If you are planning to see the new, Steven Spielberg directed, Lincoln movie you might want to invest in an accurate history book instead. While it is successfully dramatic, the movie rehashes several 150 year old myths about the Lincoln presidency and America's most horrible war.
First, to the movie's credit, the script avoids a key, blatant lie that is currently being taught throughout American public schools today. The script focuses correctly on explaining how slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, not the Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln's proclamation did not apply to any northern states. It only applied to southern territory that was not under control of the Union. Therefore, it was ignored by the Confederacy too. The original proclamation of September 22, 1862, even stated that all southern states could keep their slaves if they returned to the Union by January 1, 1863.
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY:
Although properly focused, the
movie misleads its audience into believing that Abraham Lincoln was
consumed with the thought of freeing slaves. In reality, Lincoln was a
white segregationist from Illinois, whose state Constitution had banned
permanent black residents since 1848. Lincoln stated repeatedly in his
1861 inaugural address, his 1862 Horace Greely letter and other times
during and before the war that his only intent was to "preserve the union" not free slaves.
As a lawyer, Lincoln actually represented Robert Matson, a slave owner
who wanted his part-time seasonal slaves returned to him. In 1847, Mr.
Lincoln took his case all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court where
he lost. Throughout his presidency, Lincoln made repeated attempts to colonize all African Americans
beginning in 1862 with his Commissioner of Emigration, James Mitchell,
the former leader of the American Colonization Society. In April of
1865, wellafter Congress passed the 13th Amendment and
just before his death, Mr. Lincoln was still discussing his
colonization plans with Union Army General, Benjamin Butler.
LINCOLN AND THE WAR:
The movie aptly shows graphic
scenes depicting some of the many horrendous battles in the appalling
war against Southern independence where 620,000 Americans died, almost as many Americans killed as in all other wars combined. But the script serves to conceal Lincoln's role in instigating the war. Lincoln refused to meet
with Confederate commissioners who came to Washington to negotiate a
peaceful separation in February of 1861. He did not seek a constitutionally required declaration of war from Congress before initiating the war or petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling as to the legality of secession according to the rights of the states under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He ignored the vast majority opinion of his own cabinet and decided to invade Virginia on July 21, 1861 over objections of his military commanders, Generals Winfield Scott and Irwin McDowell. At that time, the Union had never suffered a single casualty
from the Confederate military, which had committed no hostilities
against the Union for over three months prior to the invasion. The
script tends to ignore these well established, largely suppressed facts
and imply that Mr. Lincoln had no choice but war.
CAUSES OF LINCOLN'S WAR:
The script also tends to
deceive the audience into believing that slavery was the major cause of
the war. It avoids the issues of Constitutional rights that Jefferson Davis so frequently wrote about and the excessive tariffs
that caused South Carolina to initially threaten to secede 30 years
earlier. Given that just over 15% of southerners owned slaves, it should be obvious that 85% of southerners were not fighting for the right of the minority 15% to own slaves. Although northern soldiers fought to preserve the union
as Lincoln demanded, southern concerns about Constitutional rights and
excessive taxation were proven to be justified. After southerners
elected state representatives, who voted democratically to secede and
unanimously elected Jefferson Davis as their President, they were then
forced to fight to protect their homes, families and property from continual invasions.
Today, almost all of us are victims of the uncontrollable federal
government and taxing excesses that were spawned by President Lincoln's
war.
LINCOLN AND THE PEOPLE:
The script further misleads the
audience into believing that Lincoln was a beloved populist although
with 39.8% of the vote, he was the most unpopular president ever elected. In one scene, Sally Fields, who plays Mary Todd Lincoln, remarks that: "No one has ever been loved so much by the people…"
She obviously was not referring to southerners since they were
victimized by death and destruction from dozens of invasions. She also
could not have been referring to the 30,000 or so northerners who were imprisoned without trial for opposing the invasion of the south. Among them, 30 Maryland legislators
were imprisoned to keep the state from voting to secede and thus
preventing the war by encircling Washington D.C. with Confederate
states. Hundreds of newspaper editors, publishers and citizens were also imprisoned for publicly opposing the invasion.
Imprisoned notables include Frances Key Howard, grandson of star
spangled banner author, Francis Scott Key and George Armistead
Appleton, grandson of Major George Armistead, who commanded Fort
McHenry during the key victory in the war of 1812.
