Great Speeches of Abraham Lincoln is a compilation of several speeches by Abraham Lincoln. Some of these speeches are famous; the Gettysburg Address and House Divided speech are famous Lincoln speeches of particular note. Some of them were delivered during the American Civil War; the First Inaugural Address and Last Public Address, among others. And some of them speak of freedom and Lincolns views on Americans original sin, slavery; the Peoria Speech and Cooper Union Address draw heavy influence from these areas.
In one of his most famous speeches, he said: A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. He predicted that the country eventually would become all one thing, or all the other. Again and again he insisted that the civil liberties of every U.S. citizen, white as well as Black, were at stake. The territories must be kept free, he further said, because new free states were places for poor people to go and better their condition.
About the Author
After about 20 years after launching his legal career, Lincoln became a prominent personality in national politics. He was noted not only for his shrewdness and practical common sense but also for his invariable fairness and utter honesty. During his tenure as the president, he combined statecraft and the overall direction of armies with an effectiveness that increased year by year.
