Episode 2 of 2

Coining the 'Last Best Hope' Phrase

When: December 1, 1862
Where: 37th United States Congress
Part of: Event of 1862: Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery in his State of the Un

Lincoln coined the phrase 'last best hope of Earth' in the closing paragraphs of the address.

In the closing paragraphs of the 1862 State of the Union Address, Lincoln penned words that have been frequently remembered and quoted. He coined the phrase that the United States is the 'last best hope of Earth,' which has been echoed by many US presidents.

Sources

1862 State of the Union Address Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-27

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.