The Story: "Times like this, I'm best alone" he says on the fade from the White House corridor to the hat. I know the feeling. The Set-Up: Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) is this close to passing the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the House of Representatives. But petty squabbling in the House and his own Cabinet is keeping that from being accomplished. Most House Republicans, especially the fiery abolitionists led by Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) will water down their positions in order for it to pass, but the Democratic minority will not budge, especially if it can bring a speedy end to the Civil War by negotiating a settlement, and abolishing slavery would make that negotiation dead before starting. A secret negotiating team is heading for Washington now, and Lincoln does not want that knowledge watering down the urgency for abolition. Before dawn, he goes to the war-room telegraph office —where his secretaries Homer Bates (Drew Sease) and Sam Beckwith (Adam Driver)to send an urgent message to his Union commander, Ulysses S. Grant. He has one more tactic that he can pull...as he ever does...from his hat. Action!
INT. THE TELEGRAPH ROOM, WAR DEPARTMENT - PRE-DAWN
Lincoln is seated at Eckert's desk, shawl wrapped around his
shoulders, glasses on; he stares down into his hat, held
between his knees. Homer Bates and Sam Beckwith are waiting
for him.
Lincoln draws a handwritten note from his hat and carefully
unfolds it.
LINCOLN
"Lieutenant General Ulysses S.
Grant, City Point. I have read your
words with interest."
Sam Beckwith transcribes Lincoln's words into code on a pad
with a pencil.
LINCOLN (CONT'D)
"I ask that, regardless of any
action I take in the matter of the
visit of the Richmond
commissioners, you maintain among
your troops military preparedness
for battle, as you have done until
now." He stops for a moment. Beckwith waits, pencil poised.
Lincoln looks at the note, folds it, tucks it in a band
inside his hat.
75.
LINCOLN (CONT'D)
"Have Captain Saunders convey the
commissioners to me here in
Washington." (ANOTHER PAUSE)
LINCOLN "A. Lincoln."
LINCOLN And the date.
SAMUEL BECKWITH
(WHILE WRITING:)
Yes sir.
Lincoln places the hat on the floor.
SAMUEL BECKWITH (CONT'D)
Shall I transmit, sir?
LINCOLN
(a beat, then:)
You think we choose to be born?
SAMUEL BECKWITH
I don't suppose so. LINCOLN
Are we fitted to the times we're...
LINCOLN ...born into? SAMUEL BECKWITH
I don't know about myself.
SAMUEL BECKWITH You may
be, sir. Fitted.
LINCOLN
(TO HOMER:)
What do you reckon?
HOMER BATES
I'm an engineer.
HOMER BATES I reckon there's...
HOMER BATES ... machinery but no one's done the
fitting.
LINCOLN
You're an engineer, you must know
Euclid's axioms and common notions.
HOMER BATES
I must've in school, but... LINCOLN
I never had much of schooling, but
I read Euclid, in an old book I
borrowed.
LINCOLN Little enough ever found
its way in here -
(touching his cranium) - but once learnt it stayed learnt.
LINCOLN Euclid's first common notion is
this: "Things which are equal to
the same thing are equal to each
other." Homer doesn't get it; neither does Sam.
LINCOLN (CONT'D)
That's a rule of mathematical
reasoning. It's true because it
works; has done and always will do.
LINCOLN In his book, Euclid says this is
"self-evident."
(A BEAT) LINCOLN D'you see? There it is, even in
that two-thousand year old book of
mechanical law:...
LINCOLN ...it is a self-evident truth that things which are
equal to the same thing are equal
to each other.
LINCOLN We begin with
equality. That's the origin, isn't
it? That balance, that's fairness,
LINCOLN ...that's justice.
He looks at his scribbled note, then at Sam and Homer.
LINCOLN (CONT'D)
Read me the last sentence of my
telegram.
SAMUEL BECKWITH
"Have Captain Saunders convey the
commissioners to me here in
Washington."
LINCOLN
A slight emendation, Sam, if you
would. Beckwith writes as Lincoln dictates.
LINCOLN (CONT'D)
"Have Captain Saunders convey the
gentlemen aboard the River Queen..."
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