The Causes of War

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” - Abraham Lincoln, 1858

This quote by Abraham Lincoln was delivered in an address on June 16, 1858. At this time, Lincoln was accepting the Republican Party’s nomination as Senator for the state of Illinois. Later, the speech would be called “The House Divided Speech.” Lincoln ended up losing the election to Stephen A. Douglas. In 1860, Lincoln would defeat Douglas in the presidential election.

Based on your analysis of the above quote, compose a four to five sentence explanation of what Lincoln was talking about in this segment of his “House Divided Speech.” If you need assistance on writing a journal entry, please visit the Developmental Module for more information.

Once you have completed your journal entry, please save it with a file name of mod5_divided and submit it to the journal dropbox.