On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most important speeches of his political career after accepting the Illinois Republican Party's nomination for the United States Senate. In his famous "House Divided" address, Lincoln warned that the nation could not continue indefinitely divided between free and slave states. Borrowing a phrase from scripture, he declared that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," emphasizing the growing conflict over slavery that threatened the future of the United States. Although Lincoln lost the Senate race to Stephen A. Douglas, the speech brought him national recognition and established him as a leading voice against the expansion of slavery. The issues raised during the Lincoln-Douglas debates helped shape the national conversation and foreshadowed the Civil War that would begin just a few ye ...