I was interested for a while until I found out that it's all about the month leading up to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
I thought it was going to cover the lesser-known stuff, the other aspects of his presidency that people rarely cover. An entire presidency isn't just about a single signed document. And yet that's all we ever get to learn about Lincoln.
"He freed the slaves."
He was a president during one of the most important wars in our history for chrissakes. There is a lot of ground you could cover with that. A single document signed more so to win back support from the British is not the only notable thing to his name. He wasn't anywhere near as altruistic toward the plight of the slaves as we all like to think, and yet that's exactly the portrayal we're getting from this movie (going on about "human dignity" and whatnot; basically misinforming people about who he was).
Actual quote from the Lincoln Memorial itself:
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
I don't doubt that the movie will be really good, I'm just irritated at the single-mindedness everyone seems to have about Lincoln. I'd be very happy with a movie that covers his actual presidency , but from what I've heard, that's not what this one is about at all. Just another rambling on the "he freed the slaves" subject.
I'll likely end up seeing it (I'm in an American history class at the moment, and we're moving into the Civil War era soon), I'm just disappointed at what I've caught glimpses of so far.
I would agree with you fully except for the matter that this was a political struggle he had to deal with too.
And despite his openly shared opinion many times AGAINST slavery he, just as Romney did so often, had to pander to his base and to the center of the isle and in Lincoln's case, do it in the middle of a war no less. Lest we forget, (and I dont assume you do just saying) the Civil War was well into effect while this legislation was still trying to be passed. So while he didnt want slavery to spread any further he ofcourse valued the preservation of the union above all. How could you blame him? The economic fall out from cutting the cord to the south would have destroyed the country. It was not in his and the country's best interest to value an idealistic separatist revolution over the prospects of maintaining the Union while defeating the Confederacy and abolishing slavery by force. The right way.
So he pandered and he flip flopped.. he did what any politician in his situation would of had to do, but lets see how he really felt..
Speech at Peoria, Illinois
October 16, 1854
"I can not but hate the declared indifference for slavery's spread. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest."
Speech at Chicago, Illinois
July 10, 1858
"I have always hated slavery, I think as much as any Abolitionist."
To James N. Brown
October 18, 1858
"I have made it equally plain that I think the negro is included in the word "men" used in the Declaration of Independence."
Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio
September 17, 1859
"I think Slavery is wrong, morally, and politically. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union."
and while I realize the movie is probably a gross exageration of these sentiments, I just love good acting. I like concept of a crazy idealistic Lincoln. And id like to see the movie in its entirety before I pass too much judgement.