The chap­ter titled “The Real Dan­ger” details the tense sit­u­a­tion in the Unit­ed States as Abra­ham Lin­coln pre­pares to assume the pres­i­den­cy amidst ris­ing unrest. With Ander­son at Sumter, the nation­al cri­sis inten­si­fies, and Lincoln’s frus­tra­tion grows. This frus­tra­tion stems from the polit­i­cal vac­u­um left by Pres­i­dent Buchanan, a flood of peti­tions for patron­age jobs, and omi­nous threats sug­gest­ing plots against Wash­ing­ton. The Spring­field Repub­li­can report­ed a warn­ing from rad­i­cal sen­a­tor Louis T. Wig­fall of Texas that the cap­i­tal could fall to seces­sion­ists before Lin­col­n’s inau­gu­ra­tion, exac­er­bat­ing an already charged atmos­phere.

Lincoln’s loom­ing inau­gur­al speech weighs heav­i­ly on him, as he real­izes its sig­nif­i­cance amidst the grow­ing unrest. He express­es a desire to take the oath of office imme­di­ate­ly, acknowl­edg­ing the chal­lenges await­ing him and lament­ing that the exist­ing admin­is­tra­tion is doing lit­tle to sta­bi­lize the sit­u­a­tion. His friend Thur­low Weed express­es regret that Lin­coln can­not assume office ear­li­er, while South­ern con­gress­man Alexan­der H. Stephens urges Lin­coln to take action to “save our com­mon coun­try.”

In the midst of this tur­moil, Lin­coln receives pos­i­tive news when William Seward accepts the posi­tion of sec­re­tary of state after some delay. Seward advis­es Lin­coln to arrive in Wash­ing­ton ear­li­er than usu­al to mit­i­gate poten­tial unrest. While Lin­coln feels reas­sured by Com­mand­ing Gen­er­al Win­field Scott’s promise of pro­tec­tion, he is more con­cerned about the elec­toral vote count set for Feb­ru­ary 13, 1861, which he believes pos­es greater risks than his inau­gu­ra­tion.

As the year ends, the atmos­phere is far from opti­mistic. Kezi­ah Bre­vard, a Charleston planter, express­es her fears about the upcom­ing year through a night­mare, depict­ing the tur­bu­lence that lay ahead. New Year’s Day in Wash­ing­ton is sub­dued, with Charles Fran­cis Adams not­ing the grim mood that pre­vails despite good weath­er. Despite some pos­i­tive devel­op­ments like the appoint­ment of Joseph Holt as Sec­re­tary of War, there’s a pal­pa­ble sense of dread in the air, cul­mi­nat­ing in Texas sen­a­tor Wigfall’s belief that Holt’s appoint­ment sig­ni­fies future con­flict, under­scor­ing the urgent and dan­ger­ous times Amer­i­ca faces .