"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." — Abraham Lincoln, House Divided Speech, June 1858
Lincoln delivered this speech in immediate response to which event?
- A
The firing on Fort Sumter and Confederate mobilization
- B
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
- C
Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment by Congress
- Dcheck_circle
The Dred Scott decision and Kansas-Nebraska Act's apparent nationalization of slavery
Explanation
Lincoln argued that Dred Scott (1857) and Kansas-Nebraska (1854) were steps in a "design" to make slavery national, justifying his prediction that the divided house would resolve one way or the other.