south say this is what we have been warned against, we'll suck seeld. >> lincoln's next move will determine whether the american experience survived? will he be remembered the greatest president of the united states or the last? previously on "lincoln divided we stand." it is tremendous controversial. >> the kansas/nebraska act, propels lincoln back into politics. he does not want to see slavery expand. >> he begins to speak out the

kansas/nebraska act. republican papers praised him and democrats papers are fearful of this rising man. l lincoln is going to win. >> the moment lincoln is elected, he's confronted with crisis. >> to white southerners, lincoln's election means the greatest of their fears being realized. they are convinced despite all the things lincoln says he wants to create racial equality. lincoln and his family were subjected to a nerving threat that no other president-elect ever faced. >> abraham lincoln says i am going to put a spider in your dumpling you god damn --

>> people have sent -- >> robert lincoln opened this envelope and was unnerved. the situation was required for his father to calm him down. folks in the south using violence to move people into a supporting session. violence creates that sense of triablism and that's what the entire fight is about. it is clear that it could descend into war. >> when abraham lincoln was elected in 1860. there are nearly 4 million enslaved people in the united states. and some counties in the south,

over 70% of the population is enslaved. the booming southern economy relies on their forced labor. >> enslaved people are engaged primarily in cotton production and tobacco production and mixed farming. you are up before dawn. you go out into the fields and you can expect to work until dark. and if it is harvest time, you are going to work 20 hours a day. but, the issue is not the day-to-day labor of enslaved people. it is the lack of ability to control your life the way you would expect a human being to be able to control it. there was a tremendous amount of violence. rapes, murders, fbeatings, none of that compares to what the

real evil of slavery was. that was separation. removing children from their parents. removing husbands from wives. most of those people never saw those folks again. that's about as dehumanizing as you can get. >> the core of the american economy was rural. it was in the south. the core of that economy was enslaved africans. >> slaves as property were worth $3.8 billion. that's more than $100 billion today. >> more than all the banks, railroads and factories put together. let's remember people in the north, benefiting from cotton. new york city was a banking

city. shipping goods to the south and cotton to the rest of the world. >> the north was never the corner stone. it was the corner stone of the southern economy. >> among white southerners, talk of southerner separatism -- they were the hotbed of talking about slave holders. for a long time it was a really fringed marginal position. >> until lincoln's election on november 6th, 1860. his election is an earthquake. even though there were strong signs that lincoln was going to win. it was shocking when he did win. in the south, it is catastrophe. and even though he's not a hard

core abolitionist, the threat of this new party united in the expansion of slavery was threatened enough that it spurred a session. seven southern states before lincoln inaugurated. south carolina. mississippi, florida, alabama, georgia, louisiana, te texas -- they all succeeded from the union. parallel government is forming what's now called the confederate states of america. >> the real question is going to be are his words and policies going to drive other states into the break away confederacy? >> with the nation in crisis, lincoln is in an impossible position. afraid of the union will be his responsibility but until his inauguration in march, the president-elect is powerless.

during the four months between lincoln's election and inauguration, lincoln is terribly frustrated because he sees the states are pulling out from the union and the federal government is not doing anything about it. >> president buchanan says the south had no rights to succeed and unconstitutional but we have no power to do anything about it. >> buchanan's stand was dear god, don't let it happen on my watch. let him deal with it. >> he was frustrated, he does not want to be bound by anybody else's agreement. he does not want anything to tie his hands. all president-elects since washington have not done anything to interfere with the operation of president before he's inaugurated. lincoln is different, he's quiet on the surface but he's writing letters to a network of keys and allies in washington.

