln alight from his carriage and enter his hotel, from which he soon after immerged through a window on the second story?and made a short speech to 25 acres of mottled humanity below. I could not hear a word that he uttered, but the convulsive jerks of his head, and bobing of his body indicated an earnestness of speech, and called forth the wildest shouts of applause from the solid mass of admirers below. As Mr. Lincoln has not called on me I have seen nothing more of him. Mr. L held receptions at the Astor at the city hall, but I regarded it as undignified for a New York farmer to mingle with the bulls, bears, & dead rabbits of this metropolis, I therefore must excuse myself from any description of the scene." Topics: Tompkins County agricultural surveys; wheat.; Forest Park farm; coal oil business; national politics; Abolition; secession; slavery Personal names: Robertson, Mary C.; Chester, E.W.; Curtiss, George; Millspaugh, John H.; Cornell, Angeline; Cornell, D.B.; Lincoln, Abraham; Chace, Miller; Schuyler, Philip C. Geography: Ithaca, N.Y.; New York City; Kansas