New Movie Propagates Lincoln Historical Myths
If you are planning
to see the new, Steven Spielberg directed, Lincoln
movie you might want to invest in an accurate history book instead. While
it is successfully dramatic, the movie rehashes several 150 year old myths
about the Lincoln presidency and America's most horrible war.
First, to the movie's credit, the script
avoids a key, blatant lie that is currently being taught throughout American public
schools today. The script focuses correctly on explaining how slaves were freed
by the 13 th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, not the Emancipation
Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln's proclamation did not apply to any northern
states. It only applied to southern territory that was not under control of
the Union. Therefore, it was ignored by the Confederacy too. The original
proclamation of September 22, 1862, even stated that all southern states
could keep their slaves if they
returned to the Union by January 1, 1863.
LINCOLN AND
SLAVERY:
Although properly focused,
the movie misleads its audience into believing that Abraham Lincoln was
consumed with the thought of freeing slaves. In reality, Lincoln was a white
segregationist from Illinois, whose state Constitution had banned permanent
black residents since 1848. Lincoln stated repeatedly in his 1861 inaugural
address, his 1862 Horace Greely letter and other times during and before the
war that his only intent was to "preserve
the union" not free slaves. As a lawyer, Lincoln actually represented
Robert Matson, a slave owner who wanted his part-time seasonal slaves returned
to him. In 1847, Mr. Lincoln took his case all the way to the Illinois Supreme
Court where he lost. Throughout his presidency, Lincoln made repeated attempts to
colonize all African Americans beginning in 1862 with his Commissioner of Emigration, James
Mitchell, the former leader of the American Colonization Society. In April of
1865, well after Congress passed the 13 th
Amendment and just before his death, Mr. Lincoln was still discussing his
colonization plans with Union Army General, Benjamin Butler.
LINCOLN
AND THE WAR:
The movie aptly shows
graphic scenes depicting some of the many horrendous battles in the appalling
war against Southern independence where 620,000 Americans died , almost as
many Americans killed as in all other wars combined. But the script serves to conceal Lincoln's
role in instigating the war. Lincoln refused to meet with Confederate commissioners who came to Washington to
negotiate a peaceful separation in February of 1861. He did not seek a constitutionally
required declaration of war from Congress before initiating the war or
petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a ruling as to the legality of secession
according to the rights of the states under the 10 th Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution. He ignored the vast majority opinion of
his own cabinet and decided to invade Virginia on July 21, 1861 over
objections
of his military commanders, Generals Winfield Scott and Irwin McDowell. At that time, the Union
had never suffered a single casualty from the Confederate military, which
had committed no hostilities against the Union for over three months prior to
the invasion. The script tends to ignore these well established, largely suppressed
facts and imply that Mr. Lincoln had no choice but war.
CAUSES OF
LINCOLN'S WAR:
The script also tends to deceive
the audience into believing that slavery was the major cause of the war. It
avoids the issues of Constitutional rights that Jefferson Davis so
frequently wrote about and the excessive tariffs that caused South
Carolina to initially threaten to secede 30 years earlier. Given that just over
15% of southerners owned slaves, it should be obvious that 85% of
southerners were not fighting for the right of the minority 15% to own slaves.
Although northern soldiers fought to preserve the union as Lincoln
demanded, southern concerns about Constitutional rights and excessive taxation
were proven to be justified. After southerners elected state representatives,
who voted democratically to secede and unanimously elected Jefferson Davis as
their President, they were then forced to fight to protect their homes,
families and property from continual invasions. Today, almost all of us are
victims of the uncontrollable federal government and taxing excesses that were
spawned by President Lincoln's war.
LINCOLN
AND THE PEOPLE:
The script further
misleads the audience into believing that Lincoln was a beloved populist although
with 39.8% of the vote, he was the most unpopular president ever elected.
In one scene, Sally Fields, who plays Mary Todd Lincoln, remarks that: "No one has ever been loved so much by the
people"" She obviously was not referring to southerners since they were
victimized by death and destruction from dozens of invasions. She also could
not have been referring to the 30,000 or so northerners who were imprisoned
without trial for opposing the invasion of the south. Among them, 30 Maryland
legislators were imprisoned to keep the state from voting to secede and
thus preventing the war by encircling Washington D.C. with Confederate states. Hundreds
of newspaper editors, publishers
and citizens were also imprisoned for publicly opposing the invasion. Imprisoned notables include Frances
Key Howard, grandson of star spangled banner author, Francis Scott Key and George Armistead Appleton, grandson of Major
George Armistead, who commanded Fort McHenry during the key victory in the war
of 1812.
LINCOLN
AND HUMANITY:
The movie
theme seems to purposely exaggerate Abraham Lincoln's concern for slaves to
falsely portray him as a great humanitarian. In another dramatic scene, Daniel
Day Lewis, who plays Lincoln, asks: "Shall we stop this bleeding?" This line is
acutely ironic since it was Lincoln who initiated the bleeding for millions of
Americans. Mr. Lincoln personally directed key activities of the Union Army
that repeatedly attacked civilian populations. The army burned hundreds of
homes in South Carolina, destroyed dozens of farms and killed thousands of head
of cattle in the Shenandoah Valley, burned dozens of cities and towns across
Georgia, pillaged civilian homes in Fredricksburg, Virginia, and fired cannon shells
into the towns of Vicksburg, Mississippi and Petersburg, Virginia for months.
These unprecedented atrocities against American citizens are documented in "War Crimes Against Southern Civilians" by
Walter Brian Cisco.
CONCLUSION:
The movie leaves a burning question as to why Steven Spielberg chose
to continue the historical glorification of Abraham Lincoln while covering up
the horrible truths about his administration and concealing the source of the greatest
atrocities ever committed against American citizens. The real facts must have
been uncovered given the historical research that was performed. Did Mr.
Spielberg's lust for money and a "feel good" plot far outweigh his desire to
present the full truth? We may never know the answer to such questions. In the
meantime, if you are simply looking for dramatic entertainment that will make
you comfortable by filling your Kool-Aid cup with propaganda, this movie might
be for you. If, on the other hand, you expect any historical documentary to
inform you accurately about past events, then your admission fee would be
better spent on obtaining an accurate historical education of the Lincoln
administration by reading a book such as Professor Thomas DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln.
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