Ironclads (1991 TV Movie)

Burt Edwards: Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War

Quotes 

• Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War : Where is the Monitor?

  Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy : Commodore Smith?

  [Smith wordlessly passes a dispatch to Davis] 

  Cmdr. Davis : The Monitor was last sighted off the Delaware-Maryland border, floundering in the very heavy weather.

  Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War : In other words, she may already be at the bottom of the ocean!

  Abraham Lincoln : I'm sure the Monitor is still afloat. I look for her to be the veritable sling with a stone that smites the Merrimack Philistine in the forehead.

  Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War : Mr. President, do you really have that much faith in Ericsson's untested experiment?

  Abraham Lincoln : I have that much faith in Providence, which did not create this great Union to see it be destroyed by the invention of a weapon. If the Monitor doesn't stop the Merrimack, something else will. Good night, gentlemen.