What is the main idea in Abraham Lincoln's speech 'House Divided'?

Answer 1

Lincoln wanted to stress that the government would fail if it tried to operate as two separate and fighting entities. Slavery and the independence of the States were what was dividing the nation at that time. Lincoln wanted the states to start to operate as a single governing body instead of individual bodies who would try and function on it's own.

It Was The Right Of ' A People' to Make Their Own Constitution.

Slavery and the independence of the state's is what was going on at the time (leads to civil war) and Lincoln was trying to tell the states they must function as one (he was a federalist) instead of trying to function as their own. The "house" would not stand being divided against itself. It must work together.

In his first inaugural speech, he warned against the southern states seceding from the Union, and why it was wrong to divide the Union.

In his second inaugural speech, he expressed that he wanted the war to come to an end, and that peace should follow.

Answer 2

The House Divided Speech makes clear Lincoln's contention that the US had to abide by the same laws in all of the states: that either slavery would be made legal in all of the states, or it would be made illegal in all of the states, but the country could not exist in perpetuity condoning slavery in the South and condemning it in the North.