What is it? Why didn't those men come to see me?

_Seward_: They thought my word might bear more weight with you than
theirs.

_Lincoln_: Your word for what?

_Seward_: Discretion about Fort Sumter.

_Lincoln_: Discretion?

_Seward_: It's devastating, this thought of war.

_Lincoln_: It is. Do you think I'm less sensible of that than you?
War should be impossible. But you can only make it impossible by
destroying its causes. Don't you see that to withdraw from Fort Sumter
is to do nothing of the kind? If one half of this country claims
the right to disown the Union, the claim in the eyes of every true
guardian among us must be a cause for war, unless we hold the Union to
be a false thing instead of the public consent to decent principles
of life that it is. If we withdraw from Fort Sumter, we do nothing to
destroy that cause. We can only destroy it by convincing them that
secession is a betrayal of their trust. Please God we may do so.

_Seward_: Has there, perhaps, been some timidity in making all this
clear to the country?

_Lincoln_: Timidity? And you were talking of discretion.

_Seward_: I mean that perhaps our policy has not been sufficiently