The Dishonesty of Spielberg's Lincoln

The more I think about it, the less I like the Movie "Lincoln". The movie makes three wrong assumptions/assertions and since Kushner knew they were I wrong, they deserve the label "dishonest".

 First, the 13th Amendment was not necessary to destroy slavery. Slavery was already on its way out. The Emancipation proclamation, the ending of slavery by state action in Missouri and Maryland, and the arming of almost 200,000 black men shows that the Slavery Humpty Dumpty wasn't going to be put back together. Weirdly the movie has two Missouri white crackers tell Lincoln they're against "all this freedom nonsense" even though Missouri had already emancipated its slaves! The 13th Amendment wrapped it all up in a nice constitutional bow, but Slavery was on its death bed in January 1865. Even had the SCOTUS found the Emancipation proclamation unconstitutional, the Radical Republicans would've worked around it or reshaped the SCOTUS to suit themselves, just like they did on other issues.

Second, the movie exaggerates the opposition to ending slavery. The movie ignores that (i) all the opposition came from Democrats/Unionists and that 32 of the 72 Democrat representatives (almost 1/4 of the house) were lame ducks, having been defeated in the 1864 election. Further, they'd been elected in 1862 not to support slavery but because of Lincoln's mishandling of the war. In March 1863 40% of the House was Democrat/Unionist. in March 1865 it would drop to 21%. All 56 votes against the Amendment were Democrats/Unionists. Finally, I wonder how many people watching Lincoln think the 13th Amendment had failed to get a MAJORITY (as opposed to 2/3) in the July 1863 vote.

Third, there is absolutely no evidence the Confederates in 1865 would've made peace to "save" slavery.  In fact, just the opposite. Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis were considering emancipation in order to keep the war going and save the Confederacy.  A bill promising freedom to any slave who joined the Confederate army was passed in March 1865. And Secretary of State Benjamin had been lobbying Davis for years to free the slaves in return for foreign recognition.