The Speech That Changed the World

The House Divided speech, however, was—perhaps more than any political address of the time — a causal agent in bringing about the terrible events over which Lincoln was destined to preside. Its theme is expressed in the biblical admonition that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In it Lincoln declared that he believed that this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

He said that he did not expect the Union to be dissolved, or the house to fall, but he did expect it to become all one thing or all another. Slavery might become lawful in all the states, North as well as South, or slavery might be so placed that the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction.

However, a point of decision had been reached, one path or the other would have to be followed, because no middle ground existed any longer. That was Lincoln’s message.