_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?

_Seward_: No, you're wrong. It's the Union first now with him,
but there's no question about his views on slavery. You know that
perfectly well. But he has always kept his policy about slavery free
in his mind, to be directed as he thought best for the sake of the
Union. You remember his words: "If I could save the Union without
freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing
all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some