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Speaking to History, Section 1: War Between the States

A House Divided:
After the opinion was released regarding Atchison's slavery proposal during the Interregnum of 1862, Chief Justice Abraham Lincoln made a speech in an attempt to calm the spiraling tensions in the southern United States. While the speech was not regarded very well at the time, over the decades it has become one of the most famous speeches of the era. This is mostly because of Lincoln's lines which repeated a portion of Samuel Houston's first Inaugural Address[1].

"As the late president stated when he first entered the office of President half a decade ago, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' Our nation now stands at the precipice of destruction. This house, where God conceived the noble ideals of freedom and liberty, is on the verge of violent discord ... By the grace of God, our nation is fully capable of surmounting the challenges that face it. We must look to what Unites us instead of that which separates us in order for the Union to be preserved and remain prosperous." Lincoln's speech was futile in preventing the division of the nation, and his words remain a solemn reminder of the perils facing the United States at that time.


Andrew Johnson's First State of the Union:
The words spoken in Andrew Johnson's first State of the Union address in December of 1862 are the most well known of any State of the Union. While the address to Congress normally focuses on the issues facing the nation at that time and would not usually remain in the minds of the public over a century and a half later, Johnson's First as it is now known has stayed on through the years. The most memorable part of his address was the beginning. "As Houston was laid to rest, the troubles of our nation awoke. Now not a year has passed, and these troubles have boiled over. Gentlemen, our country has now entered a state of war. However, it is not an honorable war. Brother fights against brother."

[1] The 'house divided' line most often attributed to Lincoln was first spoken in OTL by Sam Houston in a speech on the Compromise of 1850