...— I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents...slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinetion...

...speech, declaring that the Union will "cease to be divided." He also suggested that it "will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it ... or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful...