In Spring­field, Illi­nois, the mood fol­low­ing the Elec­tion Day cel­e­bra­tion swift­ly tran­si­tioned to an unex­pect­ed tran­quil­i­ty. John Nico­lay not­ed that the city had returned to its usu­al calm, near­ly for­get­ting the tumul­tuous elec­tion, as it pre­pared for Lin­col­n’s for­mal celebration—a “Jollification”—which was reluc­tant­ly antic­i­pat­ed due to Lincoln’s nar­row vic­to­ry. Sim­i­lar­ly, young Anna Ridge­ly expressed her dis­il­lu­sion­ment with Lincoln’s elec­tion in her diary. Despite her father’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic affil­i­a­tions, she feared for the nation’s future, lament­ing Lin­col­n’s lack of expe­ri­ence and pol­ish, and express­ing con­cern that South­ern ani­mos­i­ty might per­sist under his lead­er­ship.

Hen­ry Vil­lard, a Ger­man émi­gré report­ing for the *New York Her­ald*, shared sim­i­lar appre­hen­sions regard­ing Lincoln’s abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate the esca­lat­ing chaos of the nation. Recall­ing a chance encounter with Lin­coln dur­ing the sen­a­tor’s cam­paign, Vil­lard not­ed Lin­col­n’s self-doubt and his reflec­tion on his polit­i­cal ambi­tions, which his wife firm­ly believed he would achieve. Lin­col­n’s humor­ous admis­sion of his increduli­ty at the idea of becom­ing Pres­i­dent under­scored his inse­cu­ri­ties.

As the ten­sions grew, Lin­coln seemed unaware of the South­ern dis­con­tent but believed the major­i­ty still favored the Union. He saw him­self as a mod­er­ate regard­ing slav­ery and avoid­ed incen­di­ary com­ments ahead of his inau­gu­ra­tion. On the night of the Jol­li­fi­ca­tion, despite the fes­tive atmos­phere with dec­o­rat­ed homes and fire­works, Anna not­ed a lack of enthu­si­asm and described the small­est torch-lit pro­ces­sion she had ever seen. The high­light was a speech by Sen­a­tor Lyman Trum­bull, whose remarks were sub­tly guid­ed by Lin­coln to assure the South of Repub­li­can inten­tions, even as he draft­ed pas­sages that sug­gest­ed South­ern mili­tias could quell poten­tial upris­ings.

While Trumbull’s speech was dis­sem­i­nat­ed wide­ly, it did lit­tle to alle­vi­ate the nation­al unease. Lin­coln reit­er­at­ed his deci­sion to main­tain silence in pub­lic dis­cus­sions, fear­ing that any words he spoke would exac­er­bate the ten­sion. His reflec­tions revealed a deep under­stand­ing of the polit­i­cal vit­ri­ol sur­round­ing him, which he com­pared to bib­li­cal reluc­tance for signs of divine approval. As the wait for elec­toral cer­ti­fi­ca­tion began, omi­nous sen­ti­ments cir­cu­lat­ed regard­ing Lin­col­n’s safe­ty and the dire impli­ca­tions his pres­i­den­cy might pose to the South, stok­ing fears of abo­li­tion and loss of con­trol over enslaved peo­ple .