--- title: Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Unity in Divided U.S. description: Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called for unity, acknowledging a "sense of division" among Americans stemming from violence and partisanship canonical: https://time.com/4404897/hillary-clinton-speech-illinois-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-13T18:13:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:13:59.169Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Unity in Divided U.S. og:description: "There is too much violence and hate in our country" og:url: https://time.com/4404897/hillary-clinton-speech-illinois-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt912438ac102119be/69889bd5ab6d7786856aa726/hillary-clinton-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton Attends Special Performance Of "Hamilton" For Hillary Victory Fund og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Unity in Divided U.S. twitter:description: "There is too much violence and hate in our country" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt912438ac102119be/69889bd5ab6d7786856aa726/hillary-clinton-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Unity in Divided U.S.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 13, 2016 6:13 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Richard Rodgers Theatre following a special performance of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" on July 12, 2016 in New York City. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Richard Rodgers Theatre following a special performance of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" on July 12, 2016 in New York City.Yana Paskova/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 13, 2016 6:13 PM UTC Hillary Clinton on Wednesday [called for unity](http://time.com/4404890/hillary-clinton-dallas-shooting-speech/?xid=homepage), acknowledging a “sense of division” among Americans stemming from violence and partisanship. She spoke at the Old State House in Springfield, Ill., where [Abraham Lincoln delivered a historic speech](http://time.com/4404754/abraham-lincoln-house-divided-text-hillary-clinton/) about national division nearly 160 years ago, saying those words “still hold resonance for us now.” “The challenges we face today do not approach those of Lincoln’s time. Not even close, and we should be very clear about that. But recent events have left people across America asking hard questions about whether we are still a house divided,” she said. “Despite our best efforts and highest hopes, America’s long struggle with race is far from finished. In just the past week, we saw [black men killed by police](http://time.com/4397086/minnesota-shooting-philando-castile-role-model-school/?iid=sr-link1) and [five police officers killed by a sniper](http://time.com/4401886/dallas-shooting-barack-obama-visit/?iid=sr-link3) targeting white police.” Here is the full text of her speech: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4404897/hillary-clinton-speech-illinois-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4404897/hillary-clinton-speech-illinois-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Unity in Divided U.S.","datePublished":"2016-07-13T18:13:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:13:59.169Z","description":"\"There is too much violence and hate in our country\"","url":"https://time.com/4404897/hillary-clinton-speech-illinois-transcript/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Illinois","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt912438ac102119be/69889bd5ab6d7786856aa726/hillary-clinton-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt912438ac102119be/69889bd5ab6d7786856aa726/hillary-clinton-illinois.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton Attends Special Performance Of \"Hamilton\" For Hillary Victory Fund","caption":"Hillary Clinton Attends Special Performance Of \"Hamilton\" For Hillary Victory Fund","creditText":"Yana Paskova/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4404897/hillary-clinton-speech-illinois-transcript/","name":"Read Hillary Clinton's Speech on Unity in Divided U.S."}}]}] ```