As the Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield and as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
In 1865, as the American Civil War winds inexorably toward conclusion, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln endeavors to achieve passage of the landmark constitutional amendment which will forever ban slavery from the United States. However, his task is a race against time, for peace may come at any time, and if it comes before the amendment is passed, the returning southern states will stop it before it can become law. Lincoln must, by almost any means possible, obtain enough votes from a recalcitrant Congress before peace arrives and it is too late. Yet the president is torn, as an early peace would save thousands of lives. As the nation confronts its conscience over the freedom of its entire population, Lincoln faces his own crisis of conscience -- end slavery or end the war.
Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
David Strathairn (playing William Seward) previously played Lincoln in the LA Theatre Works 2008 production of Norman Corwin's The Rivalry, which dramatized the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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Goofs
Continuity:
When Lincoln and Todd are going to the military hospital in the carriage, Lincoln clearly puts the papers he is working on in a folder on his left. Next shot, the papers are back in his lap and he re-does the movement of putting the papers in the briefcase folder.
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Quotes
Abraham Lincoln:
[to Ulysses S. Grant]
Each of us has made it possible for the other to do terrible things. See more »