Writing History With Lightning

[RJNorton]

(08-18-2019 02:22 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Offense is taken also with the scene where Lincoln rises from his seat and yells about his power and that he demands the votes needed. Burlingame says that quote was originally from a Massachusetts congressman who was relating something from twenty years before and that many historians don't take it as fact. He then gently accuses Doris Kearns Goodwin of including it in Team of Rivals, on which much of the Spielberg script is based.

In 2016 Dr. Christian G. Samito, author of Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment, commented about this on the forum:

"Goodwin made several errors. As to the clothed with great power quote: Besides the fact that Lincoln likely never would have been so indiscreet in implying promises in exchange for votes, the entire exchange seems overly dramatic and out of character. It is hard to imagine Lincoln thundering an almost-threatening statement such as this one. Moreover, the same collection of reminiscences about Lincoln in which Alley’s account appears includes one from Schuyler Colfax, who said of Lincoln’s use of pardons, “No man clothed with such vast power ever wielded it more tenderly and more forbearingly.” Thus, we see an almost verbatim use of the motif given in Alley’s account."

https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...l#pid56550