Lincoln (2012)

1. Some ofus was in the Second Kansas Collored.

2. We fought the Rebs at Jenkins' Ferry last April

3. just after they killed every Negro soldier

4. they captured at Poison Springs.

5. So at Jenkins' Ferry,

6. we decided warn't takin' no Reb prisoners.

7. And we didn't leave a one of 'em alive.

8. The ones of us that didn't die that day,

9. we joined up with the 1 1 6th U.S. Colored, sir,

10. from Camp Nelson, Kentucky.

11. What's your name, soldier?

12. Private. Harold Green, sir.

13. I'm Corporal Ira Clark, sir.

14. Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry.

15. We're waiting over there.

16. We're leaving our horses behind

17. and shipping out with the 24th Infantry

18. for the assault next week on Wilmington.

19. How long have you been a soldier?

20. Two years, sir.

21. The Second Kansas Colored Infantry,

22. they fought bravely at Jenkins' Ferry.

23. That's right, sir.

24. They killed a thousand Rebel soldiers, sir.

25. They were very brave.

26. And making $3 less each month than white soldiers.

27. Us Second Kansas boys...

28. Another $3 subtracted from our pay for our uniforms.

29. That was true, yes sir, but that's changed.

30. Equal pay now, but still no commissioned Negro officers.

31. I'm aware of that, Corporal Clark.

32. Yes, sir. That's good that you're aware, sir...

33. Do you think the Wilmington attack...

34. Now that white people have accustomed themselves

35. to seeing Negro men with guns

36. fighting on their behalf,

37. and now that they can tolerate

38. Negro soldiers getting equal pay

39. maybe in a few years, they can abide the idea

40. of Negro Iieutenants and captains.

41. In fifty years, maybe a Negro colonel.

42. In a hundred years, the vote.

43. What will you do after the war, Corporal Clark?

44. Work, sir.

45. - Hm. - Perhaps you'll hire me.

46. Perhaps I will.

47. But you should know, sir,

48. that I get sick at the smell of boot black

49. and I cannot cut hair.

50. I've yet to find a man could cut mine

51. so that it'd make any difference.

52. You got springy hair for a white man.

53. Yes, I do.

54. My last barber hanged himself.

55. And the one before that.

56. Left me his scissors in his will.

57. President Lincoln, sir.

58. Good evening, boys.

59. We saw you, and...

60. - We were at... - We was at Gettysburg.

61. You boys fight at Gettysburg?

62. No, didn't fight there, we just signed up last month.

63. We saw him two years ago at the cemetery dedication.

64. Yeah. We heard you speak... Goddamn.

65. Uh, hey, how tall are you, anyway?

66. Aw, jeez, shut up.

67. Could you hear what I said?

68. No, sir. Not much.

69. It was...

70. "Four score and seven years ago,

71. "our fathers brought forth from this continent

72. "a new nation, conceived in Iiberty

73. "and dedicated to the proposition

74. "that all men are created equal."

75. That's good. Thank you.

76. "Now we are engaged in a great civil war,

77. "testing whether that nation or any nation

78. "so conceived and so dedicated,

79. "can long endure.

80. "We are met on a great battlefield of that war."

81. That's good, thank you.

82. "We come to dedicate

83. "a portion of that field

84. "as a final resting place for those who here

85. "gave their Iives that that nation might Iive."

86. His uncles, they died on the second day of fighting.

87. I know the last part. It is, uh...

88. Company up! Moving out!

89. You boys best go and find your company.

90. - And thank you. - Thank you, sir.

91. - God bless you. - God bless you, too.

92. God bless you.

93. "That we here highly resolve that these dead

94. "shall not have died in vain.

95. "That this nation, under God,

96. "shall have a new birth of freedom

97. "and that government of the people, by the people,

98. "for the people

99. "shall not perish from the earth."

100. It's nighttime.

101. Ship's moved by some terrible power

102. at a terrific speed.

103. And though it's imperceptible in the darkness,

104. I have an intuition that we're headed towards a shore.

105. No one else seems to be aboard the vessel.

106. I'm very keenly aware of my aloneness.

107. "I could be bounded in a nutshell

108. "and count myself a king of infinite space

109. "were it not that I have bad dreams."

110. Hmm.

111. I reckon it's the speed that's strange to me.

112. I'm used to going at a deliberate pace.

113. I should spare you, Molly.

114. I shouldn't tell you my dreams.

115. I don't want to be spared if you aren't.

116. And you spare me nothing.

117. Perhaps it's...

118. It's the assault on Wilmington Port.

119. You dream about the ship before a battle, usually.

120. How's the coconut?

121. Beyond description.

122. AImost two years, nothing mends.

123. Another casualty of the war.

124. Who wants to listen to a useless woman

125. grouse about her carriage accident?

126. - I do. - Stuff.

127. You tell me dreams, that's all.

128. I'm your soothsayer.

129. That's all I am to you anymore.

130. I'm not to be trusted

131. even if it was not a carriage accident.

132. Even if it was an attempted assassination.

133. It was most probably an accident.

134. It was an assassin whose intended target was you.

135. How are the plans coming along for the big shindy?

136. I don't want to talk about parties.

137. You don't care about parties.

138. Not much, but they're a necessary hindrance.

139. I know.

140. I know what it's about, the ship.

141. It's not Wilmington Port. It's not a military campaign.

142. It's the amendment to abolish slavery.

143. Why else would you force me

144. to invite demented radicals into my home?

145. You're going to try to get the amendment passed

146. in the House of Representatives

147. before the term ends?

148. Before the Inauguration?

149. Don't spend too much money on the flubdubs.

150. No one is Ioved as much as you.

151. No one's ever been Ioved so much by the people.

152. You might do anything now.

153. Don't... Don't waste that power

154. on an amendment bill that's sure of defeat.

155. Did you remember Robert's coming home for the reception?

156. Mm?

157. I knew you'd forget.

158. That's the ship you're sailing on,

159. the 13th Amendment.

160. You needn't tell me I'm right. I know I am.

161. - Oh!

162. Oh, it's late, Mrs. Keckley.

163. Well, she needs this for the grand reception.

164. It's slow work.

165. Good night.

166. Did you tell her a dream?

167. - Papa. - Mm-hmm.

168. Papa, I want to see Willie.

169. Me, too, Taddie, but we can't.

170. Why not?

171. Willie's gone.

172. It's three years now he's gone.

173. The part assigned to me is to raise the flag.

174. Which, if there be no fault in the machinery, I will do.

175. And when up

176. it'll be for the people to keep it up.

177. That's my speech.

178. We are coming, Father Abraham

179. Three hundred thousand more

180. From Mississippi's winding stream

181. And from New England's shore

182. We leave our plow and workshops

183. Our wives...

184. Even if every Republican in the House votes yes,

185. far from guaranteed. Since when has our party

186. unanimously supported anything?

187. But say all our fellow Republicans vote for it.

188. We'd still be twenty votes short.

189. Only twenty?

190. "Only twenty?"

191. We can find twenty votes.

192. Twenty House Democrats who'II vote to abolish slavery?

193. In my opinion...

194. To which I always listen.

195. - Or pretend to. - With all three of my ears.

196. We'll win the war soon.

197. It's inevitable, isn't it?

198. Well, it ain't won yet.

199. You'll begin your second term with semi-divine stature.

200. Imagine the possibilities peace will bring.

201. Why tarnish your invaluable Iuster

202. with a battle in the House?

203. It's a rat's nest in there.

204. It's the same gang of talentless hicks and hacks

205. who rejected the amendment 10 months ago.

206. We'll lose.

207. I like our chances now.

208. Well, consider the obstacles that we'd face.

209. The aforementioned two-thirds majority

210. needed to pass an amendment.

211. We have a Republican majority, but barely more than 50%.

212. Fifty-six.

213. We need Democratic support. There's none to be had.

214. Since the House last voted on the amendment,

215. there's been an election.

216. Sixty-four Democrats

217. lost their House seats in November.

218. That's 64 Democrats Iooking for work come March.

219. I know.

220. They don't need to worry about re-election.

221. They can vote however it suits them.

222. But we can't buy the vote for the amendment.

223. - It's too important.

224. I said nothing of buying anything.

225. We need twenty votes was all I said.

226. Start of my second term, plenty of positions to fill.

227. Mr. President, may I present

228. Mr. And Mrs. Jolly who've come from Missouri...

229. From Jeff City, President.

230. Mr. Jolly.

231. Ma'am.

232. And this here by the fire is Secretary of State Seward.

233. Jeff City?

234. I heard tell once of a Jefferson City Iawyer

235. who had a parrot

236. that'd wake him each morning, crying out,

237. "Today is the day the world shall end,

238. "as scripture has foretold."

239. And, uh, one day

240. the Iawyer shot him,

241. for the sake of peace and quiet, I presume.

242. Thus fulfilling, for the bird at least,

243. his prophecy.

244. There's only one toll booth in Jeff City,

245. to the southwest

246. and this man Heinz Sauermagen from Rolla

247. been in illegal possession for near two yar

248. since your man General Schofield

249. set him up there.

250. But President Monroe give that toll gate

251. to my granpap

252. and Quincy Adams

253. give my pap a Ietter

254. saying it's our'n for keeps.

255. Mrs. Jolly got the...

256. Show Mr. Lincoln the Quincy Adams Ietter.

257. That's unnecessary, Mrs. Jolly.

258. Just tell me what you want from me.

259. Mr. Jolly's emphysema don't care for cigars.

260. Madame, do you know about the proposed

261. 13th Amendment of the Constitution?

262. Yes, sir, everybody knows of it.

263. The President favors it.

264. - Do you? - We do.

265. You know that it abolishes slavery?

266. Yes, sir, I know it.

267. And is that why you favor it?

268. What I favor is ending the war.

269. Once we do away with slavery, the Rebs'II quit fighting

270. since slavery's what they're fighting for.

271. Mr. Lincoln, you always says so.

272. With the amendment, slavery's ended.

273. And they'll give up. The war can finish then.

274. If the war finished first, before we end slavery...

275. President Lincoln says the war won't stop

276. unless we finish slavery.

277. But if it did.

278. The South is exhausted.

279. If they run out of bullets and men

280. would you still want your...

281. Who's your Representative?

282. Jeff City? That's Congressman Burton.

283. "Beanpole" Burton.

284. I mean, Josiah Burton, yes, sir.

285. A Republican,

286. undecided on the question of the amendment, I believe.

287. Perhaps you could call on him

288. and inform him of your enthusiasm.

289. Yeah.

290. Madame.

291. If the Rebels surrendered next week

292. would you, at the end of this month

293. want Congressman Burton to vote

294. for the 13th Amendment?

295. If that was how it was, no more war and all

296. I reckon Mr. Jolly much prefer not to have

297. Congress pass the amendment.

298. Hmm. And, uh

299. why is that?

300. Niggers.

301. If he don't have to let some AIabama coon

302. come up to Missouri

303. steal his chickens and his job,

304. we'd much prefer that.

305. The people.

306. I begin to see why you're in such a great hurry

307. to put it through.

308. Would you let me study this Ietter, sir,

309. about the toll booth?