LINCOLN AND HUMANITY:
The movie theme seems to
purposely exaggerate Abraham Lincoln's concern for slaves to falsely
portray him as a great humanitarian. In another dramatic scene, Daniel
Day Lewis, who plays Lincoln, asks: "Shall we stop this bleeding?" This
line is acutely ironic since it was Lincoln who initiated the bleeding
for millions of Americans. Mr. Lincoln personally directed key
activities of the Union Army that repeatedly attacked civilian
populations. The army burned hundreds of homes in South Carolina,
destroyed dozens of farms and killed thousands of head of cattle in the
Shenandoah Valley, burned dozens of cities and towns across Georgia,
pillaged civilian homes in Fredricksburg, Virginia, and fired cannon
shells into the towns of Vicksburg, Mississippi and Petersburg,
Virginia for months. These unprecedented atrocities against American
citizens are documented in "War Crimes Against Southern Civilians" by Walter Brian Cisco.
CONCLUSION:
The movie leaves a burning
question as to why Steven Spielberg chose to continue the historical
glorification of Abraham Lincoln while covering up the horrible truths
about his administration and concealing the source of the greatest
atrocities ever committed against American citizens. The real facts
must have been uncovered given the historical research that was
performed. Did Mr. Spielberg's lust for money and a "feel good" plot far
outweigh his desire to present the full truth? We may never know the
answer to such questions. In the meantime, if you are simply looking
for dramatic entertainment that will make you comfortable by filling
your Kool-Aid cup with propaganda, this movie might be for you. If, on
the other hand, you expect any historical documentary to inform you
accurately about past events, then your admission fee would be better
spent on obtaining an accurate historical education of the Lincoln
administration by reading a book such as Professor Thomas DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln.
In the proclamation embracing the plan, he offers pardon to all who will swear "henceforth" to support the Constitution of the United States, etc., and proclaims that when those who, accepting this amnesty, shall have taken the oath of allegiance, each "being a qualified voter by the election laws of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State government, which shall be republican and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State," etc.
ReplyDeleteThis was President Lincoln's plan for restoring the insurgent States to the Union. It left the question of suffrage entirely in the hands of those who were qualified to vote under the laws existing at the date of secession. It was precisely this proposition, namely, that each insurgent State, at the time of rehabilitation, must decide for itself whether it would adopt negro suffrage, that angered the Republicans in Congress when acted on by Andrew Johnson, and culminated in the impeachment proceedings.
When this message of December, 1863, went in, many of the Republican leaders were claiming for Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the question of reconstruction under the clause of the Constitution which declares that "The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government." The counter-claim by the President, that he could aid the people to set up governments for themselves, seemed a challenge. Congress debated the question at length, and finally, in July, 1864, passed, by a small majority in each House, a bill "to guaranty to certain States a republican form of government."
This bill did not meet the wishes of extremists, because it did not give the ballot to the negro; but, if it became law, it would be a step gained for the extremists. It asserted the jurisdiction of Congress and provided expressly that the President should recognize by proclamation the State governments established under it, only "after obtaining the consent of Congress." The President refused to approve the bill and defeated it by a "pocket veto." July 9 he made a public statement, giving reasons for his course. The bill, he said, was received by him only one hour before the adjournment of Congress, and, among other things, he thought that the system of restoration it provided was "one very proper for the loyal people of any State choosing to adopt it." But he clearly was opposed to forcing it on any State by law, as he went on to say that he would at all times be prepared to give the Executive aid and assistance to any such people," that is, people who should "choose to adopt it," the Congressional plan, "when the insurrection should be suppressed," etc.
Senator Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis responded in an angry protest. To the admirers of Mr. Lincoln this document, dated in July, 1864, contains charges that are astounding. After stating that the signers had read the proclamation "without surprise, but not without indignation," the protest contends that want of time for examination was a false pretense. "Ignorance of its contents is out of the question," says the manifesto; and then argues that Mr. Lincoln was cognizant of a plan by which "the bill would be staved off in the Senate to a period too late in the session to require the President to veto it in order to defeat it, and that he," the President, "would retain the bill if necessary, and thereby defeat it."
Thanks.
DeleteThe protest further says: "The President, by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of the rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition," and complains that the will of Congress is to be held for naught unless the loyal people of the rebel States choose to adopt it." It also calls Mr. Lincoln's action "a studied outrage on the legislative rights of the people."
ReplyDeleteOn the 5th of December, 1864, the President sent in his last annual message, which was without any allusion to the question of reconstruction, unless it was in his mind when, speaking of the insurgents, he said: "They can at any moment have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the national authority under the Constitution;" and its closing words possibly had reference to the same subject: "In stating a single condition of peace, I mean to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it."
It is very clear that up to this point Mr. Lincoln was determined never to become a party to any political war upon the Southern States waged for the purpose of compelling them to range under a political banner.
