All language subtitles for Abraham Lincoln s01e01.The Railsplitter

- The door's locked
from the inside?

- Yes, ma'am.

- Key, please.

My uncle is an invalid, he
requires absolute privacy.

Do you understand?

See to it.

- We'll take a special
overnight train.

I've cleared the tracks and
had the telegraph lanes cut

from here to Baltimore.

These men intend to kill you.

You can't risk being recognized.

- Now

- This is not how I planned
to get to Washington.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

some of you may
have heard of him.

- His story
has been passed down

from one generation to the next.

- Four score and
seven years ago.

- He felt that democracy
in its purest form

is for all people.

- All
persons held as slaves

shall be thence forward
and forever free.

- But there's something
deeper than what he did.

It's about who he was.

- Lincoln grew up in poverty.

- Haven't done anything

to make anyone remember
that I ever lived.

- He's living proof

that Americans can rise
from obscurity to power.

- With that wit and that
charm and that intellect.

- It's better to stay
silent and be thought a fool

than to speak up and
remove all doubt.

- He has this deep
sense of empathy.

- He takes the
Declaration of Independence.

- All men are created equal.

- And turns it into a
nation's moral compass.

- As the country is breaking
apart, there's a turning point

where he's gonna
have to take a stand.

- Charge!

- Blood will be on your hands!

- Blood is already on my hands!

- You have to learn how to
be a Commander in Chief.

- I can't have a
war on two fronts.

- He was willing to admit
he was wrong and to change.

- We can attack immediately.

- He was the right
person at the right time.

- If we let this stand
for one minute longer,

we might as well say
goodbye to the whole thing.

Union, democracy,

all of it.

- Abe, come here.

Hold it steady.

- You think anyone will
know mom is in there?

- God will know.

- We should put a marker,
write her name on it.

- Leave it alone.

- When Lincoln's mother
died, she had said to him,

Abraham, I'm going away from
you now and I shall not return.

Death was a common traveler
during that period of time.

- Lincoln's childhood was hard.

Lincoln's father was a
carpenter some of the time,

farmer some of the time.

He wasn't good at making money.

- Abraham Lincoln
had a hard scrabble,

poverty ridden existence.

- They lived on the frontier

in a one room cabin
that had a dirt floor.

- There were
times when he fell into

an extreme sense of
sadness and melancholy,

that would stay with him
the rest of his life.

- After the
death of his mother,

his father traveled
to civilization

looking for a replacement wife.

And he was left alone
with his older sister

for months and months.

- How the
children survived

that time alone on the
frontier is hard to imagine.

They were foraging for food.

They looked like wild animals.

- In the early 1800s
Lincoln is at the edge of

what is the American frontier.

- It's just six years after
the Louisiana Purchase.

The nation expands all the way
over to the Mississippi River

and parts of the northwestern
and plains areas.

- We can trace

the movement of the
American population

across the continent.

And the Lincoln family is
exemplifying that trend

and they moved
steadily westward.

- Frontier life is dangerous,

and consists of a
lot of hard labor.

Clearing the land,
chopping down trees,

removing tree stumps.

Lincoln is a hard worker,

but he doesn't like
physical labor.

He's not someone
who enjoys farming.

- After a few months,

Lincoln's father
remarried a woman

named Sarah Bush Johnston.

- Hey, there you are.

Come on.

Go on.

- You can read, Abraham?

- Sorry, ma'am.

- It's all right.

- There's plenty
of work out there.

Come on.

- We're used to reading
about evil stepmothers,

Lincoln had a good stepmother.

She brought a little
library of books.

She couldn't even read them
herself, but she had them.

- And she forges an
extraordinary bond with Abraham.

She understood him, she
sympathized with him.

She would encourage
him about reading

and education and ambition.

- He's basically self-taught.

He read some of the best
writing in the English language.

The King James Bible,
Shakespeare, and Greek classics,

and a few other
adventure books thrown in

like Robinson Crusoe.

He was drawing from this
incredibly rich fountain.

- He went to a primitive school
for less than one full year

where he stood out.

