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00:00On the morning of February 11th, 1861, Abraham Lincoln prepared to leave Springfield, Illinois,
00:16for Washington. The president-elect had grown a beard since election day and was still not quite
00:25comfortable with how he looked. Mary Lincoln was just back from New York, where she had bought so
00:34much finery, she did not dare tell her husband how much she had spent. She had accepted lavish gifts
00:41of clothing and jewelry, too, and had kept that fact to herself as well. Despite the heavy rain,
00:52a sizable crowd turned out to see Lincoln off. Springfield had nurtured him. He had prospered
01:00there. Now, he was saying goodbye.
01:03My friends, no one not in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this party.
01:20To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter
01:31of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here are my children to be born,
01:38one and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task
01:49before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. I bid you an affectionate farewell.
01:56In 20 days, Abraham Lincoln would become president of the United States, but the union he held sacred had shattered.
02:20.
02:50The Lincolns had long dreamed of this moment.
03:02At the end of a 12-day swing through northern cities
03:05lay the executive mansion.
03:09His Republican Party has won the White House for the first time.
03:13He is the first Republican president.
03:15He is thrilled about what has happened.
03:17He is looking forward to it,
03:18and yet he watches the country falling apart
03:20before he even has a chance to take the oath of office.
03:25Lincoln's election had been the signal
03:27for seven southern states to leave the Union.
03:30First, South Carolina, then Mississippi,
03:33Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas.
03:39Eight more were teetering on the brink.
03:42One by one, federal forts had been turned over
03:45to the southern states without a shot being fired.
03:48Lincoln kept thinking that reasonable people in the South
03:55would gradually come to their senses
03:56and say, this is stupid.
03:59We must get back into the Union as it was.
04:02They're not going to leave this country.
04:04They're patriots just as much as we are.
04:06Lincoln said that over and over again,
04:07and I think he really believed it.
04:09I think that was one of the mistakes
04:11that Lincoln and northern Republicans made.
04:15They underestimated the depth and genuineness
04:18of southern secessionist sentiment.
04:22The brand-new Confederate states of America
04:25had adopted their own constitution
04:27and appointed Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi
04:31as their new president.
04:32The southern view is that the Union is a matter of convenience.
04:39And when the Union became a nuisance
04:42instead of something that was helping them,
04:45that they could just withdraw from it.
04:48They had created it.
04:49Why couldn't they back out?
04:50Some in the North wanted force use
04:55to bring the southern states back into the Union.
04:58Others argued the states should be allowed to leave in peace.
05:01Still others hoped for some sort of compromise.
05:05No one knew what Lincoln would do.
05:09As his train moved east, he kept silent or told jokes.
05:14Many concluded he was a well-intentioned bumbler,
05:18not up to the job.
05:20He's in a very tough position.
05:26He is not going to say anything provocative.
05:29He is not going to say anything
05:31that might cause other states
05:33to join with those seven states that have already acted.
05:37If he postures, if he rattles a saber,
05:41that may be all it takes to get those states to follow suit.
05:45So he's going to be a man walking on political eggshells.
05:50On February 22nd, Lincoln arrived in Philadelphia.
06:00At Independence Hall,
06:02where American freedom was first proclaimed,
06:05he raised the flag and swore allegiance
06:07to the promise of equality
06:09embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
06:11It was that which gave promise
06:22that in due time the weight should be lifted
06:24from the shoulders of all men
06:26and that all should have an equal chance.
06:29If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle,
06:37I would rather be assassinated on this spot
06:41than to surrender it.
06:42Lincoln had just been told of a plot to kill him.
06:57He wanted to ignore the threat,
06:59but aides finally convinced him
07:00to slip secretly into Washington.
07:04When Mary heard the news,
07:05she was terrified.
07:06Mary's worries about her husband's physical safety
07:11began from the very moment
07:13that he was elected president.
07:16He received all kinds of hate mail at home.
07:22The hatred that was spewed out at her husband
07:26was unbelievable.
07:27And I think there was always an undercurrent of fear
07:31from that very early time a seed of dread.
07:38That evening, Abraham Lincoln and a loyal bodyguard
07:42quietly boarded a sleeping clock.
07:45The bodyguard carried a small arsenal
07:47of deadly weapons beneath his coat.
07:51Lincoln wore a cap and cloak
07:52and pretended to be an invalid.
07:58The president-elect was reluctantly
08:00heading for Washington, undercover.
08:15He was later ashamed of it and was embarrassed.
08:18He didn't think there had been a conspiracy ever,
08:21but he was talked into it.
08:24Lincoln traveled the rest of the night
08:26and arrived in Washington at 6 the following morning,
08:28took a carriage to his hotel
08:30and slipped inside,
08:32through the ladies' entrance.
08:35Mary and the boys joined him later in the day.
08:39It wasn't long before newspapers
08:41got hold of the story.
08:44Many had already dismissed him
08:45as a boor and a country bumpkin.
08:47Now they called him a coward, too.
08:51Never before had a president gotten off
08:53to a more humiliating start.
08:55The president had been a coward.
08:58Lincoln's first order of business
09:06was to interview the long lines of Republicans
09:08looking for government jobs.
09:11I've got more pigs than I have tits,
09:14but they don't want much
09:16and don't get but little.
09:18I must see them.
09:20At the same time,
09:22he met with the men
09:22who would make up his cabinet,
09:24some of them rivals he had beaten
09:26for the presidential nomination,
09:28all of them with more experience
09:30than Abraham Lincoln.
09:33Lincoln has tremendous self-confidence.
09:35He's giving these positions
09:37to people like William Seward
09:39who resent him
09:40because he has won the nomination,
09:42to people who demean
09:45and diminish his capabilities,
09:48say that he is less qualified
09:49to hold this office than I am.