he's sending letters to senators and congressmen of who he trusts. >> if there be, all our labor is lost must be gone again. the dangerous ground is popular sovereignty. have none of it and stand firm. the tie has to come and better now than any time hereafter. >> no compromise on my watch. i am on my way. >> this is one of those moments when you realized that humble abraham lincoln as he described himself in his first political message is really secure in his own ability. >> this in-experienced man from illinois in the face of the country tearing itself to pieces. you always have this confidence that he's headed in the right

direction. >> many people came to lincoln after the election and said, you have to say something to conciliate the south. you have to reassure them again that you will not take action against the institutions of slavery in the south. other people said you got to reaffirm that you are anti-slavery so lincoln can decide to say absolutely nothing. >> i think he believed that if he did not do anything, he would be able to return those states that had succeeded from the union without touching slavery. he believed that the country was ind indissolvable and there would be an opportunity to work things out. he held that view longer than he should have.

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as lincoln awaits his inauguration, mary lincoln, awaits a lifelong dream comes true. >> she declares that she was going to marry a president of the united states. >> this is something she has dreamed about for years. mary is in a bit of an oblivious

spot here. >> she's felt this is her destiny. none of the talk of succession is going to inhibit her from putting her best foot forward in washington. in the middle of all this, mary goes on a shopping trip to new york. she uses the period between the election and the inauguration to get her wardrobe ready because her job she thinks is to outfit herself magnificently and to buy the right dishes and jewelry and to buy and buy. >> it is here that mary began to encounter the troubled r reputation that she would later encounter. >> >> mary believes she has a firm grasp as the first lady.

the task of her husband is unprecedented. >> the survival of the union is not just about national survival, it is not just about the institution of slavery, it is about whether democracy, whether given ordinary people a strong voice in governance is a good idea or bad idea? the only nation in the history of the world founded on the idea and not tribalism. k commonly it has been believed that you have to be educated. we are trying to prove to the rest of the world that's not true. we represent an experiment. the stakes are much bigger even

than the united states, it is about whether democracy can succeed and all the smart money on the other side. >> finally on february 11th, 1861. after months of anticipation, the lincolns head to the springfield depot. there they would board the train to washington, d.c. and the worse crisis of america's history. as lincoln departs springfield to bid him farewell. everyone has been told that the presi president-elect is not going to make a farewell speech. this man has said not a public word to anybody since his nomination. but, he begins to speak.

>> lirncoln delivers one of his heartfelt and eloquent addresses. >> here i pass from a young to an old man. here my children have been born and one is buried. i now leave not knowing when or whether i may return where the task before me is greater than which rested upon washington. >> he's able to say in two-minutes something more profound, more touching than anything he had ever said in two hours. >> and that people stand silently in place watching this tall figure recedes to a small dot on the horizon. >> in february 1861, abraham lincoln says good-bye to the

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lincoln, breaks his silence. he stops at cities along the route to defend democracy. >> most americans who saw li lincoln saw him during that 13-day train trip. >> he's seen a growing industrial north. >> just in the last decade, these places gone through a revolution. economically, politically and socially. it is the heart of the country that made him president. >> when he won't see is the south on this trip. the closest he comes to speaking to the south is giving his speech at the banks of the ohio river is saying if they can hear me over there. they can't hear his words of reconciliations. because when he makes his

inaugural journey, there is another journey taken place. jefferson davis is heading to montgomery, alabama. that's a serious sign this is going to be a conflict. >> jefferson davis is chosen to lead the confederacy. >> on february 22nd, 1861, when lincoln was in philadelphia en route to his ninauguration, he spoke outside of independence hall. he said every idea he ever had politically came from the deliberations from those men in that hall. he says rather than default to those ideas, he would rather be as s

assassinated on the spot. on the trip he receives information that a mob in baltimore was going to assassinate him. baltimore was a hotbed of confederate sediment. >> it is the only city which he's scheduled to stop and speak. >> he could get shot, stabbed and kidnapped. it is as terrible situation he said. >> lincoln's adviser begs him to end his speaking tour and get to washington to under cover. >> he says i am going to look like a whimp or a coward. >> what happens next is a combination of secrecy and

mystery. the plot is hatched to have him disguise himself. lincoln is encouraged to get rid of the tall, stoke hat which is already a trademark. he wears a hat as he writes later such as i have never worn before or since. >> he also wears a longo overcoat. he had one body guard to protect him. his old friend from illinois, he had a dagger and pistols and they go to baltimore by train at night. >> in those days there was no continuity of railroad stations.

