第80章 THE END OF THE ROAD(5)

Who among us knows anything of the business.General Scott is an old man, and he doesn't just see eye to eye with me; for I'm told he talks about 'letting the wayward sisters go in peace.' Our army and navy's nothing much to boast of, and the South is far better prepared.You can't tell how our people will take war, for they're all pulling different ways just now.

Blair says the whole North will spring to arms, but I guess they've first got to find the arms to spring to....I was reviewing some militia the other day, and they looked a deal more like a Fourth of July procession than a battlefield.Yes, Mr.Secretary, if we have to fight, we've first got to make an army."Remember, too, that it will he civil war--kin against kin, brother against brother.""I remember.All war is devilish, but ours will be the most devilish that the world has ever known.It isn't only the feeding of fresh young boys to rebel batteries that grieves me, though God knows that's not a thing that bears thinking about.It's the bitterness and hate within the people.Will it ever die down, Mr.Secretary?"Lincoln was very grave, and his face was set like a man in anguish.Seward, deeply moved, rose and stood beside him, laying a hand on his shoulder "And for what, Mr.President?" he cried."That is the question I ask myself.We are faced by such a problem as no man ever before had to meet.

If five and a half million white men deeply in earnest are resolved to secede, is there any power on earth that can prevent them? You may beat them in battle, but can you ever force them again inside the confines of the nation? Remember Chatham's saying: 'Conquer a free population of three million souls--the thing is impossible.' They stand on the rights of democracy, the right of self-government, the right to decide their own future."Lincoln passed a hand over his brow.His face had suddenly became very worn and weary.

"I've been pondering a deal over the position of the South," he said."Ireckon I see their point of view, and I'll not deny there's sense in it.

There's a truth in their doctrine of State rights, but they've got it out of focus.If I had been raised in South Carolina, loving the slave-system because I had grown up with it and thinking more of my State than of the American nation, maybe I'd have followed Jeff Davis.I'm not saying there's no honesty in the South, I'm not saying there's not truth on their side, but I do say that ours is the bigger truth and the better truth.I hold that a nation is too sacred a thing to tamper with--even for good reasons.

Why, man, if you once grant the right of a minority to secede you make popular government foolish.I'm willing to fight to prevent democracy becoming a laughing-stock.""It's a fine point to make war about," said the other.

"Most true points are fine points.There never was a dispute between mortals where both sides hadn't a bit of right.I admit that the margin is narrow, but if it's made of good rock it's sufficient to give us a foothold.We've got to settle once for all the question whether in a free Government the minority have a right to break up the Government whenever they choose.If we fail, then we must conclude that we've been all wrong from the start, and that the people need a tyrant, being incapable of governing themselves."Seward wrung his hands."If you put it that way I cannot confute you.But, oh, Mr.President, is there not some means of building a bridge? I cannot think that honest Southerners would force war on such a narrow issue.

"They wouldn't but for this slavery.It is that accursed system that obscures their reason.If they fight, the best of them will fight out of a mistaken loyalty to their State, but most will fight for the right to keep their slaves....If you are to have bridges, you must have solid ground at both ends.I've heard a tale of some church members that wanted to build a bridge over a dangerous river.Brother Jones suggested one Myers, and Myers answered that, if necessary, he could build one to hell.This alarmed the church members, and Jones, to quiet them, said he believed his friend Myers was so good an architect that he could do it if he said he could, though he felt bound himself to express some doubt about the abutment on the infernal side."A queer quizzical smile had relieved the gravity of the President's face.

But Seward was in no mood for tales.

"Is there no other way?" he moaned, and his suave voice sounded cracked and harsh.

"There is no other way but to go forward.I've never been a man for cutting across lots when I could go round by the road, but if the roads are all shut we must take to open country.For it is altogether necessary to go forward."Seward seemed to pull himself together.He took a turn down the room and then faced Lincoln.

"Mr.President," he said, "you do not know whether you have a majority behind you even in the North." You have no experience of government and none of war.The ablest men in your party are luke-warm or hostile towards you.You have no army to speak of, and will have to make everything from the beginning.You feel as I do about the horror of war, and above all the horrors of civil war.You do not know whether the people will support you.

You grant that there is some justice in the contention of the South, and you claim for your own case only a balance of truth.You admit that to coerce the millions of the South back into the Union is a kind of task which has never been performed in the world before and one which the wise of all ages have pronounced impossible.And yet, for the sake of a narrow point, you are ready, if the need arises, to embark on a war which must be bloody and long, which must stir the deeps of bitterness, and which in all likelihood will achieve nothing.Are you entirely resolved?"Lincoln's sad eyes rested on the other."I am entirely resolved.I have been set here to decide for the people according to the best of my talents, and the Almighty has shown me no other road."Seward held out his hand.