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House Divided Speech

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A house divided speech by Abraham Lincoln

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a candidate for the senate for the Republican Party in Illinois. This is a well-known speech. It took place as the end of the republicans state convention in the House of Representatives in Illinois. In the speech he makes it extremely clear who the supporters and opponents of slavery are. The background for the speech is the conflict between the Kansas-Nebraska law and the Supreme Courts decision in the Dred Scott case. The Kansas-Nebraska law allowed the states to decide whether they want to abolish slavery or not. The Supreme Court decided that the right of ownership of slaves should not be prevented in any state.

A house divided is a speech by Abraham Lincoln. The speech took place in 1858.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He is from the state Illinois. When the American Civil War took place abolishing slavery was not his primary target. It was to save the Union. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure; permanently half slave and half free.
Lincoln does not think that the “house” can stand if it is divided. He does not believe that the government can endure to be half slave and half free. He does not believe the union to be dissolved, he does not want the union to fall, but he wishes that the union wont be divided.
He is speaking to the gentlemen of the convention. The speech took place so he could get voters before the election.
The purpose with the speech is first of all separate him self from Douglas and to show his viewpoints of the situation. The union got only two options; the United States would unavoidable become either a slave state or a free state. Because the north and south had different opinions in the question of slavery, and the difficulty had come to imbue all other political

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