Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1908-07-10
CONTINUED

feared the effect of this speech, and
yet 1t was so exactly in accordance
with his own faith that he could not
advise him to suppress 1t. 1t might
be heresy to many others, but 1t was
orthodoxy to him, and he was in the
habit of telling the whole truth with
out regard to consequences. If it cost
a single defeat now he was sure that
its potency would one day be felt and
the wisdom of its present utterance ac-
knowledged. He therefore urged Mr..
Lincoln to speak it as he bad written
1t and to treat with the scorn of a
prophet those who, having ears. would
not hear and, having eyes, would not
see. The advice was not unaccepta-
BILE, but Mr.. Lincoln thought he owed
1t to other friends to counsel with
them also.
Friends Advise Against Speech.
About a dozen gentlemen were called
to meet In the library room in the
statehouse. after seating them at
the round table," says John Arm-
strong, one of the number, "ha lead
that clause or section of his speech
which reads, "A house divided against
itself cannot stand etc. He read 1t
slowly and cautiously, so as to let each
man fully understand 1t. After he
had finished the reading he asked the
opinions of his friends as to the wis
dom or policy of 1t. Every man among
them condemned the speech In sub
stance and spirit and especially that
section quoted above. They unani-
mously declared that the whole speech
was too far In advance of the times,
and they all condemned that section
or part of his speech already quoted
as unwise and impolitic. If not false.
William II. Herndon sat still while
they were giving their respective opin-
ions OF its unwisdom and impolicy.
Then he spnang to his feet and said:
Lincoln, deliver 1t just as it reads
If 1t Is In advance of the times let us
you and |, If no n else-lift the
people to the level of this. speech now,
higher hereafter. The speech is true,
wise and polite and will succeed now
or In the future. Nay, 1t will aid you,
IL 1t viii not make you president Of b
United States
"Mr. Lincoln sat still a short mo-
ment, rose from his chair, walked
backward and forward in the hall,
stopped and said: friends, l have
thought about this matter a great deal,
have weighed the question well from
all corners and am thoroughly convinc-
ed the time has come when 1t should
be uttered, and If it must be that /
must go down because of this speech,
then let me go down linked to truth
die In the advocacy of what is right
and just. This nation cannot i've on
injustice-"a house divided against it.
self cannot stand" I say again and
again. This was spoken with some
degree of ~emotion-the- effects of his
love of truth and sorrow from the dis.
agreement of his friends with him
gelf."
Speech That Made Lincoln.
On the evening of the 18th this cele-
brated sp~eech-known since as "the
house divided against itself speech
was delivered to an immense audience
In the hall of the house of representa-
tives. Mr.. Lincoln never penned
words which had a more prodigious in
luence upon the public mind or which
more directly and powerfully affected
his own career. 1t was as follows:
Gentlemen of the Conventional we
could first know where we are and
whittier we are tending we could then
better judge what to do and how to dc
1t. We are now far on into the fifth
year since a policy was initiated with
the avowed object and confident prom
ise of putting an end to slavery agita-
ton. Under the operation of that poll
cy that agitation has not only not
ceased, but has constantly augmented.
In my opinion, 1t will not cease until
a crisis shall have been reached and
passed. "A house divided against it.
eminent cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. l do not ex-
pect the Union to be dissolved, l dc
not expect the house to fall, but I do
expect 1t will cease to be divided. II
will become all one thing or all the
other. Either the. opponents of slavery
will arrest the further spread of 1t and
place it where the public mind shall
rest In the belief that 1t is In course of
ultimate extinction or its advocates
will push it forward till 1t shall be-
come alike lawful In all the states
old as well as new, north as well as
south.
"Have we no tendency to the latter
condition? Let any one who doubts
carefully contemplate that now almost
complete legal combination-piece of
machinery, so to speak-compounded
Of the Nebraska doctrine and the bred
Scott decision. Let him consider not
only what work the machinery is
adapted to do and how well adapted,
but also let him study the history of
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