Lincoln delivered this famous speech, noted for the phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” when accepting the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Illinois in June of 1858. In July of that year he challenged his Democrat opponent, Stephen Douglas to a series of debates over admitting Kansas into the union as a slave state, and, to a large extent, over the future of slavery and of the union itself. Lincoln, of course, represented the anti-slavery position. The skill with which Lincoln debated Douglas helped catapult him to the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 1860, a race which he won.
As you read, consider the following questions:
1. What will eventually happen to a “house divided,” according to Lincoln?
2. What does Lincoln mean by “the Nebraska doctrine?”
3. What is Lincoln talking about when he described “timbers?” Hint: think metaphorically.
“A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand”
Abraham Lincoln, June 1858
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: 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 Continue reading