General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Thought-provoking article: "What 'Lincoln' misses and another Civil War film gets right".... [View all]Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)For starters, I haven't had a chance to see "Lincoln" (yet), but the film deals with the last few months of his life. So you're seeing the "new and improved" Lincoln and not the guy who once said that if he could preserve the union and preserve slavery, he'd do it. You're not seeing the guy who suggested that freed slaves be repatriated to Africa (even though some had been in the country for generations). You're seeing the Lincoln who, by this time, was listening to the better angels of his nature.
Had Lincoln not been assassinated, it's hard to tell where he would have gone. There would have been pressure by the Radical Reconstructionists to punish the South, but that does not appear to have been a motivating factor for Lincoln. But he was a politician, first and foremost, so it's interesting to speculate on what would have transpired and what compromises he would have made.