The past couple of days in government class we have been watching the movie Lincoln. I thought this was a good movie to start the year off with. It showed us how much time he had to put in passing the 13^th amendment.

                Lincoln thought he had the power to change lives and free the slaves, but what he didn’t realize is that he was going to need 20 more votes before he could change the lives of slaves. Lincoln knew it was going to be hard passing the 13^th amendment, but with help of some good people Lincoln knew that he would be able to get the amendment passed.

                I think that this movie does teach that there is more than just writing down a law or amendment and having the president pass it just like that. It teaches people that there are many different steps you have to go through before anything can be passed.

                How should history remember Lincoln? People shouldn’t have to look at Lincoln different just because he passed the 13^th amendment. He was just doing what he thought was best for everyone. Even if he didn’t think of passing the amendment there would still be people mad at him. So either way it was have people mad at him for doing the right or wrong thing. What if it was the other way around with whites being slaves for blacks? 

                I personally don’t think that Lincoln abused his powers. I think that he did the right thing by letting slaves be free. Even if he didn’t pass this amendment who knows maybe one of the next presidents would have. Just because he had thought of before someone else could passes doesn’t mean anyone has to be mad at him and it doesn’t mean that he was right to passing the amendment.