310. Come back to me in the morning

311. and we'll consider what the Iaw says.

312. You be sure to

313. visit Beanpole.

314. Tell him that you support passage of the amendment

315. as a military necessity.

316. Thank you.

317. Oh, Nicolay, when you have a moment.

318. If procuring votes

319. with offers of employment is what you intend

320. I'll fetch a friend from AIbany

321. who can supply the skulky men

322. gifted at this kind of shady work

323. and spare me the indignity

324. of actually speaking to Democrats.

325. Spare you the exposure and Iiability.

326. Pardon me, that's a distress signal

327. which I am bound, by solemn oath, to respond to.

328. Tom Pendel took away the glass camera plates

329. of slaves Mr. Gardner sent over

330. because Tom says Mama says they're too distressing.

331. You had nightmares all night long.

332. I'll have worse nightmares if you don't let me look

333. at the plates again.

334. Perhaps.

335. You can't afford a single defection

336. from anyone in the party.

337. Not even a single Republican absent when they vote.

338. You know who you've got to see.

339. Send over to BIair House.

340. Ask Preston BIair can I call on him around 5:00.

341. God help you.

342. God alone knows what he'll ask you to give him.

343. If the BIairs tell them to,

344. no Republican will balk at voting for the amendment.

345. No conservative Republican is what you mean.

346. All Republicans ought to be conservative.

347. I founded this party,

348. in my own goddamn home, to be a

349. conservative anti-slavery party,

350. not a hobbyhorse for goddamn radical abolitionists.

351. Damp down the dyspepsia, Daddy.

352. You'll frighten the child.

353. You need us to keep the conservative side

354. of the party in the traces

355. while you diddle the radicals

356. and bundle up with Thaddeus Stevens's gang!

357. You need our help!

358. Yes, sir, I do.

359. Well, what do we get?

360. Whoa! BIunt!

361. Your manners, Monty, must be why Mr. Lincoln

362. pushed you out of his Cabinet.

363. - I wasn't pushed! - Oh, of course you weren't.

364. He was pushed out to placate the damn radicals!

365. - I agreed to resign. - Oh, Daddy, please! Daddy.

366. Oh. You don't mind, boy, do you?

367. He spends his days with soldiers.

368. They taught me a song.

369. Did they?

370. Soldiers know all manner of songs.

371. How's your brother Bob?

372. He's at school now, but he's coming

373. to visit in four days for the shindy.

374. At school. Ain't that fine?

375. Good he's not in the Army.

376. He wants to be, but Mama said he cannot.

377. Dangerous life, soldiering.

378. Your mama is wise to keep him clean out of that.

379. Now, your daddy knows that what I want

380. in return for all the help I can give him

381. is to go down to Richmond, like he said I could

382. as soon as Savannah fell

383. and talk to Jefferson Davis.

384. Now give me terms I can offer to Jefferson Davis

385. to start negotiating for peace.

386. He'll talk to me.

387. Conservative members of your party

388. want you to listen to overtures from Richmond.

389. That above all!

390. They'll vote for this rash and dangerous amendment

391. only if every other possibility is exhausted.

392. Our Republicans ain't abolitionists.

393. We can't tell our people they can vote yes

394. on abolishing slavery

395. unless at the same time we can tell them

396. that you're seeking a negotiated peace.

397. Leo, it's 100 miles to Richmond.

398. Get him drunk so he can sleep.

399. Yes, ma'am.

400. Here, Daddy.

401. Oh.

402. - Thank you. - Yes, sir, all right.

403. Where's my hat?

404. Leo has your hat.

405. All right?

406. Go make peace.

407. Thunder forth, God of War.

408. We'll commence our assault on Wilmington from the sea.

409. Why is this burnt?

410. Was the boy playing with it?

411. It got took by a breeze several nights back.

412. This is an official War Department map.

413. And the entire Cabinet's waiting

414. to hear what it portends.

415. A bombardment.

416. From the Iargest fleet the Navy has ever assembled.

417. Old Neptune, shake thy hoary Iocks!

418. Fifty-eight ships are under way,

419. of every tonnage and firing range.

420. We'll keep up a steady barrage.

421. Our first target is Fort Fisher.

422. It defends Wilmington Port.

423. A steady barrage?

424. A hundred shells a minute.

425. Till they surrender.

426. - Dear God.

427. Wilmington's their last open seaport, therefore...

428. Wilmington falls, Richmond falls after.

429. And the war is done.

430. Hear, hear!

431. Then why, if I might ask

432. are we not concentrating

433. the nation's attention on Wilmington?

434. Why, instead, are we reading in the Herald

435. that the anti-slavery amendment

436. is being precipitated onto the House floor for debate?

437. Because your eagerness,

438. in what seems an unwarranted intrusion

439. of the executive into Iegislative prerogatives,

440. is compelling it to what's...

441. To what's Iikely to be its premature demise.

442. Hear, hear!

443. You signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

444. You've done all that could be done.

445. The Emancipation Proclamation's

446. merely a war measure. After the war, the courts...

447. When Edward Bates was Attorney General,

448. he felt confident enough to let you sign it!

449. Different Iawyers, different opinions.

450. It frees slaves as a military exigent. Not...

451. I don't recall Edward Bates being any too certain about

452. the Iegality of my proclamation.

453. Just it wasn't downright criminal.

454. Somewheres in between.

455. Mm.

456. Back when I rode the Iegal circuit in IIIinois,

457. I defended a woman from Metamora

458. named Melissa Goings.

459. Seventy-seven years old.

460. They said she'd murdered her husband. He was 83.

461. He was choking her

462. and she grabbed ahold of a stick of firewood

463. and fractured his skull and he died.

464. In his will, he wrote,

465. "I expect she has killed me."

466. "If I get over it, I will have revenge."

467. No one was keen to see her convicted,

468. he was that kind of husband.

469. I asked the prosecuting attorney

470. if I might have a short conference with my client.

471. She and I went into a room in the courthouse,

472. but I alone emerged.

473. The window in the room was found to be wide open.

474. It was believed the old Iady may have climbed out of it.

475. I told the bailiff,

476. right before I left her in the room

477. she asked me where she could get

478. a good drink of water, and I told her, Tennessee.

479. Mrs. Goings was seen no more in Metamora.

480. Enough justice had been done.

481. They even forgave the bondsman her bail.

482. I'm afraid I don't see...

483. I decided

484. that the Constitution gives me war powers

485. but no one knows just exactly

486. what those powers are.

487. Some say they don't exist.

488. I don't know. I decided

489. I needed them to exist to uphold my oath

490. to protect the Constitution.

491. Which I decided meant I could take

492. the Rebels' slaves from them

493. as property confiscated in war.

494. That might recommend to suspicion that I agree

495. with the Rebs that their slaves

496. are property in the first place.

497. Of course, I don't. Never have.

498. I'm glad to see any man free,

499. and if calling a man property

500. or war contraband

501. does the trick, why I caught at the opportunity.

502. Now here's where it gets truly slippery.

503. I use the Iaw allowing for the seizure

504. of property in a war

505. knowing it applies only to the property

506. of governments and citizens of belligerent nations.

507. Well, the South ain't a nation.

508. That's why I can't negotiate with them.

509. So if, in fact, the Negroes are property,

510. according to the Iaw,

511. have I the right to take the Rebels' property

512. from them, if I insist they're rebels only

513. and not citizens of a belligerent country?

514. And slipperier still, I maintain it ain't

515. our actual Southern states in rebellion

516. but only the rebels Iiving in those states,

517. the Iaws of which states remain in force.

518. "The Iaws of which states remain in force."

519. That means that since it's states' Iaws that determine

520. whether Negroes can be sold as slaves,

521. as property,

522. the federal government doesn't have a say in that.

523. At least not yet.

524. Then Negroes in those states are slaves,

525. hence property,

526. hence my war powers allow me to confiscate them

527. as such, so I confiscate them.

528. But if I'm a respecter of states' Iaws,

529. how then can I Iegally free them

530. with my Proclamation as I done?

531. Unless I'm canceling states' Iaws?

532. I felt the war demanded it.

533. My oath demanded it.

534. I felt right with myself,

535. and I hoped it was Iegal to do it.

536. I'm hoping still.

537. Two years ago, I proclaimed these people emancipated.

538. "Then, thenceforward and forever free."

539. Now let's say the courts decide I had no authority

540. to do it. They might well decide that.

541. Say there's no amendment abolishing slavery,

542. say it's after the war

543. and I can no longer use my war powers

544. to just ignore the courts' decisions

545. like I sometimes felt I had to do.

546. Might those people I freed be ordered back into slavery?

547. That's why I'd like to get

548. the 13th Amendment through the House,

549. on its way to ratification by the states.

550. Wrap the whole slavery thing up,

551. forever and aye, as soon as I'm able. Now!

552. End of this month.

553. And I'd like you to stand behind me

554. like my Cabinet's most always done.

555. As the preacher said,

556. "I could write shorter sermons,

557. "but once I start, I get too Iazy to stop."

558. It seems to me, sir, you're describing

559. precisely the sort of dictator

560. the Democrats have been howling about.

561. Dictators aren't susceptible to Iaw.

562. Neither is he. He just said as much.

563. Ignoring the courts? Twisting meanings?

564. What reins him in from... From...

565. Well, the people do that, I suppose.

566. I signed the Emancipation Proclamation,

567. what, a year and a half before my second election?

568. I felt I was within my power to do it,

569. however, I also felt that I might be wrong about that.

570. I knew the people would tell me.

571. I gave them a year and a half to think about it,

572. and they re-elected me.

573. And come February the first,

574. I intend to sign the 13th Amendment!

575. Well, Mr. Representative Ashley.

576. Tell us the news from the Hill.

577. Ah, well, the news...

578. Why, for instance, is this thus,

579. and what is the reason for this thusness?

580. James, we want you to bring the anti-slavery amendment

581. to the floor for debate,

582. - immediately. - Excuse me, what?

583. You are the amendment's manager, are you not?

584. I am, of course, but...

585. Then we're counting on robust radical support

586. so tell Mr. Stevens we expect him

587. to put his back into it.

588. It's not going to be easy, but...

589. It's impossible.

590. No. I am sorry, no.

591. We can't organize anything immediately in the House.

592. I have been canvassing the Democrats

593. since the election,

594. in case any of them have softened

595. after they got walloped, but

596. they have stiffened, if anything, Mr. Secretary.

597. There aren't nearly enough votes.

598. We're whalers, Mr. Ashley.

599. Whalers? As in, uh... Whales?

600. We've been chasing this whale for a long time.

601. And we finally placed a harpoon

602. in the monster's back.

603. It's in, James. It's in.

604. We finish the deed now. We can't wait.

605. Or with one flop of his tail, he'll smash the boat

606. and send us all to eternity.

607. On the 31 st of this month, of this year,

608. put the amendment up for a vote.

609. Whalers?

610. That's what he said.

611. The man's never been near a whale ship in his life.

612. Withdraw radical support.

613. Force him to abandon this scheme,

614. whatever he's up to.

615. He drags his feet about everything,

616. Lincoln... Why this urgency?

617. We got it through the Senate without difficulty

618. because we had the numbers.

