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Quotation by Lamar Trotti
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Lamar Trotti (7)Additional Sources
Adam Hartmann (Ward Bond), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)Dr. Petry (Russell Simpson), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)Mac (uncredited) and Abraham Lincoln (Henry Fonda), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)Mary Todd (Marjorie Weaver), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)Mrs. McKlennan (Edna May Oliver), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
Mac: We've gone to a heap of trouble not to have at least one hanging.
Abraham Lincoln: Sure you have, Mac. And if these boys had more than one life, I'd say go ahead. Maybe a little hangin' mightn't do 'em any harm. But the sort of hangin' you boys'd give 'em 'd be so, so permanent. Trouble is when men start takin' the law into their own hands they're just as apt in all the confusion and fun to start hangin' somebody who's not a murderer as somebody who is. And the next thing you know, they're hangin' one another just for fun, 'til it gets to a place a man can't pass a tree or look at a rope without feeling uneasy. We seem to lose our heads in times like this. We do things together that we'd be mighty ashamed to do by ourselves.
Abraham Lincoln: Sure you have, Mac. And if these boys had more than one life, I'd say go ahead. Maybe a little hangin' mightn't do 'em any harm. But the sort of hangin' you boys'd give 'em 'd be so, so permanent. Trouble is when men start takin' the law into their own hands they're just as apt in all the confusion and fun to start hangin' somebody who's not a murderer as somebody who is. And the next thing you know, they're hangin' one another just for fun, 'til it gets to a place a man can't pass a tree or look at a rope without feeling uneasy. We seem to lose our heads in times like this. We do things together that we'd be mighty ashamed to do by ourselves.
Lamar Trotti (1898–1952), U.S. screenwriter, and John Ford. Mac (uncredited) and Abraham Lincoln (Henry Fonda), Young Mr. Lincoln, Lincoln persuading a lynch mob not to hang two brothers, who've been accused of murder, until they've had a fair trial (1939).
Based on the life of Lincoln.
Based on the life of Lincoln.
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The Columbia World of Quotations © 1996, Columbia University Press.
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Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, the following are prohibited: copying substantial portions or the entirety of the work in machine readable form, making multiple printouts thereof, and other uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws.
