On June 16, 1858, while running for the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech at the Illinois State Capitol that, alongside the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, of March 4 1865 became one of the most significant of his career. Drawing on Jesus’s words, Lincoln famously warned:

“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.”

Lincoln recognized that a nation split against itself could not remain that way indefinitely, and he was proven right. Bringing the country back together cost an immense toll in lives, but unity eventually prevailed.

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