09:51Nobody in that cabinet
09:54has very high regard
09:55for Lincoln's abilities.
10:03Monday, March 4th, 1861,
10:06was unlike any other inauguration day
10:09in history.
10:10As the Lincolns rode up Pennsylvania Avenue,
10:16uniformed sharpshooters
10:17stood guard on rooftops.
10:25With the unfinished Capitol Dome
10:27looming above them,
10:28Mary and several relatives
10:30took their seats
10:31just behind the president-elect.
10:33One of her cousins
10:35remembered looking out
10:36upon a sea of upturned faces,
10:38representing every shade of feeling,
10:41hatred, discontent,
10:43admiration, and anxiety.
10:46Americans North and South
10:48were waiting to hear at last
10:50what their new president
10:51planned to do.
10:53He began by reassuring the South.
10:56I have no purpose,
10:58directly or indirectly,
11:01to interfere with the institution
11:03of slavery in the states
11:05where it exists.
11:06I believe I have no lawful right
11:09to do so,
11:11and I have no inclination
11:12to do so.
11:14He also vowed to hold,
11:17occupy, and possess
11:18all the federal installations
11:20under Union control.
11:22How he was going to do that,
11:24he didn't say.
11:25But there would be no compromise
11:27with secession.
11:30Lincoln was very stubborn.
11:32He believed simply
11:34that the United States
11:35was the greatest country
11:36potentially in the world
11:38if it could hold together.
11:40And I think at no point
11:41did he ever seriously consider
11:43the possibility
11:44that Union could be destroyed.
11:46I hold that in contemplation
11:49of universal law
11:50and of the Constitution,
11:52the union of these states
11:54is perpetual.
11:55The passionate belief
11:58that Lincoln has
11:59in the necessity
12:00of preserving the Union
12:01is because the Union
12:03is necessary
12:03to preserve
12:04the democratic experiment.
12:06And what that democratic experiment
12:08meant to him
12:08was the chance
12:09for a poor person
12:11with hard work
12:12and discipline
12:13to move from one rung
12:14in the ladder
12:15to another
12:15because there was opportunity,
12:17because there was equality.
12:18Physically speaking,
12:35we cannot separate.
12:37We cannot remove
12:39our respective sections
12:40from each other
12:41nor build an impassable wall
12:43between them.
12:44In your hands,
12:49my dissatisfied fellow countrymen,
12:52and not in mine,
12:54is the momentous issue
12:56of civil war.
12:59The government
13:00will not assail you.
13:03You can have no conflict
13:05without being yourselves
13:06the aggressors.
13:14I am loathe to close.
13:18We are not enemies,
13:20but friends.
13:21We must not be enemies.
13:24Though passion may have strained,
13:27it must not break
13:28our bonds of affection.
13:31The mystic chords of memory,
13:34stretching from every battlefield
13:35and patriot grave
13:37to every living heart
13:39and hearthstone
13:40all over this broad land
13:42will yet swell
13:43the chorus of the Union
13:45when again touched
13:47as surely they will be
13:49by the better angels
13:51of our nature.
14:00As Lincoln spoke in Washington,
14:03a big crowd
14:04in Charleston, South Carolina,
14:06cheered as the flag
14:07of the Confederate States of America
14:09was hauled
14:10to the top of its pole.
14:11out in Charleston harbor
14:17stood Fort Sumter,
14:19guarded by less than
14:20a hundred federal soldiers.
14:24South Carolina troops
14:26trained cannon on the fort
14:27and demanded its surrender.
14:31With Sumter's defenders
14:33running out of food,
14:34South Carolina vowed
14:36to fire upon
14:36any federal ship
14:37that tried to reinforce
14:39or resupply them.
14:44Abraham Lincoln
14:45knew almost nothing
14:47about warfare,
14:48had never managed
14:49anything larger
14:50than his two-man law firm.
14:53But it was now up to him
14:54to decide how to respond
14:56to the Southern threat.
14:59Defend or surrender Sumter.
15:02To defend it, he knew,
15:03meant war.
15:04March 28, 1861.
15:29Washington is perfectly charming.
15:30I am beginning to feel
15:32so perfectly at home
15:33and enjoy everything so much.
15:37Every evening,
15:37our blue room is filled
15:39with the elite of the land.
15:41Mary Lincoln came to Washington
15:43with high hopes,
15:45determined to do
15:45her husband proud
15:46and also to make
15:48her own mark on the city,
15:50to live up to the brand-new title
15:52a British correspondent
15:53had coined for her,
15:55First Lady.
15:57She was going to dress the part
15:58and she was going to act the part.
16:00She was going to shine
16:02and do her best
16:03for her husband.
16:04And she was going to prove
16:05that this man was not
16:06a hick from the sticks
16:07and she was not
16:09some Midwestern small-town frump.
16:12She is more self-possessed
16:14than Mr. Lincoln,
16:15one newspaper reported,
16:17and has accommodated
16:18more readily
16:19than her taller half
16:20to the exalted station
16:22to which she has been
16:23so strangely advanced.
16:25Here comes Mary Lincoln,
16:28all flags flying,
16:29standing up there
16:30beside her husband,
16:31presiding at teas,
16:33presiding at coffees,
16:35being charming,
16:36making political pronouncements.
16:38She burst upon Washington
16:40like fireworks
16:41on an empty sky
16:43and she provided
16:44enormous copy
16:45for people who had never
16:46even thought of covering
16:48a president's wife before.
16:49She loved being
16:54at the center of attention
16:55and it was her greatest dream.
16:57She was probably
16:59not psychologically cut out
17:02to be at the center
17:04of the storm
17:05that she found herself.
17:12Though Mary's arrival
17:13in Washington
17:14should have been
17:14a moment of triumph,
17:15it must have been
17:16so hard for her
17:17knowing that so much
17:18of her strength
17:19came from her southern roots.
