Lincoln (2012) - full transcript

Some of us was in the

Second Kansas Coloured.

We fought the Rebs at

Jenkins' Ferry last April

just after they killed

every Negro soldier

they captured at Poison Springs.

So at Jenkins' Ferry,

we decided warn't taking

no Reb prisoners.

And we didn't leave

a one of 'em alive.

The ones of us that

didn't die that day,

we joined up with the

116th US Coloured, sir,

from Camp Nelson, Kentucky.

What's your name, soldier?

Private. Harold Green, sir.

I'm Corporal Ira Clark, sir.

Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry.

We're waiting over there.

We're leaving our horses behind

and shipping out with

the 24th Infantry

for the assault next

week on Wilmington.

How long have you been a soldier?

Two years, sir.

The Second Kansas

Coloured Infantry,

they fought bravely

at Jenkins' Ferry.

That's right, sir.

They killed a thousand

Rebel soldiers, sir.

They were very brave.

And making $3 less each

month than white soldiers.

Us Second Kansas boys...

Another $3 subtracted from

our pay for our uniforms.

That was true, yes sir,

but that's changed.

Equal pay now, but still no

commissioned Negro officers.

I'm aware of that, Corporal Clark.

Yes, sir. That's good

that you're aware, sir...

Do you think the

Wilmington attack...

Now that white people have

accustomed themselves

to seeing Negro men with guns

fighting on their behalf,

and now that they can tolerate.

Negro soldiers getting equal pay

maybe in a few years,

they can abide the idea

of Negro lieutenants and captains.

In fifty years, maybe

a Negro colonel.

In a hundred years, the vote.

What will you do after

the war, Corporal Clark?

Work, sir.

Perhaps you'll hire me.

Perhaps I will.

But you should know, sir,

that I get sick at the

smell of boot black

and I cannot cut hair.

I've yet to find a

man could cut mine

so that it'd make any difference.

You got springy hair

for a white man.

Yes, I do.

My last barber hanged himself.

And the one before that.

Left me his scissors in his will.

President Lincoln, sir.

Good evening, boys.

We saw you, and...

- We were at...

- We was at Gettysburg.

You boys fight at Gettysburg?

No, didn't fight there, we

just signed up last month.

We saw him two years ago at

the cemetery dedication.

Yeah. We heard you

speak... Goddamn.

Hey, how tall are you, anyway?

Aw, jeez, shut up.

Could you hear what I said?

No, sir. Not much.

It was...

Four score and seven years ago,

our fathers brought forth

from this continent

a new nation, conceived in liberty

and dedicated to the proposition

that all men are created equal.

That's good. Thank you.

Now we are engaged in

a great civil war,

testing whether that

nation or any nation

so conceived and so

dedicated, can long endure.

We are met on a great

battlefield of that war.

That's good, thank you.

We come to dedicate a

portion of that field

as a final resting place

for those who here

gave their lives that

that nation might live.

His uncles, they died on the

second day of fighting.

I know the last part. It is...

Company up. Moving out.

You boys best go and

find your company.

- And thank you.

- Thank you, sir.

- God bless you.

- God bless you, too.

God bless you.

That we here highly

resolve that these dead

shall not have died in vain.

That this nation, under God, shall

have a new birth of freedom

and that government of the

people, by the people,

for the people shall not

perish from the earth.

It's night time.

Ship's moved by

some terrible power

at a terrific speed.

And though it's imperceptible

in the darkness,

I have an intuition that we're

headed towards a shore.

No one else seems to

be aboard the vessel.

I'm very keenly aware

of my aloneness.

I could be bounded in a nutshell

and count myself a

king of infinite space

were it not that I

have bad dreams.

I reckon it's the speed

that's strange to me.

I'm used to going at

a deliberate pace.

I should spare you, Molly.

I shouldn't tell you my dreams.

I don't want to be

spared if you aren't.

And you spare me nothing.

Perhaps it's...

It's the assault on

Wilmington Port.

You dream about the ship

before a battle, usually.

How's the coconut?

Beyond description.

Almost two years, nothing mends.

Another casualty of the war.

Who wants to listen

to a useless woman

grouse about her

carriage accident?

- I do.

- Stuff.

You tell me dreams, that's all.

I'm your soothsayer.

That's all I am to you any more.

I'm not to be trusted

even if it was not a

carriage accident.

Even if it was an

attempted assassination.

It was most probably an accident.

It was an assassin whose

intended target was you.

How are the plans coming

along for the big shindy?

I don't want to

talk about parties.

You don't care about parties.

Not much, but they're a

necessary hindrance.

I know.

I know what it's about, the ship.

It's not Wilmington Port.

It's not a military campaign.

It's the amendment

to abolish slavery.

Why else would you force me

to invite demented

radicals into my home?

You're going to try to

get the amendment passed

in the House of Representatives

before the term ends?

Before the Inauguration?

Don't spend too much

money on the flubdubs.

No one is loved as much as you.

No one's ever been loved

so much by the people.

You might do anything now.

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

on an amendment bill

that's sure of defeat.

Did you remember Robert's

coming home for the reception?

I knew you'd forget.

That's the ship you're sailing

on, the 13th Amendment.

You needn't tell me I'm

right. I know I am.

Oh.

Oh, it's late, Mrs Keckley.

Well, she needs this for

the grand reception.

It's slow work.

Good night.

Did you tell her a dream?

Papa.

Papa, I want to see Willie.

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

Why not?

Willie's gone.

It's three years now he's gone.

The part assigned to me

is to raise the flag.

Which, if there be no fault

in the machinery, I will do.

And when up

it'll be for the

people to keep it up.

That's my speech.

We are coming, Father Abraham.

Three hundred thousand more.

From Mississippi's winding stream.

And from New England's shore.

We leave our plough and workshops.

Our wives...

Even if every Republican

in the House votes yes,

far from guaranteed.

Since when has our party

unanimously supported anything?

But say all our fellow

Republicans vote for it.

We'd still be twenty votes short.

Only twenty?

Only twenty?

We can find twenty votes.

Twenty House Democrats who'll

vote to abolish slavery?

In my opinion...

To which I always listen.

- Or pretend to.

- With all three of my ears.

We'll win the war soon.

It's inevitable, isn't it?

Well, it ain't won yet.

You'll begin your second term

with semi-divine stature.

Imagine the possibilities

peace will bring.

Why tarnish your invaluable lustre

with a battle in the House?

It's a rat's nest in there.

It's the same gang of

talentless hicks and hacks

who rejected the

amendment 10 months ago.

We'll lose.

I like our chances now.

Well, consider the

obstacles that we'd face.

The aforementioned

two-thirds majority

needed to pass an amendment.

We have a Republican majority,

but barely more than 50%.

Fifty-six.

We need Democratic support.

There's none to be had.

Since the House last

voted on the amendment,

there's been an election.

Sixty-four Democrats lost their

House seats in November.

That's 64 Democrats looking

for work come March.

I know.

They don't need to worry

about re-election.

They can vote however

it suits them.

But we can't buy the

vote for the amendment.

It's too important.

I said nothing of buying anything.

We need twenty votes

was all I said.

Start of my second term,

plenty of positions to fill.

Mr President, may I present.

Mr And Mrs Jolly who've

come from Missouri...

From Jeff City, President.

Mr Jolly.

Ma'am.

And this here by the fire is

Secretary of State Seward.

Jeff City?

I heard tell once of a

Jefferson City lawyer

who had a parrot that'd wake

him each morning, crying out,

Today is the day the

world shall end,

as scripture has foretold.

And, one day

the lawyer shot him,

for the sake of peace

and quiet, I presume.

Thus fulfilling, for the

bird at least, his prophecy.

There's only one toll booth in

Jeff City, to the southwest

and this man Heinz

Sauermagen from Rolla

been in illegal possession

for near two Yar

since your man General

Schofield set him up there.

But President Monroe give

that toll gate to my granpap

and Quincy Adams

give my pap a letter

saying it's our'n for keeps.

Mrs Jolly got the...

Show Mr Lincoln the

Quincy Adams letter.

That's unnecessary, Mrs Jolly.

Just tell me what

you want from me.

Mr Jolly's emphysema

don't care for cigars.

Madame, do you know

about the proposed

13th Amendment of

the Constitution?

Yes, sir, everybody knows of it.

The President favours it.

- Do you?

- We do.

You know that it

abolishes slavery?

Yes, sir, I know it.

And is that why you favour it?

What I favour is ending the war.

Once we do away with slavery,

the Rebs'll quit fighting

since slavery's what

they're fighting for.

Mr Lincoln, you always says so.

With the amendment,

slavery's ended.

And they'll give up. The

war can finish then.

If the war finished first,

before we end slavery...

President Lincoln says

the war won't stop

unless we finish slavery.

But if it did.

The South is exhausted.

If they run out of bullets and men

would you still want your...

Who's your Representative?

Jeff City? That's

Congressman Burton.

Beanpole Burton.

I mean, Josiah Burton, yes, sir.

A Republican,

undecided on the question of

the amendment, I believe.

Perhaps you could call on him

and inform him of your enthusiasm.

Yeah.

Madame.

If the Rebels

surrendered next week

would you, at the

end of this month

want Congressman Burton to

vote for the 13th Amendment?

If that was how it was,

no more war and all

I reckon Mr Jolly much

prefer not to have.

Congress pass the amendment.

And,

why is that?

Niggers.

If he don't have to let some

Alabama Coon come up to Missouri

steal his chickens and his

job, we'd much prefer that.

