Over the past few years, I have read a number of books about Abraham Lincoln, including Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. Steven Spielberg, in his latest movie, Lincoln, focused on the last part of Lincoln's life from Goodwin's book, principally the president's efforts to get the necessary two-thirds majority vote in the House of Representatives to send the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery, to the states for ratification. Because I am writing this column before the Academy Awards are handed out in late February, I am hoping that Daniel Day-Lewis's commanding performance as Lincoln is recognized by his peers.
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