17:21The South has seceded.
17:23Her sisters and brothers
17:24are on the opposite side.
17:25She's cut off
17:26from those roots
17:27and she's on a collision course
17:29with her very own past.
17:32The southerners feel
17:33that she's a traitor
17:34for being married to Lincoln
17:35and herself being
17:36a passionate defender
17:37of the Union cause.
17:39On the other hand,
17:40the northerners
17:40are very suspicious.
17:43So she really becomes
17:44a woman without a country.
17:48On Mary Lincoln's first day
17:59in her new home,
18:00she and her children
18:01had gone from room to room.
18:03She was appalled
18:04by what she found.
18:06She said she never saw
18:08such abominable furniture
18:09in her life,
18:10that if she had lived
18:11in the humblest cabin,
18:12she would never have given
18:13a house rug.
18:14It was so awful.
18:16It looked like
18:17a second-rate hotel.
18:20There was broken furniture,
18:21stained rugs.
18:23So Mary Lincoln's ambitious,
18:25she's energetic,
18:26and her idea is
18:28to make the White House
18:30into a statement.
18:32She intended to use it
18:34as a symbol
18:35of the Union power.
18:38The Union was breaking apart.
18:40The White House
18:40was the home
18:41of the President
18:41of the United States,
18:43and he deserved
18:44virtually a palace
18:45to live in,
18:46lest anybody think
18:47that the White House
18:48was falling apart
18:49along with the Union.
18:51Mary resolved
18:52to transform the old house,
18:54and Congress gave her
18:55the money
18:56to get the job done.
18:58Suddenly,
18:58she had an appropriation
19:00of $20,000
19:01to spend as she liked,
19:02and she loved stores,
19:04and she loved shopping,
19:06and she was determined
19:07to turn this house
19:08into a fitting home.
19:11March 5th, 1861.
19:20On his first day
19:21in the executive mansion,
19:23Lincoln found a message
19:24on his desk
19:24from Fort Sumter.
19:26The federal garrison
19:28was growing desperate.
19:31Without food and supplies,
19:33it could not hold out
19:35much longer.
19:35Fort Sumter
19:48was the symbol.
19:51It was in Charleston Harbor,
19:53the birthplace
19:54of the rebellion.
19:56To give Fort Sumter
19:58up at this point
19:58would have dealt
20:00a devastating blow
20:01to Northern morale
20:03in this crisis.
20:04The president summoned
20:06the commander
20:07of the United States Army,
20:09the hero of the Mexican War,
20:11Winfield Scott.
20:15Winfield Scott said
20:16it would take
20:1720,000 troops
20:18and a whole fleet
20:19of naval ships
20:19to reinforce Fort Sumter,
20:21and it would start
20:23a bloody war
20:23that would destroy
20:25this country.
20:26So Scott says,
20:27pull off.
20:28And yet Lincoln
20:30had promised
20:31in his inaugural address
20:33that he would yield
20:34no federal property
20:36or installations
20:37to the rebels.
20:40Lincoln seemed trapped.
20:43To fire in defense
20:44of Sumter
20:45risked driving
20:46more states
20:47out of the Union.
20:48To do nothing
20:49meant surrendering
20:50to the Confederacy.
20:52He asked his cabinet
20:54for their advice.
20:55On March 16th,
20:5810 days after
20:59the Sumter crisis
21:00had begun,
21:01they gave him
21:01their recommendations.
21:04All but two
21:05urged him
21:05to give up the fort.
21:08If federal ships
21:10tried to shoot
21:11their way in,
21:11they told him,
21:13you will be accused
21:14of starting a war.
21:16Lincoln listened
21:17but did not act.
21:19Wait, he said.
21:21Give the Confederates
21:22time to come
21:23to their senses.
21:23One more week went by,
21:31then two.
21:34The Union soldiers
21:36inside the fort
21:37grew increasingly
21:38desperate for food.
21:41Still,
21:42Lincoln hesitated.
21:45Here's this new
21:46president getting
21:47such strong advice
21:48from almost everybody
21:49against what he feels
21:51he should do
21:52and somehow
21:53holding those
21:54contradictions
21:55inside himself.
21:56He says,
21:56I'm not ready
21:57to make this decision yet.
22:08As Lincoln waited,
22:10he grew more
22:11and more depressed.
22:14Sleepless,
22:16tormented by migraines,
22:18he was,
22:18he said,
22:19in the dumps.
22:20The strain
22:23was so great,
22:24Mary noted,
22:25that at one point
22:26her husband
22:27keeled over,
22:29fainted dead away.
22:37Then Secretary
22:38of State
22:39William Seward
22:40made an astonishing
22:41proposal.
22:42He told the president
22:44that Sumter
22:44should be abandoned
22:45and if the president
22:47wasn't willing
22:48to make policy,
22:49he was.
22:51All along,
22:52Seward had been
22:53playing a shadowy game,
22:55leaking hints
22:56to the press
22:57that the fort
22:57was about to be
22:58given up,
22:59even secretly
23:00passing word
23:01to the Confederates
23:02that he would
23:03soon be empowered
23:04to negotiate
23:05its surrender.
23:07Lincoln put Seward
23:08in his place.
23:10The president
23:11and no one else
23:12would make policy,
23:14Lincoln told
23:14his Secretary of State.
23:15April 11th,
23:221861.
23:25Five weeks
23:26after Lincoln's
23:27inauguration,
23:28a clash
23:28at Fort Sumter
23:29now seemed
23:30inevitable.
23:32A Union fleet
23:32was preparing
23:33for action
23:34outside Charleston Harbor.
23:36The president
23:37had finally devised
23:38a shrewd plan.
