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A House Divided Speech Analysis

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Abraham Lincoln, a Senate candidate at the time, gave his famous “A House Divided” speech on June 16, 1858, in Illinois at the Republican State Convention. When Lincoln delivered the speech his immediate audience was the Illinois Republican Party, but after reading the speech one can see that it was intended for a much larger audience. His speech was intended to impact people of both parties, and to change the way the people thought. During Lincoln’s speech, he had a few main ideas that he was clearly trying to illustrate to his audience. At the beginning of the speech Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” This line drove Lincoln’s entire speech and was entirely biblical. “This quotation was one familiar to virtually …show more content…

In the speech, Lincoln never comes out and says an apparent solution to slavery or addresses the abolishment of slavery. However, Lincoln proposed solutions that may have sparked the end of slavery. Lincoln addressed that he wanted the states to agree on the subject of slavery and said, “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 course of ultimate extinction; 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.” This being said, if the states eventually agreed on the extinction of slavery, even if it took a war, this would have ultimately been a solution to slavery. Lincoln also said, “We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free; and we shall awake to the reality, instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.” Lincoln was trying to say that although many states are on their way to abolishment, many states are still allowing slavery, and it is in the hands of the people who are against slavery to take a stand and do something. Lincoln may never have come out and said a clear solution to slavery, but he used his powerful words to give rise to the beginning of a

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During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency at the start of the 1860, an issue that had divided the nation was slavery. Lincoln’s election to presidency as a republic was not received well by the Southern slave states, as they thought that as a republican he was out to abolish slavery. In an effort to calm southern states and keep them from seceding from the United States, he attempts to ease them with his First Inaugural Address. In his First Inaugural Address his key points are to clam southern leaders of slave states, keep the states from seceding, and make them at ease as he enters presidency.

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Abraham Lincoln’s speech at the Young Men’s Lyceum in

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In his Second Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the topic of the Civil War and argued that the nation needed to change. He supported his claim with parallel structure to highlight the differences between the North and South, then mentioning biblical references to express the importance of religion, and finally the diction he used helped join the citizens together. President Lincoln’s purpose was to express the similarities between the North and South in order to unify the country once again. He uses a critical, yet hopeful tone towards the Americans of both the North and South. Just one month before the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address in the hopes of reuniting the country once

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We can state the obvious, that we are not all perfect, and we certainly say things we don’t mean. Was President Lincoln really a racist? There is documented text that could point evidence that leans in either direction. Things said in the heat of long debates and drawn out conversations that ran for hours, does not make such a monumental man a poor or hypocritical person. Looking at the Constitutional right that “All men are created equal” to the thought that things won’t change without action, and to a man with no moral obligation other than to share his personal option that slavery was wrong, we dive into President Lincoln.

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“A house divided against itself cannot stand” and “I have one lap by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience” are two powerful metaphors from two powerful men in the history of America. However, I think what is more important to look at is the effect these powerful speeches had on their listeners. Abraham Lincoln’s “A House Divided”, was more impactful and clearer compared to Patrick Henry’s “Give me Liberty, or Give me Death” because of the use of different rhetorical appeals and his ability to paint an image that someone could imagine using figurative language. Abraham Lincoln used a lot of metaphorical figurative language in his speech “A House Divided.” Abraham Lincoln talks about “A House Divided”, with the House representing the union.

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Lincoln's uses rhetorical strategy throughout his Second Inaugural Address was the use of an appeal to his audience's emotions. This is evident during his entire speech Lincoln continuously revert to religious evidence of some sort to support his claim. He says that although it may seem absurd for slavery's proponents to be allowed to pray to God, that his audience and he should “judge not that [they] be not judged,” alluding to the Lord's Prayer and appealing to his audience's Christian beliefs. He continues religion when talking about the Christians, he states, “Fondly do [they] hope, fervently do

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In this election, Lincoln and Douglas had some series of debates over slavery. Although Lincoln never exactly stated that he wanted to abolish slavery, much of the South believed he was an Abolitionist. At his speech in 1858 in Springfield Illinois, Lincoln wanted the nation to be one thing or another, meaning all free or all slave, because it couldn’t keep going on how it was, else it would fall apart. In his speech, Lincoln said, “...but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other” (Doc G).

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President Lincoln stated that: “if I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it,..., and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do it.”. This quote clearly shows that the freedom of slaves was not his concern and unnecessary if it did not help the Union; as the result, slavery still exists if there is no war. Free slave from bondage should be a Great Emancipator’s primary goal and he will do his best to achieve it no matter what, but president Lincoln’s thought differed from that because all he cares was the Union. Although he had many times admitting himself an anti-slavery but his words and thoughts obviously prove that he is

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It took Lincoln two years to free the slaves yet he claimed to be anti-slavery. As Julius Lester said, “His pen was sitting on his desk the whole time.” In reality, Lincoln’s intentions were to bring the restoration of the Union and making the American economy safe for whites, not concerning the rights of the blacks. The Proclamation is dull and turgid.

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It is seen clearly in his word choice that Lincoln calls for a lasting and fair peace, but not only between the North and South. He also calls the American people to apply this concept of peace with other countries and in foreign policy. Throughout his Second Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln employs a variety of rhetorical strategies to promote unity between Americans. As Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

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In his 1858 speech “A House Divided”, he wrote, “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

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Abraham Lincoln's "A House Divided" speech, delivered during the pivotal 1858 Illinois Republican State Convention, reverberates through American history as a seminal moment encapsulating the nation's profound moral and political divisions over slavery. Lincoln's invocation of the biblical metaphor of a house divided serves as a poignant warning, drawing from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 3, verse 25: "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." Through this metaphor, Lincoln masterfully underscores the inherent instability of a nation deeply divided on the issue of slavery. Just as a house divided against itself cannot endure, Lincoln implies that a nation fractured by conflicting ideologies—between those who champion

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Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address Rhetorical Analysis The purpose of this speech is detailed in the time period. This speech was written/spoken at the end of the American Civil war. It is President Lincoln’s way of putting a tentative end to the war and a start to the recovery period. He is still oppressing the south in his diction when he states “Both parties deprecated war: but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.

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Abraham Lincoln in the speech, The Gettysburg Address, constructs a point of achieving a "just and lasting peace" between the North and South without retribution. Lincoln supports his assertion by justifying his beliefs of unity between the states. Lincoln's purpose is to influence the people to not allow what has been done to go to waste. He wants his audience to realize that this division will only persist if no one settles the current issues in society. Lincoln speaks in a sympathizing, determined tone to address the Americans who are mourning the loss of their loved ones and to the rest of Americans who he wants to see a change from.

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In addition, when he debated he wrote speeches to support his statements. One of his famous statements from a speech is “A house divided against itself cannot stand”(Abraham Lincoln). A house that is divided in half is a house that half of the people are slaves and the other half are free people. The speeches helped Abraham Lincoln go forward as a candidate for the Republican nominee as President in 1860. Abraham lincoln destroyed stephen Douglas credibility.

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