The Political Genius Of Abraham Lincoln

Derived from Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln written by Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and directed by Steven Spielberg, Lincoln is highly rated for its marvelous cinematography and Daniel Day Lewis’ accurate portrayal of Lincoln’s personal life. The movie focused on the last 4 months of Lincoln’s life instead of his whole life. Lincoln (played by Daniel Day Lewis) had negotiated with the North and the South, passed the 13th Amendment and eventually abolished slavery in these 4 months. As the President of that time, he had to deal with the pressure coming from both the conservatives and the radicals; as a family member, he had to find the balance between Mary (played by Sally Field), his

He wanted the House of Representatives to pass his Thirteenth Amendment of abolishing slavery, but he faced the problems that the board states did not support the amendment and it required more Democratic congressmen’s support to pass the amendment. Francis Preston Blair (played by Hal Holbrook), the founder of Republican Party, who can decide whether the other western and the border state conservatives would vote for the amendment, wanted to end the Civil War and agreed to support Lincoln under one condition: he would participate in peace negotiations without mentioning slavery. Lincoln had to compromise even though he thought it would be immoral not to bring in slavery when negotiating. On the other hand, Lincoln and the Secretary of State William Seward persuaded and enticed the Democrats to support the amendment, offering them with federal jobs in Lincoln’s second term. As the voting started in the White House, a rumor that the confederate delegates were on the way to negotiate peace broke out, promoting the Democrats and Republicans to postpone the vote. Having asked the delegates to stay out of Washington in the first place, Lincoln argued that the envoy was on the river and would not be in the city, ordering the vote to

In this way, the whole movie would be more vivid and impressive. Moreover, Spielberg understood that politicians had to play tricks. Hence He featured cheerful and relaxing background music when depicting the plot that Seward was bribing the Democrats with job offers, as if it was like a funny story. Like Isaac Asimov wrote in his fiction Foundation, “never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.” To abolish slavery, Lincoln had to try everything he can to pass the