The people.

I begin to see why you're

in such a great hurry

to put it through.

Would you let me study

this letter, sir,

about the toll booth?

Come back to me in the morning

and we'll consider

what the law says.

You be sure to

visit Beanpole.

Tell him that you support

passage of the amendment

as a military necessity.

Thank you.

Oh, Nicolay, when

you have a moment.

If procuring votes

with offers of employment

is what you intend

I'll fetch a friend from Albany

who can supply the skulky men

gifted at this kind of shady

work and spare me the indignity

of actually speaking to Democrats.

Spare you the exposure

and liability.

Pardon me, that's

a distress signal

which I am bound, by solemn

oath, to respond to.

Tom Pendel took away the

glass camera plates

of slaves Mr Gardner sent over

because Tom says Mama says

they're too distressing.

You had nightmares all night long.

I'll have worse nightmares

if you don't let me look

at the plates again.

Perhaps.

You can't afford a

single defection

from anyone in the party.

Not even a single Republican

absent when they vote.

You know who you've got to see.

Send over to Blair House.

Ask Preston Blair can I

call on him around 5:00.

God help you.

God alone knows what he'll

ask you to give him.

If the Blairs tell them to,

no Republican will baulk at

voting for the amendment.

No conservative Republican

is what you mean.

All Republicans ought

to be conservative.

I founded this party, in my

own goddamn home, to be a

conservative anti-slavery party,

not a hobby-horse for goddamn

radical abolitionists.

Damp down the dyspepsia, Daddy.

You'll frighten the child.

You need us to keep

the conservative side

of the party in the traces

while you diddle the radicals

and bundle up with

Thaddeus Stevens's gang.

You need our help.

Yes, sir, I do.

Well, what do we get?

Whoa. Blunt.

Your manners, Monty,

must be why Mr Lincoln

pushed you out of his Cabinet.

- I wasn't pushed.

- Oh, of course you weren't.

He was pushed out to

placate the damn radicals.

- I agreed to resign.

- Oh, Daddy, please. Daddy.

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

He spends his days with soldiers.

They taught me a song.

Did they?

Soldiers know all manner of songs.

How's your brother Bob?

He's at school now,

but he's coming

to visit in four

days for the shindy.

At school. Ain't that fine?

Good he's not in the Army.

He wants to be, but

Mama said he cannot.

Dangerous life, soldiering.

Your mama is wise to keep

him clean out of that.

Now, your daddy knows

that what I want

in return for all the

help I can give him

is to go down to Richmond,

like he said I could

as soon as Savannah fell

and talk to Jefferson Davis.

Now give me terms I can

offer to Jefferson Davis

to start negotiating for peace.

He'll talk to me.

Conservative members of your party

want you to listen to

overtures from Richmond.

That above all.

They'll vote for this rash

and dangerous amendment

only if every other

possibility is exhausted.

Our Republicans ain't

abolitionists.

We can't tell our people

they can vote yes

on abolishing slavery

unless at the same

time we can tell them

that you're seeking

a negotiated peace.

Leo, it's 100 miles to Richmond.

Get him drunk so he can sleep.

Yes, ma'am.

Here, Daddy.

Oh.

- Thank you.

- Yes, sir, all right.

Where's my hat?

Leo has your hat.

All right?

Go make peace.

Thunder forth, God of War.

We'll commence our assault

on Wilmington from the sea.

Why is this burnt?

Was the boy playing with it?

It got took by a breeze

several nights back.

This is an official

War Department map.

And the entire Cabinet's waiting

to hear what it portends.

A bombardment.

From the largest fleet the

Navy has ever assembled.

Old Neptune, shake

thy hoary locks.

Fifty-eight ships are under way,

of every tonnage and firing range.

We'll keep up a steady barrage.

Our first target is Fort Fisher.

It defends Wilmington Port.

A steady barrage?

A hundred shells a minute.

Till they surrender.

Dear God.

Wilmington's their last

open seaport, therefore...

Wilmington falls,

Richmond falls after.

And the war is done.

Hear, hear.

Then why, if I might ask

are we not concentrating

the nation's attention

on Wilmington?

Why, instead, are we

reading in the Herald

that the anti-slavery amendment

is being precipitated onto

the House floor for debate?

Because your eagerness,

in what seems an

unwarranted intrusion

of the executive into

legislative prerogatives,

is compelling it to what's...

To what's likely to be

its premature demise.

Hear, hear.

You signed the

Emancipation Proclamation.

You've done all

that could be done.

The Emancipation Proclamation's

merely a war measure. After

the war, the courts...

When Edward Bates was

Attorney General,

he felt confident enough

to let you sign it.

Different lawyers,

different opinions.

It frees slaves as a

military exigent. Not...

I don't recall Edward Bates

being any too certain about

the legality of my proclamation.

Just it wasn't downright criminal.

Somewhere in between.

Back when I rode the legal

circuit in Illinois,

I defended a woman from

Metamora named Melissa Goings.

Seventy-seven years old.

They said she'd murdered

her husband. He was 83.

He was choking her

and she grabbed a hold

of a stick of firewood

and fractured his

skull and he died.

In his will, he wrote,

I expect she has killed me.

If I get over it, I

will have revenge.

No one was keen to

see her convicted,

he was that kind of husband.

I asked the prosecuting attorney

if I might have a short

conference with my client.

She and I went into a

room in the courthouse,

but I alone emerged.

The window in the room was

found to be wide open.

It was believed the old lady

may have climbed out of it.

I told the bailiff,

right before I left

her in the room

she asked me where she could get

a good drink of water, and

I told her, Tennessee.

Mrs Goings was seen

no more in Metamora.

Enough justice had been done.

They even forgave the

bondsman her bail.

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

I decided

that the Constitution

gives me war powers

but no one knows just exactly

what those powers are.

Some say they don't exist.

I don't know. I decided

I needed them to exist

to uphold my oath

to protect the Constitution.

Which I decided meant I could take

the Rebels' slaves from them as

property confiscated in war.

That might recommend to

suspicion that I agree

with the Rebs that their slaves

are property in the first place.

Of course, I don't. Never have.

I'm glad to see any man free,

and if calling a man property

or war contraband

does the trick, why I

caught at the opportunity.

Now here's where it

gets truly slippery.

I use the law allowing for the

seizure of property in a war

knowing it applies

only to the property

of governments and citizens

of belligerent nations.

Well, the South ain't a nation.

That's why I can't

negotiate with them.

So if, in fact, the

Negroes are property,

according to the law,

have I the right to take

the Rebels' property

from them, if I insist

they're rebels only

and not citizens of a

belligerent country?

And slipperier still,

I maintain it ain't

our actual Southern

states in rebellion

but only the rebels

living in those states,

the laws of which

states remain in force.

The laws of which

states remain in force.

That means that since it's

states' laws that determine

whether Negroes can be sold

as slaves, as property,

the federal government

doesn't have a say in that.

At least not yet.

Then Negroes in those states

are slaves, hence property,

hence my war powers allow

me to confiscate them

as such, so I confiscate them.

But if I'm a respecter

of states' laws,

how then can I legally free them

with my Proclamation as I done?

Unless I'm cancelling

states' laws?

I felt the war demanded it.

My oath demanded it.

I felt right with myself, and I

hoped it was legal to do it.

I'm hoping still.

Two years ago, I proclaimed

these people emancipated.

Then, thenceforward

and forever free.

Now let's say the courts

decide I had no authority

to do it. They might

well decide that.

Say there's no amendment

abolishing slavery,

say it's after the war and I can

no longer use my war powers

to just ignore the

courts' decisions

like I sometimes felt I had to do.

Might those people I freed be

ordered back into slavery?

That's why I'd like to get

the 13th Amendment

through the House,

on its way to ratification

by the states.

Wrap the whole slavery thing up,

forever and aye, as

soon as I'm able. Now.

End of this month.

And I'd like you

to stand behind me

like my Cabinet's

most always done.

As the preacher said,

I could write shorter sermons,

but once I start, I

get too lazy to stop.

It seems to me, sir,

you're describing

precisely the sort of dictator

the Democrats have

been howling about.

Dictators aren't

susceptible to law.

Neither is he. He

just said as much.

Ignoring the courts?

Twisting meanings?

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

Well, the people do

that, I suppose.

I signed the Emancipation

Proclamation,

what, a year and a half

before my second election?

I felt I was within

my power to do it,

however, I also felt that I

might be wrong about that.

I knew the people would tell me.

I gave them a year and a

half to think about it,

and they re-elected me.

And come February the first,

I intend to sign the

13th Amendment.

Well, Mr Representative Ashley.

Tell us the news from the Hill.

Ah, well, the news...

Why, for instance, is this thus,

and what is the reason

for this thusness?

James, we want you to bring

the anti-slavery amendment

to the floor for debate,

- immediately.

- Excuse me, what?

You are the amendment's

manager, are you not?

I am, of course, but...

Then we're counting on

robust radical support

so tell Mr Stevens we expect

him to put his back into it.

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

It's impossible.

No. I am sorry, no.

We can't organise anything

immediately in the House.

I have been canvassing the

Democrats since the election,

in case any of them have softened

after they got walloped, but

they have stiffened, if

anything, Mr Secretary.

There aren't nearly enough votes.

We're whalers, Mr Ashley.

Whalers? As in... Whales?

We've been chasing this

whale for a long time.

And we finally placed a harpoon

in the monster's back.

