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This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Um This is Lee Habib with our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show. And our favorite storytelling involves American history. And always our history stories are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And today we're telling the story Of Lincoln on the Verge 13 Days to Washington, the author of this remarkable story is Edward Widmer.
Edward, thanks for joining us.
So, November 6th, 1860, Lincoln gets elected, and you write this: you say in the book, quote, Could the news of Lincoln's election be turned back? as if it was a piece of mail delivered to the wrong address? Many Southerners thought so even many Northerners found that the news was difficult to believe. Talk about these two reactions. Around the country.
a shock to everybody. He's only ever been a one-term congressman twelve years earlier, so that's not very impressive. He's running against much more famous senators. There's a list of twenty-one likely Republicans to get The nomination published at the end of 1859, Lincoln doesn't even crack that list of 21.
So that's how obscure he is. But he He helps himself. He gives a speech in New York City in February, the Cooper Union Address, that really impresses people in New York. And then he's lucky that the Republican Convention is held in Chicago, so he has a lot of friends in Chicago who help him. And he gets the nomination.
And then he's lucky again because the Democratic Party, which is a much bigger party than the Republican Party, it splits in half, and that. means the Republicans are much more likely to win, which they do. There are actually four people running by the time it's November. It just all the chips fall in a way that's perfect for Lincoln to win the election. And the South is shocked that This Northerner, or I mean, he's really a westerner, he has cracked their defenses, their system.
For almost the entirety of American history since 1789, when George Washington becomes the first president. The South has really controlled national politics. They Have had most of the presidents, even the few northern presidents were generally under the control of the south. And Lincoln isn't from their system. He's an outsider, so they're really upset.
And they know that he's anti-slavery. Just how anti-slavery is not yet really known. but they worry a lot that he's very anti slavery. And in fact, a lot of people in the North worry the opposite. They worry that he's not anti slavery enough.
The North is also a little worried because he just doesn't seem presidential. His Body shape is sort of wrong. He's tall and skinny and angular. It just looks Low born. That was something people cared about.
In 1860? Does he look statesmanlike? Does he look well-educated? In a word, no, he didn't look refined. He had kind of rough country features.
Apparently his voice was a little bit odd too. He had a western twangy accent. And even though he was very tall, he did not have a deep voice. He had a kind of high-pitched voice.
So they're just all these eyes, these millions of eyes on this. Man coming through the country to become the new president, and everyone is worried about him. Is he made of the right stuff? Will he be strong enough to keep the country together?
So, intense curiosity and a kind of Immediate celebrity for someone who was absolutely unknown nine months earlier. Let's talk about succession. You write that it became more real just six weeks after Lincoln was elected, December 20. 1860 is when South Carolina left the Union. More states would follow.
What a mess. Lincoln was walking into. Talk about that. How did Lincoln react? It was the worst miss.
any president has ever inherited. As you just said, South Carolina secedes on December 20th. And so there's this weird period of About six weeks between his election and the secession of South Carolina, where They begin to act like a country they're not yet A country, but they called themselves the Palmetto Republic. The palmetto is the tree that's on the flag of South Carolina. And it was just a crazy time where nobody knew if the U.S.
would hold together or not. It had never happened. That a southern state seceded. It had almost happened in 1832 when John C. Calhoun was a senator and.
He was upset by Some financial policies of Andrew Jackson, and he threatens secession. But it didn't happen. Andrew Jackson In a very kind of intimidating way, kept it all together. But with Lincoln coming in, Lincoln is. in a much weaker position than Jackson, and Lincoln has Very little experience.
That one term as a congressman 12 years earlier, he does not have relationships in Washington.
So he's just kind of walking into this catastrophe. And he's not getting a lot of help from anybody. The Senate is dysfunctional, the House is dysfunctional, Washington is falling apart. The president before him, who's still the president, James Buchanan, is useless. He can't make up his mind.
He's falling apart in meetings. Nobody knows what he thinks. And the South is just doing whatever it wants to do.