23:40He warned
23:41the governor
23:42of South Carolina,
23:43An attempt
23:45will be made
23:45to supply
23:46Fort Sumter
23:46with provisions
23:47only.
23:49If such attempt
23:50be not resisted,
23:52no effort
23:52to throw in men,
23:54arms,
23:54or ammunition
23:55will be made
23:56without further notice.
24:01If the rebels
24:03wanted a war
24:03so badly
24:04they were willing
24:05to open fire
24:06on boats
24:06carrying food
24:07for hungry men,
24:08Lincoln said,
24:09then the blame
24:11would be theirs alone.
24:19It was an ingenious
24:20solution
24:21because now
24:21the Confederates
24:22have to fire
24:23the first shot.
24:24We will not
24:26be the aggressors.
24:27He promised that
24:28in his inaugural address.
24:29You will have
24:30to be the aggressors
24:31and as the aggressors
24:32you will leave us
24:34the moral high ground.
24:36At 4.30 in the morning
24:53on April 12th, 1861,
24:57South Carolina batteries
24:59open fire.
25:00The shelling
25:06went on
25:07for more than
25:0733 hours.
25:10Finally,
25:11the Union soldiers
25:13surrendered.
25:22The rebel flag
25:23now flew over
25:25Fort Sumter.
25:25The American Civil War
25:31had begun.
25:45I, Abraham Lincoln,
25:47President of the United States,
25:49in virtue of the power
25:50in me vested
25:50by the Constitution,
25:52hereby do call forth
25:54the militia
25:54the several states
25:55of the Union
25:56in order to suppress
25:57said rebellious combinations
25:59and to cause the laws
26:01to be duly executed.
26:09Lincoln hoped
26:11the rebellion
26:11would be over soon.
26:14He called upon
26:15the loyal states
26:16to supply
26:1675,000 militiamen.
26:20Each man
26:21would need to serve
26:22just 90 days.
26:24Lincoln was convinced
26:27that the majority
26:28of people
26:29in the Confederate states
26:30really were Unionists
26:31and that they were
26:33being swept out
26:34of the Union
26:34by the passions
26:35of the moment.
26:37Within weeks,
26:39four more southern states
26:40left the Union.
26:41Virginia,
26:42Tennessee,
26:43Arkansas,
26:44North Carolina.
26:46Lincoln now feared
26:47that the slave-holding
26:48border states
26:49of Missouri,
26:50Maryland,
26:51Delaware,
26:51and Kentucky,
26:52the state
26:53where he and Mary
26:54had both been born,
26:55would leave too.
26:58But Lincoln clung
26:59to the hope
26:59that one big Union victory
27:01could still bring
27:02the South to its senses
27:03and end the rebellion.
27:12In the days
27:13immediately following
27:14Fort Sumter,
27:15Washington seemed
27:16like a ghost town.
27:18Hundreds of southern-born clerks
27:20left their jobs
27:20with the federal government
27:21and slipped away
27:23into Confederate Virginia.
27:25Using a spyglass
27:27from the upstairs windows
27:28of the White House,
27:30the Lincolns could see
27:31rebel flags
27:31flying over Alexandria,
27:33just across the Potomac.
27:37A Confederate attack
27:39could come at any time.
27:40A band of nervous civilians
27:47patrolled
27:47the White House grounds.
27:52Washington
27:52was almost defenseless.
27:58Lincoln waited
27:59impatiently
28:00for reinforcements.
28:01But as Union soldiers
28:10attempted to march
28:11through Baltimore
28:11to relieve the capital,
28:14mobs of secessionists
28:15attacked them.
28:17Four soldiers
28:18were killed.
28:23Lincoln paced his office,
28:25muttering,
28:26why don't they come?
28:27Why don't they come?
28:28Rumors of an imminent attack
28:31on the president himself
28:33were kept from Mary
28:34for fear
28:35her nerves
28:36would fail her.
28:50Finally,
28:51on April 25th,
28:53the 7th New York Regiment
28:54marched briskly
28:55past the White House.
28:57The men brought word
28:58that more regiments
28:59were right behind them.
29:05As Lincoln hurried out
29:06to greet them,
29:07they cheered his wife,
29:09who quickly gave way
29:10to tears of relief,
29:11while the president,
29:12one observer wrote,
29:14seemed to smile all over.
29:17Two days later,
29:18to make sure secessionists
29:20could not stand
29:21in the way
29:21of Union troops again,
29:23Lincoln suspended
29:24the writ of habeas corpus.
29:25now American citizens
29:27could be arrested
29:28without knowing
29:29the charges made
29:30against them.
29:32The president argued
29:33that by suspending
29:34one part of the Constitution,
29:36he would save the rest.
29:39Those people,
29:40north or south,
29:41who had thought
29:42Lincoln was a weakling,
29:44were learning
29:44how wrong they had been.
29:46on May 10th,
29:53Mary Lincoln
29:54and three companions
29:55set out
29:56on a shopping expedition
29:57to Philadelphia,
29:58Boston,
29:58and New York.
30:00Shopping had always
30:02helped to soothe
30:02Mary's anxieties,
30:04and her plans
30:05for redoing
30:05the president's house
30:06now consumed her.
30:09Her chief enjoyment,
30:10her sister would later write,
30:12consists in purchasing
30:13and storing.
30:23It was Lincoln
30:24who suggested
30:24that Mary make this trip
30:26to get her away
30:27from the tension
30:28of Washington
30:28and to give her
30:29some sort of joy
30:31back in her own life again.
30:34And it didn't seem
30:35like a very unreasonable
30:36trip at the start.
30:37She needed a new carriage
30:39for them in Washington.
30:40She wanted a new dinner service
30:41for the White House.
