How we cite our quotes: (Sentence)
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.