Video: 'Abraham Lincoln House Divided Speech Hear the Full Text'

(Tuesday, June 16, 1858, 8:00 p.m. local time) — Abraham Lincoln, accepting the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate said today the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

“I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free,” Lincoln said during the address at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. “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.”

Video: 'lincoln's house divided speech'