30:45She was horrified
30:47to find that reporters
30:48followed her
30:48from store to store,
30:50quizzing sales clerks
30:51about every purchase
30:52she made.
30:59They reported
31:00that she had ordered
31:01costly bedsteads,
31:03carpets,
31:04curtains,
31:05wallpaper,
31:06glassware,
31:06and two sets
31:08of dinnerware
31:08at $1,100 each.
31:16She invited unwittingly
31:18the criticism of the press
31:19by even taking such a trip
31:21in the midst
31:21of such a terrible time.
31:24It is the hour
31:25of self-sacrifice.
31:27It's the hour of death.
31:28It's the time
31:29when the country
31:29is undergoing
31:30this severe struggle.
31:31Newspapers accused her
31:36of tasteless extravagance.
31:39She evidently
31:40has no comprehension,
31:42wrote the Philadelphia
31:42Sunday Dispatch,
31:44that Jeff Davis
31:45will make good
31:45his threat
31:46to occupy
31:46the White House
31:47in July.
31:49The criticism
31:50only made Mary
31:51more anxious
31:52and more eager
31:54to shop.
31:55There would be
31:55more trips,
31:57more purchasing
31:58and storing.
32:01On Sunday morning,
32:11July 21st,
32:12while the Lincolns
32:13attended services
32:13at the New York Avenue
32:15Presbyterian Church,
32:17a great battle
32:18was about to begin
32:19just 25 miles
32:20from Washington,
32:21along Bull Run Creek
32:23in Virginia.
32:25The president
32:27had ordered the action
32:28over the protests
32:29of the Union commander,
32:30who had said
32:31that his men
32:31were not yet ready
32:32for combat.
32:34If they didn't
32:36do battle soon,
32:37Lincoln warned,
32:38their 90-day enlistment
32:39would be up.
32:45As the president
32:46and his family
32:47walked home,
32:48they could just hear
32:49the distant sound
32:50of artillery.
32:52The first dispatches
32:54were encouraging,
32:55a Union victory
32:56Lincoln hoped
32:57might end the war.
32:58the Lincolns
33:05went for a carriage ride.
33:07Then a rider
33:09caught up with them
33:09with an ominous message
33:11from the battlefield.
33:13The tide had turned.
33:20Union troops
33:21were now streaming
33:22back toward Washington
33:23in full retreat.
33:24Soon, the streets
33:28were filled
33:29with ambulances
33:30and stumbling,
33:32weary soldiers.
33:35It was the first
33:36full-scale battle
33:38of the war,
33:39and the Union
33:40had lost.
33:49Lincoln is very surprised,
33:51not just by the defeat,
33:52but by the extent
33:53of the defeat.
33:55I mean,
33:55it was not just
33:56a battlefield defeat,
33:57it was turned
33:57into a rout.
33:59They called this
34:00the Great Skedaddle
34:01as the Union Army
34:03fled from the field.
34:06Lincoln did not
34:07go to bed that night.
34:09He lay on the sofa
34:10in his office instead,
34:12listening to eyewitnesses
34:13describe the disaster.
34:15625 boys dead,
34:19more than 2,000
34:20wounded or missing.
34:22It was now clear
34:24that this war
34:25would take more
34:26than 90 days to win.
34:37The capital
34:38had become
34:38the most heavily
34:39fortified city
34:40on earth,
34:41and the sound
34:42of drums
34:43was everywhere.
34:44A new general
34:50was turning
34:50100,000 untrained
34:52volunteers
34:53into a mighty
34:54disciplined force,
34:56the Army of the Potomac.
35:02His admirers
35:03called him
35:04the young Napoleon.
35:06Lincoln had appointed
35:07General George
35:08Brinton McClellan,
35:10a little man
35:11with impressive credentials,
35:12a 35-year-old
35:14West Poynter
35:15who had studied
35:16tactics in Europe.
35:18He promised
35:19to make short work
35:20of the Confederacy.
35:21I can do it all,
35:23he told the president.
35:25McClellan was a genius.
35:27As a man
35:27who could prepare
35:28an army
35:29to perform
35:31the tasks
35:32he's required
35:33to perform
35:33in wartime,
35:34McClellan
35:35has no peer.
35:40McClellan
35:41had a relationship
35:43with his troops.
35:45There was an affection
35:47and intimacy.
35:49I mean,
35:49McClellan regarded them
35:50as though they were
35:51his sons
35:52and he was their father.
35:54They revered him.
35:57As McClellan prepared
35:59his army for battle,
36:00huge crowds
36:01turned out
36:02to watch him.
36:03The general
36:04had become
36:04enormously popular.
36:08But as summer
36:09turned to fall,
36:10he showed no signs
36:11of moving
36:12against the enemy.
36:15Lincoln wanted action.
36:17The North
36:18needed a victory.
36:22But McClellan
36:23refused to take
36:24his men into battle.
36:26They weren't ready,
36:27he said.
36:28The general insisted
36:29he knew better
36:31than the president.
36:32McClellan thought
36:33of himself
36:34as a man
36:34who was deeply
36:35superior
36:35to the president.
36:37He was a northern
36:38aristocrat,
36:39well-schooled,
36:40well-educated,
36:41spoke a number
36:42of languages.
36:43And he saw Lincoln
36:44as a backwoods,
36:45backwater politician,
36:46crude,
36:47unlettered.
36:48He hated his humor.
36:49He hated the style
36:50of his dress.
36:51They were exact opposites.
36:53And he would have
36:54nothing to do
36:55with Lincoln.
36:56McClellan
36:57even refused
36:58to let the commander-in-chief
36:59in on his plans.
37:01Lincoln,
37:02McClellan wrote his wife,
37:03is nothing more
37:04than a well-meaning baboon,
37:06the original guerrilla.
37:09Aides urged the president
37:10to fire the general.
