On Feb­ru­ary 13, Lincoln’s train, known as Lincoln’s Spe­cial, arrived in Colum­bus, Ohio, amid con­sid­er­able polit­i­cal ten­sion. It was the day Con­gress was set to cer­ti­fy the elec­toral vote, coin­cid­ing with Vir­gini­a’s deci­sion to start its seces­sion con­ven­tion. Lin­col­n’s entourage, includ­ing Larz Ander­son, Major Ander­son­’s broth­er, jour­neyed in a spe­cial­ly expand­ed train of three cars. Jour­nal­ist Vil­lard not­ed that the weath­er was “mag­nif­i­cent.”

Upon arrival, Lin­coln was received with artillery salutes and sol­diers guid­ing him to the state­house. He deliv­ered a curi­ous yet cau­tious speech, imply­ing reas­sur­ance against the back­drop of ris­ing ten­sion: “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.” This sen­ti­ment was jux­ta­posed with ris­ing unrest as South­ern crowds gath­ered in Wash­ing­ton, demand­ing entry into the Capi­tol dur­ing the elec­toral count.

Gen­er­al Scott, pre­pared for hos­til­i­ty, for­ti­fied the entrances and dis­persed troops among the crowd to man­age poten­tial dis­tur­bances. The frus­tra­tions of those out­side erupt­ed into pro­fan­i­ty direct­ed at Scott, with one observ­er not­ing that ver­bal assaults aimed at the guards could have been lethal. Scott declared his readi­ness to retal­i­ate against any­one obstruct­ing the elec­toral process.

Amid con­cerns about the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of the elec­toral votes, Adams doc­u­ment­ed the impor­tance of the day, not­ing the lack of a clear con­sti­tu­tion­al mech­a­nism to deal with elec­toral fraud. Nonethe­less, the count pro­ceed­ed smooth­ly and con­clud­ed with­out inci­dent in two hours, eas­ing fears regard­ing the pro­ceed­ings.

How­ev­er, tran­quil­i­ty shat­tered with Vice Pres­i­dent Breck­in­ridge’s announce­ment: “Abra­ham Lin­coln… is elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.” Inside, anger flared, and hos­tile remarks were direct­ed towards fig­ures like Win­field Scott. Lin­coln learned of his elec­tion via telegram while still in Colum­bus, prompt­ing a mix of rejoic­ing and loom­ing threats against his safe­ty.

Reports from Pinkerton’s agents height­ened secu­ri­ty con­cerns regard­ing a cred­i­ble plot against Lin­coln, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Bal­ti­more. As urgency esca­lat­ed, Pinker­ton sent warn­ings through one of Lincoln’s friends, Nor­man Judd. Despite ini­tial hes­i­ta­tions, the sit­u­a­tion demand­ed deci­sive action. Ulti­mate­ly, Pinker­ton arranged for the adept detec­tive Kate Warne to deliv­er a warn­ing let­ter to Judd, thus paving the way for height­ened vig­i­lance dur­ing Lincoln’s trav­els.