619. Come December, you'll have the same in the House.

620. The amendment will be the easy work of 10 minutes.

621. He's using the threat of the amendment

622. to frighten the Rebels into an immediate surrender.

623. I imagine we'd rejoice to see that.

624. Will you rejoice when the Southern states

625. have rejoined the Union pell-mell,

626. as Lincoln intends them to, and one by one,

627. each refuses to ratify the amendment?

628. If we pass it, which we won't.

629. Why are we cooperating with him?

630. We all know what he's doing and we all know what he'll do.

631. We can't offer up abolition's best Iegal prayer

632. to his games and tricks.

633. He said he'd welcome the South back

634. with all its slaves in chains.

635. Three years ago he said that, to calm the border states.

636. I don't!

637. You said we all know what he'll do. I don't know.

638. You know he isn't to be trusted.

639. Trust? Oh.

640. I'm sorry, I was under the misapprehension

641. that your chosen profession was politics.

642. I never trusted the President, never trusted anyone,

643. but hasn't he surprised you?

644. No, Mr. Stevens, he hasn't.

645. Nothing surprises you, Asa,

646. therefore nothing about you is surprising.

647. Perhaps that is why your constituents

648. did not re-elect you to the coming term.

649. It's late.

650. I'm old.

651. I'm going home.

652. Lincoln, the inveterate dawdler.

653. Lincoln, the Southerner.

654. Lincoln, the capitulating compromiser,

655. our adversary, and

656. Ieader of the godforsaken Republican party.

657. Our party.

658. Abraham Lincoln has asked us to work with him

659. to accomplish the death of slavery in America.

660. Retain, even in opposition

661. your capacity for astonishment.

662. The President is never to be mentioned. Nor I.

663. You're paid for your discretion.

664. Hell, you can have that for nothing.

665. What we need money for is bribes, to speed things up.

666. No, nothing strictly illegal.

667. It's not illegal to bribe Congressmen,

668. they'd starve otherwise.

669. I have explained to Mr. Bilbo and Mr. Latham that

670. we are offering patronage jobs

671. to the Dems who vote yes.

672. - Jobs and nothing more. - That's correct.

673. Congressmen come cheap.

674. Few thousand bucks will buy you all you need.

675. The President would be unhappy to hear you did that.

676. Will he be unhappy if we lose?

677. The money I managed to raise for this endeavor

678. is only for your fees, your food and Iodging.

679. Uh-huh.

680. If that squirrel-infested attic

681. you've quartered us in is any measure,

682. you ain't raised much.

683. Shall we get to work?

684. The House recognizes Fernando Wood,

685. the honorable Representative from New York.

686. Estimable colleagues.

687. Two bloody years ago this month

688. His Highness,

689. King Abraham Africanus the First,

690. our great usurping Caesar,

691. violator of habeas corpus and freedom of the press,

692. abuser of states' rights...

693. If Lincoln really were a tyrant, Mr. Wood,

694. he'd have had your empty head

695. impaled on a pike!

696. And the country better for it!

697. Radical Republican autocrat,

698. ruling by fiat and martial Iaw,

699. affixed his name to his heinous and illicit

700. Emancipation Proclamation

701. promising it would hasten the end of the war,

702. which yet rages on and on.

703. He claimed, as tyrants do

704. that the war's emergencies

705. permitted him to turn our army into...

706. The New York delegation is Iooking decidedly uninspired.

707. and radical Republicanism's abolitionist fanaticism!

708. His Emancipation Proclamation

709. has obliterated millions of dollars...

710. Over in Pennsylvania,

711. who's the sweaty man eating his thumb?

712. Unknown to me. Seems jumpy.

713. Perhaps he'll jump.

714. But all that was not enough for this dictator,

715. who now seeks to insinuate...

716. Jesus.

717. When's this son of Iiberty sum-a-bitch gonna sit down?

718. John EIIis is gonna break his watch if he doesn't stop.

719. We are once again asked, nay

720. commanded, to consider a proposed 13th Amendment

721. which, if passed, shall set at immediate Iiberty

722. four million coloreds while manacling

723. the Iimbs of the white race in America.

724. If it is passed,

725. but it shall not pass!

726. What's more interesting

727. is how dismal and disgruntled

728. Mr. Yeaman appears.

729. Every member of this House...

730. He should be cheering right now.

731. Looks like he ate a bad oyster.

732. Party and the constituents it serves

733. shall oppose...

734. Point of order, Mr. Speaker, if you please.

735. Mr. Speaker, I still have the floor.

736. And the gentleman from Pennsylvania

737. is out of order!

738. When will Mr. Wood conclude his interminable gabble?

739. Some of us breathe oxygen

740. and we find the mephitic fumes of his oratory

741. a Iethal challenge to our pulmonary capabilities!

742. We shall oppose this amendment,

743. and any Iegislation that so affronts natural Iaw

744. insulting to God as to man!

745. Congress must never declare equal

746. those whom God created unequal!

747. SIavery is the only insult to natural Iaw,

748. you fatuous nincompoop!

749. Order!

750. Procedure, Mr. Speaker.

751. Mr. Wood has the floor.

752. Instruct us,

753. oh, Great Commoner.

754. What is unnatural, in your opinion?

755. Niggrahs casting ballots?

756. Niggrah representatives?

757. Is that natural, Stevens?

758. Intermarriage?

759. What violates natural Iaw?

760. SIavery and you.

761. Pendleton, you insult God!

762. You unnatural noise.

763. Mr. Colfax, please, use your gavel!

764. - You are out of order! - Order in the Cabinet!

765. Instruct the Sergeant-at-Arms

766. to suppress this!

767. We are in session!

768. - Please don't encourage this!

769. Don't encourage this!

770. You're back! You're back! You're back!

771. I am. The goat got big.

772. Help me get one of these to my room.

773. - She in there? - She's asleep, probably.

774. - You need help, sir? - No, sir.

775. They went to see Avonia Jones last night

776. in a play about Israelites.

777. Could you bring your pa this Ietter I writ

778. about my insolvency proceeding?

779. Deliver your own goddamn petition.

780. There's a new book. Sam Beckwith

781. says it's about finches and finches' beaks,

782. about how they change.

783. He's here.

784. He's here! Mrs. Cuthbert, he's here!

785. - Robbie. - Hi, Mom.

786. - Oh, Robbie. - Hey.

787. - Robbie. - Hey.

788. Oh.

789. You're only staying a few days, why'd you pack all that?

790. Well, I don't know how long...

791. Go tell your father Robert's home.

792. Mr. Nicolay says Daddy's secluded with Mr. BIair.

793. Tell him anyway.

794. - Did you forget to eat?

795. - Exactly like him. - No.

796. You'll Iinger a few days extra after the reception

797. before you go back to school.

798. Well, I don't know if I'm going to go back...

799. We'll fatten you up before you return to Boston.

800. - All right, Mom. - All right.

801. Oh, Robbie.

802. Jefferson Davis is sending three delegates.

803. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell.

804. Vice President of the Confederacy,

805. the former Secretary of State

806. and their Assistant Secretary of War.

807. They're coming in earnest to propose peace.

808. I know this is unwelcome news for you.

809. Now hear me.

810. I went to Richmond to talk to traitors.

811. To smile at and plead with traitors

812. because it'll be spring in two months.

813. The roads will be passable,

814. the spring slaughter commences.

815. Four bloody springs now.

816. Think of my Frank,

817. whom you've taken to your heart.

818. How you'll blame yourself if the war takes my son

819. as it's taken multitudes of sons.

820. Think of all the boys who will die

821. if you don't make peace.

822. You must talk with these men.

823. I intend to, Preston.

824. In return, I must ask you to support our push for the amendment...

825. No, this is not horse trading.

826. Not now!

827. Bob. I'm sorry.

828. - Welcome home. - Thank you, sir.

829. Looking fit, Robert. Harvard agrees with you.

830. - Mr. BIair. - Fit and rested.

831. Could you give us a moment, please, Robert? Thank you.

832. I will procure your votes for you, as I promised.

833. You have always kept your word to me.

834. Those Southern men are coming.

835. I beg you, in the name of gentle Christ, sir.

836. I understand.

837. Talk peace with these men.

838. I understand, Preston.

839. We have one abstention so far.

840. Jacob Graylor.

841. He'd like to be Federal Revenue Assessor

842. for the 5th District of Pennsylvania.

843. So the total of Representatives

844. voting three weeks from today is reduced to 182,

845. which means 122 yes votes

846. to reach the requisite two-thirds of the House.

847. Assuming all Republicans vote for the amendment.

848. Then despite our abstention,

849. to reach a two-thirds majority,

850. we remain twenty yeses short.

851. For which we're seeking

852. from among 64 lame duck Democrats.

853. Fully 39 of these we deem unredeemable no votes.

854. The kind that hates niggers.

855. Hates God for makin' niggers.

856. The Good Lord on high would despair of their souls.

857. Thank you for that pithy explanation, Mr. Bilbo.

858. We've abandoned these 39 to

859. the devil that possesses them.

860. We would...

861. The remaining Iame ducks, on whom we've been working with a purpose.

862. Charles Hanson.

863. Congressman.

864. My colleagues and I would like a moment of your time.

865. I wonder if you've given much thought...

866. Giles Stuart.

867. Rather clumsy.

868. Nelson Merrick.

869. Homer Benson.

870. My name is Richard Schell.

871. I wanted you to have a look at this prospectus here.

872. And Iastly,

873. CIay Hawkins. Of Ohio.

874. Tax Collector for the Western Reserve.

875. That pays handsomely.

876. Don't just reach for the highest branches,

877. they sway in every breeze.

878. Assistant Port Inspector in Morristown

879. looks like the ticket to me.

880. Boats, they, they make me sick.

881. So just stand on the dock.

882. Let the Assistant Assistant Port Inspector's stomach

883. go weak.

884. And, lastly, Democratic yes vote

885. number six, Hawkins.

886. From Ohio.

887. Six?

888. Well, thus far.

889. Plus Graylor's abstention.

890. - From tiny acorns and so on. - What did Hawkins get?

891. Postmaster of the Millersburg Post Office.

892. He's selling himself cheap, ain't he?

893. Well, he wanted Tax Collector of the Western Reserve.

894. First term Congressman who couldn't manage reelection.

895. I felt it unseemly

896. and they bargained him down to Postmaster.

897. Scatter them over several rounds of appointments

898. so no one notices, then burn this Iedger,

899. please, after you're done.

900. Time for my public opinion bath.

901. Might as well let them in.

902. Seven yeses with Mr. EIIis.

903. Thirteen to go.

904. One last item.

905. An absurdity, but

906. my associates report that among the Representatives

907. a fantastical rumor's bruited about,

908. which I immediately disavowed,

909. that you'd allowed bleary old Preston BIair

910. to sojourn to Richmond

911. to invite Jeff Davis to send commissioners

912. up to Washington with a peace plan.

913. I, of course, told them that you would never.

914. Not without consulting me, you wouldn't.

915. Because why on earth would you?

916. Much obliged.

917. Why wasn't I consulted?

918. I'm Secretary of State.

919. And you informally send a reactionary dotard to...

920. What will happen, do you imagine,

921. when these peace commissioners arrive?

