Lincoln · written by Tony Kushner · 2012

The film returns to Lincoln's second inaugural, calling a changed nation toward charity, care and a lasting peace.

Scene 102 of 102 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Last scene of act three

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Lincoln

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 2:05 into a 2:06 film

The story so farBefore scene 102

In the final winter of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln risks a fragile coalition and the chance of an early peace to force an amendment abolishing slavery through a divided House of Representatives.

Scenes 1–7
The reelected president balances military command, popular affection and a household wounded by grief.
Scenes 8–13
Lincoln needs a durable constitutional abolition measure and commits to passing it before the term ends.
Scenes 14–16
Radical allies and discreet patronage operatives join the campaign as the amendment enters House debate.
Scenes 17–84
Lincoln bargains, delays peace commissioners, confronts family costs and defends the vote against postponement.
Scenes 85–90
The House passes the amendment and the victory enters the private lives of Lincoln and Stevens.
Scenes 91–101
Peace remains costly: the devastated battlefield, surrender and Lincoln's death follow the legislative victory.
Just before
Scene 99
Slade watches Lincoln walk away down the corridor after he discards his gloves.
Scene 100
Tad learns at another theater that his father has been shot at Ford's Theater and breaks into screams.
Scene 101
Lincoln dies at the boarding house; Stanton says he belongs to the ages as the second inaugural begins in voice-over.
Scene 102
This scene

102EXT. THE EAST PORTICO OF THE CAPITOL - NOON

Lincoln, wearing spectacles, stands at a podium before the Capitol Dome, still under scaffolding, under cloudy skies. He reads from the two pages.

LINCOLN

Yet, if God wills that it continue

until all the wealth piled by the

bondman's two hundred and fifty

years of unrequited toil shall be

sunk, and until every drop of blood

drawn with the lash shall be paid

by another drawn with the sword, as

was said three thousand years ago,

so still it must be said "the

judgments of the Lord are true and

righteous altogether."

He glances at his audience: 40,000 people from all over the country, wounded soldiers, civilians in black. And for the first time, in the crowd, not at its edges, hundreds of African Americans, civilians and soldiers.

LINCOLN (CONT'D)

With malice toward none, with

charity for all, with firmness in

the right as God gives us to see

the right, let us strive on to

finish the work we are in, to bind

up the nation's wounds, to care for

him who shall have borne the

battle, and for his widow and his

orphan, to do all which may achieve

and cherish a just and a lasting

peace among ourselves and with all

nations.

FADE TO BLACK.

THE END