So when Lincoln is on the train in February of 1861, coming into Washington, A third to a half of the United States of America is no longer in the United States of America, or so they feel. And he's gotta respond. With what he feels. And that's going to be his first inaugural address. And he's going to tell them, you're still in the United States.
You have not seceded because the Union is perpetual. And you've been listening to Edward Widmer, and he has told a fantastic story in his book, Lincoln on the Verge. 13 days to Washington. In the chronicles, the 13-day Train trip so that Lincoln can give his first inaugural speech in Washington, D.C. It is a trip filled.
with treachery, opportunity, and so much more. It is a thriller. If you love reading great stories about this country, this may be one of the best books I've read in the past year, go to Amazon.com and pick it up. Or go to a bookstore and pick it up. And heck, buy a copy for someone else who loves reading.
This book is that good. When we come back, more with Edward Widmer. Lincoln on the Verge, here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country and especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all of our stories about American history, from war to politics to innovation, culture, and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses.
Go to hillsdale.edu to learn more. I'm going to talk about money. And that can stress people out, understandably, because there's always something. Rent, mortgage, kids, student loans, the future. What you need is something to bring the financial stress levels down a notch.
What you need is Ally Bank. A bank that looks out for your money and you. With Ally Bank, there's no tricks, no hidden fine print, no jumping through hoops for better rates. They're a bank that wants to take care of your money and help you. Help you spend smarter by automatically analyzing spending to find surprise savings.
Help you save faster with great rates and smart savings tools for the things that matter to you, like travel or a new home. help you by elevating your banking without adding anything to your plate. Ally is designed for people like you, for how you actually live. No tricks, no hidden fees, banking built for life today. Ally Bank, member FTIC.
Yagush Baba podcast is brought to you by the Home Depot, official FIFA World Cup 2026 supporter. All right, serious question: Match day at your house. Is it really match day? Depends. You got the grill going or just talking?
For real, not just the grill. I'm talking car nasada. The smoke hits the block before kickoff. That's how people know where to pull up. Dang, that first sizzle, yeah, that's it right there.
And don't invite me if the propane tank's empty. That's a red card. Facts, before the first whistle, better head to the Home Depot for extra propane or charcoal if you grill old school, because people show up hungry, hungry. For me, it's the setup. Backyard on point, outdoor lights, patio seating for everybody, big screen.
Nobody's missing a play. And no chaos at halftime either. Everything set, tongues in hand, playlist going. We locked in. That's when it feels like home, though.
The smoke, the food, your crew, that's match day.
So if your backyard's a headquarters, you better be ready. Backyard lit up, grill hot, tanks full, and pull up. Hungry. The home depot. Home Depot's got everything you need to turn your backyard into Match Day Central with fast-free delivery.
From grills to propane to the full setup, they're basically your Match Day assist. The Home Depot. Learn more at home depot.com. Ice Cube's Big Three basketball is heating up. Before the World Cup final, tune into Big Three this Sunday.
Reigning MVP Michael Beasley and the defending champion Miami305 play a must-win game against the undefeated Dallas Power, led by Coach Nancy Lieberman. Then Dwight Howard and the LA Riot coming fresh off a wind look to knock off the undefeated Chicago Triplets, led by Coach Dr. J. The game played the way you love. Watch live Sunday on CBS at 2 p.m.
Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific, and catch replays Monday on BET. Presented by iHeart. If you want all of your data in one place, you need the Intuit ERP. I'm Damon John and I run my growing business on Intuit Enterprise Suite.
Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP. And we continue with our American stories and with the story in Edward Widmer, the book, The Story, Lincoln on the Verge, 13 Days to Washington. When we last left off, Lincoln, an unknown one-term senator from Illinois, had been elected president and the Union was splitting apart. He faced an existential dilemma. Could he even reach Washington, D.C.
for his inauguration? And would there even be a D.C. when he arrived? Talk about that. What was the mood like when he left Springfield?
