Stanton: I've just been with him.
Welles: What does he say?
Stanton: He only said, "At last." He's coming directly.
Hook: He will bring up his proclamation again. In my opinion it is inopportune.
Seward: Well, we've learnt by now that the President is the best man among us.
Hook: There's a good deal of feeling against him everywhere, I find.
Blair: He's the one man with character enough for this business.
Hook: There are other opinions.
Seward: Yes, but not here, surely.
Hook: It's not for me to say. But I ask you, what does he mean about emancipation? I've always understood that it was the Union we were fighting for, and that abolition was to be kept in our minds for legislation at the right moment. And now one day he talks as though emancipation were his only concern, and the next as though he would throw up the whole idea, if by doing it he could secure peace with the establishment of the Union. Where are we?