Learn Our History Today: On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous "House Divided"
speech in Springfield, Illinois. He made this famous speech upon receiving the Illinois Republican party’s nomination for Senator. The most famous portion of the speech reads:
“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 the 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.”
Following this speech, many of Lincoln’s followers and friends were surprised by its content, which was highly radical for its day. One of his close friends, a lawyer by the name of Leonard Swett, would later write that he considered Lincoln’s speech to be "unfortunate and inappropriate,” and in the end the voters of Illinois agreed. Lincoln was not elected to the Senate with the voters choosing the more moderate Stephen Douglas. Even though Lincoln was not elected in his home state of Illinois, his eloquent speech and stance on slavery had garnered him a large amount of support and notoriety throughout the nation, and in the end, this would lead to his election as President in 1860.