The exact words
What Lincoln meant in 1858
In June 1858 the Illinois Republican Party chose Lincoln to run against Stephen Douglas, the most powerful Democrat in the Senate. Douglas championed “popular sovereignty,” the idea that each new territory should vote on whether to allow slavery, and the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision a year earlier had ruled that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories at all. Lincoln opened his acceptance speech by arguing that this course could only end one way.
The country, he said, could not “endure, permanently half slave and half free.” Either opponents of slavery would stop its spread and put it on a path to extinction, or its supporters would push it into every state, North as well as South. He did not predict war or the breakup of the Union in so many words; he predicted that the house would stop being divided. Several friends had read the draft and begged him to soften it. He refused.
Why he borrowed from the Bible
The image of a divided house comes from the Gospels, where Jesus answers critics who claim he drives out demons by the power of Satan: a kingdom, city or house divided against itself cannot stand. Lincoln’s audience knew the King James Bible well, so the line arrived with the authority of scripture and needed no explanation. It also framed the political fight in moral terms, which was exactly his point.
How people use it today
The phrase is now used for almost any group that is split, from political parties and companies to sports teams and families. That is a fair use of the words, which were proverbial long before Lincoln, but it loses the edge they had in 1858. Lincoln was not asking people to get along. He was saying that some divisions cannot be smoothed over, and that one side of the slavery question would have to win.
What people get wrong
A general saying that teams or families should not argue.
A specific prediction that the conflict over slavery would force the country to become all free or all slave, with no stable middle.
Timeline
- 1st centuryThe Gospels of Mark and Matthew record Jesus saying that a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25, Matthew 12:25).
- June 16, 1858Lincoln uses the line to open his speech accepting the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Stephen Douglas.
- 1858The Lincoln–Douglas debates follow. Lincoln loses the Senate seat, which was chosen by the state legislature, but becomes nationally known.
- 1860–1861Lincoln is elected president, and Southern states begin to secede, as his speech had warned the country could not stay divided.
Use it in a speech
Questions people ask
Who first said “a house divided against itself cannot stand”?
The words come from the Gospels (Mark 3:25 and Matthew 12:25 in the King James Bible). Abraham Lincoln made them famous in American politics in his speech of June 16, 1858.
Why was the speech controversial?
Many of Lincoln's allies thought it was too radical, because it suggested the country could not continue half slave and half free. Opponents used it to paint him as an extremist.
Did Lincoln win after the speech?
Not immediately. He lost the 1858 Senate contest to Stephen Douglas, but the debates made him a national figure and he won the presidency in 1860.
Cite this quote
These cite the original source directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.
Sources
- Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided” speech, Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858. Abraham Lincoln Online.
- The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, ed. Roy P. Basler (1953).
- Mark 3:25 and Matthew 12:25, King James Version.