you would have to switch the tracks. >> get to the north from baltimore to washington, you had to come on one station and cross town and then get to another train on south station. so when they arrived, their train car was pulled by a horse across town on trolley tracks to the next station. >> it is a very eerie moment. >> it is the middle of the night. >> they hear voices and they don't know what's outside.

shortly after dawn, on february 23rd, 1861, lincoln's car is pulled into washington. everyone is surprised that he arrived in this unseemly fashion. the mood is so tense. mr. lincoln, mr. lincoln, is that you? >> he belts him in the chest thinking that he poses a threat and lincoln says oh no, this is my friend. >> the next day, mrs. lincoln was told her husband was taken to baltimore. and she was upset. threats to her husband were something that mary lincoln took seriously and to be forced to

separate from this family. she flies into a rage and screaming oh, i have to be with him. they finally take her in a room and shut the door and lock it. >> once they calm her down, mary lincoln and the boys all take the scheduled train. >> actually she experienced some turmoil in baltimore because of the mob that was going to h harassing her husband was harassing her and the car they were in were rocked and insults. >> the presidential special arrives in washington on time. mary and the boys reunited with lincoln. >> now that she knew her husband was safe and sound, mary immediately sought her business and get ready for the inauguration. >> with his family reunited on

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we are living through a slow motion car crash of the civil war. you saw the storm clouds coming. here is abraham lincoln, new president, with no experience trying to hold together the american experiment be conqueve us by the founding father with a speech. >> on inauguration day, march 4th, 1861, lincoln wakes up early and he rehearses his inaugural address reading it out

loud to his son rob. lincoln liked reading out loud. he liked hearing his words, speeches in advance. the carriage of president buchanan draws up, lincoln enters the carriage. if you are happy on assuming office than i am, i am leaving it you are a happy man indeed. >> there is an ominous air as they proceed all the way down pennsylvania and al l the way u to capitol hill. lincoln is greeted with a huge cheer. he's carrying a cane and his top

hat and a sheave of papers and handwritten notes, rewrites so he puts his cane on top of the papers and then he looks around for a place to put his hat, he had not thought of that. out of the first row comes senator steven douglas, the man he opposed for almost all of his political career, the democrat whom he beaten for president. he'll hold lincoln's hat for him. what a gesture. it is viewed immediately as a gesture of reconciliation, if not between the south and the north then at least between republicans and democrats for now united in hoping that the union survives. then he begins an under rated brilliant speech. apprehensions seem to exist

among the people of the southern states, the republican administration, their property and their peace and personal security august to be endangered. there is never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. >> he lays out what kind of a president he wants to be, his hopes quickly healing this drift that's opened up in the country. >> he makes it clear that a husband and wife may divorce but the states may not. t >> he wants the states that have left to come back. he's firm of sticking with the principles that the republicans have pledged themselves to. >> he says i will not accept the expansion of slavery. but, conciliatory in some ways to the south, he says i will

accept constitutional amendment. congress can't free the slaves in individual states. >> he offers to enforce the fugitive slaves back that requires northerners to return run away slaves to their owners to the south. >> i have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institutions. i believe i have no lawful rights to do so and no inclination to do. >> he made clear that he did not intend to touch slavery in the southern states. which was consistent with the views that he had. >> you can think slavery was wrong. that did not mean you would go out to try to abolish it.