Well, the first day was filled with drama. There were real fears that DC would be in the hands of pro-secessionist militias. An organized country coming together, the Confederate States of America, but then they're also. People walking around Washington in sort of armed vigilante mobs. who might Take over the capital.
They had announced that they wanted the capital for themselves, or they might take over the whole district. As he's starting on the trip on that first day, it's not certain. That he will be able to make it to Washington. He's getting letters from close friends who are in Washington saying we may not be able to hold it. It's really very.
dicey situation. and the morning of his departure It's February 11th, 1861. It's the day before his 52nd birthday. And it's kind of an overcast. Day.
Some accounts say it was snowing lightly, some say raining. I think it was sort of in between. And he went out. to the small depot and he was pleased to see, and it was no surprise that a lot of the people of Springfield had come out to say goodbye to him. And you know, he was a beloved member of the community.
It was an emotional scene. And he spontaneously gave uh a short speech. It's about nine sentences, but profoundly beautiful, and, as it turned out, really strategic too, because it put Lincoln before the country. In a new light. I'm not sure at all that he intended that.
It just happened. And in those nine sentences, he just said, I've. You know me. I've lived among you for twenty-five years. We've been friends and neighbors, my children.
have grown up among yours I'm leaving one child buried here. Um I'm now going With the hardest assignment any president has ever had since Washington. With God's help, I cannot fail without God's help, I cannot succeed. Please pray for me. And The words were transcribed.
There were journalists there at the platform, and then one journalist got on the train with him. and only a minute or two after the train left, he got Lincoln to take a pencil and paper and write it out all over again, give it to him, and he was able to telegraph it all around the country.
So we think of that as a long time ago, 1861, but in fact with Internet quickness. They were able to get the words of that beautiful short speech with. Lightning speed, and the telegraph was called the lightning. And it really humanized Lincoln. It helped people reading the next day in the newspaper to think: this is a human being.
This is like a neighbor. I would want him for my neighbor. I know people like this. My children play with the children of this other. family over here and he's he's kind of like us and it was a really Brilliant political stroke, even if he didn't mean it to be one.
He's just saying goodbye to his friends and neighbors, but it It made him seem like an everyman, and that was a really smart way to begin the trip. Talk about the role of the train and the telegraph. Two remarkable innovations. What roles did those two play? In Lincoln's plans and and to Lincoln's advantage.
And is it true that the South sort of rejected that kind of change and innovation? The train comes in in the early 1830s. The telegraph is later. It's invented by Samuel F. B.
Morse, and it's One of the great American inventions of the 19th century, and it immediately changes politics and business, and they are perfect for train tracks. The wires want to go straight and train tracks go straight and It turns out they're good for the railroad too because you can wire up ahead when the train is coming, helps plan the scheduling of the trains, it helps plan the loading of the freight. And so businesses love all of this. A textile mill owner, or in any business at all, and you've got a load of goods you want to ship from. New York to Philadelphia or Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
The telegraph is your friend. You send it down to your business partner down the line and It just picks up everything and and business accelerates. And westward migration accelerates, and Chicago is booming in the eighteen fifties. Lincoln is deriving some of his lawyer work from the exploding business culture of Chicago. And the big railroad of Illinois is the Illinois Central, and they hire Lincoln for a lot of cases.
So the North is just booming as Lincoln's star is rising. And the South is growing. All of America is growing, but the South is growing in a weird way. It's not growing nearly as fast. It's not Growing demographically, it has a much lower rate of increase from immigration and Wealth is concentrated at the top with families that own a lot of land.
It's not an upwardly mobile society the way the North. And they're also controlling the spread of information much more than the North.
So the North just loves newspapers and telegraphs and railroads. And in the South, They have to bring in railroads. They can't just reject something that's obviously so good for business. But they build different kinds of railroads and they don't like the telegraph quite as much and they want to control information and it's just a culture that is not as comfortable with different opinions as you would have in the North or with different kinds of ethnic people. That's a point of tension.
As the North is growing so fast, the South is looking at it. And it's beginning to criticize the kind of society it is, where anybody can say anything, and there are all these. Poor white people who are starting businesses for themselves, and there's a kind of unattractive word Southerners begin to use. They call them mudsills. kind of lower middle class whites in the North.
