White:  Surely that’s not the point.  There’s no law in the South against slavery.

Lincoln:  Laws come from opinion, Mr. White.  The South knows it.

Jennings:  Mr. President, if I may say so, you don’t quite understand.

Lincoln:  Does Mr. Seward understand?

White:  We believe so.

Lincoln:  You are wrong.  He doesn’t understand, because you didn’t mean him to.  I don’t blame you.  You think you are acting for the best.  You think you’ve got an honest case.  But I’ll put your case for you, and I’ll put it naked.  Many people in this country want abolition; many don’t.  I’ll say nothing for the moment as to the rights and wrongs of it.  But every man, whether he wants it or not, knows it may come.  Why does the South propose secession?  Because it knows abolition may come, and it wants to avoid it.  It wants more:  it wants the right to extend the slave foundation.  We’ve all been to blame for slavery, but we in the North have been willing to mend our ways.  You have not.  So you’ll secede, and make your own laws.  But you weren’t prepared for resistance; you don’t want resistance.  And you hope that if you can tide over the first crisis and make us give way, opinion will prevent us from opposing you with force again, and you’ll be able to get your own way about the slave business by threats.  That’s your case.  You didn’t say so to Mr. Seward, but it is.  Now, I’ll give you my answer.  Gentlemen, it’s no good hiding this thing in a corner.  It’s got to be settled.  I said the other day that Fort Sumter would be held as long as we could hold it.  I said it because I know exactly what it means.  Why are you investing it?  Say, if you like, it’s to establish your right of secession with no purpose of exercising it.  Why do you want to establish that right?  Because now we will allow no extension of slavery, and because some day we may abolish it.  You can’t deny it; there’s no other answer.

Jennings:  I see how it is.  You may force freedom as much as you like, but we are to beware how we force slavery.

Lincoln:  It couldn’t be put better, Mr. Jennings.  That’s what the Union means.  It is a Union that stands for common right.  That is its foundation—­that is why it is for every honest man to preserve it.  Be clear about this issue.  If there is war, it will not be on the slave question.  If the South is loyal to the Union, it can fight slave legislation by constitutional means, and win its way if it can.  If it claims the right to secede, then to preserve this country from disruption, to maintain that right to which every state pledged itself when the Union was won for us by our fathers, war may be the only way.  We won’t break up the Union, and you shan’t.  In your hands, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.  You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors.  I am loath to close.  We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies.  Though passion may have strained, do not allow it to break our bonds of affection.  That is our answer.  Tell them that.  Will you tell them that?