Lincoln Page #8

Nicolay and Hay are in chairs behind Lincoln, taking notes.

LINCOLN:

(TO STANTON:
)

Thunder forth, God of War!

Stanton clears his throat. He's noticed the singed edge.

STANTON:

We'll commence our assault on

Wilmington from the sea.

(PEEVED:
)

Why is this burnt? Was the boy

playing with it?

LINCOLN:

It got took by a breeze several

nights back.

STANTON:

This is an official War Department

map!

24.

SEWARD:

And the entire cabinet's waiting to

hear what it portends.

WELLES:

A bombardment. From the largest

fleet the Navy has ever assembled.

LINCOLN:

(TO WELLES:
)

Old Neptune! Shake thy hoary locks!

Welles stands.

WELLES:

Fifty-eight ships are underway, of

every tonnage and firing range.

Welles gestures on the map to the positions of many ships.

STANTON:

We'll keep up a steady barrage. Our

first target is Fort Fisher. It

defends Wilmington Port.

Stanton indicates the lines tracing artillery trajectories.

These converge particularly heavily on Fort Fisher.

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.

25.

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-

26.

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

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