Dread fills the air as Wash­ing­ton braces for the elec­toral count and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of Pres­i­dent Lincoln’s elec­tion, set for Feb­ru­ary 13. The city is on edge, with Gen­er­al Scott’s troops and artillery strate­gi­cal­ly posi­tioned through­out, sig­nal­ing the Army’s com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing the integri­ty of the elec­toral process from any poten­tial dis­tur­bances. Rumors of six thou­sand armed men assem­bling in Bal­ti­more cir­cu­late, spark­ing fears that these forces could dis­rupt the peace­ful tran­si­tion of pow­er in Wash­ing­ton. In light of these con­cerns, addi­tion­al sup­port is brought in, with one hun­dred police offi­cers from New York and Philadel­phia arriv­ing to strength­en the secu­ri­ty of the city and ensure the prop­er con­duct of the elec­toral pro­ceed­ings.

Washington’s pre­car­i­ous posi­tion below the Mason-Dixon Line, bor­der­ing Mary­land and Vir­ginia, adds to the ten­sion. Both states har­bor strong South­ern sym­pa­thies, which fur­ther fuels the unrest. The sit­u­a­tion is exac­er­bat­ed by a grow­ing num­ber of defec­tions from the gov­ern­ment, which stokes anx­i­eties among offi­cials. Sen­a­tor Seward express­es his alarm, not­ing that near­ly half of the 4,470 civ­il and mil­i­tary employ­ees in Wash­ing­ton hail from states that open­ly sup­port the rebel­lion. This wide­spread dis­sat­is­fac­tion stretch­es across all sec­tors, from gov­ern­ment depart­ments to diplo­mat­ic mis­sions world­wide, ampli­fy­ing the sense of insta­bil­i­ty that hangs over the cap­i­tal.

Jere­mi­ah Black, the Sec­re­tary of State, com­mu­ni­cates with Pres­i­dent Buchanan about the sit­u­a­tion in Wash­ing­ton. Although no direct evi­dence sug­gests a plot to seize the city, Black empha­sizes the impor­tance of main­tain­ing con­trol over Wash­ing­ton, as it holds strate­gic val­ue for the seces­sion­ist move­ment. His state­ment reflects a broad­er sen­ti­ment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, sug­gest­ing that any attempt to take the city would be a crit­i­cal error for the seces­sion­ists if they intend­ed to achieve their goals. The anx­i­ety in Wash­ing­ton is pal­pa­ble, with every deci­sion weighed care­ful­ly as lead­ers face the real­i­ty of a nation divid­ed and on the edge of war. This unease cap­tures the atmos­phere of a coun­try tee­ter­ing on the brink of mon­u­men­tal change, where dis­trust and fear influ­ence every action.

This sense of dread was not just lim­it­ed to the polit­i­cal lead­ers but per­me­at­ed through the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion as well. The real­iza­tion that the Unit­ed States was at the precipice of civ­il con­flict was impos­si­ble to ignore. Many cit­i­zens, par­tic­u­lar­ly those in Wash­ing­ton, felt torn between their region­al loy­al­ties and the larg­er nation­al iden­ti­ty. This divide, fueled by deep-root­ed polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences, left the cap­i­tal vul­ner­a­ble to both exter­nal and inter­nal pres­sures. As the days count­ed down to the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of Lincoln’s elec­tion, the stakes grew high­er, with every pass­ing hour mak­ing it increas­ing­ly like­ly that the peace­ful tran­si­tion of pow­er would be chal­lenged.

In addi­tion to the mil­i­tary ten­sions, the atmos­phere in Wash­ing­ton was filled with the uncer­tain­ty of what the future held for the Union. The loom­ing ques­tion of whether the South­ern states would secede from the Union hung over every dis­cus­sion. Politi­cians strug­gled to nav­i­gate the com­plex web of loy­al­ty to their states, per­son­al ide­olo­gies, and the demands of nation­al uni­ty. As Wash­ing­ton pre­pared for what seemed like an inevitable clash, there was a gen­er­al sense of help­less­ness, as if the course of his­to­ry had already been set in motion, and the options for avoid­ing con­flict were rapid­ly dwin­dling. This feel­ing of dread and impend­ing doom was not just a polit­i­cal sen­ti­ment but a deeply per­son­al expe­ri­ence for many, par­tic­u­lar­ly those liv­ing in the heart of the nation’s cap­i­tal.

The dread of poten­tial vio­lence was com­pound­ed by the wide­spread belief that the South was uni­fied in its resolve to leave the Union. This was a time of deep divi­sion, where the South’s resolve to pre­serve its way of life was met with resis­tance from the North, which sought to main­tain the Union at all costs. The sim­mer­ing ten­sions between the two regions had been build­ing for years, with the issue of slav­ery at its core. In Wash­ing­ton, those who sup­port­ed the Union viewed the seces­sion­ist move­ment as a direct chal­lenge to the nation’s sta­bil­i­ty and its core val­ues. As a result, the impend­ing elec­toral count became not just a for­mal­i­ty but a sym­bol­ic act, rep­re­sent­ing the cul­mi­na­tion of years of polit­i­cal and social strife.

With the arrival of addi­tion­al police and mil­i­tary forces in Wash­ing­ton, it became clear that the gov­ern­ment was prepar­ing for the worst. The streets of the cap­i­tal were filled with sol­diers and offi­cers, ready to respond to any signs of unrest. Despite the lack of direct threats, the pres­ence of so many armed indi­vid­u­als under­scored the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. The events lead­ing up to the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of Lincoln’s elec­tion were marked by uncer­tain­ty, and the actions of both the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and the seces­sion­ist move­ment showed just how frag­ile the Union had become. In this cli­mate of fear and mis­trust, the polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary land­scape was shift­ing, and Washington’s future was uncer­tain. The dread of impend­ing con­flict loomed large, shap­ing the actions and atti­tudes of those who were part of the nation’s piv­otal moment in his­to­ry.