The chap­ter “Mys­tic Chords” opens with a reflec­tion on Wash­ing­ton, not­ing its unusu­al quiet­ness and somber atmos­phere on Inau­gu­ra­tion Day, March 4. Jour­nal­ist Hen­ry Vil­lard com­ments on the city’s trans­for­ma­tion into a South­ern-cen­tric locale despite the fed­er­al ban on com­mer­cial slave trad­ing. With a sig­nif­i­cant but decreas­ing enslaved pop­u­la­tion, ten­sions were pal­pa­ble, tip­ping the city into a state of unrest, as Gen­er­al Scott remarked on the frag­ile sit­u­a­tion.

Lin­coln, strug­gling with anx­i­ety about his inau­gur­al speech, awoke ear­ly to a drea­ry morn­ing marked by threat­en­ing rain. On the day of his inau­gu­ra­tion, he grap­pled with the sen­a­tor’s abrupt deci­sion to reject the posi­tion of Sec­re­tary of State. His cor­re­spon­dence with William H. Seward sought to reverse this refusal, empha­siz­ing the demands of pub­lic inter­est and his per­son­al feel­ings.

The pro­ces­sion to the Capi­tol involved Pres­i­dent Buchanan and sev­er­al dig­ni­taries mov­ing through a city filled with onlook­ers. Dec­o­ra­tive flags and a car­riage pro­ces­sion, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tions from the states, empha­sized uni­ty despite the brew­ing con­flict. The Capi­tol itself, par­tial­ly com­plet­ed and dis­or­der­ly, sym­bol­ized the nation’s insta­bil­i­ty. Buchanan, eager to aban­don his pres­i­den­cy, soon met with Lin­coln before the cer­e­mo­ny com­menced.

In prepa­ra­tion, Gen­er­al Scott appeared to reas­sure Seward about troop deploy­ments, con­trast­ing with the real­i­ty of mil­i­tary pres­ence amidst rumors of poten­tial unrest dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny. Lin­col­n’s inau­gu­ra­tion unfold­ed before a vast audi­ence, as he donned a for­mal out­fit dis­tinct from his usu­al attire and took to the podi­um, where the audi­ence greet­ed him warm­ly.

Lin­col­n’s speech, care­ful­ly craft­ed, aimed to bridge divides yet ulti­mate­ly evoked mixed reac­tions. It favored con­cil­i­a­tion while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly pro­vok­ing anx­i­ety among seces­sion­ists, lead­ing some to inter­pret it as a sig­nal of con­flict. Amidst these reac­tions, Lin­coln insist­ed on peace rather than threats of coer­cion and main­tained a hope­ful stance of pre­serv­ing the Union with­out mil­i­tary force.

As the new First Fam­i­ly entered the White House, Buchanan’s con­trived farewell encap­su­lat­ed the vary­ing emo­tions sur­round­ing this notable tran­si­tion. That evening, the Lin­colns attend­ed the Inau­gur­al Ball, which proved less live­ly than antic­i­pat­ed, lead­ing observers to com­ment on the sub­dued nature of the cel­e­bra­tion in con­trast with expec­ta­tions.

Through­out the events, themes of ten­sion, hope, and uncer­tain­ty echoed as the nation stood on the brink of a civ­il schism .