922. We'll hear them out.

923. Oh. Splendid.

924. And next, the Democrats will invite them

925. up to hearings on the Hill.

926. And the newspapers... Oh, the newspapers.

927. The newspapers will ask,

928. "Why risk enraging the Confederacy

929. "over the issue of slavery

930. "when they're here to make peace?"

931. We'll lose every Democrat we've got,

932. more than Iikely conservative Republicans

933. will join them, and all our work,

934. all our preparing the ground for the vote

935. laid waste for naught.

936. The BIairs promised support for the amendment

937. if we listen to these people.

938. Oh, the BIairs promise, do they?

939. You think they'll keep their promise

940. once we've heard these delegates

941. and refused them, which we will have to do,

942. since their proposal most certainly

943. will be predicated on

944. keeping their slaves!

945. What hope for any Democratic votes, Willum,

946. if word gets out that I've refused a chance

947. to end the war?

948. You think word won't get out?

949. In Washington?

950. It's either the amendment or this Confederate peace.

951. You cannot have both.

952. "If you can look into the seeds of time,

953. "And say which grain will grow and which will not,

954. "Speak then to me."

955. A disaster. This is a disaster.

956. Time is a great thickener of things, Willum.

957. Yes, I suppose it is.

958. Actually, I have no idea what you mean by that.

959. Get me 13 votes.

960. Them fellas from Richmond ain't here yet.

961. You drafted half the men in Boston.

962. What do you think their families think about me?

963. The only reason they don't throw things and spit on me

964. is 'cause you're so popular.

965. I can't concentrate on, on British Mercantile Law.

966. I don't care about British Mercantile Law.

967. I might not even want to be a Iawyer.

968. It's a sturdy profession. And a useful one.

969. Yes, and I want to be useful, but now, not afterwards.

970. I ain't wearing them things, Mr. SIade.

971. They never fit right.

972. The missus will have you wear them. Don't think...

973. You're delaying, that's your favorite tactic.

974. - Be useful... - You won't tell me no,

975. but the war will be over in a month, and you know it will.

976. I've found that prophesying

977. is one of life's less profitable occupations.

978. Why do some slaves cost more than others?

979. Uh, if they're still young and healthy,

980. or if the women can still conceive, they pay more.

981. Put them back in the box, you scoundrel.

982. We'll return them to Mr. Gardner's studio

983. day after next.

984. Be careful with them now.

985. These things should have stayed on the calf.

986. When you were a slave, Mr. SIade, did they beat you?

987. I was born a free man.

988. Nobody beat me except I beat them right back.

989. Mr. Lincoln...

990. Mrs. Keckley was a slave. Ask her if she was beaten.

991. Were you... - Tad.

992. I was beaten with a fire shovel

993. when I was younger than you.

994. You should go to Mrs. Lincoln. She's in Willie's room.

995. She never goes in there.

996. The reception line is already stretching out the door.

997. See, I'll be the only man over 15 and under 65

998. in this whole place not in uniform.

999. I'm under 15.

1000. My head hurts so.

1001. I prayed for death the night Willie died.

1002. My headaches are how I know I didn't get my wish.

1003. How to endure the long afternoon

1004. and deep into the night.

1005. I know.

1006. Trying not to think about him. How will I manage?

1007. - Somehow. You will. - Somehow?

1008. Oh.

1009. Somehow. Somehow.

1010. Every party.

1011. Every...

1012. And now

1013. four years more in this terrible house,

1014. reproaching us.

1015. He was a very sick Iittle boy.

1016. We should have canceled that reception, shouldn't we?

1017. We didn't know how sick he was.

1018. I knew. I knew.

1019. I saw that night he was dying.

1020. Three years ago, the war was going so badly.

1021. We had to put on a face.

1022. But I saw Willie was dying.

1023. Molly...

1024. I saw him.

1025. It's too hard.

1026. Too hard.

1027. Oh, gracious saints!

1028. She's just ten feet yonder. I'd like to keep my job.

1029. - How nice to see you. - Nice to see you.

1030. Senator Sumner. It's been much too long.

1031. "Oh, who can look on that celestial face..."

1032. And?

1033. James Ashley, ma'am. We've met several times.

1034. Praise heavens, praise heavens.

1035. Just when I had abandoned hope of amusement,

1036. it's the Chairman of the House Ways

1037. - and Means Committee. - Mrs. Lincoln.

1038. Madame President, if you please.

1039. Don't convene another subcommittee

1040. to investigate me, sir.

1041. I'm teasing. Smile, Senator Wade.

1042. I believe I am smiling, Mrs. Lincoln.

1043. As long as your household accounts

1044. are in order, madam,

1045. we'll have no need to investigate them.

1046. You have always taken such a Iively,

1047. even prosecutorial interest in my household accounts.

1048. Your household accounts have always been so interesting.

1049. Yes, thank you. It's true.

1050. The miracles I have wrought

1051. out of fertilizer bills and cutlery invoices,

1052. but I had to.

1053. Four years ago, when the President and I arrived,

1054. this was pure pigsty.

1055. Tobacco stains on the Turkey carpets.

1056. Mushrooms, green as the moon, sprouting from the ceilings.

1057. And a pauper's pittance allotted for improvements.

1058. As if your committee joined with all of Washington

1059. awaiting in what you anticipated

1060. would be our comfort in squalor.

1061. Further proof that my husband and I

1062. were prairie primitives

1063. unsuited to the position to which an error of the people,

1064. a flaw in the Democratic process had elevated us.

1065. The past is the past. It's a new year now

1066. and we are all getting along, or so they tell me.

1067. I gather we are working together.

1068. The White House and the other House,

1069. hatching Iittle plans together.

1070. Mother. - What?

1071. - You're creating a bottleneck. - Oh.

1072. Oh, I'm detaining you.

1073. And more importantly, the people behind you.

1074. How the people love my husband.

1075. They flock to see him by their thousands on public days.

1076. They will never love you the way they love him.

1077. How difficult it must be for you to know that

1078. and yet how important to remember it.

1079. Since we have the floor next in the debate,

1080. I thought I'd suggest you might

1081. temper your contribution

1082. so as not to frighten our conservative friends.

1083. Ashley insists you're ensuring approval

1084. by dispensing patronage

1085. to otherwise undeserving Democrats.

1086. I can't ensure a single damn thing

1087. if you scare the whole House silly

1088. with talk of land appropriations

1089. and revolutionary tribunals.

1090. When the war ends, I intend to

1091. push for full equality, the Negro vote, and much more.

1092. Congress shall mandate the seizure

1093. of every foot of Rebel land

1094. and every dollar of their property.

1095. We'll use their confiscated wealth

1096. to establish hundreds of thousands

1097. of free Negro farmers

1098. and, at their side, soldiers armed to occupy

1099. and transform the heritage of traitors.

1100. We'll build up a land down there

1101. of free men and free women and free children and freedom.

1102. The nation needs to know that we have such plans.

1103. That's the untempered version of reconstruction.

1104. It is not...

1105. It's not quite exactly what I intend.

1106. But we shall oppose one another in the course of time.

1107. Now we're working together, and I'm asking you...

1108. For patience, I expect.

1109. When the people disagree, bringing them together

1110. requires going slow until they're ready to...

1111. Shit on the people and what they want

1112. and what they're ready for.

1113. I don't give a goddamn about the people

1114. and what they want.

1115. This is the face of someone

1116. who has fought long and hard

1117. for the good of the people

1118. without caring much for any of them.

1119. And I look a lot worse without my wig.

1120. The people elected me to represent them,

1121. to Iead them, and I Iead. You ought to try it.

1122. I admire your zeal, Mr. Stevens

1123. and I have tried to profit from the example of it, but

1124. if I'd Iistened to you,

1125. I'd have declared every slave free

1126. the minute the first shell struck Fort Sumter.

1127. And the border states would have gone over

1128. to the Confederacy, the war would have been lost

1129. and the Union along with it,

1130. and instead of abolishing slavery

1131. as we hope to do in two weeks,

1132. we'd be watching, helpless as infants, as it spread

1133. from the American South into South America.

1134. Oh, how you have Ionged to say that to me.

1135. You claim you trust them,

1136. but you know what the people are.

1137. You know that the inner compass,

1138. that should direct the soul towards justice

1139. has ossified in white men and women, North and South,

1140. unto utter uselessness,

1141. through tolerating the evil of slavery.

1142. White people cannot bear the thought

1143. of sharing this country's infinite abundance

1144. with Negroes.

1145. A compass, I learned when I was surveying,

1146. it'll point you true north from where you're standing.

1147. But it's got no advice about

1148. the swamps and deserts and chasms

1149. that you'll encounter along the way.

1150. If in pursuit of your destination,

1151. you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles

1152. and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp,

1153. what's the use of knowing true north?

1154. Robert's going to plead with us to let him enlist.

1155. Make time to talk to Robbie. You only have time for Tad.

1156. Tad is young.

1157. So is Robert. Too young for the Army.

1158. PIenty of boys younger than Robert signing up.

1159. Don't take Robbie.

1160. Don't let me lose my son.

1161. Go away! We're occupied!

1162. Secretary Stanton has sent over

1163. to tell you that as of half an hour ago

1164. the shelling of Wilmington Harbor has commenced.

1165. They cannot possibly maintain under this kind of an assault.

1166. Terry has got 10,000 men surrounding the goddamn port.

1167. Why doesn't he answer...

1168. Fort Fisher is a mountain of a building, Edwin.

1169. It's the Iargest fort they have, sir.

1170. Twenty-two big Seacoast guns on each rampart.

1171. They've been reinforcing it for the last two years.

1172. They've taken 17,000 shells since yesterday!

1173. I want to hear Fort Fisher is ours

1174. and Wilmington has fallen.

1175. Send another damn cable!

1176. The problem's their commander, Whiting!

1177. He engineered the fortress himself,

1178. the damn thing's his child.

1179. He'll defend it till his every last man is gone.

1180. "Come on out, you old rat!"

1181. That's what Ethan AIIen called out

1182. to the commander of Fort Ticonderoga in 1776.

1183. "Come on out, you old rat!"

1184. Of course, there were only

1185. 40 odd Redcoats at Ticonderoga.

1186. There is one Ethan AIIen story that I'm very partial to.

1187. No, you're going to tell a story.

1188. I don't believe that I can bear

1189. to listen to another one of your stories right now.

1190. I need the B&O sideyard schedules for AIexandria!

1191. I asked for them this morning!

1192. It was right after the Revolution,

1193. right after peace had been concluded.

1194. And Ethan AIIen went to London

1195. to help our new country

1196. conduct its business with the King.

1197. The English sneered at how rough we are

1198. and rude and simple-minded, and on like that,

1199. everywhere he went

1200. till one day he was invited to the townhouse

1201. of a great English Iord.

1202. Dinner was served and beverages imbibed,

1203. time passed, as happens, and

1204. Mr. AIIen found he needed the privy.

1205. He was grateful to be directed thence.

1206. - Relieved, you might say.

1207. Now, Mr. AIIen discovered

1208. on entering the water closet,

1209. that the only decoration therein

1210. was a portrait of George Washington.

