A House Divided
by David Hinds
Title
A House Divided
Artist
David Hinds
Medium
Painting - Painted Wood Sculpture
Description
A carved wooden sculpture of Abraham Lincoln mounted in an antique frame with the riveting line from his "House Diveded" speech.
The House Divided Speech was an address given by Abraham Lincoln on June 16, 1858 in Springfield, IL. Lincoln had accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination as that state's US senator. The nomination of Lincoln was the final item of business at the convention, which then broke for dinner, meeting again at 8 PM. The evening session was mainly devoted to speeches, but the only speaker was Lincoln. It was the launching point of his unsuccessful campaign for the Senatorial seat held by Stephen A. Douglas, the campaign would climax with the Lincoln–Douglas debates.
Lincoln's remarks in Springfield depict the danger of slavery-based disunion, and it rallied Republicans across the North. Along with the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, the speech became one of the best-known of his career. It begins with the following words, which became the best-known passage of the speech:
"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, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.
Uploaded
November 8th, 2020
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