_Jennings_: Certainly.

_White_: But what does his experience of great affairs of state amount
to beside yours, Mr. Seward? He must know how much he depends on
certain members of his Cabinet, I might say upon a certain member, for
advice.

_Seward_: We have to move warily.

_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