Congress, during the session that ended 1864-'65, either did not care or did not dare to insist on any reassertion of its right to reconstruct. On the contrary, seeing, as it undoubtedly did, that the Confederacy was about to collapse, it adjourned on the 4th of March, leaving Mr. Lincoln an open field for his policy of restoration. Every member of that Congress knew what that policy was. It meant the promptest possible restoration of civil authority in the States by the aid of Executive power. And so, now, shortly before his death, the President went on to prepare, or cause to be prepared, the proclamation for the restoration of North Carolina, which was issued by his successor, Andrew Johnson, May 29, 1865, and was the basis of all Mr. Johnson's subsequent work in that field.
Good summaries. Thank you.
DeleteBecause of size limitation, I had to break it into three parts; I guess the very first part got lost. Below is what should be the beginning of the post. ---no movie (or anyone else) will ever theorize that Lincoln, in his own very strange way, was white supremacist.
ReplyDelete____________________________
The death of Abraham Lincoln was an appalling calamity, especially to the South. Had the crazy assassin withheld his hand, reconstruction could never have been formulated as it was in to the acts of March 2 and March 23, 1867. Mr. Lincoln's leading thought in the conduct of the war was the preservation of the Government of the fathers; and he took issue squarely with those who, like Mr. Sumner, were seeking to take advantage of the times and "change this Government from its original form and make it a strong centralized power."
He believed the Government to be, as Chief-Justice Chase afterwards defined it in Texas vs. White, "an indestructible union composed of indestructible States." Upon this idea of the Constitution he based his theory of restoration, a theory which, at the time of his death, was well known, though it appears to have since been industriously forgotten. This theory was, that the insurrectionary States, notwithstanding the war, still existed as States; that they were never out of the Union and were always subject to the Constitution. Hence it followed that those people of these several States who were entitled to vote by the laws existing at the date of the attempted acts of secession had, when they returned to their allegiance and were pardoned, the power of reconstruction in their own hands.
On this theory President Lincoln aided the people to set up State governments in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas, all without any aid from Congress. But from the beginning there were eminent Republicans in Congress who denied the authority of the President to "intermeddle," as they called it, in this business. As early as 1861, Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, had announced the doctrine that the Constitution and laws were suspended where they could not be enforced; that those who had defied them could not invoke their protection, and that Congress could legislate for such rebellious territory outside of and without regard to the Constitution.
Mr. Sumner laid down the proposition, in resolutions introduced February 11, 1862, that, by attempting to secede, a State had committed suicide, and its soil had become territory subject to the supreme control of Congress. Both of these theories, which did not differ in result, denied to the President any power whatever in the premises.
But Mr. Lincoln seems always to have stood on the declaration made by Congress in July, 1861, that the war was being waged "to defend the Constitution and all laws in pursuence thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; that as soon as these objects were accomplished the war ought to cease," etc. Pursuing steadily the spirit of these resolutions, even down to the day of his unhappy death, reconstruction as practiced by him was, simply, restoration of civil authority in the insurgent, but still existent, States, by the people thereof, aided by the military power of the United States.
More than two years after this question of power had begun to be mooted in Congress, the President formulated and communicated to that body, in his message of December 8, 1863, the plan he proposed thereafter to follow. In no material particular did it differ from the theory upon which he had theretofore acted. He said: "Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to a resumption of the national authority within the States wherein that authority has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a proclamation, a copy of which is herewith transmitted."
The text of Lincol's December 8, 1863, proclamation which was attached to his 3rd annual message (in 2 parts):
ReplyDeleteBY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, in and by the Constitution of the United States, it is provided that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;" and
Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated, and also declaring that the President was thereby authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare; and
Whereas the congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon accords with well-established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of the United States has issued several proclamations, with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves; and
Whereas it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective States; therefore,
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:
"I, ______, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified or held void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God."
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing provisions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called confederate government; all who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall have been, military or naval officers of said so-called confederate government above the rank of colonel in the army, or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, and afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons or white persons, in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service, as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that "The United States shall guaranty to every State in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or the executive, (when the legislature cannot be convened,) against domestic violence."
And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national Executive. And it is suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government.
To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has no reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the while been maintained. And for the same reason, it may be proper to further say that whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive. And still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the people of the States wherein the national authority has been suspended, and loyal State governments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal State governments may be re-established within said States, or in any of them; and, while the mode presented is the best the Executive can suggest with his presentimpressions, it must not be understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.
Thanks for all the good work. I've been trying to find a large (50K?)word piece on the War and will post it here whenever I do. Thanks.
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