1211. Ethan AIIen done what he came to do,

1212. and returned to the drawing room.

1213. His host and the others were disappointed

1214. when he didn't mention Washington's portrait.

1215. Finally, His Lordship couldn't resist and asked Mr. AIIen

1216. had he noticed it, the picture of Washington.

1217. He had.

1218. Well, what did he think of its placement,

1219. did it seem appropriately Iocated to Mr. AIIen?

1220. Mr. AIIen said it did.

1221. His host was astounded.

1222. "Appropriate?"

1223. "George Washington's Iikeness in a water closet?"

1224. "Yes," said Mr. AIIen. "Where it'll do good service.

1225. "The whole world knows nothing will make an Englishman

1226. "shit quicker than the sight of George Washington."

1227. I love that story.

1228. Fort Fisher is ours. We've taken the port.

1229. And Wilmington?

1230. We've taken the fort,

1231. but the city of Wilmington has not surrendered.

1232. How many casualties?

1233. - Heavy losses. - And more to come.

1234. It sours the national mood. It might suffice...

1235. To what? To bring this down?

1236. Not in a fight like this. This is to the death.

1237. That's gruesome.

1238. Are you despairing or merely Iazy?

1239. This fight is for the United States ofAmerica.

1240. Nothing "suffices." A rumor? Nothing.

1241. They're not Iazy. They're busily buying votes

1242. while we hope to be saved by "the national mood"?

1243. Before this blood is dry, when Stevens next takes the floor,

1244. taunt him. You excel at that.

1245. Get him to proclaim what we all know he believes

1246. in his coal-colored heart.

1247. That this vote is meant to set the black race on high,

1248. to niggerate America...

1249. George, please, stay on course.

1250. Bring Stevens to full froth.

1251. I can ensure that every newspaperman

1252. from Louisville to San Francisco

1253. will be here to witness it and print it.

1254. The floor belongs to the mellifluent gentleman

1255. from Kentucky, Mr. George Yeaman.

1256. I thank you, Speaker Colfax.

1257. AIthough I am disgusted by slavery,

1258. I rise on this sad and solemn day

1259. to announce that I'm opposed to the amendment.

1260. We must consider what will become of colored folk

1261. if four million are, in one instant, set free.

1262. They'll be free, George,

1263. that's what will become of them.

1264. Think how splendid

1265. if Mr. Yeaman switched.

1266. Too publicly against us. He can't change course now.

1267. Not for some miserable Iittle job, anyways.

1268. And we will be forced to enfranchise

1269. the men of the colored race.

1270. It would be inhuman not to.

1271. Now who among us is prepared to give Negroes the vote?

1272. And, and,

1273. what shall follow upon that?

1274. Universal enfranchisement?

1275. Votes for women?

1276. We...

1277. Bless my eyes.

1278. If it isn't the Postmaster of Millersburg, Ohio.

1279. Mr. LeCIerk felt honor-bound to inform us

1280. of your disgusting betrayal.

1281. Your prostitution.

1282. Is that true, Postmaster Hawkins?

1283. Is your maidenly virtue for sale?

1284. if my neighbors hear

1285. that I voted yes for nigger freedom

1286. and no to peace, they will kill me.

1287. A deal is a deal.

1288. You men know better than to piss your pants

1289. just 'cause there's talk about peace talks.

1290. - Look, I'll find another job! - My neighbors in Nashville,

1291. they found out I was Ioyal to the Union,

1292. they came after me with gelding knives.

1293. - I'll find another job. - You do right, CIay Hawkins.

1294. I want to do right! But I got no courage!

1295. Wait. You wanted... What was it?

1296. A tax man for the Western Reserve?

1297. Hell, you can have the whole state of Ohio if you want...

1298. Oh, crap.

1299. Eleven votes?

1300. Two days ago, we had twelve. What happened?

1301. There are defections in the ranks.

1302. It's the goddamn rumors

1303. regarding the Richmond delegation.

1304. - Yes. The peace offer. - Groundless.

1305. - And yet the rumors persist. - They are ruining us.

1306. Among the few remaining Representatives

1307. who seem remotely plausible,

1308. there is a perceptible increase in resistance.

1309. Resistance, hell.

1310. Thingamabob Hollister, Dem from Indiana.

1311. I approached him, sumbitch near to murdered me.

1312. Colorado Territory... What's this one?

1313. Job description... Taxpayers and...

1314. Oh, shit! Cracky!

1315. Fuck you, you son of a bitch! Goddamn!

1316. - Perhaps you pushed too hard. - I push nobody.

1317. Perhaps we need reinforcements.

1318. If Jeff Davis wants to cease hostilities,

1319. who do you think is going to give a genuine solid shit

1320. to free slaves?

1321. Get back to it.

1322. And gentlemen, good day.

1323. We are at an impasse.

1324. Tell Lincoln to deny the rumors, publicly.

1325. Tell us what you expect of us.

1326. I expect you to do your work.

1327. And have sufficient sense and taste

1328. not to presume to instruct the President.

1329. Or me.

1330. Is there a Confederate offer, or not?

1331. Gentlemen.

1332. I suggest you work some changes to your proposal

1333. before you give it to the President.

1334. We're eager to be on our way to Washington.

1335. Mr. Lincoln tell you to tell us this?

1336. It says "securing peace for our two countries"

1337. and it goes on like that.

1338. - I don't... - There is just one country.

1339. You and I, we're citizens of that country.

1340. I'm fighting to protect it from armed rebels.

1341. From you.

1342. But Mr. BIair, he told us,

1343. he told President Jefferson Davis that we...

1344. A private citizen like Preston BIair

1345. can say what he pleases,

1346. since he has no authority over anything.

1347. If you want to discuss peace with President Lincoln,

1348. consider revisions.

1349. If we're not to discuss

1350. a truce between warring nations,

1351. what in heaven's name can we discuss?

1352. Terms of surrender.

1353. "Office United States Military Telegraph,

1354. "War Department.

1355. "For Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.

1356. "January 20, 1865.

1357. "l will state confidentially that I am convinced

1358. "upon conversation with these commissioners

1359. "that their intentions are good

1360. "and their desire sincere to restore peace and union.

1361. "l fear now they're going back

1362. "without any expression of interest from anyone

1363. "in authority, Mr. Lincoln, will have a bad influence.

1364. "I will be sorry should it prove impossible for you

1365. "to have an interview with them.

1366. "I am awaiting your instructions.

1367. "U.S. Grant, Lieutenant General,

1368. "Commanding Armies, United States."

1369. After four years of war, and

1370. near 600,000 Iives lost,

1371. he believes we can end this war now.

1372. My trust in him is marrow deep.

1373. You could bring the delegates to Washington.

1374. In exchange for the South's immediate surrender,

1375. we could promise them the amendment's defeat.

1376. They'd agree, don't you think? We'd end the war. This week.

1377. Or, if you could manage

1378. without seeming to do it, to, uh...

1379. The peace delegation might encounter delays

1380. as they travel up the James River.

1381. Particularly with the fighting around Wilmington.

1382. Within ten days' time,

1383. we might pass the 13th Amendment.

1384. Here's a 16-year-old boy,

1385. they're going to hang him.

1386. He's with the Fifteenth Indiana Cavalry near Bulford.

1387. It seems he Iamed his horse to avoid battle.

1388. I don't think even Stanton would complain

1389. if I pardoned him.

1390. You think Stanton would complain?

1391. I don't know, sir. I don't know who you're, uh...

1392. - What time is it? - It's 3:40 in the morning.

1393. Don't let him pardon any more deserters.

1394. Mr. Stanton thinks you pardon too many.

1395. He's generally apoplectic on the subject.

1396. He oughtn't have done that, crippled his horse.

1397. That was cruel, but you don't just hang

1398. a 16-year-old boy for that...

1399. Ask the horse what he thinks.

1400. for cruelty. There'd be no 16-year-old boys left.

1401. Grant wants me to bring the secesh delegates

1402. to Washington.

1403. So there are secesh delegates?

1404. He was afraid, that's all it was.

1405. I don't care to hang a boy for being frightened, either.

1406. What good would it do him?

1407. War's nearly done, ain't that so?

1408. What use is one more corpse?

1409. Any more corpses?

1410. Do you need company?

1411. In times like this, I'm best alone.

1412. "Lieutenant General UIysses S. Grant, City Point.

1413. "I have read your words with interest.

1414. "I ask that,

1415. "regardless of any action I take in the matter

1416. "of the visit of the Richmond commissioners

1417. "you maintain among your troops

1418. "military preparedness for battle

1419. "as you have done until now.

1420. "Have Captain Saunders convey the commissioners to me

1421. "here in Washington.

1422. "A. Lincoln." And the date.

1423. Yes, sir.

1424. Shall I transmit, sir?

1425. You think we choose to be born?

1426. I don't suppose so.

1427. Are we fitted to the times we're born into?

1428. Well, I don't know about myself.

1429. You may be,

1430. sir. Fitted.

1431. What do you reckon?

1432. Well, I'm an engineer.

1433. I reckon there's machinery,

1434. but no one's done the fitting.

1435. You're an engineer.

1436. You must know Euclid's axioms and common notions.

1437. I must have in school, but...

1438. I never had much of schooling,

1439. but I read Euclid in an old book I borrowed.

1440. Little enough ever found its way in here,

1441. but once Iearnt, it stayed Iearnt.

1442. Euclid's first common notion is this,

1443. "Things which are equal to the same thing

1444. "are equal to each other."

1445. That's a rule of mathematical reasoning.

1446. It's true because it works.

1447. Has done and always will do.

1448. In his book, mmm,

1449. Euclid says this is "self-evident."

1450. You see? There it is,

1451. even in that 2,000-year-old book

1452. of mechanical Iaw.

1453. It is a self-evident truth

1454. that things which are equal to the same thing

1455. are equal to each other.

1456. We begin with equality.

1457. That's the origin, isn't it?

1458. That's balance. That's... That's fairness.

1459. That's justice.

1460. Just read me back the last sentence

1461. of the telegram, please.

1462. "Have Captain Saunders convey the commissioners to me

1463. "here in Washington."

1464. A slight emendation, if you would, Sam.

1465. "Have Captain Saunders convey the gentlemen

1466. "aboard the River Queen

1467. "as far as Hampton Roads, Virginia,

1468. "and there wait until

1469. "further advice from me.

1470. "Do not proceed to Washington."

1471. The World, the Herald, the Times,

1472. New York, Chicago,

1473. the Journal of Commerce,

1474. even your hometown paper's here.

1475. Say you believe only in Iegal equality for all races,

1476. not racial equality.

1477. I beg you, sir.

1478. Compromise. Or you risk it all.

1479. I've asked you a question, Mr. Stevens,

1480. and you must answer me.

1481. Do you or do you not hold that the precept

1482. that "All men are created equal" is meant Iiterally?

1483. Is that not the true purpose of the amendment?

1484. To promote your ultimate and ardent dream to elevate...

1485. The true purpose of the amendment, Mr. Wood,

1486. you perfectly named,

1487. brainless obstructive object...

1488. Now you have always insisted, Mr. Stevens,

1489. that Negroes are the same as white men are.