They don't like all the immigrants either, and they really don't like the free people of color. There are free African Americans in the North, and it just seems. like a mess up there to a aristocratic southern wealthy family. And it's not just social snobbery, it's also political fear because so many people are coming into the North That the South is worried that the North is going to have a lot of political power, which is true. And what a time to be alive.
But for Lincoln, What a precarious time to be president. Assassination plots were afoot. Following his election, Lincoln had only won 38% of the popular vote in what was a four-way race. Talk about Lincoln leaving behind for a relative of his wife. Papers of a personal nature, and the comment he made, a foreboding comment.
That his own death was on his mind. Talk about that. No, it's shocking that our most beloved president. Became president with such a tiny vote. I mean, the second lowest successful vote in our history.
Less than 40% is really pretty bad. It's less than Herbert Hoover. As the losing candidate, he won when he lost in a landslide to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Really, not very impressive, and how Lincoln. turned that dismal result into his Powerful presidency and winning the Civil War and becoming our greatest president is.
really an extraordinary conversion of a bad situation into a huge triumph. He understands the seriousness of what he's going into. And he's I mean, he's getting a lot of death threats in the mail. and the political news is bad and the threats are coming really close to home. There are things like uh you know drawings of him with a noose around his neck.
His wife saw that and was very upset. He knows he's not coming back. When we come back, more of this remarkable story, a remarkable piece of American history. Lincoln on the Verge, here. on our American stories.
Yeah. I'm going to talk about money. And that can stress people out, understandably, because there's always something. Rent, mortgage, kids, student loans, the future. What you need is something to bring the financial stress levels down a notch.
What you need is Ally Bank. A bank that looks out for your money and you. With Ally Bank, there's no tricks, no hidden fine print, no jumping through hoops for better rates. They're a bank that wants to take care of your money and help you. Help you spend smarter by automatically analyzing spending to find surprise savings.
Help you save faster with great rates and smart savings tools for the things that matter to you, like travel or a new home. help you by elevating your banking without adding anything to your plate. Ally is designed for people like you, for how you actually live. No tricks, no hidden fees, banking built for life today. Ally Bank, member FTIC.
Yagush Baba podcast is brought to you by the Home Depot, official FIFA World Cup 2026 supporter. All right, serious question: match day at your house. Is it really match day? Depends. You got the grill going or just talking?
For real, not just the grill. I'm talking car nasada. The smoke hits the block before kickoff. That's how people know where to pull up. Dang, that first sizzle, yeah, that's it right there.
And don't invite me if the propane tank's empty. That's a red card. Facts, before the first whistle, better head to the Home Depot for extra propane or charcoal if you grill old school because people show up hungry, hungry. For me, it's the setup. Backyard on point, outdoor lights, patio seating for everybody, big screen.
Nobody's missing a play. And no chaos at halftime either. Everything set, tongues in hand, playlist going. We locked in. That's when it feels like home, though.
The smoke, the food, your crew, that's match day.
So if your backyard's the headquarters, you better be ready. Backyard lit up, grill hot, tanks. Full and pull up hungry. The Home Depot's got everything you need to turn your backyard into Match Day Central with fast-free delivery. From grills to propane to the full setup, they're basically your match the assist.
The Home Depot. Learn more at HomeDepot.com. Ice Cube's Big Three Basketball is heating up. Before the World Cup final, tune into Big Three this Sunday. Reigning MVP Michael Beasley and the defending champion Miami305 play a must-win game against the undefeated Dallas Power, led by Coach Nancy Lieberman.
Then Dwight Howard and the LA Riot coming fresh off a wind look to knock off the undefeated Chicago Triplets, led by Coach Dr. J. The game played the way you love. Watch live Sunday on CBS at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m.
