Baltimoreans are bragging
the president-elect will be assassinated if he passes through town. In Washington, the word on the streets is they will burn all the public buildings, destroy the government archives, and prevent the new president's inauguration. Newspapers, politicians, and everyday people are sure civil war is imminent. Meanwhile, the man who can prevent everything "by the utterance of a single sentence" slowly makes his way toward the Capitol. Along the way, he makes frequent whistle stops. In Cincinnati,
Abraham Lincoln
asked his audience, "Would it be coercion and invasion to protect and defend the property and forts of the U States? Would it be coercion to enforce the laws?" Lincoln tells his audience in Pittsburgh, "Notwithstanding the crisis across the river, there is really no crisis, except an artificial one." Every time Lincoln opens his mouth, Southerners felt more threatened. His fellow Republicans were just as uncomfortable. Many of them felt Lincoln's speeches were undoing the country. If he keeps talking, he could ruin the party before he reaches the Capitol. Such misunderstandings are the stuff wars are made of. Lincoln and the South will eventually learn this lesson, but the time is not right for it - not yet.
1861 will change everything.