1490. The true purpose of the amendment...

1491. I don't hold with equality in all things,

1492. only with equality before the Iaw. Nothing more.

1493. That's... That's not so.

1494. You believe that Negroes are entirely equal to white men.

1495. You've said it a thousand times!

1496. For shame! For shame!

1497. Stop prevaricating and answer Representative Wood!

1498. I don't hold with equality in all things,

1499. only with equality before the Iaw.

1500. After the decades of fervent advocacy...

1501. He's answered your questions!

1502. This amendment's not to do with race equality.

1503. I don't hold with equality in all things,

1504. only with equality before the Iaw, and nothing more!

1505. Who'd ever have guessed that old nightmare

1506. capable of such control?

1507. He might make a politician someday.

1508. I need to go.

1509. Mrs. Keckley.

1510. Your frantic attempt to delude us now

1511. is unworthy of a representative.

1512. It is, in fact, unworthy of a white man!

1513. How can I hold that all men are created equal

1514. when here before me stands, stinking,

1515. the moral carcass of the gentleman from Ohio, proof

1516. that some men are inferior,

1517. endowed by their Maker with dim wits,

1518. impermeable to reason,

1519. with cold, pallid slime in their veins

1520. instead of hot, red blood!

1521. You are more reptile than man, George!

1522. So low and flat that the foot of man

1523. is incapable of crushing you.

1524. How dare you?

1525. Yet even you, Pendleton,

1526. who should have been gibbeted for treason

1527. long before today.

1528. Even worthless, unworthy you

1529. ought to be treated equally before the Iaw!

1530. And so again, sir, again and again and again I say,

1531. I do not hold with equality in all things,

1532. only with equality before the Iaw.

1533. Mr. Speaker, will you permit this vile, boorish man

1534. to slander and to threaten me?

1535. And to reduce these proceedings

1536. on this most important matter into an anarchic

1537. and tawdry burlesque?

1538. You asked if ever I was surprised.

1539. Today, Mr. Stevens,

1540. I was surprised.

1541. You've led the battle for race equality for 30 years.

1542. The basis of every hope for this country's future life,

1543. you denied Negro equality. I'm nauseated.

1544. You refused to say that all humans are...

1545. Well, human.

1546. Have you lost your very soul, Mr. Stevens?

1547. Is there nothing you won't say?

1548. I'm sorry you're nauseous, Asa.

1549. That must be unpleasant.

1550. I want the amendment to pass,

1551. so that the Constitution's first

1552. and only mention of slavery

1553. is its absolute prohibition.

1554. For this amendment, for which I have worked all my life

1555. and for which countless colored men and women

1556. have fought and died

1557. and now hundreds of thousands of soldiers...

1558. No, sir, no.

1559. It seems there's very nearly nothing I won't say.

1560. I'm not going in.

1561. You said you wanted to help me.

1562. But this is just a clumsy attempt to discourage me.

1563. I've been to Army hospitals. I've seen surgeries.

1564. I went and visited the malaria barges with Mama.

1565. She told me she didn't take you inside.

1566. I snuck in afterwards.

1567. I've seen what it's like. This changes nothing.

1568. Well, at all rate, son,

1569. I'm happy to have your company.

1570. Good morning, Jim. - Hello, Mr. President.

1571. - Good to see you again. - Good to see you.

1572. Well, boys, first question. You getting enough to eat?

1573. Hello, sir.

1574. - What's your name, soldier? - Robert.

1575. - Good to meet you, Robert. - Nice to meet you.

1576. - What's your name? - Kevin.

1577. Tell me your names as I go past.

1578. I'd like to know who I'm talking to. Kevin.

1579. - Mr. President. John. - John. I've seen you before.

1580. Mr. President.

1581. Make sure you get some steak.

1582. I wouldn't mind one myself, right now.

1583. What's the matter, Bob?

1584. I have to do this, and I will do it.

1585. And I don't need your permission to enlist.

1586. That same speech has been made by how many sons

1587. to how many fathers since the war began?

1588. "I don't need your damn permission,

1589. "you miserable old goat, I'm gonna enlist anyhow."

1590. And what wouldn't those

1591. numberless fathers have given

1592. to be able to say to their sons

1593. as I now say to mine, "I'm Commander in Chief."

1594. So, in point of fact, without my permission

1595. you ain't enlisting in nothing nowhere, young man.

1596. It's Mama you're scared of, it's not me getting killed.

1597. I have to do this! And I will!

1598. Or I will feel ashamed of myself for the rest of my life!

1599. Whether or not you fought is what's gonna matter,

1600. and not just to other people, but to myself!

1601. I won't be you, Pa, I can't do that,

1602. but I don't want to be nothing!

1603. I can't lose you.

1604. He'll be fine, Molly.

1605. City Point's a way back from the front Iines

1606. and the fighting.

1607. He'll be an adjutant, running messages for General Grant.

1608. The war will take our son.

1609. A sniper, or a shrapnel shell, a typhus

1610. same as took Willie.

1611. It takes hundreds of boys a day. He'll die uselessly.

1612. And how will I ever forgive you?

1613. Most men, their firstborn is their favorite.

1614. You've always blamed Robert for being born.

1615. For trapping you in a marriage

1616. that's only ever given you grief

1617. - and caused you regret. - That's simply not true.

1618. And if the slaughter of Cold Harbor's

1619. on your hands same as Grant, God help us.

1620. We'll pay for the oceans of spilled blood

1621. you've sanctioned, the uncountable corpses!

1622. We'll be made to pay with our son's dear blood!

1623. Just this once, Mrs. Lincoln,

1624. I demand of you to try and take the Iiberal

1625. and not the selfish point of view.

1626. Robert will never forgive himself.

1627. You imagine he'll forgive us

1628. if we continue to stifle this very natural ambition?

1629. And if I refuse to take the high road?

1630. If I won't pick up the rough old cross,

1631. will you threaten me again with the madhouse?

1632. As you did when I couldn't stop crying over Willie.

1633. When I showed you what heartbreak,

1634. real heartbreak, Iooked like.

1635. And you hadn't the courage

1636. - to countenance, to help me! - That's right, that's right...

1637. When you refused so much as to comfort Tad,

1638. a child who was not only sick, dangerously sick,

1639. but beside himself with grief!

1640. I was holding him in my arms when he died.

1641. But your grief, your grief, your inexhaustible grief!

1642. How dare you throw that up at me?

1643. And his mother wouldn't let him near her

1644. because she's screaming from morning to night!

1645. I couldn't risk him seeing how angry I was!

1646. Pacing the halls, howling at shadows

1647. and furniture and ghosts!

1648. I ought to have done it for Tad's sake,

1649. for everybody's goddamn sake,

1650. I should have clapped you in the madhouse!

1651. Then do it!

1652. Do it! Don't you threaten me!

1653. You do it this time. Lock me away.

1654. You'll have to, I swear,

1655. if Robert is killed.

1656. I couldn't tolerate you grieving so for Willie

1657. because I couldn't permit it in myself.

1658. Though I wanted to, Mary.

1659. I wanted to crawl under the earth,

1660. into the vault, with his coffin.

1661. And I still do. Every day I do.

1662. Don't speak to me about grief.

1663. I must make my decisions, Bob must make his, you yours.

1664. And bear what we must. Hold and carry what we must.

1665. What I carry within me, you must allow me to do it.

1666. AIone, as I must. And you alone, Mary,

1667. you alone may Iighten this burden.

1668. Or render it intolerable.

1669. As you choose.

1670. You think I'm ignorant of what you're up to

1671. because you haven't discussed

1672. this scheme with me as you ought to have done?

1673. When have I ever been so easily bamboozled?

1674. I believe you when you insist

1675. that amending the Constitution

1676. and abolishing slavery will end this war.

1677. And since you are sending my son into the war,

1678. woe unto you if you fail to pass the amendment.

1679. Seward doesn't want me leaving big muddy footprints

1680. all over town.

1681. No one has ever Iived who knows better than you

1682. the proper placement of footfalls

1683. on treacherous paths.

1684. Seward can't do it. You must.

1685. Because if you fail to acquire the necessary votes,

1686. woe unto you, sir. You will answer to me.

1687. Thank you.

1688. I know the vote is only four days away.

1689. I know you're concerned.

1690. Thank you for your concern over this.

1691. And I want you to know, they'll approve it.

1692. God will see to it.

1693. I don't envy Him his task.

1694. He may wish He'd chosen an instrument for His purpose

1695. more wieldy than the House of Representatives.

1696. Then you'll see to it.

1697. Are you afraid of what Iies ahead for your people

1698. if we succeed?

1699. White people don't want us here.

1700. - Many don't. - What about you?

1701. I don't know you, Mrs. Keckley.

1702. Any of you.

1703. You're familiar to me, as all people are,

1704. unaccommodated, poor, bare, forked creatures,

1705. such as we all are.

1706. You have a right to expect what I expect.

1707. And Iikely our expectations

1708. are not incomprehensible to each other.

1709. I assume I'll get used to you.

1710. Now what you are to the nation,

1711. what'll become of you once slavery's day is done,

1712. I don't know.

1713. What my people are to be, I can't say.

1714. Negroes have been fighting and dying for freedom

1715. since the first of us was a slave.

1716. I never heard any ask what freedom would bring.

1717. Freedom is first.

1718. As for me,

1719. my son died fighting for the Union,

1720. wearing the Union blue.

1721. For freedom he died.

1722. And I'm his mother.

1723. That's what I am to the nation, Mr. Lincoln.

1724. What else must I be?

1725. My whole hand's gonna be proud in about five seconds.

1726. Let's see how proud you can be.

1727. Go away. That watch fob, is that gold?

1728. You keep your eyes off my fob.

1729. Gentlemen, you have a visitor.

1730. Goddamn! Hey, Bill.

1731. Well, I'll be fucked.

1732. I wouldn't bet against it.

1733. Mr... uh?

1734. W. N. Bilbo.

1735. Yeah, Mr. Bilbo. Gentlemen.

1736. Sir.

1737. Why are you here? No offense,

1738. but Mr. Seward's banished the very mention of your name.

1739. He won't even let us use fifty cent pieces

1740. 'cause they've got your face on 'em.

1741. The Secretary of State here tells me that you got

1742. 11 Democrats in the bag. That's encouraging.

1743. Oh, you've got no cause to be encouraged, sir.

1744. Are we being fired?

1745. "We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow."

1746. I'm here to alert you boys

1747. that the great day of reckoning is nigh upon us.

1748. The Democrats we've yet to bag, sir,

1749. the patronage jobs simply won't bag 'em.

1750. They require more convincing, Mr. President.

1751. Mm-hmm. Do me a favor, will you?

1752. Sure.

1753. It snagged my eye in the paper this morning

1754. that the Governor Curtin

1755. is set to declare a winner in the disputed

1756. Congressional election for the...

1757. Pennsylvania 16th District.

1758. District. What a joy to be comprehended.

1759. Hop on a train to Philadel, call on the Governor...

1760. Send Latham. Or Schell.

1761. No, he'll do fine. Just polish yourself up first.

1762. The incumbent is claiming he won it. Name of...

1763. Coffroth.

1764. - That's him. Coffroth.

