. LINCOLN

[_With earnest dignity._]

The country needs you--you are the man, and the only man who has the
simple common sense to save this Union first, and settle all other
questions afterwards----

LINCOLN

That may be so--too----

MRS. LINCOLN

Tell me one thing--is the man who has this appointment at eight the
traitor whom Raymond's Committee is trying to put in your place----?

LINCOLN

No! Yet--if there _is_ anywhere a better man who can render the
country a greater service than I can, he _ought_ to be in my
place----

MRS. LINCOLN

But don't you see that it isn't really the man who can give the greater
service who will win in such a treacherous fight? It's the liar and the
hypocrite who may win.

LINCOLN

I have no right in such an hour to think of my own ambitions. My
personal desire for a second term is the biggest thing in my life, God
knows----

[_He pauses as his voice breaks--he struggles a moment and lifts
his hand as if to throw off an obsession with a determined smile._]

And yet, my personal desire is a petty thing! My duty to-day is the
_biggest_ thing in the world!

MRS. LINCOLN

You won't take my advice and send these men about their business?

LINCOLN

Mary, I've got to fight this thing out alone, with myself and God----

MRS. LINCOLN

I sometimes think, Father, that you're the stubbornest man the Lord
ever made!

LINCOLN

I've got to be--to do this job----

[MRS. LINCOLN _exits._]

[LINCOLN _paces the floor with his arms locked behind him in tense
thought._]

[NICOLAY _enters._]

NICOLAY

The carriage is approaching, sir.

LINCOLN

The coast is clear?

NICOLAY

Yes. Edward has gone----

[_He pauses._]

You, of course, realize, Chief, the importance of a cool head in
dealing with McClellan----

LINCOLN

I won't lose my temper, John.

NICOLAY

McClellan may lose his----

LINCOLN

I'll watch out----

[_Looking over his desk._]

That report of Baker's on the Copperhead Societies----