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How Did Abraham Lincoln A House Divided

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Throughout the history of America, the meaning of what it means to be an American has changed. The times have progressed over hundreds of years. For the most part, these changes have been gradual and slow. Some of the biggest changes in history, took place in the civil war era. In Abraham Lincolns A House Divided, he talks about the major discourse over the topic of slavery. This was a time when the current American values and what American is becoming, was up for debate. In the late 1850s, the Americans had been divided on the issue of slavery. It was so deeply divided it threatened to tear apart the American people. Before Lincoln was President, he was an Illinois senator doing the best he could to try to repair the American way of life. …show more content…

The tensions where so high, Lincoln knew it could be the collapse over everything that America has built up. Lincoln knew something had to be done to save America from an impending crisis. The most famous line from this speech that summarizes how Lincoln felt on the situation is, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Lincoln, 732) He knew the South was unwilling to give up their slaves, and the north was unwilling to let them have slaves. At this point in American history, people where very opinionated over this, and Lincoln was trying to stop and impending civil war. Even if it meant the outcome he wanted wasn’t …show more content…

Lincoln was well educated over current case-law problems pertaining too slave and free states. Over one of the worst decisions ever made by the Supreme Court, the Dred Scott decision threatened to bring slavery into the North. Lincoln was stressing the fact that if something wasn’t done, slavery would no doubt trickle out of the South, and into the rest of America. While the Supreme Court was fumbling and backtracking, there was another law that brought slavery closer. The Kansas-Nebraska bill overrode previous legislation and allowed white male residents to vote on whether to permit slavery therein. Lincoln was stressing the fact that this is real and

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