“House Divided” speech

Cultural  

1. A speech made by Abraham Lincoln to the Illinois Republican convention in 1858. In the speech, Lincoln noted that conflict between North and South over slavery was intensifying. He asserted that the conflict would not stop until a crisis was reached and passed, for, in a biblical phrase Lincoln used, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He continued: “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.”

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“House Divided” speech

For the remainder of the “House Divided” speech, Lincoln shifted to a vigorous attack on the Dred Scott decision.

From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2022

Does Justice Alito know who said, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free”? It was Abraham Lincoln, in his “House Divided” speech of 1858.

From New York Times ● May 24, 2022

The “House Divided” speech appears about halfway through “All the Powers of Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1860,” the third installment of Sidney Blumenthal’s projected five-volume series on the 16th president.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 26, 2019

Clinton is scheduled to deliver an address Wednesday morning about bringing the country together in Springfield, Ill., at the Old State House — the site of Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1858 “House Divided” speech.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 12, 2016

“It will become all one thing or all the other,” Abraham Lincoln declared of the beleaguered, slavery-stressed Union, in his “House Divided” speech.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 2, 2015