Abraham Lincoln lost his 1856 Senate campaign, but in 1858 he had another opportunity to run for Senate, this time against his old rival Stephen A. Douglas. In June Lincoln gave what is perhaps one of his most cited oratories, the “House Divided” speech. Once again he warned that the Kansas-Nebraska Act had opened the country to expansion of slavery—not just in the territories, but throughout the nation. Beginning with a paraphrased line from the Bible (Mark 3:25), Lincoln notes:
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 it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the states, old as well as new—North as well as South.
Lincoln was not using hyperbole; he firmly believed slavery was in danger of becoming a national institution. The Kansas-Nebraska Act could allow all of the remaining territories to welcome slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act required the federal government and all states to actively capture any slaves who had escaped into free states and return them to the South. And the Dred Scott decision had effectively invalidated any rights of citizenship even for free blacks, no matter where they lived. One more Supreme Court decision like Dred Scott could result in the right of slave owners to move to any free state and legally bring their slaves, thus making all of the United States open to slavery.
The night before giving his speech, Lincoln asked Republican friends to read it and offer advice. Unanimously they begged him to tone down the passage cited above, fearing it was too inflammatory. Lincoln listened, then told them he would keep it in: “I think the time has come to say it, and I will let it go as is.” Those who felt slavery was wrong had been compromising for decades, with all compromises resulting in continued political strength to slave owners. For Lincoln, the time had come to make a stand.
[Adapted from Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]
David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His newest Lincoln book is scheduled for release in February 2022. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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