Lincoln's House Divided Speech, 1858

We 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. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. . . . "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. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, . . . or 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.

Abraham Lincoln, speech accepting the Illinois Republican nomination for the United States Senate, Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858, adapted. Public domain.