A HOUSE DIVIDED"
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 are now far into the fifth year since apolicy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "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.
A House Divided
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
What Do Jesus and Abraham Lincoln Have in Common?
They're both vampire hunters, obviously. Oh wait, no. They both wear top hats. Shoot—not that, either.
It was on June 16, 1858 that Abraham Lincoln delivered his now famous "House Divided" speech while he was running for a seat in the Senate. Against the advice of a political ally he stated very clearly, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."
Lincoln lost the election. But he knew his position would be a hard sell to his contemporaries. So he purposely reached for language that already had some authority: the Bible. Jesus himself says, "Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house" (11:17). And Jesus, too, knew it was a hard sell.
In Context
Of course, Luke can't take all of the credit, since Matthew and Mark record the words, too.
In all three gospels, the house divided principle is part of Jesus's defense speech against people who say that he exorcizes demons by the power of Beelzebul, one of the higher-ups of the demonic orders. Jesus points out their failure of logic: a kingdom or house at loggerheads with itself cannot stand. So if the demonic order is at war with itself it too will fall. The assumption is that this is an unlikely scenario.
While he may have been well aware of this context, Lincoln lifts the key principle out and brilliantly re-applies it in his analysis of the mounting crisis in pre-Civil War America. Read all of Lincoln's speech and all of Jesus's (Luke 11:17-26 ) and tell us: who said it better?
No one can work with tools that are broken. It is a simple fact of life, if the tools used in life are not whole, then whatever is endeavored will not work. This can be said of anything, be it tools, people, relationships, mere objects; nothing broken can work. The aphorism, “A house divided cannot stand,” encapsulates this concept. The phrase itself can be heard in both the Bible’s New Testament, in reference to an individual divided against oneself, and in the speech A House Divided by Abraham Lincoln. Despite the age of the aphorism, the meaning of the phrase transcends its time and holds true even now. If the house, a place that provides shelter and protection, is divided, then it will be unable to stand as its foundation has been cracked.
Throughout history we see the concept of an institution divided crumbling. Sometimes, it hits much closer to home then some obscure, surreal form of politics. A mother and father who have grown apart, their love strained and no longer is enough a common occurrence in today’s society. The home that they have created will start to shatter, all because the foundation of their love has cracked. Tragic as this is its not nearly as heartbreaking as the child left neglected as the parents tear each other apart from the inside out, wreaking the home life forever. The child’s home, their place of protection is gone, all because two parts of the whole were divided.
In the time of Civil War, Abraham Lincoln used this phrase in one of his most famous of speeches, “A House Divided”. In this speech he underscored the importance of setting aside the enmity each political party had for each other in order to address the greater problem of keeping the country whole. With factions so unwilling to communicate with each other, all because of differing tenants of belief, the democratic government so hardly fought for showed signs of disintegrating due to the great rift in congress. Each party is so desperate to win, utterly determined and...
It means a family (represented by a house) cannot be stable and strong to itself when divided. Here, the division refers to the various mentalities and perceptions of the different members of the family. If they all think alike, they will all be united forever and no one could do anything to break it. However, if they keep fighting and disagreeing with each other all the time, the family will eventually break.