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

We finish the deed

now. We can't wait.

Or with one flop of his

tail, he'll smash the boat

and send us all to eternity.

On the 31 St of this

month, of this year,

put the amendment up for a vote.

Whalers?

That's what he said.

The man's never been near

a whale ship in his life.

Withdraw radical support.

Force him to abandon this

scheme, whatever he's up to.

He drags his feet

about everything,

Lincoln... Why this urgency?

We got it through the

Senate without difficulty

because we had the numbers.

Come December, you'll have

the same in the House.

The amendment will be the

easy work of 10 minutes.

He's using the threat

of the amendment

to frighten the Rebels into

an immediate surrender.

I imagine we'd

rejoice to see that.

Will you rejoice when

the Southern states

have rejoined the Union pell-mell,

as Lincoln intends them

to, and one by one,

each refuses to

ratify the amendment?

If we pass it, which we won't.

Why are we cooperating with him?

We all know what he's doing and

we all know what he'll do.

We can't offer up abolition's

best legal prayer

to his games and tricks.

He said he'd welcome

the South back

with all its slaves in chains.

Three years ago he said that,

to calm the border states.

I don't.

You said we all know what

he'll do. I don't know.

You know he isn't to be trusted.

Trust? Oh.

I'm sorry, I was under

the misapprehension

that your chosen

profession was politics.

I never trusted the President,

never trusted anyone,

but hasn't he surprised you?

No, Mr Stevens, he hasn't.

Nothing surprises you, Asa,

therefore nothing about

you is surprising.

Perhaps that is why

your constituents

did not re-elect you

to the coming term.

It's late.

I'm old.

I'm going home.

Lincoln, the inveterate dawdler.

Lincoln, the Southerner.

Lincoln, the capitulating

compromiser,

our adversary, and

leader of the godforsaken

Republican party.

Our party.

Abraham Lincoln has asked

us to work with him

to accomplish the death

of slavery in America.

Retain, even in opposition

your capacity for astonishment.

The President is never

to be mentioned. Nor I.

You're paid for your discretion.

Hell, you can have

that for nothing.

What we need money for is

bribes, to speed things up.

No, nothing strictly illegal.

It's not illegal to

bribe Congressmen,

they'd starve otherwise.

I have explained to Mr

Bilbo and Mr Latham that

we are offering patronage jobs

to the Dems who vote yes.

- Jobs and nothing more.

- That's correct.

Congressmen come cheap.

Few thousand bucks will

buy you all you need.

The President would be unhappy

to hear you did that.

Will he be unhappy if we lose?

The money I managed to

raise for this endeavour

is only for your fees,

your food and lodging.

Huh.

If that squirrel-infested attic

you've quartered us in is any

measure, you ain't raised much.

Shall we get to work?

The House recognises

Fernando Wood,

the honourable Representative

from New York.

Estimable colleagues.

Two bloody years ago this month.

His Highness, King Abraham

Africanus the First,

our great usurping Caesar,

violator of habeas corpus

and freedom of the press,

abuser of states' rights...

If Lincoln really were

a tyrant, Mr Wood,

he'd have had your empty

head impaled on a pike.

And the country better for it.

Radical Republican autocrat,

ruling by fiat and martial law,

affixed his name to his

heinous and illicit.

Emancipation Proclamation

promising it would hasten

the end of the war,

which yet rages on and on.

He claimed, as tyrants do

that the war's emergencies

permitted him to turn

our army into...

The New York delegation is

looking decidedly uninspired.

And radical Republicanism's

abolitionist fanaticism.

His Emancipation Proclamation

has obliterated

millions of dollars...

Over in Pennsylvania, who's the

sweaty man eating his thumb?

Unknown to me. Seems jumpy.

Perhaps he'll jump.

But all that was not

enough for this dictator,

who now seeks to insinuate...

Jesus.

When's this son of liberty

sum-a-bitch gonna sit down?

John Ellis is gonna break his

watch if he doesn't stop.

We are once again asked, nay

commanded, to consider a

proposed 13th Amendment

which, if passed, shall

set at immediate liberty

four million coloureds

while manacling

the limbs of the white

race in America.

If it is passed,

but it shall not pass.

What's more interesting is

how dismal and disgruntled.

Mr Yeaman appears.

Every member of this House...

He should be cheering right now.

Looks like he ate a bad oyster.

Party and the constituents

it serves shall oppose...

Point of order, Mr

Speaker, if you please.

Mr Speaker, I still

have the floor.

And the gentleman from

Pennsylvania is out of order.

When will Mr Wood conclude

his interminable gabble?

Some of us breathe oxygen

and we find the mephitic

fumes of his oratory

a lethal challenge to our

pulmonary capabilities.

We shall oppose this amendment,

and any legislation that

so affronts natural law

insulting to God as to man.

Congress must never declare equal

those whom God created unequal.

Slavery is the only

insult to natural law,

you fatuous nincompoop.

Order.

Procedure, Mr Speaker.

Mr Wood has the floor.

Instruct us, oh, Great Commoner.

What is unnatural,

in your opinion?

Niggrahs casting ballots?

Niggrah representatives?

Is that natural, Stevens?

Intermarriage?

What violates natural law?

Slavery and you.

Pendleton, you insult God.

You unnatural noise.

Mr Colfax, please, use your gavel.

- You are out of order.

- Order in the Cabinet.

Instruct the Sergeant-at-Arms

to suppress this.

We are in session.

Please don't encourage this.

Don't encourage this.

You're back. You're

back. You're back.

I am. The goat got big.

Help me get one of

these to my room.

- She in there?

- She's asleep, probably.

- You need help, sir?

- No, sir.

They went to see Avonia

Jones last night

in a play about Israelites.

Could you bring your

pa this letter I writ

about my insolvency proceeding?

Deliver your own goddamn petition.

There's a new book. Sam Beckwith

says it's about finches

and finches' beaks,

about how they change.

He's here.

He's here. Mrs

Cuthbert, he's here.

- Robbie.

- Hi, Mum.

- Oh, Robbie.

- Hey.

- Robbie.

- Hey.

Oh.

You're only staying a few days,

why'd you pack all that?

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

Go tell your father Robert's home.

Mr Nicolay says Daddy's

secluded with Mr Blair.

Tell him anyway.

Did you forget to eat?

- Exactly like him.

- No.

You'll linger a few days

extra after the reception

before you go back to school.

Well, I don't know if

I'm going to go back...

We'll fatten you up before

you return to Boston.

- All right, Mum.

- All right.

Oh, Robbie.

Jefferson Davis is

sending three delegates.

Stephens, Hunter and Campbell.

Vice President of the Confederacy,

the former Secretary of State

and their Assistant

Secretary of War.

They're coming in earnest

to propose peace.

I know this is unwelcome

news for you.

Now hear me.

I went to Richmond

to talk to traitors.

To smile at and

plead with traitors

because it'll be

spring in two months.

The roads will be passable, the

spring slaughter commences.

Four bloody springs now.

Think of my Frank,

whom you've taken to your heart.

How you'll blame yourself

if the war takes my son

as it's taken multitudes of sons.

Think of all the boys who will

die if you don't make peace.

You must talk with these men.

I intend to, Preston.

In return, I must

ask you to support

our push for the amendment...

No, this is not horse trading.

Not now.

Bob. I'm sorry.

- Welcome home.

- Thank you, sir.

Looking fit, Robert.

Harvard agrees with you.

- Mr Blair.

- Fit and rested.

Could you give us a moment,

please, Robert? Thank you.

I will procure your votes

for you, as I promised.

You have always kept

your word to me.

Those Southern men are coming.

I beg you, in the name

of gentle Christ, sir.

I understand.

Talk peace with these men.

I understand, Preston.

We have one abstention so far.

Jacob Graylor.

He'd like to be Federal

Revenue Assessor

for the 5th District

of Pennsylvania.

So the total of Representatives

voting three weeks from

today is reduced to 182,

which means 122 yes votes

to reach the requisite

two-thirds of the House.

Assuming all Republicans

vote for the amendment.

Then despite our abstention, to

reach a two-thirds majority,

we remain twenty yeses short.

For which we're seeking from

among 64 lame duck Democrats.

Fully 39 of these we deem

unredeemable no votes.

The kind that hates niggers.

Hates God for making niggers.

The Good Lord on high would

despair of their souls.

Thank you for that pithy

explanation, Mr Bilbo.

We've abandoned these 39 to the

devil that possesses them.

We would...

The remaining lame ducks, on whom

we've been working with a purpose.

Charles Hanson.

Congressman.

My colleagues and I would

like a moment of your time.

I wonder if you've

given much thought...

Giles Stuart.

Rather clumsy.

Nelson Merrick.

Homer Benson.

My name is Richard Schell.

I wanted you to have a look

at this prospectus here.

And lastly,

Clay Hawkins. Of Ohio.

Tax Collector for the

Western Reserve.

That pays handsomely.

Don't just reach for

the highest branches,

they sway in every breeze.

Assistant Port Inspector

in Morristown

looks like the ticket to me.

Boats, they, they make me sick.

So just stand on the dock.

Let the Assistant Assistant Port

Inspector's stomach go weak.

And, lastly, Democratic yes

vote number six, Hawkins.

From Ohio.

Six?

Well, thus far.

Plus Graylor's abstention.

- From tiny acorns and so on.

- What did Hawkins get?

Postmaster of the

Millersburg Post Office.

He's selling himself

cheap, ain't he?

Well, he wanted Tax Collector

of the Western Reserve.

