Lincoln attends the Illinois Republican State Convention. John Hanks displays a Lincoln-for-President "banner" made from "two old time fence rails." The audience encourages Lincoln to comment. Lincoln recalls that in 1830, when he first came to Illinois, he "built a cabin, split rails, and cultivated a small farm . . . six or eight miles from Decatur." He could not attest that the banner rails were ones he had created, but over the years, "he had mauled many and many better ones." New York Daily Tribune, 22 May 1860, 7:1; Press and Tribune (Chicago, IL), 10 May 1860, 1:2; Remarks to Republican State Convention, Decatur, Illinois, 9 May 1860, CW, 4:48-49.