Pacific, and catch replays Monday on BET. Presented by iHeart. Uh If you want all of your data in one place, If you want a single home for all of your entities, if you want to spend more time working and less time searching, you need the Intuit ERP. I know because I'm Damon John and I run my growing business on Intuit Enterprise Suite, the AI native ERP that's powerful, painless, and proven. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP.
And we continue with our American stories and with Edward Widmer. His book, Lincoln on the Verge, 13 Days to Washington. When we last left off, Lincoln had left Springfield, Illinois on a train bound for Washington, D.C. to face the largest crisis. in American history.
Edward, let's talk about New York City, a big part of this trip. At the time, New York City had a larger population than the entire Confederacy, but Lincoln only won about 30% of the city's vote. It's a northern city, but it had a lot of southern influence. Talk about that. New York City is so much bigger.
than any other city that it's almost like it's Already a 20th century city, 40 years before the 20th century has actually arrived, and no other. City comes close. I think Philadelphia might be the second largest, and it's not. that close to New York's size. And New York is interesting The these Different reasons don't all make sense together, but they're all part of the picture of New York.
It's very northern feeling in some ways. It's teeming with immigrants, primarily German and Irish at that point. A lot of immigrants are living in immigrant neighborhoods in New York City. That feels pretty pretty northern, and it's also filled with um media culture with newspapers and magazines and It's also southern in powerful ways, and there are business interests primarily around Wall Street. That love is investing in southern plantations and and in slavery itself.
It's also a a place where southern ships come. One of the ways in which slavery made a lot of money for the South was cotton. Was turned into clothing. And a lot of textile mills are in Europe. I mean, they're in the north, too.
Huge numbers are in places like Birmingham, Manchester, in the north of England. France has textile mills. And so the South is shipping its cotton from its ports, like New Orleans and Savannah. And they would stop in New York for a rest, and then the ship would. would either offload its cotton or or just keep going to Europe.
And so New York shipping is very involved in slavery, but then also New York finance, Wall Street, is investing and giving loans. Helping northern investors to make money by investing in southern slavery.
So it's really important for. Everyone to understand that the South wasn't the only evil actor as far as slavery was concerned, that a lot of Northern Business investors. Concentrated then as now around Wall Street, were propping up the whole system of slavery. And they paid off politicians, New York's mayor. At the time, Lincoln came through, was a pretty pro-slavery guy named Fernando Wood, and Lincoln had to deal with him as he came through.
So it wasn't just people throwing flowers in his path. There was a lot of aggressive behavior toward Lincoln as he's coming toward Washington. And talk about the way Lincoln worked New York, because my goodness, he went everywhere from Wall Street to a night at the opera. How did he swing that when he knew that the elites in that city? were probably looking at him as if he were some kind of Western hick.
I mean, he and his wife were a little bit uncomfortable in New York. I think she was more uncomfortable than he was. He did awkward things. He wore the wrong color gloves when he went to the opera. You're supposed to wear white gloves, and he wore black gloves, and people laughed at him.
I wouldn't have known that, and he didn't know that. You know, he had to endure a little bit of um Snickering at his expense, but he could handle that a little more easily than Mary Todd Lincoln. could, but he was, you know, he had Advisors who were helping him. One of his advisors was the man he beat for the nomination, William Seward, who's a New York senator. He's actually from upstate New York, but you know, he knows New York City too.
He's Got his friends helping Lincoln, and they are helping to plan the train trip, too.
So I think. Lincoln had friends as well as enemies everywhere along the route, and He always had friends among the people, the people. came out everywhere he was to look at him and My book benefited a lot from some descriptions and look Walt Whitman. who is a kind of working class carpenter and poet. wrote a beautiful description of seeing Lincoln going into his hotel.
So I was grateful for some of the people who kept diaries or just wrote about it in their journals or later after the fact. And New York had you know it had a great working class population in addition to all of the f financial types on Wall Street, and those people were behind Lincoln. Lincoln then goes to Philadelphia, where he gives an important speech at Independence Hall, the place where, of course, the Declaration of Independence was written. The Declaration of Independence states, quote, that all men are created equal. Talk about that word all.
