Great hall occupies an important place in the fabric of our city. Sitting here tonight, you are not only occupying a seat where, on this day in 1860, new yorkers listened to a thenlittleknown statesman from illinois deliver a speech that would not only alter the course of his life but would impact the future of our nation. Since that day scores of individuals have filled your seats, eager to discuss the issues that define who we are as a country. Tonight, you have a seat to another perspective on americas next chapter, inspired by the man who would reunite the country after the most divided period of its history and preserve the Great American experience. Abraham lincoln later viewed his Cooper Union Speech as the turning point to his eventual election to the white house and he made an impassioned argument against in slavery in the United States in treating his audience to have faith that right makes might. His words did more than make a president. The moral clarity of his imperative h
ok. thank you for waiting. we wanted to make sure the president can finishes remarks. i am the communications director for the convention. i am going to turn it over to our ceo, jeff larson. he will give you an update on logistics before tomorrow starts we will give you an update on the programming and where we are. thank you. jeff larson, ceo for the republican national convention. welcome to cleveland. i hope you are enjoying it. the thoughts as president obama laid out today s events in baton rouge continue to be a national tragedy. our thoughts and prayers go out to those in baton rouge and dallas. it is a national tragedy and our thoughts and prayers go out to them. we have been planning this convention for well over one year and we look forward to kicking it off tomorrow at 1:00. we will have a business session at 1:00. the evening session will kickoff at 8:00 tomorrow evening and i think we are looking for a great convention. i think what you saw today, for the las