Letters: More on ‘Lincoln’
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Re “In ‘Lincoln,’ a historical lapse,” Editorial, Feb. 12
I have two more examples to offer of historical lapses in the film “Lincoln” in addition to the inaccurate portrayal of how Connecticut’s members of Congress voted on the 13th Amendment.
Thaddeus Stevens, so brilliantly portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, declared that Negro equality was “simply before the law, nothing else,” not during the climax of the debate on the amendment but earlier, on Jan. 5, 1864. And although rumors abounded in Washington for years, no hard evidence exists that Lydia Hamilton Smith, Stevens’ housekeeper, was his mistress.
Beverly Wilson Palmer
Claremont
The writer was the editor of “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens.”
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