Yes----!

LINCOLN

You came in here to demand a trial for your father--and find him in
reality justly condemned to death. I have pardoned him. I want you to
atone for his wrongs and your own tragic mistake, by placing yourself
with the signs and passwords of that Society at my disposal. You have
been basely deceived and betrayed--will you do it?

VAUGHAN

If my country calls--yes--and I'll thank God for the chance to
atone----!

LINCOLN

Good----! You are the one man on earth to-night whom I need and didn't
think I could get! I'm going to send you on a dangerous mission. I need
two things to carry this election and save the Union--a single victory
in the field to lift our people out of the dumps, and a word from
Jefferson Davis _that there can be no peace save in division_! I
know Davis. We were both born in Kentucky, on almost the same day. He
holds that position. But the peace party of the North refuse to believe
it. They say he will compromise. Now I've sent two men down
there--Colonel Jacquess, a Methodist clergyman, of our hospital
service, and John R. Gilmore of the _Tribune_, old Greeley's
paper. They go as private citizens of the North, who desire peace. They
are to draw Davis out, and get his declaration for me. Technically,
they are spies--for they have no credentials. They may be imprisoned or
executed. They passed through our lines but twenty miles from Richmond,
seven days ago. I haven't been able to hear from them. The silence is
ominous.

VAUGHAN

And you wish me to find out what has happened to them----?

LINCOLN

[_Eagerly._]

I want another man in Richmond, quick--whose identity will be
unknown--a man who can win the confidence of Judah P. Benjamin, Davis'
Secretary of State, who is preventing my interview with the Confederate
President. Benjamin is the ablest and by far the most dangerous man in
the South to-day. I know from this document on my desk----

[_Touches_ BAKER'S _Report._]

that he is in close touch with the Copperhead Societies of the
North--if his keen mind is not actually directing them. You have their
signs and passwords. It seems too good to be true! If you carry to
Benjamin a special report of this planned uprising, you can gain his
confidence, and persuade him to let my men see Davis. If you can only
get through