GOVERNMENT CAN'T REMAIN HALF SLAVE & HALF FREE SAYS LINCOLN
Springfield, Illinois (JFK+50) On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln* spoke to a thousand delegates at the close of the Illinois State Republican Convention meeting here in Springfield.
Mr. Lincoln said...
"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...but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
*Abraham Lincoln lost his bid to unseat SAD in the general election. The final vote in the Illinois Legislature was 54 to 46 in favor of Douglas. In 1860, AL got another chance against SAD, this time for POTUS.
**Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) was born in Brandon, Vermont. He studied law & moved to Illinois where he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843 & the U.S. Senate in 1846.
Springfield, Illinois (JFK+50) On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln* spoke to a thousand delegates at the close of the Illinois State Republican Convention meeting here in Springfield.
Mr. Lincoln said...
"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...but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
The future POTUS also warned that the nation was only one Supreme Court decision away from slavery becoming the law of the land. Lincoln said...
"Either
the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and
place it...in
the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward
til it shall become lawful in all the States. One decision is all that SLAVERY now lacks of being lawful
in all the States.."
Mr.
Lincoln's speech placed him in opposition to his Democratic
opponent in the coming general election, incumbent Stephen A.
Douglas.** Senator
Douglas advocated "popular sovereignty,"
or the right of the people of each territory to vote slavery up or down
by majority.
*Abraham Lincoln lost his bid to unseat SAD in the general election. The final vote in the Illinois Legislature was 54 to 46 in favor of Douglas. In 1860, AL got another chance against SAD, this time for POTUS.
**Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) was born in Brandon, Vermont. He studied law & moved to Illinois where he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843 & the U.S. Senate in 1846.
SOURCE
"Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 4," ed. Marion Mills Miller, www.en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_house_divided
