Lincoln Page #5

rejected the amendment ten months

back. We'll lose.

Lincoln smiles.

LINCOLN:

I like our chances now.

INT. LINCOLN'S OFFICE, THE WHITE HOUSE - MORNING

Lincoln is at his desk, Hay feeding him documents to read and

sign. Seward warms himself by the fireplace, holding a

brandy.

SEWARD:

Consider the obstacles that we'd

face. The aforementioned two-thirds

majority needed to pass an

amendment:
we have a Republican

14.

majority, but barely more than

fifty percent -

LINCOLN:

Fifty-six.

SEWARD:

We need Democratic support. There's

none to be had.

LINCOLN:

Since the House last voted on the

amendment there's been an election.

Sixty-four Democrats lost their

House seats in November. That's

sixty-four Democrats looking for

work come March.

SEWARD LINCOLN:

I know, but that's - They don't need to worry

about re-election, they can

vote however it suits `em.

There's a knock at the office door.

SEWARD LINCOLN:

But we can't, um, buy the (to Hay:)

vote for the amendment. It's Might as well let `em in.

too important.

LINCOLN (CONT'D)

I said nothing of buying anything.

We need twenty votes was all I

said. Start of my second term,

plenty of positions to fill.

Hay opens the door to the outer office, admitting the sound

of a sizable crowd. JOHN NICOLAY, 33, Lincoln's rather severe

German-born senior secretary, ushers in MR. JOLLY, mid-40s,

mud-spattered coat, hat in hands, followed by MRS. JOLLY,

similarly road-worn, holding a suitcase. Lincoln stands.

JOHN NICOLAY:

Mr. President, may I present Mr.

and Mrs. Jolly who've come from

Missouri to -

MR. JOLLY

From Jeff City, President.

Lincoln shakes Mr. Jolly's hand. Mrs. Jolly curtseys.

15.

LINCOLN:

Mr. Jolly. Ma'am. This by the

fire's Secretary of State Seward.

Seward nods slightly as he lights a Cuban cigar.

LINCOLN (CONT'D)

Jeff City.

Lincoln looks at the Jollys. They are worried and a little

awed.

LINCOLN (CONT'D)

I heard tell once of a Jefferson

City lawyer who had a parrot that'd

wake him each morning crying out,

"Today is the day the world shall

end, as scripture has foretold."

And one day the lawyer shot him for

the sake of peace and quiet, I

presume, thus fulfilling, for the

bird at least, its prophecy!

Lincoln smiles. The Jollys don't get it. Mr. Jolly looks back

at Seward, who gestures for him to speak, then exhales a

plume of smoke.

MR. JOLLY

(launching into his

PREPARED SPEECH:
)

They's only one tollbooth in Jeff

City, t' the southwest `n this man

Heinz Sauermagen from Rolla been in

illegal possession for near two

yar, since your man General

Schofield set him up there. But

President Monroe give that tollgate

to my granpap and Quincy Adams give

my pap a letter saying it's our'n

for keeps. Mrs. Jolly got the -

(to his wife:
)

Show Mr. Lincoln the Quincy Adams

letter.

Mrs. Jolly opens the suitcase and begins to dig frantically

for the letter.

LINCOLN:

That's unnecessary, Mrs. Jolly.

Just tell me what you want from

me.

Seward exhales more smoke.

16.

Mr. Jolly starts coughing, while Mrs. Jolly tries to fan away

the cigar smoke with the Quincy Adams letter.

MRS. JOLLY

Mr. Jolly's emphysema don't care

for cigars.

SEWARD:

Madame. Do you know about the

proposed Thirteenth Amendment to

the Constitution -

MRS. JOLLY

Yes sir, everybody knows of it. The

President favors it.

SEWARD:

Do you?

MRS. JOLLY

We do.

SEWARD:

You know that it abolishes slavery?

MRS. JOLLY

Yes sir. I know it.

SEWARD:

And is that why you favor it?

MRS. JOLLY

What I favor's ending the war.

Once't we do away with slavery, the

rebs'll quit fighting, since

slavery's what they're fighting

for. Mr. Lincoln, you always says

so. With the amendment, slavery's

ended and they'll give up. The war

can finish then.

SEWARD:

If the war finished first, before

we end slavery, would -

MRS. JOLLY

President Lincoln says the war

won't stop unless we finish slavery-

SEWARD:

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