37:13Lincoln said only
37:14he would gladly
37:15hold McClellan's horse
37:16if it brought victories.
37:21Fall turned to winter.
37:23There were countless parades
37:25and grand reviews,
37:27but there were no victories.
37:28McClellan kept on drilling.
37:46Lincoln worked every day,
37:49from 7 in the morning
37:50to late at night.
37:51He took no holidays,
37:59often failed
37:59to take time to eat.
38:06Mary did her best
38:07to make her distracted
38:08husband's life bearable.
38:10At the start,
38:14Mary was able
38:15to ease his burden slightly.
38:17She would invite
38:18friends of his
38:19to breakfast,
38:19hoping they could distract him
38:21from the problems
38:21of the day.
38:22But as the war progressed,
38:24his willingness
38:25to take these moments
38:26of relaxation diminished.
38:28And Mary really felt
38:29that she had less time
38:30with him than ever before
38:32in their marriage.
38:33In the past,
38:34Lincoln could always
38:35break away
38:35from the law offices
38:36to go home
38:37and comfort Mary
38:38in one of her difficult moments
38:39in a thunderstorm
38:40in one of those times
38:42when she was upset.
38:43But now his workload
38:44was of such great nature
38:46that he could not provide
38:47that comfort
38:48or calmness to her.
38:49And she had a temperament
38:51that depended
38:52upon his calmness
38:53to bring it back
38:54into balance.
38:55She had not calculated
38:57the absorption
38:58of Lincoln
39:00in the affairs of state
39:01and the effect
39:02that that would have
39:02on her.
39:03He was gone
39:04every minute
39:06of every day
39:06and when he was there
39:07he wasn't there
39:08because he was trying
39:09to run a war.
39:16And she felt
39:17alone and abandoned.
39:22I consider myself fortunate
39:24if at 11 o'clock
39:25I once more find myself
39:27in my pleasant room.
39:29And very especially
39:30if my tired
39:31and weary husband
39:32is there
39:33waiting
39:33to receive me.
39:39Back in Springfield
39:41Mary had prided herself
39:42on offering her husband
39:43political advice.
39:46But she did not know
39:47Washington
39:48and he had little time
39:50to listen to her.
39:52Their shared partnership
39:54was something
39:55that I think
39:55had kept them together
39:57even with difficulties
39:58in their marriage.
40:00Now the ground
40:01on which that had rested
40:02is crumbling
40:03little by little.
40:12Mary threw herself
40:13into her campaign
40:14to refurbish
40:15the executive mansion.
40:19She was almost finished now.
40:22The private rooms upstairs
40:23were all done over.
40:24The public rooms
40:28were filled
40:28with splendid
40:29new furnishings
40:30covered in silk
40:32and damask.
40:37In the east room
40:39the vast new
40:40Belgian carpet
40:40looked,
40:41one visitor wrote,
40:43as if the ocean
40:44in gleaming
40:44and transparent ways
40:46were tossing roses
40:47at your feet.
40:48But the bills
40:53had also begun
40:54to arrive.
40:58Mary Lincoln
40:58had overspent
40:59her $20,000 budget
41:01by almost half.
41:06What had begun
41:07as a reasonable project
41:08to make the White House
41:09a more livable,
41:10lovely place
41:11for both her husband
41:12and the country
41:13became an obsessive pursuit.
41:15And as her expenditures
41:17got higher and higher
41:18she needed people
41:19to protect her.
41:21Mary turned
41:22to John Watt,
41:23the White House
41:24head gardener,
41:25for help.
41:26He showed her
41:27how to pad
41:28expense accounts,
41:29even suggested
41:30she quietly
41:31appropriate funds
41:32meant for others
41:33for her own use.
41:36She was desperate
41:37to keep her besieged
41:38husband in the dark,
41:39afraid of how he would react
41:41to a scandal
41:42so close to home.
41:43She's not telling
41:45Lincoln the truth
41:46and she not only lies
41:48about how much
41:48she's spending
41:49but feels compelled
41:50to keep doing it.
41:52She tearfully implored
41:54a friendly government
41:55commissioner
41:56to ask the president
41:57for a supplemental
41:58appropriation
41:59from Congress.
42:01Her husband
42:02would not hear of it.
42:04It can never
42:05have my approval.
42:07It would stink
42:07in the nostrils
42:08of the American people
42:09to have it said
42:10that the president
42:11of the United States
42:12had approved
42:13a bill overrunning
42:15an appropriation
42:15of $20,000
42:16for flub-dubs
42:18for this damned
42:19old house
42:20when the soldiers
42:20cannot have blankets.
42:22The house
42:23was furnished
42:23well enough,
42:24better than anyone
42:25we ever lived in.
42:28Well,
42:29I suppose Mrs. Lincoln
42:31must bear the blame.
42:32Let her bear it.
42:33I swear I won't.
42:35He vowed to pay
42:36the extra costs himself,
42:38but the Republican Congress
42:40eventually came
42:41to his rescue,
42:42burying the surplus
42:43in the next year's
42:44appropriations bill.
42:53I wish they wouldn't
42:54stare at us so,
42:5611-year-old Willie Lincoln
42:57once complained.
42:59Wasn't there ever
43:00a president
43:00who had children?
43:03There was a motto
43:04in the White House
43:05during those years,
43:07let the children
43:07have a good time.
43:08The kids were allowed
43:10to run through the house
43:11into cabinet meetings
43:13at state dinners.
43:14They were present
43:14throwing strawberries around,
43:16and outsiders
43:17could not understand
43:18how the parents
43:20were not keeping
43:20these kids under wrap.
43:24Robert,
43:25the oldest of the Lincoln boys,
43:26was away studying
43:27at Harvard.
43:30His two younger brothers
43:31more than made up
43:32for his absence.
