a question from mel moorer, he asks whose idea was it for lincoln to take the journey to washington in this way? >> well, he had to get there somehow, and trains were already established as the best way to go from west to east, and he had been on trains many times, including a year earlier to do the cooper union speech and the new england states afterwards. so it was almost certainly going to be a train trip, but the route was a little bit up in the air, and as the planning came together in january of 1861, it seems that seward and his political ally thurlough weed of new york state were very involved, and they probably found the railroad guy they found to sort of the create the route and deal with the people in every station and clear the route of trains and that was a guy named william wood who later appeared to be a pretty dangerous member of lincoln's entourage. he later was bribing mary todd lincoln with expensive gifts and seeking favors and may have been in cahoots with people who wanted to harm lincoln. so even with all seward and weed's preparation they found a guy who was kin