One of his friends said,

his ambition soared
beyond all the rest of us.

That while we were playing,

he was reading and
rereading his books.

- The most
impressive thing

about Lincoln's ability
to teach himself

is his mastery of Euclid,
he loved geometry.

- He's reading
about George Washington.

He's reading about
the founding fathers.

- He is reading that all
men are created equal.

It's the most
revolutionary statement

ever articulated by
any founding country.

That is a mindblowing
proposition.

- Where'd you get that?

- I borrowed it
from Mr. Crawford.

- Put it away and get to bed.

I'm gonna need you
to dig out them rocks

first thing tomorrow.

- His father didn't understand

why Abraham chose to read
instead of to work on the farm.

He thought it was
a sign of laziness.

But Abraham had a
different set of ambitions.

Through everything he
read, he began to imagine,

to envision another way of life.

- It rained last night.

- This is worth 75 cents.

- I'll work it off, I
swear, Mr. Crawford.

- Three days working
in my fields.

- This kid
doesn't share the values

of physical labor
with his father.

He yearns to fight his way out

of that daily
struggle for survival.

- Crawford
ought to be ashamed.

- Ouch.
- Stay still.

- Three days work,
nothing to show for it.

- I get to keep the book.

It's mine now.

- But despite the
tension between them,

Abe got his storytelling
talent from his father,

who did have a great
sense of humor.

- So this preacher
starts his sermon

by saying to the congregation,
today I represent the Christ.

Just then this little blue
lizard runs up his pants

and he starts to kick
them pants off.

- A little blue lizard
runs up the preachers leg.

Off come his pants.

The lizard runs under his shirt.

Well, that comes off too.

One little old lady
from the congregation

can't take anymore.

She shouts to the preacher,

who's standing there,
no pants, no shirt on.

If you represent the Christ
I am done with the Bible!

- That yarn of a lie
when your Pa told it,

and it's still a lie.

- It's a mighty good lie though.

- Gentlemen, names
Denton Offutt,

looking for Mr. John Hanks.

- That's me.

- Need some men to
build me a flatboat,

take some barrels
down to New Orleans.

I heard you're a river man.

- New Orleans?

- I can't be gone that long,
got a family to tend to.

- I'll pay you a decent wage.

- Well, I could go
for you, Mr. Offutt.

I made a trip to New Orleans

with cousin John here
a couple years back.

- This ain't a job
for a jokester.

Serious work.

I'll take the group of ya.

- Whaddya say?

John, this could be my chance.

- All right.

- Got a deal then, huh?

- Thank you, Mr. Offutt.

-Pleasure sir.

- He could read about
other people's adventures,

but now this was an
adventure of his own.

He begins to create
that wider world

that he's dreamed of
since he was a little kid.

- He took his flatboat journey
down the Mississippi River

to New Orleans and there
he saw the big city.

He saw what a new
world might look like

beyond the remote farm.

- And during the
course of that visit,

he saw more than
he had ever seen.

New Orleans was the
largest slave trading port

in the United States.

- He saw human beings
with hearts and minds

being sold like chattel,
like animals, like furniture.

And it left a lasting and
haunting impression on him.

- When he comes back home,

there was a law in
Illinois at the time

that you had to give
your wages to your father

until you reached the age
of majority, which was 21.

He's now 21, so he can
strike out on his own.

Offutt offers him a job to be
a clerk in his general store.

- You'll be back by winter.

- I'm gonna be a clerk
now, in a new store.

- Stores go under every day.

- So do farmers.

I'm gonna keep
studying, be ready.

- You'll do fine.

- Bye, Pa.

Abraham Lincoln, I'm
running for state assembly.

I'm newly arrived, it's
not certain I will succeed.

You know, I heard
a fella say once,

it's better to stay silent
and be thought a fool

than to speak up and
remove all doubt.

I would like to dance
with you in the worst way.

- I'm not like other
ladies, Mr. Lincoln.

It might not have been
wise to make that speech.

- I'm afraid this might
be my one and only term.

- There's not a
nation on this earth

guilty of practices more
shocking and bloody.