Another sister phrase to the above saying is: A house that prays together, stays together.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Following Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860, Southern states began seceding from the Union. Though personally opposed to slavery and convinced the United States was going to have to be all free or all slave states—"a house divided against itself cannot stand"—he repeatedly said he would not…
- 2062 Words
- 9 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The race for the U.S. senate began between Democrat Stephen Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln believed that the "government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free" while Douglas believed in popular sovereignty. Both Lincoln and Douglas agreed to stop slavery but they disagreed on how to keep it out. There were…
- 715 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” This statement that created by President Abraham Lincoln demonstrates the necessity of the Civil War. If the United States were to remain divided, the strength of these two nations would be degraded and allow the continuation of an immoral practice; slavery. “Politicians, business leaders, newspaper editors, and others desperately sought a last-ditch compromise that would keep other states from following South Carolina...no compromise on Earth could reverse the election of Abraham Lincoln and the Southern fears of a “Black Republican” administration” (Roberts 50). As various groups split within the nation, the…
- 866 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Although this decision led to the beginning of the civil war, the inevitability of war was imminent. The result of the civil war is a now unified nation of States under one constitution which does not allow for the ownership of slaves. This declaration was made by President Abraham Lincoln on January first, 1963, stating, “I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforth shall be, free.” Because of the decision to take immediate action, there was no additional prolonging of the freeing of slaves, preventing new generation of black Americans from being raised under the harsh conditions that slaves were forced to live in. In addition it allowed for the eventual progress in the human rights movement leading to more rights for black Americans, including the right to vote. Although the argument of gradual abolition is not looked at heavily today, primarily because we did not decide on this outcome, it is still important to understand. Understanding the past is the key to being prepared for the future. If we cannot learn from our mistakes, we are bound to make them again, and if we then cannot fix our faults, we are subject to failure as not only people, but a…
- 1532 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
The beginning of the 18th centuries there were an augment in pleas to abolish slavery in the United States of America. At the time, there were two sides, northern, and southern debating against, and in favor of slavery respectively. The northerners’ states where slavery was legal, but not economically important and the southerners’ states whose economies were heavily dependent on slavery. According to most northerners, they became to dislike slavery and distrust southern political power. Some became active and organized opponents of slavery and worked for its abolition nationwide. For the abolitionists, it was degrading to the Negros’ intellectual capacity not to mention their humanity, for them to be viewed as an inferior race to that of the…
- 824 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Regardless of similarities or differences, the nation should unite as one. The only way to "heal the nation's wounds" would be to come together as one nation. Lincoln appeals to beliefs of unity. Lincoln's continuous reference to God and His relationship to everyone creates a feeling of…
- 487 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Source B states that Lincoln “challenged the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which was essentially a pro-slavery bill… Ultimately he lost the nomination as its Vice Presidential candidate in 1856. However, he continued his campaigning against slavery.” This citation shows how though Lincoln lost all hope of getting power to stop slavery, he still encouraged the fight against slavery. During Abraham Lincoln’s youth, he strived to understand the talk of politics and what they are Source C depicts, “As a boy he listened to his father and friends talk about the issues of the day, and then worked the idea in his mind until he understood it… he would repeat things over and over until it was fixed in his mind.” Abraham Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union even though he knew other people disagreed with him. “He put in long hours attending to the countless details of running the country, including spending the entire night, sometimes, at the telegraph office, waiting for the latest news from his generals.” Source C portrays. Abraham Lincoln’s success shows us that determination leads to…
- 678 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
As children are taught in grade school, the Civil War happened because the North wanted to outlaw slavery, and the South did not. The newly elected Republican Party had thwarted the spread of slavery; however, the South was still very dependent on it due to their labor intensive crops. The United States was not united, but rather a divided country. The 1860 Presidential election, in which Lincoln won, triggered the start of states seceding. By the time Lincoln took office in March of 1861 seven states had seceded from the union (). The eyes of the world were on America as the Civil War was played out; both sides, the North and South, appealed to the world. In the North, Lincoln says that this “embraces more than the date of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic or democracy . . . can, or cannot maintain its territorial integrity” (Lincoln). The Struggle, was for “a vast future,” (Lincoln) a struggle to give all men “a fair chance in the race of life” (Lincoln).…
