“Clothed with immense power”

Filed Under: Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, Statesmanship, Thirteenth Amendment, War Powers

Director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner’s Lincoln opens with a chaotic battle in a river, black and white soldiers struggling to kill each other in hand-to-hand combat. We then see pairs of black and white soldiers reciting from memory …