- Gonna be a big
argument in this country.

I intend to be ready for it.

- Lincoln.
- Mr. Douglas.

Nobody has ever looked
at my lean, lank face

and expected me to be president.

- That's Lincoln?

- Let us have faith
that right makes might.

- Four votes for Mr. Lincoln.

- Yes!

- How long can
Sumter hold out for?

- Wait for- - You
must send more ships.

- I say we withdraw.

- Fire!

- That your new man?

- Yeah, that's Lincoln.

- That's
an illegal hold!

- I've never seen
Armstrong lose.

How long they been at it?

- About an hour.

- Armstrong, preventing
this will fail.

- It ain't over til I win.

- Call it a draw.

Then we both win.

- It's a draw.

- New Salem was a tough town.

There was a gang led by a
tough guy named Jack Armstrong.

Newcomers had to prove
themselves or be on the outs.

- New Salem itself is
yet another one of these

just emerging frontier towns.

It's very small, just
a few hundred people.

- But for Lincoln, it seems
like a bustling metropolis.

There's a post office,
there's three general stores,

there's a blacksmith's shop.

- It had an
intellectual community,

it had a little
debating society,

it had a teacher who
loaned him books.

- He's demonstrated
his physical prowess.

He's a hard worker.

He's also known for
his intelligence.

- And he will have the
funniest stories to tell.

He will have you and
your friends in stitches.

- And Lincoln has to
learn how to hustle.

He's a store owner, he's a
land surveyor, a shopkeeper.

- Eventually Lincoln became
a grocer and he sold whiskey.

He also becomes the
village postmaster,

and that's where he first
got news beyond Illinois.

Reading about issues far
beyond his limited sphere.

- Everybody would
come to the store,

they'd debate issues, they'd
stay around and talk politics.

- He was always
interested in politics.

He loved politics.

- In little towns
like New Salem,

politicians running for office
would come on Saturdays.

And gives speeches.

- Illinois needs railroads.

You got a railroad, you can
get your goods to market.

Y'all elect me to state assembly

and I swear I'll bring
the railroad right

here to New Salem.

- No, you won't.
- I beg your pardon?

Who said that?

- I did.

See, the way I figure it,

if they do build that railroad
it'll be near Springfield.

I saw as much in the paper.

And how far are we
from Springfield?

About what, 20 miles?

That won't do us a lick of good.

See, this fella,
he's right about us

needing to get to market,

but what we need in New
Salem is to widen the river

so the steamships can get here.

Then this town will take off,

like a rabbit in front
of a pack of wolves.

- Well, I could vote for both,
waterway and the railroad.

- I don't think so, mister.

How much that
railroad gonna cost?

A lot, right?

See, this fella, he
might be able to talk

the hind leg off a donkey,

but if they build that railroad,

there won't be a dime left
of tax money for our river.

Then we'll just be like the,
like the runt of the litter,

left behind squinting for a
meal when there's nothing left.

- Tell 'em Abe.

- There was something about
the way Lincoln spoke.

He was able to
translate complex issues

into something simple,

terms of the daily
life of the people.

Within eight months of
his being in New Salem,

the residents wanted him to
run for the state legislature.

- At the time we have
a two party system

with the Democrats
and the Whigs.

And the Whig Party
was most interested in

infrastructure that would
help the country grow.

- Lincoln very much defines
himself initially as a Whig.

An ardent advocate for
the federal government

taking a particularly
active role

in promoting improved
railroads or turnpike networks,

and navigable rivers.

- in Lincoln's day, if you
wanted to run for office,

you simply put out a handbill

telling what your promises
were and what you stood for.

So at 23 years old he
writes this handbill

and it's an
extraordinary document.

First of all, most politicians
put out a short document.

His is 2,000 words long,
and it's very personal.

It starts saying, every man
has his peculiar ambition.

Mine is to be esteemed
by my fellow man.

And what he means by that is
to accomplish something worthy

so my story will be told.

- In that same time, he
talks about how he grew up.

I was born, I've ever remained

in the most humble
walks of life.