>> the truth is that all the republican and slavery thinkers believe constitutionally slavery was a local institution in the south that was supported within the four corners of the law. they said that in their slogan. freedom national, slavery local. lincoln believed that. for lincoln it was important for him to akct of what he saw as te bounds of presidency and the law. the law was not something we can limit ourselves to in the struggles for freedoms because many of the rights i had today as an african-american man were earned because people broke laws. lincoln thinks if he can thread that needle, if he can officially conciliatory and firm to the south and the republican

party that the seven states succeeded, voluntarily will rejoin the union. the healers wonder of time will solve the problem. then he gets to the end which he struggled with. he wanted to end by saying my fellow country men, the choice is yours, will it be a peace or a sword and leveave it hanging the air. his friends advised him that he can't do that. he ended his speech really brilliantly. >> the mystic core of memory, will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched assurely they will be by the better angels.

mystic cords of memory, you know, just beautiful. he nails the point but he gives you these great phrases. there has been occasional president who wrote well and then there is lincoln. lincoln could have made it as a writer. >> like everything else, the inaugural address is received strictly along party, reegional and racial line. lincoln is balanced and fair and appe appeal to the better angels of our nature. >> southerners think his inaugural was badly written and threatening. >> it did not keep them from succeeding from the union. >> his politics don't get him that fall because they don't please anybody. they don't please the southerners and the about l abolit abolitionists. >> one of lincoln's hardest

critic is frederick douglas. douglas was one of the most prominent leaders in the african-american community. one of the greatest figures of the african movement. >> when lincoln says he was not trying to abolish slavery and all the southern states, that did not appeal to frederick douglas. a lot of times when people celebrate lincoln is a way of saying lincoln is better than the radical republicans, his restraint in really pushing hard for the freedom of african-american people, that was a wide course to avoid a catastrophe. what actually happens is that we went to war.

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>> mary landed in washington amid of rumors of succession and drama over the new confederacy because jefferson davis was being nominated the same month as lincoln. it was not given. >> the washington establish regarded her as rude and a hick and wild person from the prairie. people were talking about the lincolns as if they were hay seeds coming in and ready to have a hoedown from the white house. >> they thought she was unsophisticated and unfit for

the duties. >> when her family comes to look at the white house, they tell her it looks like a third grade hotel. >> it had been occupied for the previous four years. the only bachelor was james buchanan. she decides it would be her job to redecorate. she believes the white house becomes a symbol of that nation and it is not going to be tired. she's not going to live in a place that reflects the uncertainty. >> she was given $20,000 to redecorate the white house. >> with the modern equivalent of more than $600,000, mary is determined to prove her word and ped pedigree. >> she goes to new york and shop

and buys a lot of furniture and drapery. >> she vastly over spends. she was just a shopaholic. she loved fine things. >> the scandal was reaching up to congressional discussion level. her husband had to intervene. >> when the president was told that he's going to have to authorize an appeal to congress to add special appropriation to cove co cover the expenses. i am going to go to congress to ask extra appropriation for this old house. >> this was seen as poor taste of a time of the country gearing up for war. lincoln did not want this to be a political scandal. so, lincoln said he wanted to pay the cost. there was tension between mary

and abraham during this period about appearances. >> despite the lincolns' attempt to keep up appearances, the democratic press maligns them. they pan mary for her frivolous spending. >> on paper lincoln looks as though he's the least qualified person to hold the position. >> he was the first president born outside of the original 13 states. he only had been in congress for 13 months. how can we entrust the nation at this time to someone who so in experienced. >> people lionized lincoln now. >> he's viciously attacked in the newspapers and he's depicted as a man who's afraid and who's

been cowardly, they reduced lincoln to a figure of satire and ridicule. >> he was widely disrespected by his peers. he was seen as someone who slipped into the as a matter of consensus among his fellow republicans not seen as equal to the task. >> but lincoln had always been able to embrace people who had been critical of him. look at his cabinet. >> aware of his shortcomings, abraham lincoln appoints his more experienced former political rivals from both sides of the aisle to the highest positions of his cabinet. he names william seward, the new york senator he beat out for the presidential nomination, secretary of state. ohio senator salman p. chase secretary of the treasury.

