House Divided Speech

Summary

On the evening of 16 June 1858 the Illinois Republican state convention, meeting in the Hall of Representatives of the State House at Springfield, resolved that Abraham Lincoln was its first and only choice for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln answered with a carefully written acceptance speech that opened the campaign and set its terms. He begins with the question of where the nation stands and where it is heading. A policy launched more than four years earlier to end agitation over slavery has only inflamed it. Borrowing Jesus' words that a house divided against itself cannot stand, he predicts that the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free: the Union will not fall, but it will become all one thing or all the other. The long middle of the speech argues that the nation is drifting toward the second outcome. Lincoln reviews the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and its doctrine of popular sovereignty, the delay of the Dred Scott case past the 1856 election, President Buchanan's call to accept the coming decision, and Douglas's declaration that he did not care whether slavery was voted down or voted up. He compares these acts to framed timbers cut by Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James (Douglas, Pierce, Taney, Buchanan) that fit together too exactly to be accidental, and he warns that one more decision could leave room for slavery in the free states themselves: Illinoisans might go to sleep and wake to find their state made slave by the Supreme Court. In the closing section he answers Republicans tempted to support Douglas, who had broken with Buchanan over the Lecompton constitution in Kansas. Douglas, he says, is a caged and toothless lion for this work, because he professes not to care about slavery at all. The cause must be led by its own friends, and if they stand firm, victory is sure to come. Friends thought the house-divided passage too radical, and Douglas used it throughout the debates that followed to call Lincoln a sectionalist. Lincoln lost the Senate seat, but the speech and the debates made him a national figure.

Plot or Argument

• Where we are and whither we are tending (Paragraph 1)

  Lincoln observes that the policy meant to quiet slavery agitation has inflamed it, quotes the saying that a house divided cannot stand, and predicts that the nation will become all slave or all free.

• The machinery and its history (Paragraphs 2-9)

  He traces, point by point, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise prohibition in the Nebraska bill, the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the timing of the Dred Scott case around Buchanan's election, the endorsements that followed the decision, and Douglas's care-not stance in the Lecompton quarrel.

• The working points of the decision (Paragraphs 10-14)

  He lists three points of the Dred Scott decision: that no Black descendant of an enslaved person can be a citizen, that neither Congress nor a territorial legislature may exclude slavery, and that holding a person enslaved in a free state is left to slave-state courts. Joined to the care-not doctrine, they form the machinery in its present state.

• Evidence of design and the next niche (Paragraphs 15-18)

  Looking back, he finds each step fitted to the next, like framed timbers that make a house. The Nebraska act's odd mention of states and Judge Nelson's opinion leave a niche for a future decision forbidding any state to exclude slavery, which would make Illinois a slave state.

• Why not Douglas, and the call to stand firm (Paragraphs 19-22)

  Lincoln answers those urging Republicans to back Douglas: a man who does not care about slavery cannot resist its advance, even the revived African slave trade. The cause belongs to its own friends, who fought hard in 1856 and will not fail if they stand firm.

Lessons

• Naming the real question

  Lincoln's opening refuses the comfortable idea that the slavery question could be managed forever by compromise and indifference. He insists the nation must eventually decide what it is, and that a policy of not caring is itself a choice that favors slavery's spread.

  • Why does Lincoln say the policy meant to end agitation has made it worse?
  • What does he mean when he says the house will cease to be divided rather than fall?
  • Can a people remain permanently neutral on a moral question that touches its laws?

• Building a case from circumstantial evidence

  Lincoln cannot prove that Douglas, Pierce, Taney, and Buchanan conspired, and he says so. Instead he lays out the sequence of events and lets the fit of the pieces, like timbers framed for one building, persuade his hearers that they share a common plan.

  • Which events does Lincoln treat as the first, second, and third points gained?
  • How does the framed-timbers image strengthen an argument he admits he cannot prove?
  • When is an argument from design and timing fair, and when does it become mere suspicion?

• Principle over convenient allies

  Some Republicans wanted to back Douglas because he had broken with Buchanan over Lecompton. Lincoln argues that a temporary ally who does not share the principle cannot be trusted with the cause, and that a party must be led by those whose hearts are in the work.

  • Why does Lincoln call Douglas a caged and toothless lion?
  • How does Lincoln show courtesy to Douglas while still opposing him?
  • When should a movement accept help from someone who agrees with it only on one point?

Context

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, sponsored by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, repealed the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery in the northern territories and left the question to territorial settlers. Violence in Kansas followed, and the new Republican Party formed to stop slavery's expansion. In March 1857 the Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, held that Congress could not bar slavery from the territories. By 1858 Douglas had split with President Buchanan over the proslavery Lecompton constitution, and some Eastern Republicans hoped to win him over.

Composition

Lincoln wrote the speech in advance over several weeks, an unusual step for him, and read a draft to a group of friends, most of whom judged the house-divided passage unwise. He kept it. He delivered the speech on 16 June 1858; the Everyman edition's heading gives the date as 17 June. The opening image comes from the Gospels (Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:25), and the dead lion from Ecclesiastes 9:4.

Reception

Douglas seized on the opening in his campaign and in the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates that summer and autumn, charging that Lincoln invited sectional war. The Democrats held the legislature, which returned Douglas to the Senate in January 1859. The published debates and this speech gave Lincoln national standing, and two years later he won the Republican nomination and the presidency.

