“Pimp!” Lincoln’s Spe­cial Train arrived in Colum­bus, Ohio, on Feb­ru­ary 13, amid a high­ly charged polit­i­cal atmos­phere. This date coin­cid­ed with the day Con­gress was sched­uled to cer­ti­fy the elec­toral votes, mark­ing a crit­i­cal moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. At the same time, Virginia’s seces­sion con­ven­tion con­vened, adding to the ten­sion. Lincoln’s entourage, includ­ing Major Anderson’s broth­er, Larz Ander­son, trav­eled in an expand­ed train com­posed of three cars. The weath­er was remark­ably clear, as not­ed by jour­nal­ist Vil­lard, adding an iron­ic calm to the oth­er­wise stormy polit­i­cal scene.

Upon arrival, Lin­coln was greet­ed with artillery salutes and a mil­i­tary escort that guid­ed him to the state­house. His speech was mea­sured and cau­tious, offer­ing a sense of reas­sur­ance amidst grow­ing anx­i­ety. Lin­coln, speak­ing with grav­i­ty, expressed, “I have not main­tained silence from any want of real anx­i­ety… all we want is time, patience, and a reliance on that God who has nev­er for­sak­en this peo­ple.” His words, while intend­ed to calm the gath­er­ing, stood in stark con­trast to the mount­ing unrest, espe­cial­ly as South­ern crowds gath­ered in Wash­ing­ton, clam­or­ing to enter the Capi­tol dur­ing the elec­toral vote count. Ten­sions were pal­pa­ble, but Lincoln’s deter­mi­na­tion to main­tain com­po­sure remained evi­dent.

In Wash­ing­ton, Gen­er­al Scott took imme­di­ate action to secure the Capi­tol, rein­forc­ing entrances and plac­ing troops with­in the crowd to pre­vent poten­tial dis­rup­tions. The pres­ence of armed sol­diers, while nec­es­sary, led to frus­tra­tions and ver­bal con­fronta­tions, with some hos­tile onlook­ers direct­ing offen­sive lan­guage towards the guards. The atmos­phere became so charged that observers feared the ver­bal attacks could esca­late into vio­lence. Scott, pre­pared for con­flict, made it clear that any obstruc­tion to the elec­toral process would be met with retal­i­a­tion. The sit­u­a­tion teetered on the brink of chaos, but Scot­t’s firm stance ensured the process con­tin­ued.

As the elec­toral vote count con­tin­ued, con­cerns about poten­tial fraud loomed large. The absence of a clear con­sti­tu­tion­al path to address elec­toral fraud added to the uncer­tain­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. Despite these fears, the count pro­ceed­ed with­out inci­dent, com­plet­ing in two hours and alle­vi­at­ing imme­di­ate wor­ries. This brief but sig­nif­i­cant event allowed the coun­try to exhale, yet the broad­er polit­i­cal storm was far from over. Mean­while, Lin­coln remained in Colum­bus, unaware of the tumul­tuous devel­op­ments in Wash­ing­ton, includ­ing Vice Pres­i­dent Breckinridge’s announce­ment that Lin­coln had won the pres­i­den­cy. This dec­la­ra­tion was met with vis­i­ble anger inside the Capi­tol, as hos­tile remarks were aimed at fig­ures like Win­field Scott.

Lin­coln, still in Colum­bus, learned of his vic­to­ry through a telegram, which sparked both cel­e­bra­tion and con­cern. His elec­tion, while a vic­to­ry, also marked the begin­ning of seri­ous threats to his safe­ty. As news of the plot against Lin­coln spread, reports from Pinkerton’s agents height­ened secu­ri­ty con­cerns, espe­cial­ly regard­ing Bal­ti­more, where a cred­i­ble assas­si­na­tion plot had been uncov­ered. The ris­ing dan­ger prompt­ed urgent action from Pinker­ton, who worked swift­ly to con­vey the threat to Lincoln’s close friend, Nor­man Judd. Despite ini­tial reluc­tance, the need for height­ened secu­ri­ty dur­ing Lin­col­n’s trav­els was unde­ni­able.

Pinkerton’s deci­sion to involve the skilled detec­tive Kate Warne was a crit­i­cal turn­ing point. Warne was tasked with deliv­er­ing the warn­ing let­ter to Judd, mark­ing the begin­ning of a more proac­tive approach to Lincoln’s secu­ri­ty. Her involve­ment was instru­men­tal in ensur­ing that Lin­col­n’s jour­ney was close­ly mon­i­tored, and as a result, height­ened vig­i­lance was main­tained through­out his trav­els. This chap­ter marks the ear­ly stages of Lincoln’s pres­i­den­cy, high­light­ing the immense chal­lenges he faced as he nav­i­gat­ed both polit­i­cal unrest and per­son­al threats to his safe­ty. His abil­i­ty to remain com­posed amidst such uncer­tain­ty would become one of his most defin­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics as the coun­try faced its most try­ing times.