1765. - He's a Democrat. - I understand that.

1766. - Silly name. A Iittle bit silly.

1767. Uh, tell Governor Curtin it'd be much appreciated

1768. if he'd invite the House of Representatives

1769. to decide who won.

1770. He's entitled to do that. He'll agree to it.

1771. Then advise Coffroth

1772. if he hopes to retain his seat,

1773. then he'd better pay a visit to Thaddeus Stevens.

1774. Well, pity poor Coffroth.

1775. It opens!

1776. You are Canfrey?

1777. Coffroth, Mr. Stevens. AIexander Coffroth.

1778. Are we representatives of the same state?

1779. Yes, sir. We sit only three desks apart.

1780. I haven't noticed you.

1781. I'm a Republican and you, Coughdrop, are a Democrat?

1782. Well, uh, I, um, that is to say...

1783. The modern travesty of Thomas Jefferson's

1784. political organization

1785. to which you've attached yourself like a barnacle

1786. has the effrontery to call itself the Democratic Party.

1787. You are a Democrat. What's the matter with you?

1788. Are you wicked?

1789. - Well, I felt... - Never mind.

1790. Coffsnot, you were ignominiously trounced

1791. at the hustings in November's election

1792. by your worthy challenger, a Republican.

1793. No, sir, I was not trounced.

1794. He wants to steal my seat. I didn't lose the election.

1795. What difference does it make if you lost or not?

1796. The governor of our state is... A Democrat?

1797. No, he's, he's a...

1798. Re-...

1799. - ... -pub-... -Iic-... - ... -pub-... -Iic-...

1800. - ... -can. - ... -can. Republican.

1801. I know what he is. This is a rhetorical exercise.

1802. And Congress is controlled by what party? Yours?

1803. Your party was beaten.

1804. Your challenger's party now controls the House

1805. and hence the House Committee on EIections,

1806. so you have been beaten.

1807. You shall shortly be sent home in disgrace. Unless...

1808. I know what I must do, sir.

1809. I will immediately become a Republican and vote yes...

1810. No!

1811. Coffroth will vote yes,

1812. but Coffroth will remain a Democrat

1813. until after he does so.

1814. Why wait to switch? I'm happy to...

1815. We want to show the amendment has bipartisan support,

1816. you idiot. Early in the next Congress,

1817. when I tell you to do so, you will switch parties.

1818. Now congratulations on your victory, and get out.

1819. Now, give me the names

1820. of whoever else you've been hunting.

1821. Aw, hell.

1822. George Yeaman.

1823. Yes. Yeaman.

1824. Among others.

1825. - But Yeaman, that'd count. - Yeah.

1826. Y-E-A-M-A-N.

1827. I got it.

1828. Kentucky.

1829. I can't vote for the amendment, Mr. Lincoln.

1830. I saw a barge once, Mr. Yeaman,

1831. filled with colored men in chains

1832. heading down the Mississippi

1833. to the New Orleans slave markets.

1834. It sickened me.

1835. And more than that, it brought a shadow down.

1836. A pall around my eyes.

1837. SIavery troubled me as long as I can remember

1838. in a way it never troubled my father,

1839. though he hated it, in his own fashion.

1840. He knew no smallholding dirt farmer

1841. could compete with slave plantations

1842. so he took us out from Kentucky

1843. to get away from 'em.

1844. He wanted Indiana kept free.

1845. He wasn't a kind man

1846. but there was a rough, moral urge for fairness,

1847. for freedom in him.

1848. I Iearnt that from him, I suppose.

1849. If Iittle else from him.

1850. We didn't care for one another, Mr. Yeaman.

1851. Well, I'm sorry to hear that.

1852. Loving kindness, that most ordinary thing, came to me

1853. from other sources. I'm grateful for that.

1854. Well, I hate it, too, sir.

1855. SIavery, but...

1856. But we're entirely unready for emancipation.

1857. And there's too many questions...

1858. We're unready for peace, too, ain't we?

1859. Yeah, when it comes, it'll present us with conundrums

1860. and dangers greater than any we faced during the war,

1861. bloody as it's been.

1862. We'll have to extemporize and experiment with what it is,

1863. when it is.

1864. I read your speech, George.

1865. Negroes and the vote,

1866. that's a puzzle.

1867. No, no. But, but, but Negroes can't

1868. uh, vote, Mr. Lincoln.

1869. You're not suggesting we enfranchise colored people?

1870. I'm asking only that

1871. you disenthrall yourself from the slave powers.

1872. I'll let you know when

1873. there's an offer on my desk for surrender.

1874. There's none before us now.

1875. What's before us now,

1876. that's the vote on the 13th Amendment.

1877. And it's going to be so very close.

1878. You see what you can do.

1879. I can't make sense of it.

1880. What he died for.

1881. Mr. Lincoln, I hate them all.

1882. I do. All black people.

1883. I am a prejudiced man.

1884. Well, I'd change that in you if I could,

1885. but that's not why I come.

1886. I might be wrong, Mr. Hutton,

1887. but I expect colored people most Iikely be free.

1888. And when that's so, it's simple truth

1889. that your brother's bravery

1890. and his death helped make it so.

1891. Only you can decide whether

1892. that's sense enough for you or not.

1893. My deepest sympathies to your family.

1894. We've managed our members to a fare-thee-well.

1895. You've had no defections

1896. from the Republican right to trouble you.

1897. Whereas as to what you promised,

1898. where the hell are the commissioners?

1899. Oh, my God. It's true.

1900. You... You Iied to me.

1901. Mr. Lincoln, you evaded my request for a denial

1902. that there is a Confederate peace offer,

1903. because there is one!

1904. We are absolutely guaranteed to lose the whole thing.

1905. We don't need a goddamn abolition amendment!

1906. Leave the Constitution alone!

1907. What if the peace commissioners

1908. appear today, or worse...

1909. I can't listen to this anymore.

1910. I can't accomplish a goddamn thing

1911. of any human meaning or worth

1912. until we cure ourselves of slavery

1913. and end this pestilential war!

1914. And whether any of you or anyone else knows it,

1915. I know I need this!

1916. This amendment is that cure!

1917. We are stepped out upon the world stage now!

1918. Now!

1919. With the fate of human dignity in our hands!

1920. Blood's been spilt to afford us this moment!

1921. Now! Now! Now!

1922. And you grousle and heckle and dodge about like

1923. pettifogging Tammany Hall hucksters!

1924. See what is before you.

1925. See the here and now, that's the

1926. hardest thing, the only thing that accounts.

1927. Abolishing slavery by constitutional provision

1928. settles the fate for all coming time

1929. not only of the millions now in bondage

1930. but of unborn millions to come.

1931. Two votes stand in its way. These votes must be procured.

1932. We need two yeses, three abstentions, or

1933. four yeses

1934. and one more abstention, and the amendment will pass.

1935. You got a night, and a day, and a night,

1936. and several perfectly good hours.

1937. Now get the hell out of here and get 'em.

1938. Yes. But how?

1939. Buzzards' guts, man.

1940. I am the President of the United States ofAmerica

1941. clothed in immense power.

1942. You will procure me these votes.

1943. We welcome you, Iadies and gentlemen,

1944. first in the history of this people's chamber,

1945. to your House.

1946. Mr. Ashley, the floor is yours.

1947. On the matter of the joint resolution before us,

1948. presenting a 13th Amendment

1949. to our National Constitution,

1950. which was passed last year by the Senate

1951. and which has been debated now

1952. by this estimable body for the past several weeks,

1953. today we will vote.

1954. By mutual agreement,

1955. we shall hear brief, final statements,

1956. beginning with

1957. the honorable George Pendleton of Ohio.

1958. I have just received

1959. confirmation

1960. of what previously has been merely rumored.

1961. Affidavits from Ioyal citizens

1962. recently returned from Richmond.

1963. They testify that commissioners have indeed

1964. come north and ought to have arrived

1965. by now in Washington City

1966. bearing an offer of immediate cessation

1967. of our civil war.

1968. Is it true, sir?

1969. Are there Confederate commissioners in the capital?

1970. I have no idea where they are or if they've arrived.

1971. They'll arrive.

1972. I appeal to my fellow Democrats,

1973. to all Republican representatives

1974. who give a fig for peace,

1975. postpone this vote!

1976. Until we have answers

1977. from the President himself!

1978. Postpone the vote!

1979. Postpone the vote!

1980. Postpone the vote! Postpone the vote!

1981. Postpone the vote!

1982. - Postpone the vote! Gentlemen!

1983. Postpone the vote!

1984. Postpone the vote! Postpone the vote!

1985. I have made a motion!

1986. Does anyone care to second my motion?

1987. Gentlemen.

1988. The conservative faction

1989. of border and western Republicans

1990. cannot approve this amendment,

1991. about which we harbor grave doubts,

1992. if a peace offer is being held hostage to its success.

1993. Joining together with our Democratic colleagues,

1994. I second the motion

1995. to postpone.

1996. He must deny peace commissioners are in the city.

1997. Quick, man. Quick.

1998. This is precisely what Mr. Wood wishes me

1999. to respond to?

2000. Word for word, this is precisely

2001. the assurance that he demands of me?

2002. Yes, sir.

2003. Give this to Mr. Ashley.

2004. Uh, I feel I have to say, Mr. Lincoln, that...

2005. Could you please just step outside?

2006. You want to have a chat now,

2007. with the whole of the House of Representatives

2008. waiting on this?

2009. Making false representation to Congress, is...

2010. - It's... - It's impeachable,

2011. but I've made no such false representation.

2012. But there are.

2013. There is a delegation from Richmond.

2014. Give me the note, Johnnie.

2015. Please, deliver that to Mr. Ashley.

2016. From the President.

2017. "So far as I know, there are no

2018. "peace commissioners in the city

2019. "nor are there Iikely to be."

2020. "So far as I know"?

2021. That means nothing.

2022. Are there commissioners from the South, or aren't there?

2023. The President has answered you, sir.

2024. Your peace offer is a fiction.

2025. That is not a denial.

2026. It is a Iawyer's dodge!

2027. Mr. Haddam, is your faction satisfied?

2028. The conservative Republican faction is satisfied.

2029. And we thank Mr. Lincoln.

2030. I move to table Mr. Wood's motion.

2031. Tabled!

2032. Mr. Colfax, I order the main question.

2033. A motion has been made to bring the bill

2034. for the 13th Amendment to a vote.

2035. Do I hear a second?

2036. I second the motion.

2037. So moved, so ordered.

2038. The CIerk will now...

2039. Quiet, please!

2040. The CIerk will now call the roll for the voting.

2041. We begin with Connecticut.

2042. Mr. Augustus Benjamin,

2043. on the matter of this amendment, how say you?

2044. Nay!

2045. Mr. Arthur Bentleigh.

2046. Nay!

2047. Mr. John EIIis, how say you?

2048. Aye!

2049. What!

2050. Missouri next. Mr. Walter Appleton.

2051. I vote no.

2052. Mr. Josiah Burton.

2053. Beanpole Burton is pleased to vote yea!

2054. The State of New Jersey.

2055. - Mr. Nehemiah CIeary. No!