and former democrat montgomery blair postmaster general. >> the original lincoln cabinet had different views on how imminently the slavery question had to be tackled. blair of maryland was a conservative. seward was more robustly anti-slavery. salman chase was close to being an abolitionist. so the cabinet divided into left and right. all of them, however, were pro union. >> people who were personally terrible to lincoln he empowered. he gave a position to. because he thought they could serve the country. >> what a crazy idea. these people are smart, so he wanted these people close by. and he wanted to use their disagreements with him to challenge his views. that says to me that this man is very secure that he's the smartest person in the room. >> he knew that there were

things more important than partisan differences and personal differences. he did work across the aisle, engage his enemies constructively, and try to put the country first. you don't have to mythologize that. that's a true thing about this guy that sets him apart from a lot of leaders, especially today. >> while lincoln stacks his cabinet with career politicians, tensions between north and south escalate. one by one the confederacy begins seizing federal military bases across the south. as the last few begin to run out of supplies, the country inches closer to armed confrontation and the fate of the union lies in lincoln's next move. th is looks different. - it is. - show me. just hit record! see that? you're filming in 8k. that's cinema quality. so... you can pull photos straight from video. impressive. but will it last the whole trip?

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in april 1861, three weeks after his inauguration, the mounting tension between the union and the confederacy finally reaches a tipping point. >> the seven states that seceded seized federal mints and custom houses and courthouses and post offices and military facilities in the south. but there were two forts, however, that were hard for the confederates to get at. one was fort sumter. right at the harbor of charleston, south carolina, the very epicenter of secession.

>> the confederates ringed the fort with artillery pointed at it from the shore, and it was extremely vulnerable. and lincoln's cabinet recommended that he let it go. just surrender it. but lincoln says if we accede to the demand that south carolina takes over fort sumter, that in effect means that secession is legal and we can't do that. it's become symbolic. and so lincoln takes a hard line. >> the female that were stationed at fort sumter started to run out of provisions. and so the question was when they ran out of things to eat would the united states government be permitted to bring provisions to the people there, which obviously the south carolinians didn't want to do because they saw the united states now as an enemy. and so there's a standoff. >> so lincoln eventually hits on

this compromise. he will send relief to fort sumter but only food and medical supplies. no soldiers, no weapons, no ammunition, nothing war-like. >> he notifies the governor of south carolina. lincoln says i am sending a fleet down to give bread to starving men. and if you don't bother that relief expedition we won't do anything militarily. however, if you try to interrupt, that we have war ships that will then engage. so it really put the south on the spot. >> and so there's almost certainly an element of strategy involved here. lincoln has said at various points to white southerners, you cannot have war unless you yourselves are its authors. and so lincoln sends the supply boat as a test. >> the confederate government under president jefferson davis sees this for what it is. >> jefferson davis makes it clear that any effort by union ships to cross into confederate territory will be viewed as an act of war.

the only way to assure that the troops on fort sumter do not starve would be to relinquish it to the confederacy. >> the confederate commander in charleston, pierre beauregard, summons the surrender of sumter. federal artilleryman major robert anderson politely replies that under no circumstances whatsoever can he agree to that. so on the 12th of april 1861 confederate artillery opens fire on fort sumter. >> fire! >> as soon as sumter is fired upon the game's up. >> the civil war as we know it begins. and what its end is going to be, now lincoln cannot easily predict. >> nearly 800,000 americans are killed in the civil war, making it the deadliest conflict in u.s. history.

president abraham lincoln is tasked with leading the country through the most perilous time it's ever known. and the choices he makes will determine the future of democracy and the fate of our nation. previously on "lincoln: divided we stand" -- >> on the 12th of april 1861, confederate artillery opens fire on ft. sumter. >> as soon as sumter is fired upon, virginia secedes, and the game's up. >> the civil war as we know it begins. >> lincoln immediately called for 75,000 volunteers. >> there was a hugnt