DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: The day of the general election, he's restless all day long. He's been so familiar with disappointment that he just fears something bad will happen. About 9 o'clock, he and Judge Davis and the friends go to the telegraph office to hear the returns coming in. Finally, at midnight, the word comes in that New York has gone Republican. Then the church bells ring, people gather in the streets. This new guy had won. And then he runs home as he says to tell Mary and famously says, "Mary, Mary, we are elected." CLINT SMITH: Southern States had been saying, if this man is elected, we will have no choice but to secede. And as soon as he is elected, South Carolina decide to have a secession convention, and by December of 1860, they decide to leave the Union. BARTON A. MYERS: In February of 1861, seven US States seceded. The Confederate government is formed and puts Jefferson Davis in place as president. CHRISTY COLEMAN: They're seceding for one thing and one thing only, and that is the preservation of slavery and its expansion. HAROLD HOLZER: Lincoln believed, over optimistically, that there was a way to get these Southern slave-holding States back in the Union once he actually got to Washington. TED WIDMER: On February 11, 1861, Lincoln begins the train journey to Washington, DC. It would have been nice to take the shortest route, but he couldn't go through Kentucky, the State he was born or Virginia because it was too dangerous. He wrote a letter to a friend that he was worried he might be lynched. So he has to go on this very winding roundabout route over 1,900 miles. Whenever Lincoln comes in anywhere, everybody comes out to see him. CAREY LATIMORE: There's hope, but there's also this fear. People would have known that the Southern States had seceded. These are difficult times, and there are credible assassination threats against Lincoln. TED WIDMER: There was intelligence of a massive conspiracy to try to assassinate him as he came through Baltimore. The leader of the plot had a system of drawing lots-- pieces of paper with a red dot on them. And those who got a red dot would try to kill Lincoln with guns and knives and grenades. But Allan Pinkerton, who was a railroad detective, penetrated the conspiracy with operatives. Davis. Mr. Pinkerton, it's all true. Anyone who picked one of the red dot is an assassin. How many have red dots? Eight. It's worse than I thought. The door is locked from the inside? Yes, ma'am. Key, please. My uncle is an invalid. He requires absolute privacy. Do you understand? [dramatic music playing] We'll take a special overnight train. I've cleared the tracks and had the telegraph lines cut from here to Baltimore. These men intend to create a diversion with the police and starve you to death. That's all? Like Julius Caesar. You need to take this seriously, Abe. You have fierce enemies. If I sneak into the capital with fear, I'm sure in good people, there's reason to fear. Sir, the worst thing that could happen is you don't make it to Washington at all. You can't risk being recognized. Take care of it. [dramatic music playing] This is my associate, Miss Key Warren. Mr. Lincoln, it's an honor. Miss Warren, I am far too plain to pass for your uncle. Not at all, sir. I take comfort in the idea that common folk are the best looking. That's why the Lord made us so many. [train whistles] Well, this is not how I planned to get to Washington. HAROLD HOLZER: Lincoln goes from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia to Baltimore to Washington at night, in secret, wearing a disguise. He arrives in Washington 6:00 AM unannounced, and he was attacked in the press depicted in these crazy disguises including kilts, doing the McLincoln Highland Fling and just ridiculed. Not a good thing for a president who is coming to Washington to exhibit courage. Frederick Douglass says, at least now, Mr. Lincoln knows what it's like to travel on the Underground Railroad. EDNA GREENE MEDFORD: When Lincoln ascends to the presidency and he issues his first inaugural address, African Americans are waiting in anticipation to see what he's going to say. Because by this time, seven states have seceded from the Union, and African Americans are thinking, this is our opportunity. This is the time to end slavery. You've got this Republican who has won. He's not an abolitionist, but you've got enough Republicans who are ready to move on these people who are seen as traitors to the country. MARY FRANCES BERRY: His first inaugural address is a moment fraught with tension. HAROLD HOLZER: There were still very serious fears of assassination. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Fellow citizens of the United States, in your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen and not in mind is the momentous issue of civil war. HAROLD HOLZER: Lincoln wanted the speech to be strong without being threatening, to try to stem the tide of secession. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. HAROLD HOLZER: He says federal forts and armories would be protected. And at the same time, he says, I'm not a threat, and he promised to enforce the hated Fugitive Slave Law. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. HAROLD HOLZER: Lincoln had shown this speech to William Seward, and Seward made corrections. And then Seward looked at the ending of the draft, and it says, "It's your choice, my friends in the South. Will it be peace or a sword?" And Seward says, "You can't end it like this." So Seward writes out a really good idea. Lincoln looks at the suggestion and displaying as much brilliance as an editor as he showed as a writer, he recast Seward's proposal into poetry. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union when, again, touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. [applause]