Jennings: Naturally. A man is sensitive, doubtless, in his first taste of office.
Seward: My support of the President is, of course, unquestionable.
White: Oh, entirely. But how can your support be more valuable than in lending him your unequalled understanding?
Seward: The whole thing is coloured in his mind by the question of slavery.
Jennings: Disabuse his mind. Slavery is nothing. Persuade him to withdraw from Fort Sumter, and slavery can be settled round a table. You know there's a considerable support even for abolition in the South itself. If the trade has to be allowed in some districts, what is that compared to the disaster of civil war?
White: We do not believe that the Southern States wish with any enthusiasm to secede. They merely wish to establish their right to do so. Acknowledge that by evacuating Fort Sumter, and nothing will come of it but a perfectly proper concession to an independence of spirit that is not disloyal to the Union at heart.
Seward: You understand, of course, that I can say nothing officially.
Jennings: These are nothing but informal suggestions.
Seward: But I may tell you that I am not unsympathetic.
White: We were sure that that would be so.