In the morning, the Republican Party holds a nominating convention at the Presbyterian Church in Augusta. The convention adjourns, and an audience of approximately 1,200 people gathers at "a beautiful grove in the suburbs of the town" to hear Lincoln deliver a speech. Lincoln begins speaking at around two o'clock in the afternoon, focusing his remarks on the slavery issue. In spite of the rainy weather, most of the audience stays to listen to the two-hour speech, "even the ladies, of whom there were a large number present, kept their seats till the speech was finished." In the evening, Lincoln speaks to an audience that fills the Macomb courthouse. A newspaper reports that Lincoln delivers his remarks in a relaxed manner, and that "his speech was more like an earnest conversation with his Old Whig friends." Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 28 August 1858, 1:2; The Augusta Eagle (IL), 8 December 1932, 1:1-2; The Plymouth Locomotive (IL), 28 August 1858, 2:1-2; Abraham Lincoln to Alexander Sympson (copy), 11 August 1858, copy files, IHi, Springfield, IL; Speech at Augusta, Illinois, 25 August 1858, CW, 3:37-38.