43:34Lincoln called them
43:35My Blessed Fellows.
43:40Can you imagine
43:41anything more exciting
43:43than having troops
43:44stationed in your living room?
43:47Troops who let you
43:48shoot their guns off sometimes?
43:52Tad and Willie
43:53made a soldier doll
43:54from rags,
43:55named him Jack,
43:56sentenced him
43:57to be shot
43:57for falling asleep on duty,
43:59then appealed to the president
44:00for clemency.
44:01The doll Jack
44:02is pardoned
44:03by order of the president,
44:05A. Lincoln.
44:08Tad hanged Jack anyway.
44:10The doll was a traitor
44:11and a spy, he said.
44:13When it came
44:13to the upbringing
44:14of their children,
44:15they both had similar ideas
44:17because they both
44:17had unhappy childhoods
44:19themselves
44:19in very different ways.
44:21Mary, I think,
44:21was a little more
44:22of the disciplinary,
44:23and Lincoln just let them
44:24do as they pleased.
44:25He was infinitely tolerant
44:27of children.
44:28He did not care at all
44:29whether children
44:30were disciplined.
44:30He didn't want children
44:32to be disciplined.
44:33They would scatter papers
44:34and climb on the furniture
44:35and make a mess of things.
44:37Didn't bother Lincoln at all.
44:38He just would keep writing
44:39whatever document
44:41he needed to write.
44:43Tad, as one of his
44:44father's secretaries put it,
44:46was full of merry mischief.
44:48When he opened fire
44:49with a toy cannon
44:50on one of his father's
44:51cabinet meetings,
44:52Lincoln just laughed.
44:54Let him run, he said.
44:56There's time enough yet
44:57for him to learn his letters
44:58and get pokey.
45:00Willie, Tad's older brother,
45:04was more serious.
45:06When Tad smashed a mirror
45:08with his ball,
45:10Willie Lincoln gave him
45:11a lecture.
45:12That mirror does not
45:13belong to Pa, he said.
45:15It belongs to the
45:16United States government.
45:18The child Lincoln was closest to
45:25was Willie.
45:27Willie was the most sensitive,
45:28the most like him,
45:29the most poetic.
45:31And he loved having him around.
45:33He loved having him sit on his lap
45:35and, you know, read to him.
45:40There seemed to be a very deep
45:42connection between Lincoln and Willie.
45:43Willie always seemed,
45:48even as a young kid,
45:49wiser and older than his years.
45:52Everyone said he had
45:52the gentlest, sweetest temperament.
45:55Willie seemed to combine
45:56the best traits
45:57of both of his parents,
45:59having the soul,
46:00the spirit,
46:01the intellect,
46:02and the thoughtfulness
46:03of his father,
46:04but having a certain kind
46:05of natural exuberance
46:07and an ability
46:08to enjoy life
46:09that his mother
46:10at her best had.
46:13Willie, Mary liked to say,
46:15will be the hope
46:16and stay of my old age.
46:30By New Year's Day of 1862,
46:33it had been almost six months
46:34since Lincoln had placed McClellan
46:36at the head of the army.
46:38And the general still refused
46:40to say where or when
46:41he would attack.
46:44While northern newspapers
46:46demanded action,
46:47the south hunkered down.
46:50Time was on their side.
46:53The north had to go
46:54into the south,
46:56conquer all the southern armies,
46:58conquer and hold territory
46:59to win the Civil War.
47:00What the south had to do
47:02is fight a war of attrition.
47:04They had to wear down
47:06the will to fight
47:07of the north.
47:08And that was a much easier task
47:10than what the north faced.
47:14A frustrated Lincoln
47:15borrowed books
47:16on military strategy
47:17from the Library of Congress
47:19and began poring over maps.
47:22He knew nothing about tactics,
47:24but he was determined to learn.
47:26If General McClellan
47:28didn't want to use the army,
47:29he said,
47:30he might borrow it himself.
47:33He said,
47:34I never wanted
47:35to dabble deeply
47:37in military affairs.
47:39I never wanted
47:40to be that kind of president,
47:41but I was forced
47:42in that direction.
47:48Lincoln confided
47:50to an old friend
47:51that we could lose this war,
47:53that there was now
47:54at least the bare possibility
47:56of our being two nations.
48:01The people are impatient.
48:03The bottom is out of the tub.
48:06What shall I do?
48:11Finally,
48:11on January 27, 1862,
48:15the president took matters
48:16into his own hands
48:18and ordered all land
48:19and sea forces
48:20to move against the enemy
48:21on Washington's birthday,
48:23February 22.
48:24I don't care, gentlemen,
48:27what plan you have,
48:28he told his commanders.
48:30All I ask
48:31is for you
48:32just to pitch in.
48:34It was a meaningless
48:35kind of order
48:36from a military point of view.
48:38Clearly,
48:38it couldn't be done,
48:39and indeed,
48:40I don't think Lincoln
48:40expected it to be done,
48:42but it was, in effect,
48:42a quick kick in the pants
48:44to McClellan,
48:45you've got to get going
48:46or somebody else
48:46is going to do it for you,
48:48and that somebody
48:49may have to be me,
48:50president of the United States.
48:54On the evening
49:04of February 5, 1862,
49:07Mary Lincoln organized
49:08a glittering reception
49:10in the East Room.
49:17Her lavish renovation
49:19would at last be on display,
49:21while the Marine Band
49:23entertained with music
49:24specially composed
49:25for the occasion.
49:27The Mary Lincoln Polk.
49:35Mary Lincoln's grand gala levee
49:38was plotted for months
49:39and months and months,
49:41and it was such a grand party
49:43that it was the kind
49:44that people invented
49:44an excuse to be out of town
49:46if they weren't invited.
