Housed Divided Lincoln Analysis

Abraham Lincoln delivers the Housed Divided speech on June 16, 1858. The Republican Party nominated Lincoln for U.S. senator. He was running against Stephen A. Douglas, which was nominated by the Democratic Party. The Housed Divided is a campaign speech that addresses the distillation of the issue of slavery and the direction in which the Union was heading. Lincoln’s friends knew the content of his speech and told Lincoln that the Housed Divided speech was too radical due to the use of biblical phrases, and that giving such speech will cost him his chance in defeating Stephen A. Douglass. Lincoln argues that either slavery is extinguished in all states, or extended it to all states, but the states cannot be half slaves and half free of slavery because “a housed divided by itself cannot stand.” Lincoln wants to put “an end to slavery agitation” because he believes is going to result in a war between the North and the South. Lincolns says in the Housed Divided speech that there is a …show more content…
Lincoln argues that the Lecompton constitution immensely protects the rights of slave holders because “what Dred Scott’s master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves in Illinois, or in any other state.” On the other hand, Stephen A. Douglass and James Buchanan disagree on the Lecompton constitution. Stephen A. Douglass says that “all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up.” Lincoln believes that his response to the Lecompton constitution only demonstrates Stephen A. Douglass care not policy, which intends to strike the public mind by establishing a policy about not caring whether the state is free or not. Lincoln says that this is the third point gained for those who supports

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