How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
Quote #1
We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. (3-4)
Lincoln introduces past events early in his speech, referencing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the idea of popular sovereignty here. How does he use the passage of time to illustrate his perspective on that legislation?
Quote #2
Let anyone who doubts carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination -- piece of machinery, so to speak -- compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred 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 its construction and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design and concert of action among its chief architects, from the beginning. (12-13)
The references to the past are less obvious here, but what Lincoln is telling his audience to do is not just think about these two events, but how they happened in the first place. Major acts or legislation doesn't happen in a vacuum. The reasons for these particular things happening, then, indicates a more far-reaching history, which Lincoln argues his audience should be aware of as part of the problem at hand.
Quote #3
While the Nebraska Bill was passing through Congress, a law case, involving the question of a Negro's freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then into a territory covered by the congressional prohibition… Before the then next presidential election, the law case came to, and was argued in, the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election… The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the endorsement, such as it was, secured. (24, 26, 28-29)
Not the most exciting quote, but this section represents a large portion of the speech devoted to simply outlining the history of the slavery debate over the past five years or so. Lincoln presents clear, undeniable facts from the past as evidence to support his argument. To be even more convincing, he references a number of different parts of the U.S. government and how they contributed to the situation.
Quote #4
But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen -- Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance -- and when we see these timbers joined together and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few, not omitting even scaffolding, or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in -- in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck. (73)
The "house divided" metaphor does come around a few times throughout the speech, and here is one of the most potent. What is Lincoln's point here, and how is he using the metaphor to illustrate it?
Quote #5
Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong.
We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us.
Of strange, discordant, and even, hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. (120-122)
Here is a moment where Lincoln references the recent past to show hopefulness rather than concern. The Republican Party (his audience), the most anti-slavery party by far in the country, has grown extremely quickly since its inception only two years earlier. It would continue to do so, winning Lincoln the presidency in another two years. A lot of worrisome things have happened over the past two years, but also, the opposition to those events has also grown in strength.