House Divided Speech

This infamous Supreme Court case held that an enslaved person is not entitled to protection under the United States Constitution, nor does such a person have the right to commence a lawsuit in the courts of the United States. Dred Scott was an enslaved man living in Missouri, who was taken by his “master” to the free state of Illinois as well as the Louisiana territory. According to the majority opinion by Chief Justice Taney, an enslaved person is not protected under the “Privileges and Immunities” clause of Article IV, which holds that “the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states” (Taney, Roger Brooke, and Supreme Court Of The United States. U.S. Reports: Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 19 How. 393. 1856. Retrieved from the Library of Congress). The case played a key role in igniting abolitionist outrage leading to the Civil War. In “A House Divided,” Lincoln argues that the outcome of the case was the result of a conspiracy between several leading Democrats.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) abandoned the framework established by the Missouri Compromise for the admission of new states and territories into the United States. Under the Missouri Compromise (1820), Missouri was to be the last state admitted as a slave state, with all remaining territories and states to be admitted as free. However, fears concerning the political imbalance that would be created by such an arrangement, especially in view of the additional lands acquired by the United States in the Mexican War, led to a revision of this arrangement. The Nebraska territory would be divided in two, with each new territory deciding the fate of slavery within its borders. Kansas, which lay further south, was assumed to be destined for slavery, while Nebraska, to its north, would be likely to vote against it. Senator Douglas, the act’s chief architect, argued that it upheld the principle of popular sovereignty, or as he referred to it, “the sacred right of self government” (427). Lincoln condemned this view, arguing that Douglas only intended the Act as a temporary measure to control public opinion prior to the adoption of the Dred Scott decision.

The Lecompton Constitution was a state constitution written by pro-slavery activists in Kansas. If enacted, it would have guaranteed the protection of slavery within Kansas. It was allegedly approved by the people of Kansas in an election in 1857. However, after that election had proven to be fraudulent, it was put to a vote, under fair terms, a second time in 1858 and was rejected. Subsequently, Kansas was admitted as a free state. In “A House Divided,” Lincoln refers to a “squabble” that has occurred between President Buchanan, who supported the Lecompton Constitution and Senator Douglas, who opposed it. Douglas argued that because the constitution was adopted without genuine popular approval, it did not represent the true will of the people. Lincoln mocks Douglas’s appeal to democracy as a tactic used to maintain the latter’s credibility and commitment to principle.