Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment by Christian G. Samito Tells the Real Story Behind the Movie

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment (Concise Lincoln Library) by Christian G. Samito published by Southern Illinois University Press 188 pages (2015) Hardcover $24.93 Kindle $14.72.

Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment by Christian Samito examines the president’s role in ending slavery in America by amending the Constitution. It is filled with quotes from Lincoln that are uttered by Daniel Day Lewis in the role of Lincoln. Lincoln’s clever and insightful remarks are the spice of this nice little book, Samito’s tracing of Lincoln’s slow embrace of Constitutional change as the pathway to freedom is the meat. If you ever watched the movie Lincoln and wondered if the film followed the facts, this book will offer you some intriguing answers.

Up until the 1860s, Lincoln’s Constitutional thought was guided by a few seemingly fixed principles. According to Samito Lincoln had “a deep respect for the Constitution, a confidence that it could be interpreted within its boundaries to meet developments, and a belief he shared with most Americans that it should not be changed.” Lincoln believed in the secular religion that included republican reverence for the Constitution. Even as late as 1860, with the slavery crisis exploding, Lincoln said in his Cooper Union Speech;

“I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so, would be to discard all the lights of current experience—to reject all progress—all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority, fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand.”

The first year of war moved Lincoln towards the use of Constitutional amendment as a tool of Union victory. In the 100 days after he issued the Preliminary Emancipation Lincoln considered a raft of changes to the Constitution. Samito writes:

spent about 40 percent of his Annual Message dated December 1, 1862, urging Congress to propose a package of constitutional amendments designed to induce individual states to pursue gradual emancipation. While impractical, poorly timed, and politically inexpedient, the package shows Lincoln’s newfound willingness to use constitutional amendment to effect abolition.

In his dig into Lincoln’s evolving thoughts on what became the 13th Amendment, Samito disproves the idea that Lincoln had intended to press for such a Constitutional abolition from the first days of his administration. Instead, as Lincoln acknowledged at the end of 1862, “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. . . . As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.”

Note: Because of its length, this review will be in two parts.
 
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