First term Congressman who

couldn't manage re-election.

I felt it unseemly and they

bargained him down to Postmaster.

Scatter them over several

rounds of appointments

so no one notices,

then burn this ledger,

please, after you're done.

Time for my public opinion bath.

Might as well let them in.

Seven yeses with Mr Ellis.

Thirteen to go.

One last item.

An absurdity, but

my associates report that

among the Representatives

a fantastical rumour's

bruited about,

which I immediately disavowed,

that you'd allowed

bleary old Preston Blair

to sojourn to Richmond

to invite Jeff Davis

to send commissioners

up to Washington

with a peace plan.

I, of course, told them

that you would never.

Not without consulting

me, you wouldn't.

Because why on earth would you?

Much obliged.

Why wasn't I consulted?

I'm Secretary of State.

And you informally send a

reactionary dotard to...

What will happen, do you imagine,

when these peace

commissioners arrive?

We'll hear them out.

Oh. Splendid.

And next, the Democrats

will invite them

up to hearings on the Hill.

And the newspapers...

Oh, the newspapers.

The newspapers will ask, Why

risk enraging the Confederacy

over the issue of slavery when

they're here to make peace?

We'll lose every

Democrat we've got,

more than likely

conservative Republicans

will join them, and all our work,

all our preparing the

ground for the vote

laid waste for nought.

The Blairs promised

support for the amendment

if we listen to these people.

Oh, the Blairs promise, do they?

You think they'll

keep their promise

once we've heard these delegates

and refused them, which

we will have to do,

since their proposal most

certainly will be predicated on

keeping their slaves.

What hope for any

Democratic votes, Willum,

if word gets out that I've

refused a chance to end the war?

You think word won't get out?

In Washington?

It's either the amendment

or this Confederate peace.

You cannot have both.

If you can look into

the seeds of time,

And say which grain will

grow and which will not,.

Speak then to me.

A disaster. This is a disaster.

Time is a great thickener

of things, Willum.

Yes, I suppose it is.

Actually, I have no idea

what you mean by that.

Get me 13 votes.

Them fellas from

Richmond ain't here yet.

You drafted half

the men in Boston.

What do you think their

families think about me?

The only reason they don't

throw things and spit on me

is because you're so popular.

I can't concentrate on, on

British Mercantile Law.

I don't care about

British Mercantile Law.

I might not even

want to be a lawyer.

It's a sturdy profession.

And a useful one.

Yes, and I want to be useful,

but now, not afterwards.

I ain't wearing them

things, Mr Slade.

They never fit right.

The missus will have you

wear them. Don't think...

You're delaying, that's

your favourite tactic.

- Be useful...

- You won't tell me no,

but the war will be over in a

month, and you know it will.

I've found that prophesying

is one of life's less

profitable occupations.

Why do some slaves

cost more than others?

If they're still

young and healthy,

or if the women can still

conceive, they pay more.

Put them back in the

box, you scoundrel.

We'll return them to Mr Gardner's

studio day after next.

Be careful with them now.

These things should have

stayed on the calf.

When you were a slave, Mr

Slade, did they beat you?

I was born a free man.

Nobody beat me except I

beat them right back.

Mr Lincoln...

Mrs Keckley was a slave.

Ask her if she was beaten.

- Were you...

- Tad.

I was beaten with a fire shovel

when I was younger than you.

You should go to Mrs Lincoln.

She's in Willie's room.

She never goes in there.

The reception line is already

stretching out the door.

See, I'll be the only man

over 15 and under 65

in this whole place

not in uniform.

I'm under 15.

My head hurts so.

I prayed for death the

night Willie died.

My headaches are how I

know I didn't get my wish.

How to endure the long afternoon

and deep into the night.

I know.

Trying not to think about

him. How will I manage?

- Somehow. You will.

- Somehow?

Oh.

Somehow. Somehow.

Every party.

Every...

And now

four years more in this

terrible house, reproaching us.

He was a very sick little boy.

We should have cancelled that

reception, shouldn't we?

We didn't know how sick he was.

I knew. I knew.

I saw that night he was dying.

Three years ago, the war

was going so badly.

We had to put on a face.

But I saw Willie was dying.

Molly...

I saw him.

It's too hard.

Too hard.

Oh, gracious saints.

She's just ten feet yonder.

I'd like to keep my job.

- How nice to see you.

- Nice to see you.

Senator Sumner. It's

been much too long.

Oh, who can look on

that celestial face...

And?

James Ashley, ma'am.

We've met several times.

Praise heavens, praise heavens.

Just when I had abandoned

hope of amusement,

it's the Chairman

of the House Ways

- and Means Committee.

- Mrs Lincoln.

Madame President, if you please.

Don't convene another subcommittee

to investigate me, sir.

I'm teasing. Smile, Senator Wade.

I believe I am

smiling, Mrs Lincoln.

As long as your household

accounts are in order, madam,

we'll have no need

to investigate them.

You have always taken

such a lively,

even prosecutorial interest

in my household accounts.

Your household accounts have

always been so interesting.

Yes, thank you. It's true.

The miracles I have wrought

out of fertiliser bills and

cutlery invoices, but I had to.

Four years ago, when the

President and I arrived,

this was pure pigsty.

Tobacco stains on

the Turkey carpets.

Mushrooms, green as the moon,

sprouting from the ceilings.

And a pauper's pittance

allotted for improvements.

As if your committee joined

with all of Washington

awaiting in what you anticipated

would be our comfort in squalor.

Further proof that my husband

and I were prairie primitives

unsuited to the position to

which an error of the people,

a flaw in the Democratic

process had elevated us.

The past is the past.

It's a new year now

and we are all getting

along, or so they tell me.

I gather we are working together.

The White House and

the other House,

hatching little plans together.

- Mother.

- What?

- You're creating a bottleneck.

- Oh.

Oh, I'm detaining you.

And more importantly,

the people behind you.

How the people love my husband.

They flock to see him by their

thousands on public days.

They will never love you

the way they love him.

How difficult it must

be for you to know that

and yet how important

to remember it.

Since we have the floor

next in the debate,

I thought I'd suggest you might

temper your contribution

so as not to frighten our

conservative friends.

Ashley insists you're

ensuring approval

by dispensing patronage to

otherwise undeserving Democrats.

I can't ensure a single damn thing

if you scare the whole House silly

with talk of land appropriations

and revolutionary tribunals.

When the war ends, I intend to

push for full equality, the

Negro vote, and much more.

Congress shall mandate the seizure

of every foot of Rebel land

and every dollar

of their property.

We'll use their confiscated wealth

to establish hundreds of

thousands of free Negro farmers

and, at their side,

soldiers armed to occupy

and transform the

heritage of traitors.

We'll build up a land down there

of free men and free women and

free children and freedom.

The nation needs to know

that we have such plans.

That's the untempered

version of reconstruction.

It is not...

It's not quite exactly

what I intend.

But we shall oppose one another

in the course of time.

Now we're working together,

and I'm asking you...

For patience, I expect.

When the people disagree,

bringing them together

requires going slow until

they're ready to...

Shit on the people

and what they want

and what they're ready for.

I don't give a goddamn about

the people and what they want.

This is the face of someone

who has fought long and hard

for the good of the people

without caring much

for any of them.

And I look a lot worse

without my wig.

The people elected me

to represent them,

to lead them, and I lead.

You ought to try it.

I admire your zeal, Mr Stevens

and I have tried to profit

from the example of it, but

if I'd listened to you, I'd

have declared every slave free

the minute the first shell

struck Fort Sumter.

And the border states

would have gone over

to the Confederacy, the

war would have been lost

and the Union along with it, and

instead of abolishing slavery

as we hope to do in two weeks,

we'd be watching, helpless

as infants, as it spread

from the American South

into South America.

Oh, how you have longed

to say that to me.

You claim you trust them, but

you know what the people are.

You know that the inner compass,

that should direct the

soul towards justice

has ossified in white men

and women, North and South,

unto utter uselessness,

through tolerating

the evil of slavery.

White people cannot

bear the thought

of sharing this country's

infinite abundance with Negroes.

A compass, I learned

when I was surveying,

it'll point you true north

from where you're standing.

But it's got no advice about the

swamps and deserts and chasms

that you'll encounter

along the way.

If in pursuit of your destination,

you plunge ahead,

heedless of obstacles

and achieve nothing more

than to sink in a swamp,

what's the use of

knowing true north?

Robert's going to plead

with us to let him enlist.

Make time to talk to Robbie.

You only have time for Tad.

Tad is young.

So is Robert. Too

young for the Army.

Plenty of boys younger

than Robert signing up.

Don't take Robbie.

Don't let me lose my son.

Go away. We're occupied.

Secretary Stanton has sent over

to tell you that as

of half an hour ago

the shelling of Wilmington

Harbour has commenced.

They cannot possibly maintain

under this kind of an assault.

Terry has got 10,000 men

surrounding the goddamn port.

Why doesn't he answer...

Fort Fisher is a mountain

of a building, Edwin.

It's the largest

fort they have, sir.

Twenty-two big Seacoast

guns on each rampart.

They've been reinforcing

it for the last two years.

They've taken 17,000

shells since yesterday.

I want to hear Fort Fisher is

ours and Wilmington has fallen.

Send another damn cable.

The problem's their

commander, Whiting.

He engineered the

fortress himself,

the damn thing's his child.

He'll defend it till his

every last man is gone.

Come on out, you old rat.