If you elect me, I'm still
gonna be this humble guy.

I'm not gonna become
somebody different.

- And then he
says, I promise you,

I will do everything I can to
make my promises come true.

- He's a young man
on the make, right?

And then he wasn't
shy about it either.

Lincoln seems to emerge
out of the roughness

and ambition and the hunger

of what was certainly
a very young country.

He had pulled himself
out of poverty.

There was no shame in
saying, I want to be famous.

He's unembarrassed
about forging alliances

with people who can help him.

He wants to make
people like him.

He is a politician.

- I'm from New Salem,
Abraham Lincoln.

I'm running for state assembly.

I'll tell you what, if I can
toss this thing past yours,

you take a look at this?

It'll tell you where I stand.

- Hell, you toss this
ball farther than me,

I'll vote for you.

- All right.

What about you boys?
- You get all our votes.

- In 1834 Abraham
Lincoln is elected

to the Illinois state
legislature as a Whig,

a new political
party established

by United States
Senator, Henry Clay,

to promote infrastructure, a
national bank, and tariffs.

And he becomes one of the
Long Nine of Sangamon County,

- The Long Nine were a
group of Whig legislators,

including Lincoln,
who got their name

because they were all
over six feet tall.

They advocated for
internal improvements

for the state of Illinois,

that they wanted to
move the state Capitol

from the sleepy little
town of Vandalia

to Springfield, Illinois.

- We gotta move the capital
from Vandalia to Springfield.

- But the Democrats will do
whatever they can to stop us.

They're already trying to
redraw Sangamon County lines.

That means two
less seats for us.

- We want the capital
in Springfield,

in Sangamon, in our county.

Why?

- Because there's value
to having the power

in our own backyard.

- So, if it's valuable,
shouldn't there

be a cost for it?

There's a spending
bill coming up, right?

- Right.

- What if we tack
on an amendment

that says whatever
city gets the capital

will have to pay the state
of fee for that privilege.

A large fee, $50,000.

Vandalia could
never afford that.

But Sangamon could.

That's what I'm thinking.

- Lincoln was immediately
perceived as different, unique,

wily and smart.

Taller than everyone else,
funnier than everyone else,

stronger than everyone else.

He was a magnetic person.

He was always making friends
and they gravitated to him.

And he meets John T.
Stewart who advises him

that he should study the law.

- He had to study it
all on his own, however.

He would have to borrow
books from John Stewart,

who was 20 miles away.

He'd have to walk those
20 miles, borrow the book,

come back, read the
book, return the book,

and then get another one.

But he passed the bar.

- He's now on his way,
he's taken another step.

He's gonna be around people
who make things happen.

- He would in fact,
serve four terms

in the Illinois
state legislature.

And with each term, his profile
and his prestige would grow.

He promotes roads,
he promotes canals.

- The American economy
is transforming

in the early decades
of the 19th century.

The transportation
revolution is so crucial

to moving goods and people,

factories which are using
new steam technology

makes cotton profitable in
a way that it hadn't been.

Makes it the boom crop.

Changes the Southern economy,

where slave based agriculture
becomes enormously profitable.

- The entire United States
benefits from slavery,

even if they want to
argue that they don't.

Northern cotton mills
are reliant upon

the cotton produced by
enslaved laborers in the south.

The insurance industry
in New York City

is where slave holders
bought policies

to protect the bodies of
their enslaved men and women.

Merchants, bankers, the brokers,

the people who extended loans,

they are all tied up in
the institution of slavery.

- It's this global enterprise.

In key areas of the deep south,

you're talking about communities

that are 60 to 70% enslaved.

So the use of
terror and violence

have been the method of control.

- But there
certainly were white northerners

who believed that
slavery is morally wrong.

They are abolitionist.

- And at the heart of
all of these things

is the story of
Abraham Lincoln himself

and his own transformation.

- At the time, Lincoln
was an anti-slavery man.

He didn't like slavery,

but that didn't mean that
he was an abolitionist.

- He thought that eventually
slavery would die away

and rot on the vine.

