House Divided Speech (1858)

Political Context:

What you have here is a speech that is written as a direct reaction to two changes in the nation regarding slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska act (1854) repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened their states to the will of the people under the principle of popular sovereignty. This law had brought corruption, chaos and violence into the territories in the name of slavery. The second change came from the Dred Scott case, which had taken away any promise of freedom to African Americans and affirmed and strengthened the rights of property owners to take their property (slaves) into any state in the union. Lincoln saw the threat that these changes posed to the nation and used, to great effect, the house divided analogy.

What Historians Say:

“So did the charges that Republicans were disunionists. At times Lincoln fed those allegations; his House Divided speech forecast the nation split in two and division made imperative because either freedom or slavery must triumph. But the future president was quick to deny that accusation. What was at stake, he claimed, was a struggle for the minds of men over the question of whether slavery or freedom controlled the territories and hence the future. It was a debate that would be resolved not with invasion or threat, but through the political discourse that would lead the people and their government toward their original idealism.

Phillip S. Paludan, “Lincoln’s Prewar Constitutional Vision,”

Vocabulary:

Terms: Definition:

Excerpt:

Mr. PRESIDENT and Gentlemen of the Convention.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then 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 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.

…We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free; and we shall awake to the reality, instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State.

To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.

That is what we have to do.

But how can we best do it?

Audio: (o:00 - 2:07)

Source Information and Complete Document:

Questions:

In the first passage of the speech Lincoln said, "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." What political movement was passed regarding the future of slavery 4 years earlier?
In Lincoln's mind, what has been the recent effect on slavery in the nation?
Lincoln states that, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." What does that mean?
What future does Lincoln see for Missouri? For Illinois? Based on his language which seems more likely at that point in time?
Lincoln makes reference to the role of the Supreme Court. Why? How had the Supreme Court affected the slavery issue in the United States.

Thesis Focus:

In this speech is Lincoln reacting to change in slavery? Is it a positive or negative change in Lincoln's opinion? Why?
Is the strength and intensity of Lincoln's reaction in proportion to the changes in slave policy?
How does this reaction compare to his previous thoughts on the topic?

Required Documents

Sources:

Phillip S. Paludan, “Lincoln’s Prewar Constitutional Vision,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 15.2 (1994)

Matthew Pinsker, ed. , "House Divided Speech (June 1858)” Lincoln’s Writings: The Multi-Media Edition, http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/house-divided-speech-june-16-1858/ (accessed July 30, 2016).

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