Use in U.S. history
The first attributed use in modern times is to
Founding Father John Dickinson in his pre-
Revolutionary War song "
The Liberty Song", first published on July 7, 1768, in both the
Pennsylvania Journal and
Pennsylvania Gazette newspapers. In the song Dickinson wrote: "Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall!" In 1792,
Kentucky adopted the motto as part of the design for the state seal. Since 1942, this phrase has been the official English language
state motto of
Kentucky. Note that, in 2002, Kentucky also adopted an official
Latin motto:
Deo gratiam habeamus ("Let us be grateful to God"). In March 1799,
Patrick Henry used the phrase in his last public speech, in which he denounced The
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Clasping his hands and swaying unsteadily, Henry declaimed: "Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs." At the end of his oration, Henry fell into the arms of bystanders and was carried, almost lifeless, into a nearby tavern. He would die just two months later. In 1858, during his unsuccessful campaign against
Stephen Douglas,
Abraham Lincoln gave a speech centered on the
House divided analogy to illustrate the need for a universal decision on
slavery across all states. The phrase is written around the center circle of the
seal of Missouri. ==Modern political uses==