Let’s face it, the only difficulty in writing a praise of Lincoln or of LINCOLN, is that sinking feeling of dread of comments from reb-descendants and wannabe cessesh who insist that (a) Old Abe wasn’t against slavery, and (b) the War wasn’t about slavery; it was about States’ Rights.
One can only groan deeply and say, “Yeah, right—the right to enslave human beings, the right to nullify Federal laws, the right to fire upon Federal forts.” (Happily, I no longer know anyone who believes that African-Americans enjoyed being slaves.)
One also groans inwardly knowing that whatever is written in this review, a number of people will make stupid comments. I may or may not leave such comments up to showcase their irrelevance. People: the time for enshrining dead relatives who fought a lost and useless cause 150 years ago is up. Do you who use terms like “the War Against Yankee Aggression” not know that you offend every time you say this, every time you raise that flag? Should we not live, as much as is possible, at peace with what we now know to be Justice, to be Honor, to be the march of Liberty? Can we not lay down long-dead relatives in peace and move along? Can you not lower that flag? Is your whole reason for living to defend what once was and what must not be again?
Whatever may have been the impetuses to the American Civil War, the results are certainly clear: we are no longer a loose association of States. We are Federalized. The Supremacy clause of the Constitution means something. And, more and most importantly, the evil of slavery ended. I would say that the results are far more important than the causes, especially since in every bout of fisticuffs ever begun there is an argument over who started it.
Lincoln wondered aloud in his Second Inaugural whether the United States would have to suffer lash for lash and drop for drop to cleanse the land. But I say no Civil War could have exacted enough suffering to pay for the suffering America inflicted on the millions of enslaved individuals who worked away their lives, were torn from their loved ones, were beaten, afflicted, tortured, killed. No Civil War could recompense Justice for the stolen years, the stolen lives, the rape, the murder, the hopelessness, the fear. What is it to marry and not know whether tomorrow your spouse will be sold away from you? What is it to bear a child and not know whether tomorrow your child will be sold away from you, but to definitely know your child will live and die a slave? Multiplied millions of times over four hundred years, this is not something expunged by four years and less than a million dead white men.
I wonder aloud here whether a million children killed a year for several decades is the recompense for the evil we perpetrated against Black America. Those numbers make more sense when you figure in lives that would have been, that could have been. Perhaps we are paying now. What price the Middle Passage? What price a thriving economy, a storied culture, a way of life, a heritage? Please God have mercy and forgive us for slavery! (Do not speak to me here of your dead great-great-great grandsomething who loved his slaves. Such talk nauseates.)
If only Mr. Lincoln had not gone to the theater that night! One can’t imagine Reconstruction being what it was had he lived. Had he lived just a year longer, just long enough to set peace in order. He would certainly have travelled from town to town giving speeches of peace, hope, and reconciliation. Alas, he probably would have been killed on one of those trips, and what this says about the South is not worth saying.
Of course, we all realize that the largest obstacle to a Real Peace, True Reconciliation, and Civil Harmony was lost when Christian whites decided to be hateful, to put up barriers to success, to separate and separate and separate until two entirely distinct cultures lived in a sort of Cold War (sometimes not so cold), with all the power on one side and growing anger on both. Any of us still not convinced of the greatness of Dr. King & Company’s powerful peacefulness is living in an alternate reality–Dr. King could have roused the people to riot. He chose another way, God be praised, and we don’t have to teach our children about CWII.
LINCOLN is not the story of Lincoln’s whole life, nor is it the story of the whole Civil War. It is the story of the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which says:
Section 1. 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 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation
That this had to be hotly debated in the Union States is astonishing. That it came close to failing is more than sobering. Again, we give God thanks for courageous men.
There has been some talk that this movie shows Blacks in a passive role, not working for their own freedom. Whatever. The movie isn’t about Black rebellion against slavery–it’s about Lincoln’s work for the passage of a Constitutional Amendment in the House of Representatives, obviously at that time a white male domain. (The criticism would be analogous to watching Schindler’s List and then complaining that it doesn’t focus on Jewish partisans.)
Daniel Day-Lewis is Lincoln. His performance is Oscar-worthy, as is Sally Field’s as Mary Lincoln. Tommy Lee Jones shines as Thaddeus Stevens, as does Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Lincoln and David Strathairn as Secretary of State Seward.
There are a lot of long conversations, so I think young people may be bored in places. I would definitely show this to high schoolers, maybe a little younger. Language appropriate to War. Dead bodies in piles.
It is not possible to overrate Day-Lewis’s performance. He gives us an unforgettable Lincoln. When he speaks tenderly to Mary in her mental agonies, we feel for both of them. When he jokes, we laugh. When he argues in cool legal language, we are convinced. When he walks to the carriage to go to the theater, our hearts ache.
And two more necessary words: Spielberg. Rockstar.