That's what Ethan Allen called out

to the commander of Fort

Ticonderoga in 1776.

Come on out, you old rat.

Of course, there were only 40

odd Redcoats at Ticonderoga.

There is one Ethan Allen story

that I'm very partial to.

No, you're going to tell a story.

I don't believe that I can bear

to listen to another one

of your stories right now.

I need the B&O sideyard

schedules for Alexandria.

I asked for them this morning.

It was right after the Revolution,

right after peace

had been concluded.

And Ethan Allen went to London

to help our new country

conduct its business

with the King.

The English sneered

at how rough we are

and rude and simple-minded,

and on like that,

everywhere he went

till one day he was

invited to the townhouse

of a great English lord.

Dinner was served and

beverages imbibed,

time passed, as happens, and.

Mr Allen found he

needed the privy.

He was grateful to

be directed thence.

Relieved, you might say.

Now, Mr Allen discovered

on entering the water closet,

that the only decoration therein

was a portrait of

George Washington.

Ethan Allen done

what he came to do,

and returned to the drawing room.

His host and the others

were disappointed

when he didn't mention

Washington's portrait.

Finally, His Lordship couldn't

resist and asked Mr Allen

had he noticed it, the

picture of Washington.

He had.

Well, what did he think

of its placement,

did it seem appropriately

located to Mr Allen?

Mr Allen said it did.

His host was astounded.

Appropriate?

George Washington's

likeness in a water closet?

Yes, said Mr Allen. Where

it'll do good service.

The whole world knows nothing

will make an Englishman

shit quicker than the sight

of George Washington.

I love that story.

Fort Fisher is ours.

We've taken the port.

And Wilmington?

We've taken the fort,

but the city of Wilmington

has not surrendered.

How many casualties?

- Heavy losses.

- And more to come.

It sours the national

mood. It might suffice...

To what? To bring this down?

Not in a fight like this.

This is to the death.

That's gruesome.

Are you despairing or merely lazy?

This fight is for the

United States of America.

Nothing suffices. A

rumour? Nothing.

They're not lazy. They're

busily buying votes

while we hope to be saved

by the national mood?

Before this blood is dry, when

Stevens next takes the floor,

taunt him. You excel at that.

Get him to proclaim what

we all know he believes

in his coal-coloured heart.

That this vote is meant to

set the black race on high,

to niggerate America...

George, please, stay on course.

Bring Stevens to full froth.

I can ensure that

every newspaperman

from Louisville to San Francisco

will be here to witness

it and print it.

The floor belongs to the

mellifluent gentleman

from Kentucky, Mr George Yeaman.

I thank you, Speaker Colfax.

Although I am

disgusted by slavery,

I rise on this sad and solemn day

to announce that I'm

opposed to the amendment.

We must consider what will

become of coloured folk

if four million are, in

one instant, set free.

They'll be free, George, that's

what will become of them.

Think how splendid

if Mr Yeaman switched.

Too publicly against us. He

can't change course now.

Not for some miserable

little job, anyway.

And we will be forced

to enfranchise

the men of the coloured race.

It would be inhuman not to.

Now who among us is prepared

to give Negroes the vote?

And, and, what shall

follow upon that?

Universal enfranchisement?

Votes for women?

We...

Bless my eyes.

If it isn't the Postmaster

of Millersburg, Ohio.

Mr LeClerk felt

honour-bound to inform us

of your disgusting betrayal.

Your prostitution.

Is that true, Postmaster Hawkins?

Is your maidenly virtue for sale?

If my neighbours hear that I

voted yes for nigger freedom

and no to peace,

they will kill me.

A deal is a deal.

You men know better

than to piss your pants

just because there's

talk about peace talks.

- Look, I'll find another job.

- My neighbours in Nashville,

they found out I was

loyal to the Union,

they came after me

with gelding knives.

- I'll find another job.

- You do right, Clay Hawkins.

I want to do right.

But I got no courage.

Wait. You wanted... What was it?

A tax man for the Western Reserve?

Hell, you can have the whole

state of Ohio if you want...

Oh, crap.

Eleven votes?

Two days ago, we had

twelve. What happened?

There are defections in the ranks.

It's the goddamn rumours regarding

the Richmond delegation.

- Yes. The peace offer.

- Groundless.

- And yet the rumours persist.

- They are ruining us.

Among the few remaining

Representatives

who seem remotely plausible,

there is a perceptible

increase in resistance.

Resistance, hell.

Thingamabob Hollister,

Dem from Indiana.

I approached him, sumbitch

near to murdered me.

Colorado Territory...

What's this one?

Job description...

Taxpayers and...

Oh, shit. Cracky.

Fuck you, you son of

a bitch. Goddamn.

- Perhaps you pushed too hard.

- I push nobody.

Perhaps we need reinforcements.

If Jeff Davis wants

to cease hostilities,

who do you think is going to

give a genuine solid shit

to free slaves?

Get back to it.

And gentlemen, good day.

We are at an impasse.

Tell Lincoln to deny

the rumours, publicly.

Tell us what you expect of us.

I expect you to do your work.

And have sufficient

sense and taste

not to presume to

instruct the President.

Or me.

Is there a Confederate

offer, or not?

Gentlemen.

I suggest you work some

changes to your proposal

before you give it

to the President.

We're eager to be on

our way to Washington.

Mr Lincoln tell you

to tell us this?

It says securing peace

for our two countries

and it goes on like that.

- I don't...

- There is just one country.

You and I, we're citizens

of that country.

I'm fighting to protect

it from armed rebels.

From you.

But Mr Blair, he told us,

he told President Jefferson

Davis that we...

A private citizen like Preston

Blair can say what he pleases,

since he has no authority

over anything.

If you want to discuss peace

with President Lincoln,

consider revisions.

If we're not to discuss a truce

between warring nations,

what in heaven's

name can we discuss?

Terms of surrender.

Office United States Military

Telegraph, War Department.

For Abraham Lincoln, President

of the United States.

January 20, 1865.

I will state confidentially

that I am convinced

upon conversation with

these commissioners

that their intentions are good

and their desire sincere to

restore peace and union.

I fear now they're going back

without any expression

of interest from anyone

in authority, Mr Lincoln,

will have a bad influence.

I will be sorry should it

prove impossible for you

to have an interview with them.

I am awaiting your instructions.

US Grant, Lieutenant General,.

Commanding Armies, United States.

After four years of war, and

near 600,000 lives lost, he

believes we can end this war now.

My trust in him is marrow deep.

You could bring the

delegates to Washington.

In exchange for the South's

immediate surrender,

we could promise them

the amendment's defeat.

They'd agree, don't you think?

We'd end the war. This week.

Or, if you could manage without

seeming to do it, to...

The peace delegation

might encounter delays

as they travel up the James River.

Particularly with the

fighting around Wilmington.

Within ten days' time, we might

pass the 13th Amendment.

Here's a 16-year-old boy,

they're going to hang him.

He's with the Fifteenth

Indiana Cavalry near Bulford.

It seems he lamed his

horse to avoid battle.

I don't think even Stanton would

complain if I pardoned him.

You think Stanton would complain?

I don't know, sir. I

don't know who you're...

- What time is it?

- It's 3:40 in the morning.

Don't let him pardon

any more deserters.

Mr Stanton thinks you

pardon too many.

He's generally apoplectic

on the subject.

He oughtn't have done

that, crippled his horse.

That was cruel, but

you don't just hang

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

Ask the horse what he thinks.

For cruelty. There'd be

no 16-year-old boys left.

Grant wants me to bring the

secesh delegates to Washington.

So there are secesh delegates?

He was afraid, that's all it was.

I don't care to hang a boy for

being frightened, either.

What good would it do him?

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

What use is one more corpse?

Any more corpses?

Do you need company?

In times like this,

I'm best alone.

Lieutenant General Ulysses

S. Grant, City Point.

I have read your

words with interest.

I ask that, regardless of any

action I take in the matter

of the visit of the

Richmond commissioners

you maintain among your troops

military preparedness for battle

as you have done until now.

Have Captain Saunders convey

the commissioners to me

here in Washington.

A. Lincoln. And the date.

Yes, sir.

Shall I transmit, sir?

You think we choose to be born?

I don't suppose so.

Are we fitted to the

times we're born into?

Well, I don't know about myself.

You may be,

sir. Fitted.

What do you reckon?

Well, I'm an engineer.

I reckon there's machinery, but

no one's done the fitting.

You're an engineer.

You must know Euclid's

axioms and common notions.

I must have in school, but...

I never had much of schooling,

but I read Euclid in an

old book I borrowed.

Little enough ever

found its way in here,

but once learnt, it stayed learnt.

Euclid's first common

notion is this,

Things which are equal

to the same thing

are equal to each other.

That's a rule of

mathematical reasoning.

It's true because it works.

Has done and always will do.

In his book,

Euclid says this is self-evident.

You see? There it is, even

in that 2,000-year-old book

of mechanical law.

It is a self-evident truth

that things which are

equal to the same thing

are equal to each other.

We begin with equality.

That's the origin, isn't it?

That's balance. That's...

That's fairness.

That's justice.

Just read me back the last

sentence of the telegram, please.

Have Captain Saunders convey

the commissioners to me

here in Washington.

A slight emendation,

if you would, Sam.

Have Captain Saunders

convey the gentlemen

aboard the River Queen

as far as Hampton Roads,

Virginia, and there wait until

further advice from me.

Do not proceed to Washington.

