What did Abraham Lincoln mean when he spoke of the divided house in 1858?

Answer 1

If a house doesn't have walls then it cannot stand. DUH. The house referenced in the speech is a metaphoric house that is the United States of America. That house, the U.S., was, at the time, divided among itself about the issue of Slavery. It was proved three years later that Lincoln was exactly right. The United States of America went into war against itself about the issue of slavery, along with whether the Federal government should have more or less power, and, for the North, keeping the United States united.

Answer 2

The Statement made by Lincoln is from Matthew 12, Mark 3, Luke 11.

Mark 3:25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

In Lincoln's time most Americans learned to read via the family bible. Therefore they were very literate concerning its content. They were therefore very aware that America represented part of the scattered tribes of Israel. Lincoln was attempting to appeal to those at war that a continuation of that war would destroy not only America but also those of the house of Israel who were within America. Lincoln was warning against the impending doom should Americans not be capable of ending the conflict.

Therefore a House divided, or even a country divided cannot stand.

The interesting issue related to this comment is that Lincoln was an instigator of the civil war occurring in the first place (see Railroad act of 1862). The railroad needed labor to build the transcontinental railway. Lincoln and others saw a way to free slaves and gain much needed labor for their railroad endeavors. In the end their ill laid plans did not produce the outcome they desired. The railroad hired Chinese labor to construct the railway from the West. After the war many who were once slaves in the south would construct the railway from the east to meet in Promontory Point in 1869

Lincoln much needed to end the Civil war which raged onward for years after it was assumed to have ended. Hence the speech regarding Christ's comment Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 11. Lincoln knew if he could not get Americans to agree politically, he could get them to agree as Christians.

Answer 3

When he stated and wrote this he was referring to the states leaving the union and to maintain the the country their leaving gave a division and that because it was divided that the country couldn't maintain or be a nation. His essential arguments were that states didn't have the right to leave the federal government. The entire issue of the civil war was States rights and if they were to remain slave states. Even today we still argue over the lines between state and Federal Laws. The issues have changed but the argument is still basically the same.

Answer 4

He was referring to the United States split into the north and south of the Civil War.