In this chap­ter titled “Frus­tra­tion,” set between Decem­ber 20 and 24, Navy Lieu­tenant David Dixon Porter nav­i­gates the polit­i­cal ten­sions in Wash­ing­ton amidst the seces­sion cri­sis. While en route down­town, he encoun­ters the res­i­dence of Sen­a­tor Jef­fer­son Davis, where a vibrant par­ty is under­way. Although Porter is a loy­al Union­ist, he main­tains friend­ships across polit­i­cal lines to gauge prospects for peace. His con­nec­tion to the Davis fam­i­ly leads him to attend the gath­er­ing, where excite­ment over South Car­oli­na’s recent seces­sion is pal­pa­ble.

Mrs. Vari­na Davis, buoy­ant with joy, invites Porter to accom­pa­ny her to the White House to share the “glo­ri­ous news” with Pres­i­dent Buchanan. How­ev­er, Porter per­ceives her eager­ness for cel­e­bra­tion with trep­i­da­tion. The two take a car­riage to the White House, dur­ing which Vari­na pro­pos­es that Porter join a seces­sion­ist navy and men­tions the poten­tial estab­lish­ment of a monar­chy, prompt­ing him to doubt the via­bil­i­ty of such a regime. He imag­ines chaos and frag­men­ta­tion among rebel states instead.

Upon return­ing to the Davis res­i­dence, Porter observes an atmos­phere of drunk­en jubi­la­tion among Davis’s sup­port­ers, con­trast­ing marked­ly with the grave con­cerns he har­bors. Davis remains com­posed, seem­ing­ly pleased with South Car­oli­na’s actions, leav­ing Porter dis­il­lu­sioned about the sup­port for rebel­lion. He refrains from join­ing the group’s vis­it to Buchanan, con­tem­plat­ing the awk­ward­ness of the pres­i­dent engag­ing with those who oppose the Union.

The nar­ra­tive shifts to New York, where Horace Gree­ley writes to Pres­i­dent-elect Abra­ham Lin­coln, advo­cat­ing a firm stance against South­ern seces­sion, empha­siz­ing that com­pro­mise should not come at the expense of prin­ci­ples. Gree­ley express­es alarm at the cur­rent insta­bil­i­ty, fore­see­ing poten­tial con­flict and safe­ty con­cerns sur­round­ing Lin­col­n’s impend­ing inau­gu­ra­tion.

Amid grow­ing ten­sions, Lin­coln is forced to nav­i­gate polit­i­cal intri­ca­cies as crit­i­cal dis­cus­sions about the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of U.S. forts arise. Gen­er­al Win­field Scott warns that forts Moul­trie and Sumter are inad­e­quate­ly defend­ed, press­ing Lin­coln to pre­pare for pos­si­ble mil­i­tary action. The chap­ter clos­es with Lin­col­n’s frus­tra­tion evi­dent, fear­ing a sur­ren­der of the forts, which he con­demns vehe­ment­ly, sig­nal­ing a somber yet tense atmos­phere as the nation stands on the brink of con­flict.