· · ·

JAMES SPEED

A steady barrage?

STANTON

A hundred shells a minute.

There's a moment of shocked silence.

STANTON (CONT'D)

Till they surrender.

WILLIAM FESSENDEN

Dear God.

WELLES

Yes. Yes.

LINCOLN

Wilmington's their last open

seaport. Therefore...

STANTON

Wilmington falls, Richmond falls

after.

SEWARD

And the war... is done.

The rest of the cabinet applauds, foot stomping, table slapping. Only John Usher doesn't join in.

JOHN USHER

Then why, if I may ask are we not

concentrating the nation's

attention on Wilmington? Why,

instead, are we reading in the

HERALD -

(he smacks a newspaper on the table)

- that the anti-slavery amendment

is being precipitated onto the

House floor for debate - because

your eagerness, in what seems an

unwarranted intrusion of the

Executive into Legislative

prerogatives, is compelling it to

it's... to what's likely to be its

premature demise? You signed the

Emancipation Proclamation, you've

done all that can be expected -

JAMES SPEED

The Emancipation Proclamation's

merely a war measure. After the war

the courts'll make a meal of it.

JOHN USHER

When Edward Bates was Attorney

General, he felt confident in it

enough to allow you to sign -

JAMES SPEED

(A SHRUG:)

Different lawyers, different

opinions. It frees slaves as a

military exigent, not in any other -

LINCOLN

I don't recall Bates being any too

certain about the legality of my

Proclamation, just it wasn't

downright criminal. Somewhere's in

between. Back when I rode the legal

circuit in Illinois I defended a

woman from Metamora named Melissa

Goings, 77 years old, they said she

murdered her husband; he was 83. He

was choking her; and, uh, she

grabbed ahold of a stick of fire-

wood and fractured his skull, `n he died. In his will he wrote "I expect she has killed me. If I get over it, I will have revenge."

This gets a laugh.

LINCOLN (CONT'D)

No one was keen to see her

convicted, he was that kind of

husband. I asked the prosecuting

attorney if I might have a short

conference with my client. And she

and I went into a room in the

courthouse, but I alone emerged.

The window in the room was found to

be wide open. It was believed the

old lady may have climbed out of

it. I told the bailiff right before

I left her in the room she asked me

where she could get a good drink of

water, and I told her Tennessee.

Mrs. Goings was seen no more in

Metamora. Enough justice had been

done; they even forgave the

bondsman her bail.

JOHN USHER

I'm afraid I don't -

LINCOLN

I decided that the Constitution

gives me war powers, but no one

knows just exactly what those

powers are. Some say they don't

exist. I don't know. I decided I

needed them to exist to uphold my

oath to protect the Constitution,

which I decided meant that I could

take the rebels' slaves from `em as

property confiscated in war. That

might recommend to suspicion that I

agree with the rebs that their

slaves are property in the first

place. Of course I don't, never

have, I'm glad to see any man free,

and if calling a man property, or

war contraband, does the trick...

Why I caught at the opportunity.

Now here's where it gets truly

slippery. I use the law allowing

for the seizure of property in a

war knowing it applies only to the

property of governments and

citizens of belligerent nations.

But the South ain't a nation,

that's why I can't negotiate with

'em.

So if in fact the Negroes are

property according to law, have I

the right to take the rebels'

property from `em, if I insist

they're rebels only, and not

citizens of a belligerent country?

And slipperier still: I maintain it

ain't our actual Southern states in

rebellion, but only the rebels

living in those states, the laws of

which states remain in force. The

laws of which states remain in

force. That means, that since it's

states' laws that determine whether

Negroes can be sold as slaves, as

property - the Federal government

doesn't have a say in that, least

not yet -

(a glance at Seward, THEN:)

- then Negroes in those states are

slaves, hence property, hence my

war powers allow me to confiscate

`em as such. So I confiscated `em.

But if I'm a respecter of states'

laws, how then can I legally free

`em with my Proclamation, as I

done, unless I'm cancelling states'

laws? I felt the war demanded it;

my oath demanded it; I felt right

with myself; and I hoped it was

legal to do it, I'm hoping still.

He looks around the table. Everyone's listening.

LINCOLN (CONT’D)

Two years ago I proclaimed these

people emancipated - "then,

thenceforward and forever free."

But let's say the courts decide I

had no authority to do it. They

might well decide that. Say there's

no amendment abolishing slavery.

Say it's after the war, and I can

no longer use my war powers to just

ignore the courts' decisions, like

I sometimes felt I had to do. Might

those people I freed be ordered

back into slavery? That's why I'd

like to get the Thirteenth

Amendment through the House, and on

its way to ratification by the

states, wrap the whole slavery

thing up, forever and aye.

LINCOLN (CONT’D)

As soon as I'm able. Now. End of

this month. And I'd like you to

stand behind me. Like my cabinet's

most always done.

A moment's silence, broken by a sharp laugh from Seward.

LINCOLN (CONT'D)

As the preacher said, I could write

shorter sermons but once I start I

get too lazy to stop.

JOHN USHER

It seems to me, sir, you're

describing precisely the sort of

dictator the Democrats have been

howling about.

JAMES SPEED

Dictators aren't susceptible to

law.

JOHN USHER

Neither is he! He just said as

much! Ignoring the courts? Twisting

meanings? What reins him in from,

from...

LINCOLN

Well, the people do that, I

suppose. I signed the Emancipation

Proclamation a year and half before

my second election. I felt I was

within my power to do it; however I

also felt that I might be wrong

about that; I knew the people would

tell me. I gave `em a year and half

to think about it. And they re-

elected me.

(BEAT)

And come February the first, I

intend to sign the Thirteenth

Amendment.