Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 9.djvu/232

 LINCOLN I THE "HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF" SPEECH* (1858) Born In 1809, died in 1865; began to practise law in 1837; served in the Black Hawk War in 1835^; elected to Congress in 1847; the un- successful Republican candidate for the United States Senate in 1858; elected President in 1860; issued the Emancipation Proclama- tion September 22, 1862; reelected President in 1864; entered Rich- mond with the Federal Army on April 4, 1865; assassinated ten days later. (^,4^J^ we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far mto the fifth year since a policy was initiated -with the avowed t>bject, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation not ' Delivered at the Illinois Republican State Convention at Spring- f eld, on June 16, 1858, after he had been chosen the party candidate for the United States Senate, as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas. This speech practically initiated the famous debate between Lincoln and Douglas, which followed during the political campaign of that year. The opening paragraph has often been cited as evidence of Lincoln's political prescience and grasp of the situation. Seward's it, but Seward spoke four months after Lincoln. Seward was then the foremost man in his party, while Lincoln was almost unknown outside of his own State. The speech of Seward, in consequence, attracted wide attention, while Lincoln's at the time passed almost 222
 * ' Irrepressible Conflict" speech bears a remarkable resemblance to