Because it's an important word to Lincoln. What did it mean to him? All men are created equal.
So the word all is right there. And it strongly implies all human beings.
So it's a pretty loaded word, all. And so Lincoln is holding this truth. Against the South and saying, you are violating the spirit of our country. And it was a very effective argument, and it was a form of soft abolitionism. that really worked for him.
It won over middle America, and yet he could keep running with it up to and including the Emancipation Proclamation and then the tremendous amendments to the Constitution, the first of which was done in his lifetime, but following the Civil War, that made Real freedom, civil rights, the freedom to participate in our politics and our society available to all people. in the United States of America. All of that came out of his reading of the Declaration of Independence and He gave a beautiful speech to that effect in Philadelphia. He leads up to it at Trenton, and then the next morning he goes into Independence Hall and it achieves a liftoff. And says, every feeling I've ever had politically has come to me from the Declaration of Independence.
It's a powerful moment, and people in the room knew it. They knew that it meant something emotionally to him, not just. Politically, and that becomes the Lincoln message. And at Gettysburg two years later, it's basically the same thing. I mean, yes, he uses.
exquisite language at Gettysburg. It takes liftoff even higher But he's gone a long way towards that message, even with what he says in Independence Hall. in Philadelphia in February 1861. Lincoln would go on to add at the very end of this speech the following words I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, Die bye. He meant those words, didn't he, Edward?
I think everyone listening to this speech believed he believed those words. Talk about that. There was a feeling in the room of Something very powerful had just happened after he talked about what the Declaration meant to him. And then I'm glad you reminded me that he added that. incredible closing thought about assassination would not stop him.
from loving his country and wanting to serve his country. And what made it so powerful was, in fact, he had just been told that there was a huge assassination conspiracy. trying to take his life the next day as he went through Baltimore. And already he was trying to figure out how to get around Baltimore or through it without getting kilt. Even with that heavy pressure on him, he still was able to speak beautifully.
And then he's beginning to plan a secret railroad journey. That will take him through Baltimore in the middle of the night by a different route than the one that has been announced.
So there are all these converging lines in his head at that moment, and it's just, it's like a thriller at that moment. And when we return, those lines will converge in Baltimore, Maryland. The book is Lincoln on the Verge, 13 Days to Washington. The author. is Edward Widmer.
More of this remarkable story. the last part of this story here. on our American story. I'm going to talk about money. And that can stress people out, understandably, because there's always something.
Rent, mortgage, kids, student loans, the future. What you need is something to bring the financial stress levels down a notch. What you need is Ally Bank. A bank that looks out for your money and you. With Ally Bank, there's no tricks, no hidden fine print, no jumping through hoops for better rates.
They're a bank that wants to take care of your money and help you. Help you spend smarter by automatically analyzing spending to find surprise savings. Help you save faster with great rates and smart savings tools for the things that matter to you, like travel or a new home. help you by elevating your banking without adding anything to your plate. Ally is designed for people like you, for how you actually live.
No tricks, no hidden fees, banking built for life today. Ally Bank, member FTIC. Yagush Baba podcast is brought to you by the Home Depot, official FIFA World Cup 2026 supporter. All right, serious question: Match day at your house. Is it really match day?
Depends. You got the grill going or just talking? For real, not just the grill. I'm talking car nasada. The smoke hits the block before kickoff.
That's how people know where to pull up. Dang, that first sizzle? Yeah, that's it right there. And don't invite me if the propane tank's empty. That's a red card.
Facts, before the first whistle, better head to the Home Depot for extra propane or charcoal if you grill old school, because people show up hungry, hungry. For me, it's the setup. Backyard on point, outdoor lights, patio seating for everybody, big screen. Nobody's missing a play. And no chaos at halftime either.
Everything set, tongues in hand, playlist going. We locked in. That's when it feels like home, though. The smoke, the food, your crew, that's match day.
So if your backyard's the headquarters, you better be ready. Backyard lit up, grill hot, tanks full, and pull up. Hungry. The Home Depot. Home Depot's got everything you need to turn your backyard into Match Day Central with fast-free delivery.
