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Lincoln Page #17
of life's less prophet-able
occupations!
He accepts the gloves. Slade laughs a little, Robert scowls.
Tad holds another glass negative up to the light.
TAD:
Why do some slaves cost more than
others?
52.
ROBERT:
If they're still young and healthy,
if the women can still conceive,
they'll pay more -
LINCOLN:
Put `em back in the box. We'll
return them to Mr. Gardner's studio
day after next. Be careful with
`em, now.
(tugging at his gloves:)
These things should've stayed on
the calf.
TAD:
(to Slade, putting the
PLATES AWAY:
)When you were a slave, Mr. Slade,
did they beat you?
WILLIAM SLADE:
I was born a free man. Nobody beat
me except I beat them right back.
There's a knock on the door and Mrs. Keckley enters.
ELIZABETH KECKLEY
Mr. Lincoln, could you come with me-
WILLIAM SLADE:
(TO TAD:
)Mrs. Keckley was a slave. Ask her
if she was beaten.
TAD LINCOLN:
Were you - (shakes his head)
Tad.
ELIZABETH KECKLEY
(TO TAD:
)I was beaten with a fire shovel
when I was younger than you.
(TO LINCOLN:
)You should go to Mrs. Lincoln.
She's in Willie's room.
ROBERT:
She never goes in there.
Lincoln starts towards the door just as John Hay enters,
dressed in the uniform of a Brevet Colonel.
53.
JOHN HAY:
The reception line is already
stretching out the door.
Robert shoots an angry, envious glance at Hay's uniform as
Lincoln, Slade, Mrs. Keckley and Hay leave. Robert calls to
HIS FATHER:
ROBERT:
I'll be the only man over fifteen
and under sixty-five in this whole
place not in uniform.
TAD:
I'm under fifteen and I have a
uniform.
Robert storms out.
INT. THE PRINCE OF WALES BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
Lincoln enters a dark room, its heavy drapes closed against
the dim afternoon light. There are two beds. One is stripped
bare. The other is canopied with a thick black veil.
Mary, dressed in a deep purple gown with black flowers and
beading, perfectly pitched between mourning and emergence, is
seated at the head of the canopied bed. On a nightstand next
to the bed there's a toy locomotive engine, a tattered book
of B&O railroad schedules.
Mary holds a framed photograph: an image of WILLIE, 12,
handsome, bright-eyed, confident.
Lincoln crosses to the window.
MARY:
My head hurts so.
(BEAT)
I prayed for death the night Willie
died. The headaches are how I know
I didn't get my wish. How to endure
the long afternoon and deep into
the night.
LINCOLN:
I know.
MARY:
Trying not to think about him. How
will I manage?
LINCOLN:
Somehow you will.
54.
MARY:
(SAD SMILE:
)Somehow. Somehow. Somehow... Every
party, every... And now, four years
more in this terrible house
reproaching us. He was a very sick
little boy. We should've cancelled
that reception, shouldn't we?
LINCOLN:
We didn't know how sick he was.
MARY:
I knew, I knew, I saw that night he
was dying.
LINCOLN:
Three years ago, the war was going
so badly, and we had to put on a
face.
MARY:
But I saw Willie was dying. I saw
HIM -
LINCOLN:
Molly. It's too hard. Too hard.
Mary stares up at him, her face heavy and swollen with grief.
INT. THE EAST ROOM, WHITE HOUSE - LATE AFTERNOON
Mary, radiant, her charm turned to its brightest candlepower,
is greeting the Blairs, who are part of a long receiving
line. The Blairs proceed from Mary to Lincoln.
TITLE:
GRAND RECEPTIONJANUARY 15
The enormous room is splendid, decked with garlands of
flowers, tall candelabra burning, flags from Army divisions.
An orchestra plays.
Lincoln and Tad stand together. Slade is near Lincoln. Mary's
a distance away from Lincoln, to his right.
Robert takes his place next to his mother, as conspicuous as
he'd feared he'd be in his civilian clothes.
55.
A sea of people surround the President and his family.
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"Lincoln" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 24 Feb. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/lincoln_43>.
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