Reember this movie is based on a novel. Gore Vidal frankly admits that he invented conversations where diaries did not explain events. But Vidal read many things about Lincoln before writing the novel, including a life of Lincoln written by his law partner, William Herndon. Sec. of State William Seward was looking to let the South go and replace it with annexation of Canada to build a nation of the greater size. His purchase of Alaska in 1867 was a step towards that dream. And Lincoln was elected by a minority of the voting population and had to make a lot of political deals with a lot of people to maintain a governing coalition, win the war and keep the country from being dismembered by European interests who wanted the ports, the cotton and the farms.