From grills to propane to the full setup, they're basically your match the assist. The Home Depot. Learn more at HomeDepot.com. Ice Cube's Big Three Basketball is heating up. Before the World Cup final, tune into Big Three this Sunday.
Reigning MVP Michael Beasley and the defending champion Miami305 play a must-win game against the undefeated Dallas Power, led by Coach Nancy Lieberman. Then Dwight Howard and the LA Riot coming fresh off the wind look to knock off the undefeated Chicago Triplets, led by Coach Dr. J. The game played the way you love. Watch live Sunday on CBS at 2 p.m.
Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific, and catch replays Monday on BET. Presented by iHeart. Mm. If you want all of your data in one place, if you want a single home for all of your entities.
If you want to spend more time working and less time searching, you need the Intuit ERP. I know because I'm Damon John and I run my growing business on Intuit Enterprise Suite, the AI native ERP that's powerful, painless, and proven. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP. And we return to our American stories in the final part. of the story of Lincoln's train trip to Washington.
From Springfield, Illinois. In 1861, the book is Lincoln on the Verge, 13 Days to Washington. and the storyteller, the author, the historian, is Edward Widmer. When we last left off, Lincoln had given an all-important speech. At Independence Hall in Philadelphia, talking about the word all in the Declaration of Independence and what it meant to him.
Now he was on his way to Baltimore, Maryland, the biggest slave city in the country, and there it was just a few miles from DC. There was also something afoot in Baltimore that caused Lincoln to have to change up dates. Talk about that. Well, his destination of Washington, D.C. Is a very southern city, and I argue at the beginning of the book that there was a bit of a mistake made in 1790.
When Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and Thomas Jefferson probably made a secret deal to move the capital to the Potomac River in return for some legislation that Hamilton really wanted in 1790, it was just too southern. Baltimore to the north is the biggest city in the slaveholding part of the country.
So Washington is south. of other slave places and it's just really hard for Lincoln to get there as an anti-slavery politician. In the winter following his election, there are all these rumors flying around the country that there may be people trying to kill him, but no one really knows when and where until a remarkable woman named Dorothea Dix finds out all of the details of the plot. She's a mental health advocate. She's actually from the North, but she's accepted in Southern circles.
But while traveling through the South in the fall of 1860, she picks up the intelligence that a huge plot to kill Lincoln is focusing on Baltimore and on railroad tracks and bridges coming into Baltimore. They might blow up a bomb under the train as it comes through, or they might try to shoot Lincoln or stab him as he's transferring from one station to another. That's how you got through Baltimore. You got off at one station and did a transfer in a horse and carriage to another station and then kept going. And so she goes to the head of the railroad and tells him about this plot.
The head of the railroad hires this detective, Alan Pinkerton, to come from Chicago east to infiltrate the plot. And he brings a very strong woman as one of his agents. And she's a genius of disguise and impersonation. And they get all the intelligence up to Lincoln's entourage. And Lincoln understands he's.
He doesn't want to do it, but he understands he has to go in the middle of the night because that's safer than trying to force his way through. He doesn't have a lot of security with him, and he makes it and he goes through all night and arrives at Washington at six in the morning. Lincoln finally does make it to D.C., and you paint this picture of D.C. at the time. You talk about the throngs of people who were there to see him.
including African Americans, people who hate Lincoln, and sharpshooters trying to keep Lincoln safe. This is a remarkable display of American diversity, not only in the people. But what's on everybody's minds? Talk about this final part of the trip and this great triumph. In Washington, the day of the first inaugural speech, there was a lot of fear in the air that the danger was still there.
A paper I read, I read only a few days ago, I reread it describing a fear that someone would try to shoot him as he was giving his inaugural address. And you think about it. When you're a president, you have to give that inaugural, and you want as many people to see you as possible. It's a democratic ritual. It's our main democratic ritual.