2056. Mr. James Martinson.

2057. Mr. Martinson has delegated me

2058. to say he is indisposed.

2059. And he abstains.

2060. Mr. Austin J. Roberts.

2061. Also indisposed, also abstaining.

2062. IIIinois concluded.

2063. Mr. Harold Hollister. How say you?

2064. No.

2065. Mr. Hutton.

2066. Mr. William Hutton. Cast your vote.

2067. William Hutton, remembering at this moment

2068. his beloved brother Frederick

2069. votes against the amendment.

2070. Webster AIIen votes no.

2071. - Webster AIIen,

2072. IIIinois, Democrat,

2073. votes no.

2074. Halberd Law, Indiana, Democrat,

2075. votes no.

2076. Archibald Moran, yes.

2077. Ambrose Baylor, yes.

2078. Mr. Walter H. Washburn.

2079. Votes no.

2080. And Mr. George Yeaman, how say you?

2081. My vote ties us.

2082. Sir, Mr. Yeaman,

2083. I didn't hear your vote.

2084. I said "Aye", Mr. McPherson!

2085. Aye!

2086. Traitor!

2087. Order!

2088. Order in my chamber!

2089. Mr. McPherson, you may proceed.

2090. Mr. CIay R. Hawkins of Ohio.

2091. - Goddamn it, I'm voting yes.

2092. I don't care, you shoot me dead!

2093. You shoot me dead! I am voting yes!

2094. Mr. Edwin F. LeCIerk.

2095. No!

2096. Oh, to hell with it. Shoot me dead, too! Yes!

2097. I mean...

2098. Abstention. Abstention!

2099. Spineless! No gender.

2100. Mr. AIexander Coffroth.

2101. I vote

2102. yes.

2103. Yea.

2104. James Brooks...

2105. Nay.

2106. Josiah Grenelle...

2107. Yea.

2108. Meyer Strauss...

2109. Nay.

2110. Mr. Joseph Marstern. - Nay.

2111. Mr. Chilton A. EIIiot. - No!

2112. Mr. Daniel G. Stuart. - I vote yes.

2113. Mr. Howard Guilfoyle. - Yea.

2114. John F. McKenzie. - Yea.

2115. Andrew E. Fink. - Nay.

2116. Mr. John A. Castle. - Yea.

2117. Mr. Hanready. - Nay.

2118. And Mr. Rufus Warren? - Yea.

2119. The roll call concludes.

2120. The voting is completed. Now...

2121. Mr. CIerk, please call my name.

2122. I want to cast a vote.

2123. I object.

2124. The Speaker doesn't vote.

2125. The Speaker may vote if he so chooses.

2126. It is highly unusual, sir.

2127. This isn't usual, Mr. Pendleton.

2128. This is history.

2129. How does Mr. Schuyler Colfax vote?

2130. Aye, of course.

2131. The final vote.

2132. Eight absent or not voting.

2133. Fifty-six votes against.

2134. One hundred and nineteen votes for.

2135. With a margin of two votes...

2136. We chose great Ieadership.

2137. We'll rally round the flag, boys

2138. We'll rally once again

2139. Shouting the battle cry of freedom

2140. We will rally from the hillside

2141. We'll gather from the plain

2142. Shouting the battle cry of freedom

2143. The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

2144. Down with the traitor

2145. And up with the star

2146. Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!

2147. Congratulations, Mr. Chairman.

2148. The bill, Mr. McPherson. May I?

2149. The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

2150. That's, that's the official bill.

2151. I'll return it in the morning.

2152. Creased,

2153. but unharmed.

2154. Shouting the battle cry of freedom

2155. We are springing to the call Of the loyal, true and brave

2156. Shouting the battle cry of freedom

2157. And we'll fill our vacant ranks

2158. With a million freemen more

2159. Shouting the battle cry of freedom

2160. The Union forever!

2161. Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

2162. Down with the traitor And up with the star

2163. A gift for you.

2164. The greatest measure of the 19th century,

2165. passed by corruption,

2166. aided and abetted by the purest man in America.

2167. I wish you had been present.

2168. - I wish I'd been. - It was a spectacle.

2169. You can't bring your housekeeper to the House.

2170. I won't give them gossip.

2171. This is enough.

2172. This is...

2173. It's more than enough for now.

2174. Read it to me again, my love.

2175. - "Proposed..." - And adopted.

2176. "Adopted,

2177. "an amendment to

2178. "the Constitution of the United States.

2179. "Section One.

2180. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude

2181. "except as a punishment for crime

2182. "whereof the party shall have been duly convicted

2183. "shall exist within the United States

2184. "or any place subject to theirjurisdiction."

2185. Section Two.

2186. "Congress shall have power to enforce this amendment

2187. "by appropriate Iegislation."

2188. Let me be blunt.

2189. Will the Southern states

2190. resume their former position in the Union

2191. speedily enough to enable us

2192. to block ratification to this here

2193. 13th Amendment?

2194. I'd like peace immediately.

2195. Yes, and?

2196. I'd like your states restored to

2197. their practical relations with the Union immediately.

2198. If this could be given to me in writing,

2199. as Vice President of the Confederacy,

2200. I'd bring that document

2201. with celerity, to Jefferson Davis.

2202. Surrender.

2203. And we can discuss reconstruction.

2204. Surrender won't be thought of.

2205. Unless you've assured us, in writing,

2206. that we'll be readmitted in time to block this amendment.

2207. This is the arrogant demand of a conqueror.

2208. You'll not be a conquered people, Mr. Hunter.

2209. You will be citizens.

2210. Returned to the Iaws and the guarantees of rights

2211. of the Constitution.

2212. Which now extinguishes slavery.

2213. And with it, our economy.

2214. All our Iaws will be determined by

2215. a Congress of vengeful Yankees.

2216. All our rights will be subject to a Supreme Court

2217. benched by bloody Republican radicals.

2218. All our traditions will be obliterated.

2219. We won't know ourselves anymore.

2220. We ain't here to discuss reconstruction.

2221. We have no Iegal basis for that discussion.

2222. But I don't want to deal falsely.

2223. The Northern states will ratify, most of them.

2224. As I figure it, it remains for two of the Southern states

2225. to do the same,

2226. even after all are readmitted.

2227. And I've been working on that.

2228. Tennessee and Louisiana.

2229. Arkansas, too, most Iikely. It'll be ratified.

2230. SIavery, sir... It's done.

2231. If we submit ourselves to Iaw, Alex,

2232. even submit to losing freedoms,

2233. the freedom to oppress, for instance

2234. we may discover other freedoms

2235. previously unknown to us.

2236. Had you kept faith with the democratic process,

2237. as frustrating as that can be...

2238. Come, sir.

2239. Spare us, at least, these pieties.

2240. Did you defeat us with ballots?

2241. How have you held your Union together?

2242. Through democracy?

2243. How many hundreds of thousands have died

2244. during your administration?

2245. Your Union, sir, is bonded in cannon fire and death.

2246. It may be you're right.

2247. But say all we done is show the world

2248. that democracy isn't chaos.

2249. That there is a great, invisible strength

2250. in a people's union.

2251. Say we've shown that a people can endure awful sacrifice

2252. and yet cohere.

2253. Mightn't that save at least

2254. the idea of democracy to aspire to?

2255. Eventually to become worthy of?

2256. At all rates, whatever may be proven

2257. by blood and sacrifice

2258. must have been proved by now.

2259. Shall we stop this bleeding?

2260. Once he surrenders,

2261. send his boys back to their homes

2262. and their farms, their shops.

2263. Yes, sir.

2264. As we discussed.

2265. Liberality all around, not punishment.

2266. I don't want that.

2267. And their Ieaders, Jeff and the rest of them,

2268. they escape, leave the country

2269. while my back's turned, that wouldn't upset me none.

2270. When peace comes, it mustn't just be hangings.

2271. By outward appearance

2272. you're 10 years older than you were a year ago.

2273. Hmm.

2274. Some weariness has bit at my bones.

2275. I never seen the like of it before,

2276. what I seen today.

2277. Never seen the like of it before.

2278. You always knew that.

2279. What this was going to be.

2280. Intimate and ugly.

2281. You must have needed to see it close

2282. when you decided to come down here.

2283. Hmm.

2284. We've made it possible for one another to do terrible things.

2285. We've won the war.

2286. Now you have to Iead us out of it.

2287. You have an itch to travel?

2288. Mm-hmm. I'd like that.

2289. To the West, by rail.

2290. Overseas.

2291. The Holy Land.

2292. Awfully pious for a man

2293. who takes his wife out buggy-riding on Good Friday.

2294. Jerusalem.

2295. Where David and Solomon walked.

2296. I dream of walking in that ancient city.

2297. All anyone will remember of me

2298. is I was crazy and I ruined your happiness.

2299. Anyone thinks that doesn't understand, Molly.

2300. When they look at you,

2301. at what it cost to Iive at the heart of this,

2302. they'll wonder at it. They'll wonder at you.

2303. They should.

2304. But they should also look at

2305. the wretched woman by your side

2306. if they want to understand what this was truly like.

2307. For the ordinary person.

2308. For anyone other than you.

2309. You must try to be happier.

2310. We must, both of us.

2311. We've been so miserable for so long.

2312. I did say some colored men...

2313. The intelligent, the educated, and the

2314. veterans. I qualified it.

2315. Mr. Stevens is furious.

2316. He wants to know why you qualified it.

2317. No one heard the intelligent or educated part.

2318. All they heard was the first time

2319. any president has ever made mention

2320. of Negro voting.

2321. Still, I wish I'd mentioned it in a better speech.

2322. Mr. Stevens also wants to know

2323. why you didn't make a better speech.

2324. Mrs. Lincoln is waiting in the carriage.

2325. She wants me to remind you of the hour, and that

2326. you'll have to pick up Miss Harris and Major Rathbone.

2327. - Am I in trouble? - No, sir.

2328. Thank you, Mr. SIade.

2329. I suppose it's time to go.

2330. Though I would rather stay.

2331. The President has been shot!

2332. The President

2333. has been shot! At Ford's Theater!

2334. No. No!

2335. It's 7:22 in the morning.

2336. Saturday, the 15th ofApril.

2337. It's all over.

2338. The President is no more.

2339. Now he belongs to the ages.

2340. Fondly do we hope,

2341. fervently do we pray,

2342. that this mighty scourge of war,

2343. may speedily pass away.

2344. Yet if God wills that it continue

2345. until all the wealth piled

2346. by the bondman's 250 years

2347. of unrequited toil shall be sunk

2348. and until every drop of blood drawn with the Iash

2349. shall be paid by another drawn with the sword

2350. as was said 3,000 years ago,

2351. so still it must be said,

2352. "The judgments of the Lord

2353. "are true and righteous altogether."

2354. With malice toward none,

2355. with charity for all,

2356. with firmness in the right,

2357. as God gives us to see the right,

2358. let us strive on to finish the work we are in,

2359. to bind up the nation's wounds,

2360. to care

2361. for him who shall have borne the battle

2362. and for his widow

2363. and his orphan,

2364. to do all which may achieve and cherish

2365. a just and a Iasting peace among ourselves

2366. and with all nations.