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My daughter and I went to see the movie Lincoln recently. Some people think it drags a bit in the first hour. We thought it was terrific.
Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 book Team of Rivals, it deals with the passing of the thirteenth amendment of the United States Constitution outlawing slavery. Much as the great HBO miniseries John Adams showed the politics, strategies and backroom dealings that led to our declaring independence from Britain, this movie shows the ins and outs of the passing of this historic amendment.
Thaddeus Stevens (played by Tommy Lee Jones in an outstanding performance) was a republican congressman and staunch abolitionist from Pennsylvania. He not only believed in the immediate abolishing of slavery, but was a firm believer in the equality of the races...that the black man had every bit the human value as a white man and should be accorded all his rights.
The difficulty was that even many house members who felt slavery was wrong and were ready to vote for the passage of the amendment, did not believe in equality. As a matter of fact, if Stevens were to insist on equality in addition to the outlawing of slavery, the amendment would not pass.
Stevens was a highly principled man who was known to say exactly what he thought and to stick by it through hell if necessary. Knowing this, the democrats and others who opposed the amendment tried to egg Stevens into declaring his true thoughts; that he wanted equality in addition to the outlawing of slavery.
As I've said, that's exactly what Stevens did want.
However, Abraham Lincoln (played by an astonishing Daniel Day Lewis) needed him to cool his jets. He knew equality had to come one step at a time. He knew what everyone knew, that if Stevens insisted on equality now, the house would reject the amendment.
This was really difficult for Stevens.
The seminal moment in the movie for me was when Stevens is making his pitch to congress on the cusp of the vote. Everyone's listening intently.
To a real degree, the slavery question rested on the tongue of one Thaddeus Stevens.
He was torn. Should he stick to his principles or compromise for the greater good? Does he insist on the perfect and scuttle progress or hold his tongue and take a vital step for the African American? Compromise disgusted him.
Alas, Thaddeus Stevens chose to hold his tongue. Much to the dismay of his enemies, he made the case that the passage of the amendment meant only freedom from slavery, not equality.
It rubbed against his nature...it was painful to do. But he knew he could not let that moment pass without at least getting freedom for the slaves.
It was an imperfect amendment. In a perfect world, equality would have been insisted on plainly and passed. But in a perfect world, there would have never been slavery to begin with. We don't live in a perfect world.
As I watched from my theatre seat, Stevens wriggling and squiggling in his own skin, a flock of butterflies roaring in his stomach, seemingly squeamish to the point of puking over his impending decision, I had this thought:
Tempering your opinion can be as courageous as stating it. Compromise can be as courageous as sticking to a principle.
Can someone please inform our present day leaders in Washington of this?
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