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?

_White_: You are determined?

_Lincoln_: I beg you to tell them.