Thursday, March 12, 2009

A House Divided

Lincoln gave a very important (some would say prescient which means perceiving the significance of events before they occur) speech before the beginning of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. The speech is long and rather flowery but the most important part of the speech was:

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

"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 I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other.

I would like you to analyze that part of the speech. What is the "crisis?" What does he mean when he says "A House divided against itself cannot stand?" Where does this phrase come from? In your opinion does this excerpt clearly show his opinion of slavery? How?

OR

Relate this excerpt to today's "crisis" (that is, our economy). Imagine that Barack Obama has come to you and wants to use this excerpt in an upcoming speech. Re-write this excerpt to reflect today's "crisis."

9 comments:

  1. The crisis he is referring to, is a civil war. Lincoln meant that a country that is divided, will fall because you make the country weak by fighting amongst yourselves. You need everyone to stay together, to be a Union. This phrase comes from the Bible. I actually do think that this shows that he is for anti-slavery, because when he says half slave and half free, he shows his preference. You can feel his implication--that's how he gets his message across.

    -Marianne

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  2. Extra Credit 8
    Abraham Lincoln’s speech, one of the most influential speeches throughout history, showed how fighting endlessly over slavery was hurting America. A house divided against itself cannot stand alone is a passage from the bible. (Matthew 12:25) It means the union was on a path that would lead to the legalization of slaves. This passage shows an opinion of slavery because Abraham Lincoln did not like the fact that fighting over slavery was tearing America apart.
    Amanda K.

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  3. First Answer

    I think that when Lincoln said "A House divided against itself cannot stand?" he meant that people of the US can not run there country unless people are all equal and must help eachother to run there nation.

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  4. The crisis that abe lincoln was talking about is the civil war. When he says that a house divided against itself cannot stand he means that if we stay divided and we dont come together and work as a whole, then the nation will almost fall apart.He got that quote from the bible. To me personaly, even though i know that lincoln was against slavery,i dont think that the excerpt clearly shows his opinion of slavery because he says that the nation has to be either a free nation or not a free nation, so we are united. He didnt pick a side that he thought it had to be.

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  5. The crisis was the Civil War, Southerners against Northerners. When he says "A House divides against itself cannot stand" he means in order to work everything must be working together as one, cooperating. A family living under one roof cannot divide itself or fight, it'll be hectic and in chaos. Just like a gears, if one gear goes the other direction, they whole thing is messed up. Its one way or another. The phrase comes from the bible. In my opinion the excerpt doesn't clearly show his opinion of slavery. It makes it seem that he is neutral. He doesn't clearly say which side he's on. He's just giving a prescient speech of what he thinks is going to happen.

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  6. The "crisis" was that the free states had their way of living a free life, where as in the slave states, they viewed that the slavery was a way of life and part of their culture. In a sense it was the federal government imposing a new lifestyle to those who did not feel their way of life was immoral. "A house against itself divided cannot stand", means that they began to focus on little differences and totally pushed away the fact that they needed to make a better and more perfect union as stated in the Constitution of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln didn't really tell us which side was good and which one was bad. He just favored a little bit of both sides because he said that the union will become either free states or become slave states.

    i am tired noww

    Jed-Jason Ramos

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  7. The crisis is that the North wants there to be no slavery and the South wants slavery to expand. So both sides are fighting in congress; even though they're supposed to be agreeing with each other. When he says that a house divided against itself cannot stand he means that if congress cannot agree with each other on the topic they will never agree and cause issues. I'm not sure where it comes from it sounds like an idiom though. No his speech does not show his opinion about slavery because one he doesn't mention one thing about slavery he just mentions something about the conflict that its causing.

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  8. The crisis was the civil war. And he when he said, "A house devided cannot stand." He was talking about the country being devided. And he was saying if we are devided we will fall as a whole. And he was saying we wont keep fighting and eventually we will either be one or the other. Which means they will either be pro slavery or anti slavery when everything is over.

    -- aNgEL

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  9. The crisis means that the situation is very bad.

    He means that our country davided into nonslaves and proslave can not suceed seporated.

    Kayla Muse

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