The World, the Herald, the

Times, New York, Chicago,

the Journal of Commerce, even

your home-town paper's here.

Say you believe only in legal

equality for all races,

not racial equality.

I beg you, sir.

Compromise. Or you risk it all.

I've asked you a

question, Mr Stevens,

and you must answer me.

Do you or do you not

hold that the precept

that All men are created

equal is meant literally?

Is that not the true

purpose of the amendment?

To promote your ultimate and

ardent dream to elevate...

The true purpose of the

amendment, Mr Wood,

you perfectly named, brainless

obstructive object...

Now you have always

insisted, Mr Stevens,

that Negroes are the

same as white men are.

The true purpose of

the amendment...

I don't hold with

equality in all things,

only with equality before

the law. Nothing more.

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

You believe that Negroes are

entirely equal to white men.

You've said it a thousand times.

For shame. For shame.

Stop prevaricating and

answer Representative Wood.

I don't hold with

equality in all things,

only with equality before the law.

After the decades of

fervent advocacy...

He's answered your questions.

This amendment's not to

do with race equality.

I don't hold with

equality in all things,

only with equality before

the law, and nothing more.

Who'd ever have guessed

that old nightmare

capable of such control?

He might make a

politician someday.

I need to go.

Mrs Keckley.

Your frantic attempt

to delude us now

is unworthy of a representative.

It is, in fact, unworthy

of a white man.

How can I hold that all

men are created equal

when here before me

stands, stinking,

the moral carcass of the

gentleman from Ohio, proof

that some men are inferior,

endowed by their Maker with dim

wits, impermeable to reason,

with cold, pallid

slime in their veins

instead of hot, red blood.

You are more reptile

than man, George.

So low and flat that

the foot of man

is incapable of crushing you.

How dare you?

Yet even you, Pendleton,

who should have been gibbeted

for treason long before today.

Even worthless, unworthy you

ought to be treated

equally before the law.

And so again, sir, again

and again and again I say,

I do not hold with

equality in all things,

only with equality before the law.

Mr Speaker, will you permit

this vile, boorish man

to slander and to threaten me?

And to reduce these proceedings

on this most important

matter into an anarchic

and tawdry burlesque?

You asked if ever I was surprised.

Today, Mr Stevens,

I was surprised.

You've led the battle for

race equality for 30 years.

The basis of every hope for

this country's future life,

you denied Negro

equality. I'm nauseated.

You refused to say

that all humans are...

Well, human.

Have you lost your

very soul, Mr Stevens?

Is there nothing you won't say?

I'm sorry you're nauseous, Asa.

That must be unpleasant.

I want the amendment to pass, so

that the Constitution's first

and only mention of slavery

is its absolute prohibition.

For this amendment, for which

I have worked all my life

and for which countless

coloured men and women

have fought and died

and now hundreds of

thousands of soldiers...

No, sir, no.

It seems there's very

nearly nothing I won't say.

I'm not going in.

You said you wanted to help me.

But this is just a clumsy

attempt to discourage me.

I've been to Army hospitals.

I've seen surgeries.

I went and visited the

malaria barges with Mama.

She told me she didn't

take you inside.

I snuck in afterwards.

I've seen what it's like.

This changes nothing.

Well, at all rate, son, I'm

happy to have your company.

- Good morning, Jim.

- Hello, Mr President.

- Good to see you again.

- Good to see you.

Well, boys, first question.

You getting enough to eat?

Hello, sir.

- What's your name, soldier?

- Robert.

- Good to meet you, Robert.

- Nice to meet you.

- What's your name?

- Kevin.

Tell me your names as I go past.

I'd like to know who

I'm talking to. Kevin.

- Mr President. John.

- John. I've seen you before.

Mr President.

Make sure you get some steak.

I wouldn't mind one

myself, right now.

What's the matter, Bob?

I have to do this,

and I will do it.

And I don't need your

permission to enlist.

That same speech has been

made by how many sons

to how many fathers

since the war began?

I don't need your damn permission,

you miserable old goat,

I'm gonna enlist anyhow.

And what wouldn't those

numberless fathers have given

to be able to say to their sons

as I now say to mine,

I'm Commander in Chief.

So, in point of fact,

without my permission

you ain't enlisting in

nothing nowhere, young man.

It's Mama you're scared of,

it's not me getting killed.

I have to do this. And I will.

Or I will feel ashamed of

myself for the rest of my life.

Whether or not you fought

is what's gonna matter,

and not just to other

people, but to myself.

I won't be you, Pa,

I can't do that,

but I don't want to be nothing.

I can't lose you.

He'll be fine, Molly.

City Point's a way back

from the front lines

and the fighting.

He'll be an adjutant, running

messages for General Grant.

The war will take our son.

A sniper, or a shrapnel shell,

a typhus same as took Willie.

It takes hundreds of boys a

day. He'll die uselessly.

And how will I ever forgive you?

Most men, their firstborn

is their favourite.

You've always blamed

Robert for being born.

For trapping you in a marriage

that's only ever given you grief

- and caused you regret.

- That's simply not true.

And if the slaughter

of Cold Harbor's

on your hands same as

Grant, God help us.

We'll pay for the

oceans of spilled blood

you've sanctioned, the

uncountable corpses.

We'll be made to pay with

our son's dear blood.

Just this once, Mrs Lincoln,

I demand of you to try

and take the liberal

and not the selfish point of view.

Robert will never forgive himself.

You imagine he'll forgive us

if we continue to stifle

this very natural ambition?

And if I refuse to

take the high road?

If I won't pick up

the rough old cross,

will you threaten me

again with the madhouse?

As you did when I couldn't

stop crying over Willie.

When I showed you what heartbreak,

real heartbreak, looked like.

And you hadn't the courage

- to countenance, to help me.

- That's right, that's right...

When you refused so

much as to comfort Tad,

a child who was not only

sick, dangerously sick,

but beside himself with grief.

I was holding him in

my arms when he died.

But your grief, your grief,

your inexhaustible grief.

How dare you throw that up at me?

And his mother wouldn't

let him near her

because she's screaming

from morning to night.

I couldn't risk him

seeing how angry I was.

Pacing the halls,

howling at shadows

and furniture and ghosts.

I ought to have done

it for Tad's sake,

for everybody's goddamn sake,

I should have clapped

you in the madhouse.

Then do it.

Do it. Don't you threaten me.

You do it this time. Lock me away.

You'll have to, I swear,

if Robert is killed.

I couldn't tolerate you

grieving so for Willie

because I couldn't

permit it in myself.

Though I wanted to, Mary.

I wanted to crawl under the earth,

into the vault, with his coffin.

And I still do. Every day I do.

Don't speak to me about grief.

I must make my decisions, Bob

must make his, you yours.

And bear what we must. Hold

and carry what we must.

What I carry within me, you

must allow me to do it.

Alone, as I must. And

you alone, Mary,

you alone may lighten this burden.

Or render it intolerable.

As you choose.

You think I'm ignorant

of what you're up to

because you haven't discussed

this scheme with me as

you ought to have done?

When have I ever been

so easily bamboozled?

I believe you when you insist

that amending the Constitution

and abolishing slavery

will end this war.

And since you are sending

my son into the war,

woe unto you if you fail

to pass the amendment.

Seward doesn't want me

leaving big muddy footprints

all over town.

No one has ever lived who

knows better than you

the proper placement of

footfalls on treacherous paths.

Seward can't do it. You must.

Because if you fail to

acquire the necessary votes,

woe unto you, sir. You

will answer to me.

Thank you.

I know the vote is

only four days away.

I know you're concerned.

Thank you for your

concern over this.

And I want you to know,

they'll approve it.

God will see to it.

I don't envy Him his task.

He may wish He'd chosen an

instrument for His purpose

more wieldy than the House

of Representatives.

Then you'll see to it.

Are you afraid of what

lies ahead for your people

if we succeed?

White people don't want us here.

- Many don't.

- What about you?

I don't know you, Mrs Keckley.

Any of you.

You're familiar to me,

as all people are,

unaccommodated, poor,

bare, forked creatures,

such as we all are.

You have a right to

expect what I expect.

And likely our expectations

are not incomprehensible

to each other.

I assume I'll get used to you.

Now what you are to the nation,

what'll become of you once

slavery's day is done,

I don't know.

What my people are

to be, I can't say.

Negroes have been fighting

and dying for freedom

since the first of us was a slave.

I never heard any ask

what freedom would bring.

Freedom is first.

As for me,

my son died fighting

for the Union,

wearing the Union blue.

For freedom he died.

And I'm his mother.

That's what I am to the

nation, Mr Lincoln.

What else must I be?

My whole hand's gonna be

proud in about five seconds.

Let's see how proud you can be.

Go away. That watch

fob, is that gold?

You keep your eyes off my fob.

Gentlemen, you have a visitor.

Goddamn. Hey, Bill.

Well, I'll be fucked.

I wouldn't bet against it.

Mr

W. N. Bilbo.

Yeah, Mr Bilbo. Gentlemen.

Sir.

Why are you here? No offence,

but Mr Seward's banished the

very mention of your name.

He won't even let us

use fifty cent pieces

because they've got

your face on 'em.

The Secretary of State

here tells me that you got

11 Democrats in the bag.

That's encouraging.

Oh, you've got no cause

to be encouraged, sir.

Are we being fired?

We have heard the chimes at

midnight, Master Shallow.

I'm here to alert you boys

that the great day of

reckoning is nigh upon us.

The Democrats we've

yet to bag, sir,

the patronage jobs

simply won't bag 'em.

