House Divided Speech

Where We Stand

¹If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

²We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

³Under 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.

The Prophecy

⁴A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.

⁵I 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.

⁶It 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;

⁷or 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.

The Rally

⁸Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends — whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work — who do care for the result.

⁹Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us.

¹⁰Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy.

¹¹Did we brave all then to falter now? — now — when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail.

¹²Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later the victory is sure to come.