ell them that?

_White_: You are determined?

_Lincoln_: I beg you to tell them.

_Jennings_: It shall be as you wish.

_Lincoln_: Implore them to order Beauregard's return. You can
telegraph it now, from here. Will you do that?

_White_: If you wish it.

_Lincoln_: Earnestly. Mr. Seward, will you please place a clerk at
their service. Ask for an answer.

SEWARD _rings a bell_. A CLERK _comes in_.

_Seward:_ Give these gentlemen a private wire. Place yourself at their
disposal.

_Clerk_: Yes, sir.

WHITE _and_ JENNINGS _go out with the_ CLERK. _For a moment_ LINCOLN
_and_ SEWARD _are silent,_ LINCOLN _pacing the room_, SEWARD _standing
at the table.

_Lincoln:_ Seward, this won't do.

_Seward_: You don't suspect--

_Lincoln_: I do not. But let us be plain. No man can say how wisely,
but Providence has brought me to the leadership of this country, with
a task before me greater than that which rested on Washington himself.
When I made my Cabinet, you were the first man I chose. I do not
regret it. I think I never shall. But remember, faith earns faith.
What is it? Why didn't those men come to see me?

_Seward_: They thought my word might bear more weight with you than
theirs.

_Lincoln_: Your word for what?

_Seward_: Discretion about Fort Sumter.

_Lincoln_: Discretion?

_Seward_: It's devastating, this thought of war.

_Lincoln_: It is. Do you think I'm less sensible of that than you?
War should be impossible. But you can only make it impossible by
destroying its causes. Don't you see that to withdraw from Fort Sumter
is to do nothing of the kind? If one half of this country claims
the right to disown the Union, the claim in the eyes of every true
guardian among us must be a cause for war, unless we hold the Union to
be a false thing instead of the public consent to decent principles
of life that it is. If we withdraw from Fort Sumter, we do nothing to
destroy that cause. We can only destroy it by convincing them that
secession is a betrayal of their trust. Please God we may do so.

_Seward_: Has there, perhaps, been some timidity in making all this
clear to the country?

_Lincoln_: Timidity? And you were talking of discretion.

_Seward_: I mean that perhaps our policy has not been sufficiently
defined.

_Lincoln_: And have you not concurred in all our decisions? Do not
deceive yourself. You urge me to discretion in one breath and tax me
with timidity in the next. While there was hope th