They require more

convincing, Mr President.

Do me a favour, will you?

Sure.

It snagged my eye in

the paper this morning

that the Governor Curtin

is set to declare a

winner in the disputed.

Congressional election for the...

Pennsylvania 16th District.

District. What a joy

to be comprehended.

Hop on a train to Philadel,

call on the Governor...

Send Latham. Or Schell.

No, he'll do fine. Just

polish yourself up first.

The incumbent is claiming

he won it. Name of...

Coffroth.

- That's him.

- Coffroth.

- He's a Democrat.

- I understand that.

- Silly name.

- A little bit silly.

Tell Governor Curtin

it'd be much appreciated

if he'd invite the House

of Representatives

to decide who won.

He's entitled to do that.

He'll agree to it.

Then advise Coffroth if he

hopes to retain his seat,

then he'd better pay a

visit to Thaddeus Stevens.

Well, pity poor Coffroth.

It opens.

You are Canfrey?

Coffroth, Mr Stevens.

Alexander Coffroth.

Are we representatives

of the same state?

Yes, sir. We sit only

three desks apart.

I haven't noticed you.

I'm a Republican and you,

Coughdrop, are a Democrat?

Well, I, that is to say...

The modern travesty

of Thomas Jefferson's

political organisation

to which you've attached

yourself like a barnacle

has the effrontery to call

itself the Democratic Party.

You are a Democrat. What's

the matter with you?

Are you wicked?

- Well, I felt...

- Never mind.

Coffsnot, you were

ignominiously trounced

at the hustings in

November's election

by your worthy challenger,

a Republican.

No, sir, I was not trounced.

He wants to steal my seat. I

didn't lose the election.

What difference does it

make if you lost or not?

The governor of our

state is... A Democrat?

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

Re...

- pub... lic...

- pub... lic...

- can.

- Can. Republican.

I know what he is. This

is a rhetorical exercise.

And Congress is controlled

by what party? Yours?

Your party was beaten.

Your challenger's party

now controls the House

and hence the House

Committee on Elections,

so you have been beaten.

You shall shortly be sent

home in disgrace. Unless...

I know what I must do, sir.

I will immediately become a

Republican and vote yes...

No.

Coffroth will vote yes,

but Coffroth will remain a

Democrat until after he does so.

Why wait to switch?

I'm happy to...

We want to show the amendment

has bipartisan support,

you idiot. Early in

the next Congress,

when I tell you to do so,

you will switch parties.

Now congratulations on

your victory, and get out.

Now, give me the names of whoever

else you've been hunting.

Aw, hell.

George Yeaman.

Yes. Yeaman.

Among others.

- But Yeaman, that'd count.

- Yeah.

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

I got it.

Kentucky.

I can't vote for the

amendment, Mr Lincoln.

I saw a barge once, Mr Yeaman,

filled with coloured men in chains

heading down the Mississippi to

the New Orleans slave markets.

It sickened me.

And more than that, it

brought a shadow down.

A pall around my eyes.

Slavery troubled me as

long as I can remember

in a way it never

troubled my father,

though he hated it,

in his own fashion.

He knew no smallholding

dirt farmer

could compete with

slave plantations

so he took us out from

Kentucky to get away from 'em.

He wanted Indiana kept free.

He wasn't a kind man

but there was a rough,

moral urge for fairness,

for freedom in him.

I learnt that from him, I suppose.

If little else from him.

We didn't care for one

another, Mr Yeaman.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that.

Loving kindness, that most

ordinary thing, came to me

from other sources. I'm

grateful for that.

Well, I hate it, too, sir.

Slavery, but...

But we're entirely unready

for emancipation.

And there's too many questions...

We're unready for

peace, too, ain't we?

Yeah, when it comes, it'll

present us with conundrums

and dangers greater than any

we faced during the war,

bloody as it's been.

We'll have to extemporise and

experiment with what it is,

when it is.

I read your speech, George.

Negroes and the vote,

that's a puzzle.

No, no. But, but,

but Negroes can't

vote, Mr Lincoln.

You're not suggesting we

enfranchise coloured people?

I'm asking only that

you disenthral yourself

from the slave powers.

I'll let you know when

there's an offer on my

desk for surrender.

There's none before us now.

What's before us now, that's the

vote on the 13th Amendment.

And it's going to

be so very close.

You see what you can do.

I can't make sense of it.

What he died for.

Mr Lincoln, I hate them all.

I do. All black people.

I am a prejudiced man.

Well, I'd change that

in you if I could,

but that's not why I come.

I might be wrong, Mr Hutton,

but I expect coloured

people most likely be free.

And when that's so,

it's simple truth

that your brother's bravery and

his death helped make it so.

Only you can decide whether

that's sense enough

for you or not.

My deepest sympathies

to your family.

We've managed our members

to a fare-thee-well.

You've had no defections

from the Republican

right to trouble you.

Whereas as to what you promised,

where the hell are

the commissioners?

Oh, my God. It's true.

You... You lied to me.

Mr Lincoln, you evaded

my request for a denial

that there is a

Confederate peace offer,

because there is one.

We are absolutely guaranteed

to lose the whole thing.

We don't need a goddamn

abolition amendment.

Leave the Constitution alone.

What if the peace commissioners

appear today, or worse...

I can't listen to this any more.

I can't accomplish a goddamn thing

of any human meaning or worth

until we cure ourselves of slavery

and end this pestilential war.

And whether any of you

or anyone else knows it,

I know I need this.

This amendment is that cure.

We are stepped out upon

the world stage now.

Now.

With the fate of human

dignity in our hands.

Blood's been spilt to

afford us this moment.

Now. Now. Now.

And you grousle and heckle

and dodge about like

pettifogging Tammany

Hall hucksters.

See what is before you.

See the here and now, that's the

hardest thing, the only

thing that accounts.

Abolishing slavery by

constitutional provision

settles the fate for

all coming time

not only of the

millions now in bondage

but of unborn millions to come.

Two votes stand in its way.

These votes must be procured.

We need two yeses, three

abstentions, or four yeses

and one more abstention, and

the amendment will pass.

You got a night, and

a day, and a night,

and several perfectly good hours.

Now get the hell out

of here and get 'em.

Yes. But how?

Buzzards' guts, man.

I am the President of the

United States of America

clothed in immense power.

You will procure me these votes.

We welcome you,

ladies and gentlemen,

first in the history of

this people's chamber,

to your House.

Mr Ashley, the floor is yours.

On the matter of the joint

resolution before us,

presenting a 13th Amendment

to our National Constitution,

which was passed last

year by the Senate

and which has been debated now

by this estimable body for

the past several weeks,

today we will vote.

By mutual agreement, we shall

hear brief, final statements,

beginning with the honourable

George Pendleton of Ohio.

I have just received

confirmation

of what previously has

been merely rumoured.

Affidavits from loyal citizens

recently returned from Richmond.

They testify that

commissioners have indeed

come north and ought

to have arrived

by now in Washington City

bearing an offer of immediate

cessation of our civil war.

Is it true, sir?

Are there Confederate

commissioners in the capital?

I have no idea where they

are or if they've arrived.

They'll arrive.

I appeal to my fellow Democrats,

to all Republican representatives

who give a fig for peace,

postpone this vote.

Until we have answers from

the President himself.

Postpone the vote.

Postpone the vote.

Postpone the vote.

Postpone the vote.

Postpone the vote.

- Postpone the vote.

- Gentlemen.

Postpone the vote.

Postpone the vote.

Postpone the vote.

I have made a motion.

Does anyone care to

second my motion?

Gentlemen.

The conservative faction of

border and western Republicans

cannot approve this amendment,

about which we harbour

grave doubts,

if a peace offer is being

held hostage to its success.

Joining together with our

Democratic colleagues,

I second the motion to postpone.

He must deny peace

commissioners are in the city.

Quick, man. Quick.

This is precisely what Mr

Wood wishes me to respond to?

Word for word, this is precisely

the assurance that

he demands of me?

Yes, sir.

Give this to Mr Ashley.

I feel I have to say,

Mr Lincoln, that...

Could you please

just step outside?

You want to have a chat now,

with the whole of the

House of Representatives

waiting on this?

Making false representation

to Congress, is...

- It's...

- It's impeachable,

but I've made no such

false representation.

But there are.

There is a delegation

from Richmond.

Give me the note, Johnnie.

Please, deliver that to Mr Ashley.

From the President.

So far as I know, there are no

peace commissioners in the city

nor are there likely to be.

So far as I know?

That means nothing.

Are there commissioners from

the South, or aren't there?

The President has

answered you, sir.

Your peace offer is a fiction.

That is not a denial.

It is a lawyer's dodge.

Mr Haddam, is your

faction satisfied?

The conservative Republican

faction is satisfied.

And we thank Mr Lincoln.

I move to table Mr Wood's motion.

Tabled.

Mr Colfax, I order

the main question.

A motion has been made

to bring the bill

for the 13th Amendment to a vote.

Do I hear a second?

I second the motion.

So moved, so ordered.

The Clerk will now...

Quiet, please.

The Clerk will now call

the roll for the voting.

We begin with Connecticut.

Mr Augustus Benjamin,

on the matter of this

amendment, how say you?

Nay.

Mr Arthur Bentleigh.

Nay.

Mr John Ellis, how say you?

Aye.

What.

Missouri next. Mr Walter Appleton.

I vote no.

Mr Josiah Burton.