- 1158 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
During the time span of 1776 to 1844, the opposition to slavery grew immensely in the United States of America. There were many contributing factors and reasons as to why this happened, including both underlying forces and specific events. Some people or groups made efforts to fight against slavery in hopes that it would be abolished completely in the United States. They did so by organizing groups, meetings, and even developing escape routes for slaves—an example is the Underground Railroad. The North feared its practice spreading throughout America. However, there were other people—mostly from the South—who viewed slavery as a positive in society and believed it benefitted the country as a whole. These people didn’t understand that slavery was morally wrong and went against the principles of democracy, and the Declaration of Independence; instead they worried about how slavery could benefit themselves.…
- 977 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Abraham Lincoln won the election because he opposed slavery and wanted them free. In 1854, Lincoln came into politics soon after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. The U.S. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders (Foner 481). Soon after, people for slavery and people against slavery swarmed into Kansas and started fighting over the land, which gave Kansas the nickname, Bleeding Kansas (Foner 486). The act also disturbed Lincoln by paving the way for extension of slavery, a prospect he had long opposed. February 27, 1860, Lincoln made a famous speech in Manhattan, New York on his views of slavery. The speech was called the Cooper Union Speech and it consisted of three major parts (enotes.com). The first part concerns the founders and the legal positions they supported on the question of slavery in the territories. The second part is addressed to the voters of the southern states, clarifying the issues between Republicans and Democrats, arguing that the Republican position on slavery is the 'conservative ' policy. The final section…
- 848 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
“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.” These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln during his campaign to be a senator from Illinois, ring eerily true with the truth about the country’s uncertain future. Only three short years after Lincoln gave this speech, civil war would break out between the northern and southern states, and it would end four years later with the South running away with its tail between its legs. Why did the South lose the war? The South entered into the Civil War unprepared to fight and, ultimately, was starting a fight it was destined to lose. In the end, there were five factors that led to the defeat of the South: The fundamental economic superiority of the North, a basic lack of sound military strategy strategy in the way the South fought the war, the inept Southern performance in foreign affairs, lack of a dominating civilian leader in the South, and President Abraham Lincoln (Hersch, 2002).…
- 2026 Words
- 9 Pages
Better Essays -
On March 4, 1865, in front of the U.S. Capitol Building, President Lincoln articulated how both the Union and the seceding Confederate states ventured to inhibit a battle that "all dreaded" and "sought to avert" (Dolbeare, pg. 277). Yet, a lengthy and callous war between countrymen is what ensued, situated on the rights of some persons to consider certain human beings property rather than fellow citizens of one nation, under God. The rousing speech given to a crowd of an estimated 40,000 citizens called for acknowledgement of immediate resoluteness which would profoundly assist the mutual interests of the nation as a whole (Pruitt). By affirming, "with malice toward none, with charity for all," Lincoln established that discourteous behavior towards defectors should be averted by reminding the audience of how both sides employed skewed visions.…
- 798 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Before entering his second presidential election, Abraham Lincoln addressed a war torn nation to persuade the North and South to come back together, while regarding the South’s fault. The president manipulates several rhetorical strategies and devices to achieve his purpose. His reassuring tone alone with parallelism, biblical allusions and personification allow him to help unify the divided country and chastise the South.…
- 516 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
These classic American ideals can be found in nearly every major speech or work by an American politician. They are especially evident at some of the most critical junctures in United States history, such as the Civil War. A time when America’s ideology had its greatest threat of existence, men fought hard and died to preserve what their beliefs. In one of the greatest expressions of Americanism, Abraham Lincoln professed his beliefs on why these ideals must survive in his Gettysburg address, stating, “We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” In essence, Lincoln attempts to express the importance of the one ideal that Americans love more than all anything, freedom. These words were spoken by the man who is considered, along with Ronald Reagan, to be the faces of the Republican Party. However, the American ideology has proven timelessly to be perhaps the only true work of bipartisanship in its…
- 1488 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The phrase, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” became famous as a quotation from Lincoln’s “A house divided” speech delivered at 17 June 1858, in what was then the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, upon accepting the Illinois Republican Party's nomination as that state's senator of the United States .The speech became the launching point for his unsuccessful campaign.…
- 467 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays