看斯皮尔伯格的《林肯》，留意到如下对白：

Lincoln: Are you afraid of what lies ahead for your people, if we suceeded? What will become of you once slavery’s day is done, I don’t know.

Mrs. Keckley(黑人): What my people are to be, I can’t say. Negros have been fighting and dying for freedom. Since the first of us was a slave, I never heard any ask what freedom will bring. Freedom is a first.

解读：首先要得到自由。至于得到自由后会怎么样，那是以后考虑的事。在有些国家，一说到民众自由，有些人就马上反对，反对的理由听来振振有辞：民众自由后，后果很严重。其实，说这话的人压根儿就不打算给。

按照罗马自然法观念，每个人与生俱来都拥有生存权、财产权和自由权。而圣奥古斯丁大帝在其著作《上帝之城》（City of God）里写道：“如果没有公义存在，王国除了巧取豪夺还剩下什么？”说起来，政府的成立，实际上是人民同政府签下的契约：人民授予政府权力，为的是让自己的权利得到保护；政府如果不能保护人民的这些权利，甚至剥夺人民的这些权利，那么，政府要么被解散，要么就应该彻底改进。

《林肯》里还有如下对白:

Abraham Lincoln: When people disagree, bringing them together requires going slow until they are ready to make up.(这里指民众对解放黑人奴隶持不同看法，有些赞同，有些不赞同。)

Thaddeus Stevens(议员): You claim you can trust them. But you know what the people are. You know the inner compass罗盘that should direct the soul toward justice has ossified硬化in white men and women, north and south, unto utter uselessness through tolerating the evil of slavey. White people can’t bear the thought of sharing this country’s infinite aboundance with Negros.

Abraham Lincoln:  Compass will point you true north from where you’re standing, but it’s got no advice about swamps and deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way.但不会为你指出沿途的沼泽，沙漠和深坑。If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than sink in a swamp, what’s the use of knowing True North?

解读：林肯作为政治家的智慧，从上段对白里可窥一斑。

林肯志在必得。表面看来似乎耍了些手腕，但从电影给我们展示的，作为总统，林肯始终遵照程序，即便他说So far as i know,there are no peace commisioners in the city, nor are there likely to be，他也并未做fasle representation(虚假陈述)。 这之前，他让南方来的和平使者呆在城外的船上，命令他们：“未得到他的指令，不得向华盛顿进发。”

在众议院决定是否进入议会投票表决的关键时刻，议员Stevens作为激进的废奴人士，委屈自己内心的信仰，为实现最基本的目标---解放黑人奴隶，给黑人奴隶自由。他听取林肯的意见，遵从当时的主流，违心说出自己不是赞成种族平等，只是赞同法律面前的平等。

再次引用柏杨先生的话：“让步是一种能力。”

还有林达，“如果你追求阳光，你就躲不开身后的阴影。”