But that also makes you incredibly exposed. You stand out on the east portico of the Capitol. And people can see you for A half a mile around, you know, and so they did their best to protect him. There were army sharpshooters on the roof. Nearby, and there were plainclothes police in the crowd.
But still, people could get close to Lincoln, and so there was a great fear. that day but He made it. And you know, he consistently made brave decisions. was picked up by the outgoing President James Buchanan in a horse and carriage, and he was offered the choice. We could have a closed top or an open top.
And he said, absolutely, open it up.
So he he was a brave Person on the on the way to the Capitol and always standing straight up as he gave the speech and He always wanted to fortify The larger, not just the country, the United States, but what democracy meant to people everywhere. Because of his courage in propping up American democracy, Other friends of democracy in other countries really took heart, and even though he was assassinated, as we all know.
Okay. He was assassinated after saving American democracy. And in France, people like Victor Hugo were inspired by America's success at keeping the democratic system going. And in the late 19th century, you see real progress in France and in Western Europe. And then when World War I, Breaks out, I mean, many decades after Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson calls it a war to save democracy.
And the triumph of democracy in the 20th century, especially in World War II, I really think. Can be linked to Lincoln's courage in these dark days in 1861. You write as you close out, quote, Nearly eight hundred thousand brave young men gave their lives and service. to their conflicting ideas of the nation, no American was untouched by it. It touches us still, and Yeah.
the republic survives, sustained by the same perseverance Lincoln showed on this trip. From the moment he arrived things improved. Democracy refused to die. It deepened. Talk about that.
Well, thank you for reading that. I remember working hard on that language because. I wanted to include the South. I wanted. To include Southerners, even those who fought against Lincoln and the United States of America.
I wanted to include them the way he did. And he was very clear in his second inaugural address that they were included in his idea of America. There were two truths that he He fought the war over. One is that all men are created equal, really important truth about human beings and their capacities. And the other is that the United States of America is a Permanent union of its states, that they cannot secede unless all of them agree to it.
And that was a kind of legal fiction of sorts. You could argue that not everyone agreed with that when he said it at the beginning of the Civil War, but he made it true by winning. And now it really is true. I mean, now we are. Inseparable, and I wanted the South to feel included in this story.
It's their victory, too, because we made a great country. Together before the Civil War and after the Civil War. And that's why it's such a hard war to talk about, because some people would like to say it was pure treason to fire on the flag of the United States, and the cause was not good. They they did fight with incredible bravery and skill. But I think The overall population, you know, think of the women.
Enduring so much suffering, and the African Americans who were suffering in unbelievable ways. As they were asked to do more and more to support the economy of the South while not having any rights. And finally at the end they were asked to fight. but again not with any rights, and yet I share with Lincoln a feeling that we wanted them to feel like Americans as soon as the war was over. to be repatriated and to be included in our history, to be To be included in a meaningful and affectionate way, it's strongly tainted by racism, by the I I don't think you can separate it from slavery and the terrible injustices that were done to black people under the flag of the Confederacy.
But I think we can appreciate Southern courage and ways in which southerners themselves worked out some of these things. Which they did. I mean, Northerners helped sometimes, and Southerners did it on their own sometimes, too. And Northerners, like I tried to say, had plenty of problems of their own as well.
So I do love Lincoln, and I think his vision of history was correct, and democracy is beautiful. And immigration has been a good thing. And being colorblind has been a great thing in America. And when we finally included women in who gets to be a part of this great democracy, that was a good thing too. But In the spirit of inclusivity, I like to include the South also.
We can just learn from all of their mistakes, northern and southern. And Lincoln wanted us all to be together in his final speeches. And so I wanted to end the book in that spirit. And you've been listening to Edward Widmer. And his book is Lincoln on the Verge, 13 Days to Washington.
and it's a terrific read. Go to amazon.com, pick it up for yourself, pick up a copy for a friend. Anyone who's interested in this nation's history, Lincoln on the Verge, the story of his 13-day trip to Washington, D.C. That story here on our American story. The official language of football is trash talk, late night group chats, memes, and unbelievable highlight clips.
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