Beanpole Burton is

pleased to vote yea.

The State of New Jersey.

- Mr Nehemiah Cleary.

- No.

Mr James Martinson.

Mr Martinson has delegated

me to say he is indisposed.

And he abstains.

Mr Austin J. Roberts.

Also indisposed, also abstaining.

Illinois concluded.

Mr Harold Hollister. How say you?

No.

Mr Hutton.

Mr William Hutton. Cast your vote.

William Hutton, remembering

at this moment

his beloved brother Frederick

votes against the amendment.

Webster Allen votes no.

Webster Allen, Illinois,

Democrat, votes no.

Halberd Law, Indiana,

Democrat, votes no.

Archibald Moran, yes.

Ambrose Baylor, yes.

Mr Walter H. Washburn.

Votes no.

And Mr George Yeaman, how say you?

My vote ties us.

Sir, Mr Yeaman, I

didn't hear your vote.

I said Aye, Mr McPherson.

Aye.

Traitor.

Order.

Order in my chamber.

Mr McPherson, you may proceed.

Mr Clay R. Hawkins of Ohio.

Goddamn it, I'm voting yes.

I don't care, you shoot me dead.

You shoot me dead.

I am voting yes.

Mr Edwin F. LeClerk.

No.

Oh, to hell with it.

Shoot me dead, too. Yes.

I mean...

Abstention. Abstention.

Spineless. No gender.

Mr Alexander Coffroth.

I vote

yes.

Yea.

James Brooks...

Nay.

Josiah Grenelle...

Yea.

Meyer Strauss...

Nay.

- Mr Joseph Marstern.

- Nay.

- Mr Chilton A. Elliot.

- No.

- Mr Daniel G. Stuart.

- I vote yes.

- Mr Howard Guilfoyle.

- Yea.

- John F. McKenzie.

- Yea.

- Andrew E. Fink.

- Nay.

- Mr John A. Castle.

- Yea.

- Mr Hanready.

- Nay.

- And Mr Rufus Warren?

- Yea.

The roll call concludes.

The voting is completed. Now...

Mr Clerk, please call my name.

I want to cast a vote.

I object.

The Speaker doesn't vote.

The Speaker may vote

if he so chooses.

It is highly unusual, sir.

This isn't usual, Mr Pendleton.

This is history.

How does Mr Schuyler Colfax vote?

Aye, of course.

The final vote.

Eight absent or not voting.

Fifty-six votes against.

One hundred and

nineteen votes for.

With a margin of two votes...

We chose great leadership.

♪ We'll rally round

the flag, boys ♪

♪ We'll rally once again ♪

♪ Shouting the battle

cry of freedom ♪

♪ We will rally

from the hillside ♪

♪ We'll gather from the plain ♪

♪ Shouting the battle

cry of freedom ♪

♪ The Union forever.

Hurrah, boys, hurrah ♪

♪ Down with the traitor ♪

♪ And up with the star ♪

♪ Shout, shout the

battle cry of Freedom ♪

♪ Congratulations, Mr Chairman ♪

The bill, Mr McPherson. May I?

♪ The Union forever.

Hurrah, boys, hurrah ♪

That's, that's the official bill.

I'll return it in the morning.

Creased,

but unharmed.

♪ Shouting the battle

cry of freedom ♪

♪ We are springing to the call

of the loyal, true and brave ♪

♪ Shouting the battle

cry of freedom ♪

♪ And we'll fill

our vacant ranks ♪

♪ With a million freemen more ♪

♪ Shouting the battle

cry of freedom ♪

♪ The Union forever ♪

♪ Hurrah, boys, hurrah ♪

♪ Down with the traitor

and up with the star ♪

A gift for you.

The greatest measure

of the 19th century,

passed by corruption,

aided and abetted by the

purest man in America.

I wish you had been present.

- I wish I'd been.

- It was a spectacle.

You can't bring your

housekeeper to the House.

I won't give them gossip.

This is enough.

This is...

It's more than enough for now.

Read it to me again, my love.

- Proposed...

- And adopted.

Adopted,

an amendment to the Constitution

of the United States.

Section One.

Neither slavery nor

involuntary servitude

except as a punishment for crime

whereof the party shall

have been duly convicted

shall exist within

the United States

or any place subject

to their jurisdiction.

Section Two.

Congress shall have power

to enforce this amendment

by appropriate legislation.

Let me be blunt.

Will the Southern states

resume their former

position in the Union

speedily enough to enable us

to block ratification to

this here 13th Amendment?

I'd like peace immediately.

Yes, and?

I'd like your states restored to

their practical relations

with the Union immediately.

If this could be given

to me in writing,

as Vice President of the

Confederacy, I'd

bring that document

with celerity, to Jefferson Davis.

Surrender.

And we can discuss reconstruction.

Surrender won't be thought of.

Unless you've assured

us, in writing,

that we'll be readmitted in

time to block this amendment.

This is the arrogant

demand of a conqueror.

You'll not be a conquered

people, Mr Hunter.

You will be citizens.

Returned to the laws and

the guarantees of rights

of the Constitution.

Which now extinguishes slavery.

And with it, our economy.

All our laws will be determined by

a Congress of vengeful Yankees.

All our rights will be

subject to a Supreme Court

benched by bloody

Republican radicals.

All our traditions

will be obliterated.

We won't know ourselves any more.

We ain't here to discuss

reconstruction.

We have no legal basis

for that discussion.

But I don't want to deal falsely.

The Northern states will

ratify, most of them.

As I figure it, it remains for

two of the Southern states

to do the same, even after

all are readmitted.

And I've been working on that.

Tennessee and Louisiana.

Arkansas, too, most likely.

It'll be ratified.

Slavery, sir... It's done.

If we submit ourselves

to law, Alex,

even submit to losing freedoms,

the freedom to

oppress, for instance

we may discover other freedoms

previously unknown to us.

Had you kept faith with

the democratic process,

as frustrating as that can be...

Come, sir.

Spare us, at least, these pieties.

Did you defeat us with ballots?

How have you held

your Union together?

Through democracy?

How many hundreds of

thousands have died

during your administration?

Your Union, sir, is bonded

in cannon fire and death.

It may be you're right.

But say all we done

is show the world

that democracy isn't chaos.

That there is a great,

invisible strength

in a people's union.

Say we've shown that a people

can endure awful sacrifice

and yet cohere.

Mightn't that save at least

the idea of democracy

to aspire to?

Eventually to become worthy of?

At all rates, whatever may be

proven by blood and sacrifice

must have been proved by now.

Shall we stop this bleeding?

Once he surrenders, send his

boys back to their homes

and their farms, their shops.

Yes, sir.

As we discussed.

Liberality all around,

not punishment.

I don't want that.

And their leaders, Jeff

and the rest of them,

they escape, leave the country

while my back's turned, that

wouldn't upset me none.

When peace comes, it

mustn't just be hangings.

By outward appearance

you're 10 years older

than you were a year ago.

Some weariness has

bit at my bones.

I never seen the like of it

before, what I seen today.

Never seen the like of it before.

You always knew that.

What this was going to be.

Intimate and ugly.

You must have needed

to see it close

when you decided

to come down here.

We've made it possible for one

another to do terrible things.

We've won the war.

Now you have to lead us out of it.

You have an itch to travel?

I'd like that.

To the West, by rail.

Overseas.

The Holy Land.

Awfully pious for a man

who takes his wife out

buggy-riding on Good Friday.

Jerusalem.

Where David and Solomon walked.

I dream of walking in

that ancient city.

All anyone will remember of me

is I was crazy and I

ruined your happiness.

Anyone thinks that doesn't

understand, Molly.

When they look at you,

at what it cost to live

at the heart of this,

they'll wonder at it.

They'll wonder at you.

They should.

But they should also look at the

wretched woman by your side

if they want to understand

what this was truly like.

For the ordinary person.

For anyone other than you.

You must try to be happier.

We must, both of us.

We've been so miserable

for so long.

I did say some coloured men...

The intelligent, the

educated, and the

veterans. I qualified it.

Mr Stevens is furious.

He wants to know why

you qualified it.

No one heard the intelligent

or educated part.

All they heard was the first time

any president has ever made

mention of Negro voting.

Still, I wish I'd mentioned

it in a better speech.

Mr Stevens also wants to know

why you didn't make

a better speech.

Mrs Lincoln is waiting

in the carriage.

She wants me to remind you

of the hour, and that

you'll have to pick up Miss

Harris and Major Rathbone.

- Am I in trouble?

- No, sir.

Thank you, Mr Slade.

I suppose it's time to go.

Though I would rather stay.

The President has been shot.

The President has been

shot. At Ford's Theatre.

No. No.

It's 7:22 in the morning.

Saturday, the 15th of April.

It's all over.

The President is no more.

Now he belongs to the ages.

Fondly do we hope,

fervently do we pray,

that this mighty scourge of

war, may speedily pass away.

Yet if God wills that it continue

until all the wealth piled

by the bondman's 250 years

of unrequited toil shall be sunk

and until every drop of

blood drawn with the lash

shall be paid by another

drawn with the sword

as was said 3,000 years ago,

so still it must be said,

The judgements of the Lord

are true and righteous altogether.

With malice toward none,

with charity for all,

with firmness in the right, as

God gives us to see the right,

let us strive on to finish

the work we are in,

to bind up the nation's wounds,

to care for him who shall

have borne the battle

and for his widow

and his orphan,

to do all which may

achieve and cherish

a just and a lasting

peace among ourselves