Lincoln (2012)

Michael Stuhlbarg: George Yeaman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Clerk - Edward McPherson : And Mr. George Yeaman, how say you?

  George Yeaman : [Muttering]  My vote ties us.

  Clerk - Edward McPherson : Sorry Mr. Yeaman, I didn't hear your vote.

  George Yeaman : I said aye, Mr. McPherson. AYYYYYYEEEEEE!

• George Yeaman : I can't vote for the amendment, Mr. Lincoln.

  Abraham Lincoln : I saw a barge once, Mr. Yeaman, filled with colored men in chains heading down the Mississippi to the New Orleans slave markets. It sickened me. And more than that, it brought a shadow down. A pall around my eyes. Slavery troubled me, as long as I can remember, in a way it never troubled my father, though he hated it. In his own fashion. He knew no smallholding dirt farmer could compete with slave plantations, he took us out from Kentucky to get away from 'em. He wanted Indiana kept free. He wasn't a kind man, but there was a rough moral urge for fairness, for freedom in him. I learnt that from him, I suppose, if little else from him. We didn't care for one another, Mr. Yeaman.

  George Yeaman : [nods his head]  I... Well, I'm sorry to hear that.

  Abraham Lincoln : Loving kindness, that most ordinary thing, came to me from other sources. I'm grateful for that.

  George Yeaman : Well, I hate it, too, sir. Slavery, but... but we're entirely unready for emancipation. There's too many questions...

  Abraham Lincoln : We're unready for peace too, ain't we?

  [both chuckle] 

  Abraham Lincoln : When it comes, it'll present us with conundrums and dangers greater than any we've faced during the war, bloody as it's been. We'll have to extemporize and experiment

  [rises from sitting on the desk] 

  Abraham Lincoln : with what it is when it is.

  [takes the seat beside Yeaman, no longer towering over Yeaman, leans forward and looks Yeaman in the eye] 

  Abraham Lincoln : I read your speech, George. Negroes and the vote, that's a puzzle.

  George Yeaman : No, no. But, but, but Negroes can't, um, vote, Mr. Lincoln. You're not suggesting that we enfranchise colored people.

  Abraham Lincoln : I'm asking only that you disenthrall yourself from the slave powers. I'll let you know when there's an offer on my desk for surrender. There's none before us now. What's before us now, that's the vote on the Thirteenth Amendment. It's going to be so very close. You see what you can do.

  [exits leaving Yeaman, considering] 

• Schuyler Colfax : [gavels the House to order]  The floor belongs to the mellifluent gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. George Yeaman.

  George Yeaman : [Democrats applaud as Yeaman approaches the podium]  I thank you, Speaker Colfax.

  [surveys the chamber and addresses the House] 

  George Yeaman : Although I'm disgusted by slavery

  [calls of agreement from Republicans] 

  George Yeaman : I rise on this sad and solemn day to announce that I'm opposed to the amendment.

  [calls of agreement from Democrats] 

  George Yeaman : We must consider what will become of colored folk if four million are in one instant set free.

  Asa Vintner Litton : They'll be free, George! That's what'll become of them!

  George Yeaman : [...]  And we will be forced to enfranchise the men of the colored race... it would be inhuman not to! Who among us is prepared to give Negroes the vote?

  [momentarily silenced by cheers and boos throughout the chamber] 

  George Yeaman : And... and... what shall follow upon that? Universal enfranchisement? Votes for women? We...

  [stops, baffled and dismayed by the explosion provoked]