USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -At a time when many white politicians wanted to compromise on slavery, Abraham Lincoln said that wasn’t possible. When Abraham Lincoln said “a house divided against itself cannot stand, ” he wasn’t talking about the kind of political divisions common today.

Detailed explanation-2: -On June 16, 1858, at the Illinois Republican convention in Springfield, Abraham Lincoln kicked off his bid for the U.S. Senate with a speech that would come to be known as the “House Divided” speech.

Detailed explanation-3: -“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.

Detailed explanation-4: -The “house divided” phrase had been used by Lincoln himself in another context in 1843. Famously, eight years before Lincoln’s speech, during the Senate debate on the Compromise of 1850, Sam Houston had proclaimed: “A nation divided against itself cannot stand."

Detailed explanation-5: -Lincoln’s central warning – “A house divided against itself cannot stand” – was rich in moral significance. A house should rest on a firm physical foundation for the safety of the family who lives in it. The Union, Lincoln implied, should rest on a firm moral foundation: a bedrock dedication to equality.