49:50On the table
49:51were models
49:53out of spun sugar
49:55of Fort Pickens
49:56and another one
49:57of the Ship of State,
49:58and then over here
49:59was the terrapin,
50:01and over there
50:02was the turkey,
50:03and there was the ham,
50:04and there were the shrimps,
50:05and there were the oysters.
50:06Mary herself appeared
50:19in a white satin dress
50:21with a neckline so low
50:23that her admiring husband
50:25asked her if some
50:26of what he called its tail
50:27shouldn't be sewn to the top.
50:29She had hoped
50:35that this splendid evening
50:36would finally make her
50:37not only the first lady
50:39of the land,
50:40but the queen
50:40of Washington society as well.
50:45The reception
50:46had glittering men and women,
50:48fine dining.
50:51It was the moment of triumph
50:52that Mary had so yearned to find.
50:55This would be her crowning glory.
50:59The festivities went on
51:03till three in the morning.
51:06One newspaper called the ball
51:08a brilliant success.
51:10Primarily, we must remark
51:12the exquisite taste
51:13with which the White House
51:15has been refitted
51:15under Mrs. L's directions.
51:18Mrs. L possesses as rare a beauty
51:21as the Empress of the French.
51:26But Mary and the president
51:28spent much of that evening
51:30upstairs in 11-year-old
51:32Willie Lincoln's bedroom.
51:35Their son was ill
51:36with what the doctors called
51:38bilious fever, typhoid.
51:45During the days and nights
51:47that followed,
51:48Mary never left Willie's side.
51:53As she nursed him,
51:55some newspapers savaged her
51:56for having entertained
51:57so lavishly in the midst of war.
52:01Disgraceful frivolity,
52:02hilarity, and gluttony,
52:04said one.
52:06Another charged that the evening
52:07had been worthy of a woman
52:09whose sympathies are with slavery
52:11and with those who are waging war.
52:16All the while,
52:17her son grew weaker.
52:18At five in the afternoon
52:23on February 20th,
52:26Willie Lincoln died.
52:43The president lifted the cover
52:45from the face of his child
52:47a friend remembered
52:48and gazed at it long
52:50and earnestly,
52:52murmuring,
52:52it is hard,
52:55hard to have him die.
52:59Willie, he said,
53:01was too good for this world.
53:05But then we loved himself.
53:07Mary Lincoln did not attend
53:23her boy's burial.
53:28As Lincoln rode with Robert
53:30through a fierce storm
53:31to the cemetery,
53:33she remained in bed,
53:35inconsolable,
53:36weeping so steadily,
53:39she sometimes suffered convulsions.
53:44A nurse was in constant attendance.
53:48Mary refused to see visitors,
53:51could not answer
53:51the letters of sympathy
53:52pouring in from all over the country.
53:56She couldn't bear even to hear
53:58the mention of Willie's name.
54:00She couldn't enter his room.
54:02Tad was sick with the same disease,
54:04although a milder case.
54:06For days and days and days,
54:07she couldn't even bear
54:08to face Tad.
54:14Willie's toys were given away.
54:17Even flowers he had liked
54:19were barred from the White House.
54:21His mother could not bring herself
54:23to look at them.
54:24Mary would not leave her room
54:34for nearly a month.
54:36All the old fears
54:37that had haunted her life
54:38reasserted themselves.
54:41Her mother,
54:43her father,
54:44her son Eddie,
54:45now Willie.
54:47Those she loved best
54:49would be snatched from her.
54:50And this time,
54:53she saw it
54:54as a punishment from God.
55:01I had become
55:02so wrapped up in the world,
55:04so devoted
55:04to our own political advancement,
55:07that I thought
55:07of little else besides.
55:12Our Heavenly Father
55:13sees fit to visit us
55:14at such times
55:15for our worldliness.
55:16how small
55:20and insignificant
55:21all worldly honors are
55:23when we are thus
55:24so severely tried.
55:36Lincoln, too,
55:37was distraught.
55:38I never saw a man
55:44so bowed down
55:45with grief,
55:46a friend said.
55:49But unlike Mary,
55:50Lincoln did not collapse.
55:53He did not have the time.
55:56Though devastated
55:58by his own tragedy,
56:00he would never lose sight
56:01of the greater tragedy
56:02that gripped
56:03the whole country.
56:05It's a civil war,
56:06and the central
56:08emotional experience
56:09of the country
56:10is that of loss.
56:12That touched him directly
56:13in February 1862
56:15with the death of Willie,
56:16his favorite child dying.
56:18But he also felt
56:20everybody else's suffering,
56:22and he found the means
56:24of giving that personal
56:26and collective suffering
56:28some kind of voice
56:30and meaning
56:30in his role as leader.
56:32much of the time
56:37from now on,
56:38as the president labored
56:39to restore
56:40the shattered union,
56:42the woman he loved
56:44would be just one more
56:46of the many burdens
56:47he had to bear.
56:53As the war went on,
56:56Mary would retreat
56:57more and more
56:58into herself,
56:58while Lincoln
57:01would somehow
57:02find the strength
57:03to merge his own grief
57:05with the grief
57:06of his countrymen.
57:07The briefvis Session
57:09of the form of the
57:09inek
57:11of his affairs
57:13of having
57:14theましょう
57:14of his unfree
57:14in Fidelity
57:15and his faith
57:16and ark
57:16and his name
57:17and his name
57:17will not пsell
57:17to latch
57:18his friend
57:18to basically
57:19his mother.
57:21But he'll be
57:21going to
57:22that way
57:23if he wants
57:23to know
57:25the details
57:25of maybe
57:26or him
57:26to announce
57:27the answers
57:27and then
57:28why
57:28do not
57:29%uh
57:33of the
57:33thing
57:35or
57:35you
57:35I
57:35can
57:36for