INT. THE TELEGRAPH ROOM, WAR DEPARTMENT - PRE-DAWN

Lincoln is seated at Eckert's desk, shawl wrapped around his shoulders, glasses on; he stares down into his hat, held between his knees. Homer Bates and Sam Beckwith are waiting for him.

Lincoln draws a handwritten note from his hat and carefully unfolds it.

           LINCOLN

"Lieutenant General Ulysses S.Grant, City Po# INT. I have read your words with interest."

Sam Beckwith transcribes Lincoln's words into code on a pad with a pencil.

           LINCOLN (CONT'D)

"I ask that, regardless of any action I take in the matter of the visit of the Richmond commissioners, you maintain among your troops military preparedness for battle, as you have done until now."

He stops for a moment. Beckwith waits, pencil poised.

Lincoln looks at the note, folds it, tucks it in a band inside his hat. 75.

           LINCOLN (CONT'D)

"Have Captain Saunders convey the commissioners to me here in Washington." (ANOTHER PAUSE) "A. Lincoln." And the date.

           SAMUEL BECKWITH
           (WHILE WRITING:)

Yes sir.

Lincoln places the hat on the floor.

SAMUEL BECKWITH (CONT'D) Shall I transmit, sir?

           LINCOLN

(a beat, then:) You think we choose to be born?

           SAMUEL BECKWITH

I don't suppose so.

           LINCOLN

Are we fitted to the times we're born into?

           SAMUEL BECKWITH

I don't know about myself. You may be, sir. Fitted.

           LINCOLN
           (TO HOMER:)

What do you reckon?

           HOMER BATES

I'm an engineer. I reckon there's machinery but no one's done the fitting.

           LINCOLN

You're an engineer, you must know Euclid's axioms and common notions.

           HOMER BATES

I must've in school, but...

           LINCOLN

I never had much of schooling, but I read Euclid, in an old book I borrowed. Little enough ever found its way in here - (touching his cranium)

• but once learnt it stayed learnt. 76.

Euclid's first common notion is this: "Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other."

Homer doesn't get it; neither does Sam.

           LINCOLN (CONT'D)

That's a rule of mathematical reasoning. It's true because it works; has done and always will do. In his book, Euclid says this is "self-evident." (A BEAT) D'you see? There it is, even in that two-thousand year old book of mechanical law: it is a self- evident truth that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. We begin with equality. That's the origin, isn't it? That balance, that's fairness, that's justice.

He looks at his scribbled note, then at Sam and Homer.

           LINCOLN (CONT'D)

Read me the last sentence of my telegram.

           SAMUEL BECKWITH

"Have Captain Saunders convey the commissioners to me here in Washington."

           LINCOLN

A slight emendation, Sam, if you would.

Beckwith writes as Lincoln dictates.

           LINCOLN (CONT'D)

"Have Captain Saunders convey the gentlemen aboard the River Queen as far as Hampton Roads, Virginia, and there wait until..." (BEAT) "...further advice from me. Do not proceed to Washington." 77.