The Committee made their request solely on the ground of patriotic duty--and ask you for the sacrifice upon the same grounds. They have found it impossible to defend your policies---- LINCOLN [_Brusquely._] What policies? RAYMOND Understand me, Mr. President--I am telling you the conclusion of this Committee---- LINCOLN All right, Raymond--fire away--spare me the oratory, please--just give me the plain reasons, one at a time, why you wish me to get off the ticket---- RAYMOND The first policy found indefensible has been your handling of the border slave states of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. You have not yet declared the slaves free in these states, the only ones in which you actually have the power to do so--at all. LINCOLN The first policy of my Administration has been to save for the Union the great border states--for the simple reason--with these border slave states, we have such a balance of power that the Union _may_ be saved! Without these states, the Union _cannot_ be saved! Therefore in my Proclamation of Emancipation, I purposely did not raise the question of the right or wrong of slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. But the Constitution of the United States, which I have sworn to uphold in the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, guarantees to their people the right to hold slaves if they choose. RAYMOND But why pat on the back the slaveholder of Maryland and strike at the slaveholder of South Carolina? LINCOLN Because Maryland is loyal to the Union, and South Carolina is fighting it. My Proclamation was not a sermon on the rights of man--black or white. It was an act of war--a blow aimed at the heart of the seceding South to break its wealth and power, end the war, and save the Union. I know the spell of _State loyalty_ in the South, gentlemen. I was born there. Many a mother in Richmond wept the day our flag fell from their Capitol. But they brushed their tears away and sent their sons to the front the next day, to fight that flag--_in the name of Virginia_! So would thousands of mothers in these border slave states, if I put them to the test. In God's own time slavery will be destroyed. I have saved these states for our cause by conciliation and compromise. I will not apologize for this act. [_He lifts his hand to stop interruption._] My paramount object is to save the Union, and not, either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union, without freeing a slave, 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 and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it _helps to save this Union_! [_Pauses and faces his accusers._]