Lincoln's House Divided Speech

supposed to be a joke, but whatever.

It is during that session of the Illinois State Legislature, whatever it's called, Abraham Lincoln gave a address entitled, A House Divided.

And the context for speaking this address to the assembled members of the State Senate of Illinois was the context of the issue dividing the entire nation, that is the issue of slavery.

He said, and this is the most famous line from his speech, a house divided against itself cannot stand.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

And he was right.

Three years later, the Civil War started in 1861 and lasted until 1865, and it cost millions of lives in total.

The nation could not stand against what is good, and it certainly could not stand up against what is wrong, so long as it was divided over what to thank.

And everyone just assumes what they saw on Inauguration Day was part of a conspiracy.

And Lincoln famously alludes to that conspiracy in his 1858 House Divided Speech when John and Roger and, you know, the four names of the people involved are seen together, and it sure does look like a conspiracy.

Yeah, Sean Wilentz in his book says that, you know, those suspicions turned out to be true even though if some people didn't know it at the time, what we've learned ever since.

Right.