Comparisons

• gettysburg-address

  In 1858 Lincoln asked whether a nation half slave and half free could endure; at Gettysburg in 1863 he asked whether a nation conceived in liberty could long endure, now in the midst of the war he had foreseen.

• lincoln-second-inaugural-address

  The divided house of 1858 becomes, in 1865, a nation in which both sides read the same Bible and pray to the same God, with Lincoln reading the war itself as judgment on slavery.

• narrative-and-fourth-of-july

  Douglass's 1852 Fourth of July address and Lincoln's speech both attack the national compromise with slavery, Douglass with prophetic rebuke and Lincoln with a lawyer's chain of evidence.

• cicero-first-catilinarian

  Like Cicero laying bare Catiline's plot before the Senate, Lincoln argues that scattered public acts reveal a concerted design, though Lincoln openly admits he cannot know it absolutely.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening question of where we are and whither we are tending, which the speech returns to in Paragraph 14.
• The numbered first, second, and third points gained, which turn history into a chain of evidence.
• The framed timbers cut by Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James in Paragraph 16.
• The image of falling asleep in a free state and waking in a slave state in Paragraph 18.
• The turn from argument to rally in the last paragraph: we shall not fail.

Key terms and names

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Douglas's law organizing the Kansas and Nebraska territories, which repealed the Missouri Compromise line and let settlers decide on slavery; Lincoln calls its principle the Nebraska doctrine.

Popular sovereignty

The doctrine that settlers of a territory should decide whether to permit slavery; Lincoln uses its mocking nickname, squatter sovereignty.

Dred Scott decision (1857)

The Supreme Court ruling, written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, that Black Americans could not be citizens and that Congress could not exclude slavery from the territories.

Lecompton constitution

A proslavery constitution for Kansas, produced by a disputed process, which Buchanan supported and Douglas opposed.

Niche

A recess cut to receive a statue; Lincoln uses it for a gap in the law deliberately left open for a future decision.

Political dynasty

Lincoln's phrase for the Democratic leadership that had controlled the presidency and the Court through the 1850s.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What policy does Lincoln say was begun more than four years earlier, and what was it supposed to accomplish?
2. Comprehension What are the three working points of the Dred Scott decision as Lincoln lists them?
3. Interpretation Why does Lincoln refer to Douglas, Pierce, Taney, and Buchanan by their first names in the framed-timbers passage?
4. Interpretation Why does Lincoln treat Douglas's claim not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted up as the most dangerous part of the machinery?
5. Interpretation How does Lincoln balance his charge of a common plan with his admission that we cannot absolutely know it?
6. Big Question Is it true that a nation cannot endure permanently divided on a fundamental moral question? What other divisions might test the principle?
7. Big Question Was Lincoln right to keep a passage his friends warned would cost him the election?

Faith Connections

• Mark 3:24-25 (Scripture)

  Jesus answers the charge that he casts out demons by Satan: a kingdom or house divided against itself cannot stand. Lincoln knew his hearers would recognize the words.

• Ecclesiastes 9:4 (Scripture)

  The Preacher says a living dog is better than a dead lion; Lincoln quotes it to answer those who praised Douglas's greatness.

• Revelation 3:15-16 (Scripture)

  The church at Laodicea is rebuked for being neither cold nor hot; Lincoln's attack on the care-not policy treats moral indifference as a position in its own right.

• Augustine, City of God IV.4 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine asks what kingdoms are without justice but great robberies; Lincoln likewise judges a law by whether it is just, not only by whether it was properly enacted.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The nation cannot remain permanently half slave and half free; the Nebraska act, the Dred Scott decision, and the care-not doctrine together form machinery that tends to make slavery lawful everywhere; a further decision may soon complete it; therefore Republicans must defeat the dynasty behind it and must not entrust their cause to Douglas, who does not care about the outcome.

Rhetorical device: Extended metaphor (allegory of the framed house). In Paragraph 16 the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott case, and the endorsements become timbers cut by different workmen that fit with all the tenons and mortices exactly, implying a builder's plan.

Debate: Resolved: Lincoln's argument in the House Divided Speech that the nation could not endure half slave and half free was sound in 1858.

Memory Work

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail. If we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it; but sooner or later the victory is sure to come.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Lincoln admits he cannot absolutely know that the leaders of his day acted by preconcert, yet he asks his audience to believe it. Analyze how he builds this case from public facts, and evaluate whether his argument is fair to his opponents.

Comparison with The Gettysburg Address: Compare the House Divided Speech with the Gettysburg Address. How did Lincoln's account of the nation's peril and purpose change between 1858 and 1863, and what stayed the same?

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Recreate the meeting at which Lincoln read his draft to friends: students play advisers who urge him to cut the house-divided passage, and one student, as Lincoln, explains why he will keep it.

• Essay

  Diagram the framed-timbers argument in Paragraph 16: list each timber, the workman who cut it, and the place it fits, then judge whether the evidence supports Lincoln's conclusion.

• Fiction

  Write a letter from an Illinois farmer who heard the speech in the State House to a brother in Missouri, describing what Lincoln said and what the farmer fears or hopes.

Further Reading

• Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Harry V. Jaffa

  The classic study of the principles at stake between Lincoln and Douglas.

• Prelude to Greatness: Lincoln in the 1850's, Don E. Fehrenbacher

  Includes a detailed chapter on the writing and reception of the House Divided speech.

• The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Harold Holzer (ed.)

  The complete debates that followed the speech, with the opening speech discussed in the introduction.

• Lincoln, David Herbert Donald