Abraham Lincoln: A House Divided Speech (1858)

Introduction

Abraham Lincoln gave the following speech at his acceptance of the Illinois Republican Party’s convention that chose him as the party’s nominee as candidate for U.S. Senator from Illinois on June 16, 1858. This was the beginning of the unsuccessful campaign in which he directly debated Senator Stephen Douglas seven times, especially on the question of the expansion of slavery to the West. Lincoln generally advocated for a rights-based approach against Douglas’s position of majority sovereignty.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

• Lincoln uses an image from the Bible to make his point with regard to unity and slavery. Why does he think this comparison will be effective? Does he use it appropriately?  (You can find it at Matthew 12:25, Mark 3:25, and Luke 11:17.) Does this matter?
• If he is correct, how does this change what is at stake in present questions regarding slavery?
• How would different answers change the meaning of our founding principles?

A House Divided – Abraham Lincoln (excerpt)

If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North as well as South.

Source: Lincoln, A. (1858, June 16). A House Divided: Speech at Springfield, Illinois. Voices of Democracy. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/lincoln-a-house-divided-speech-text/