The Man in the Felt Hat offers a com­pelling look at Abra­ham Lin­col­n’s secre­tive jour­ney to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., dur­ing a time of ris­ing ten­sion. As his inau­gu­ra­tion approached, Lin­coln was aware of the polit­i­cal unrest and increas­ing threats against him. To safe­guard his arrival, he decid­ed to trav­el in dis­guise, wear­ing a worn over­coat and a “kos­suth” hat—a sym­bol of demo­c­ra­t­ic ideals that had been pop­u­lar­ized by Hun­gar­i­an rev­o­lu­tion­ary Louis Kos­suth. The com­bi­na­tion of the hat and his slouched pos­ture allowed him to avoid recog­ni­tion, despite his tall and rec­og­niz­able frame. This care­ful choice of attire reflect­ed Lin­col­n’s strate­gic think­ing, aimed at ensur­ing his safe­ty while mak­ing the crit­i­cal jour­ney at a time when the nation was on the brink of civ­il war.

Lin­coln was not alone dur­ing this jour­ney. He was accom­pa­nied by Ward Lam­on, his trust­ed body­guard, and Kate Warne, a skilled detec­tive who had worked on Lin­col­n’s secu­ri­ty before. As they trav­eled through the night by train, the Amer­i­can Tele­graph Com­pa­ny took the extra­or­di­nary step of cut­ting off the tele­graph lines to ensure that no one would be able to learn of Lincoln’s pas­sage until after he had arrived safe­ly. This strate­gic action was tak­en to avoid any ear­ly alerts about his where­abouts, which could have put his life in greater jeop­ardy. Adding to the intrigue, the group unknow­ing­ly shared their train car with New York’s police super­in­ten­dent, John Kennedy, who had been assigned to pro­vide addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty in Bal­ti­more. His pres­ence fur­ther empha­sized the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion and the pre­cau­tions tak­en to pro­tect the pres­i­dent-elect.

Upon reach­ing Bal­ti­more ear­ly on the morn­ing of Feb­ru­ary 23, the group faced the next hurdle—ensuring that no one would notice their arrival. Lincoln’s team worked to dis­creet­ly switch trains, hop­ing to move qui­et­ly and avoid attract­ing atten­tion. How­ev­er, their plans were almost thwart­ed when Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Eli­hu Wash­burne rec­og­nized Lin­coln, despite the dis­guise, at the train depot. Wash­burne had been one of the few indi­vid­u­als who had been briefed about Lincoln’s jour­ney, and his recog­ni­tion threat­ened to com­pro­mise their care­ful­ly laid plans. Despite this close call, Lin­col­n’s group suc­cess­ful­ly con­tin­ued on their way, deter­mined to reach Wash­ing­ton with­out fur­ther inci­dent.

In Wash­ing­ton, the Willard Hotel served as the polit­i­cal hub where Lin­coln made his entrance into the cap­i­tal. As he arrived and checked into the hotel, William Seward, soon to be appoint­ed as Sec­re­tary of State, fol­lowed close behind. Seward, though a promi­nent fig­ure in his own right, had lost out on the pres­i­den­cy to Lin­coln, a blow to his ego. His desire for influ­ence was pal­pa­ble, and he quick­ly sought to align him­self with Lin­col­n’s admin­is­tra­tion, despite his lin­ger­ing resent­ment. The rela­tion­ship between Lin­coln and Seward was com­plex, with Seward’s polit­i­cal ambi­tions some­times clash­ing with the president-elect’s goals. While Seward’s pres­ence was invalu­able in many respects, his con­stant polit­i­cal maneu­ver­ing some­times added unnec­es­sary ten­sion with­in the cab­i­net.

This chap­ter not only high­lights the mea­sures tak­en by Lin­coln and his team to ensure his safe arrival in Wash­ing­ton but also hints at the broad­er polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment he was enter­ing. The nation was on the brink of civ­il war, with South­ern states already begin­ning to secede from the Union. Lincoln’s arrival marked a crit­i­cal point in Amer­i­can his­to­ry, one that would set the stage for the tur­bu­lent years ahead. The nation’s divi­sions were evi­dent, and the pres­sure on Lin­coln to unite a frac­tured coun­try would soon esca­late. His jour­ney to Wash­ing­ton was not just a phys­i­cal trip but a sym­bol­ic one—an indi­ca­tion of the enor­mous chal­lenges that lay ahead for him as the nation’s leader. His dis­creet arrival, the secre­cy sur­round­ing his move­ments, and the ten­sions that marked his ear­ly days as pres­i­dent would soon give way to the larg­er cri­sis of the Civ­il War, a con­flict that would define his pres­i­den­cy and the future of the Unit­ed States.

Lincoln’s abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate these ear­ly chal­lenges with such care demon­strat­ed his polit­i­cal acu­men. The choic­es he made in keep­ing his trav­el secret were not just about pro­tect­ing his safe­ty but also about send­ing a mes­sage to the nation. As the coun­try teetered on the edge of con­flict, Lincoln’s qui­et entry into Wash­ing­ton sym­bol­ized the qui­et deter­mi­na­tion with which he would face the grow­ing cri­sis. Despite the polit­i­cal maneu­ver­ing around him and the threats that loomed, Lincoln’s calm resolve and cal­cu­lat­ed deci­sions set the tone for the lead­er­ship he would pro­vide in the com­ing years.