William H. Herndon, Jesse William Weik, Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, Etiam in minimis major, The History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln by William H. Herndon, for twenty years his friend and Jesse William Weik

[400] rather rank, yet it suited my views, and I said, “Lincoln, deliver that speech as read and it will make you President.” At the time I hardly realized the force of my prophecy. Having patiently listened to these various criticisms from his friends -all of which with a single exception were adverse — he rose from his chair, and after alluding to the careful study and intense thought he had given the question, he answered all their objections substantially as follows: “Friends, this thing has been retarded long enough. The time has come when these sentiments should be uttered; and if it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to the truth-let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right.” The next day, the 17th, the speech was delivered just as we had heard it read. Up to this time Seward had held sway over the North by his “higher-law” sentiments, but the “house-divided-against-itself” speech by Lincoln in my opinion drove the nail into Seward's political coffin.¹

Lincoln had now created in reality a more profound impression than he or his friends anticipated. Many Republicans deprecated the advanced ground he had taken, the more so as the Democrats rejoiced that it afforded them an issue clear and