But as a politician, he had
to be very, very cautious

in expressing his
anti-slavery views.

- Once the capital gets
moved to Springfield,

he arrives in
Springfield on a horse

and two saddlebags with all
of his possessions, that's it.

And he gets an offer to
have a junior partnership

in a law practice with John
Stewart, his fellow legislator.

- He moved to Springfield,
Illinois on April 15th, 1837.

I always find that to be
bizarrely coincidental.

He was 28 years
old when he moved

and he had 28 years more
to live to the very day.

- You can
try it on if you like.

- Oh no, thank you,
I'm only looking.

- Can I help you?

- How much would a bed cost?

Well, I can sell
you one for $17.

- 17.

I see.

Thank you.

Here's the thing, mister.

- Joshua, Joshua Speed.
- Oh, Abraham Lincoln.

I'm newly arrived and I'm
a freshly minted lawyer

and it's not certain
I will succeed.

- Jury's still out, is it?

- Jury hadn't
even been chosen yet.

The thing of it is is I
don't have money for the bed,

not yet.

- Do you have any prospects?

- Yes, I'm partnering
with John Stewart.

He's well-established.

- I've got a room upstairs
with a bed in it, you know,

if you're looking for a share.

Come on, take a look
and see if you like it.

- Yeah.

- These are
the boys, by the way.

- Hi, gentlemen.
- Abe Lincoln.

- The man managing the
store is a young man

named Joshua Speed.

Speed and Lincoln take an almost

instant liking to each other.

The two are about as close
as anyone really gets

to Abraham Lincoln,

who was otherwise a very,
very private person.

- For the next four years,
they lived in the same room,

they slept in the same bed.

There were more people
than beds in those days.

- When business was over
with the store for the day,

in the back room

all the young political,
ambitious types would gather.

- It's there that
he meets Stephen Douglas,

the Little Giant as he's called

because he's short of stature,
but huge in personality.

And as a Democrat, he's
opposed to government support

for infrastructure projects.

- And Douglas
becomes Lincoln's

lifelong political rival.

- And then in 1837,
a sustained recession

hit the state of Illinois.

Up til that point,

Lincoln had been the champion
of infrastructure projects.

- The economy is a disaster

and funding for those
damn improvement bills,

it's as dead as that bear
under your feet, Lincoln.

And if you keep going,

your career will soon
enjoy the same fate.

- A bad economy doesn't
mean that improvements

to roads and waterway
should stop, Douglas.

If anything, they
should be built faster.

- Faster?

Now you've lost me.

- If it's raining, do
you stop building a roof

and stand there getting wet,
or do you build a double quick?

Building faster will bring
back business and trade.

- It doesn't make sense.

- No, it's delusional.

- I made a promise to look out
for the people of Sangamon.

- Well, you wouldn't
be the first politician

to break a promise.

- Or the last.

- I'm telling my Whigs
to vote for more funding.

You should tell your
Democrats to do the same.

It takes a little courage
to do what's right.

- Was it a courageous man
who digs his own grave?

Or just a fool.

- You know, I heard
a fella say once,

it's better to stay silent
and be thought a fool

than to speak up and
remove all doubt.

- Spin all the country
wisdom you like, Lincoln.

It won't make you right.

- You planning on pouring that?

- Thank you.

- I didn't expect to
see you here, Lincoln.

- Oh.

- Mr. Douglas, you haven't
introduced your friend.

- Ms. Mary Todd, this
is Mr. Abraham Lincoln.

- Ms. Todd, I am honored.

- Mr. Lincoln's a stubborn Whig,

determined to drop his
carriage over a cliff

when everyone else has
reigned in their horses.

- Perhaps Mr. Lincoln
sees a road

where you don't, Mr. Douglas.

- Ms. Todd, I would like to
dance with you in the worst way.

- Lincoln had a
great passion for women.

He was very bashful,
he was very shy,

but that didn't mean

that he was not always
thinking about women.

- Mary Todd was the
Belle of the town.

She was beautiful,
she was witty.

She attracted many suitors.

She was actually courted by
Stephen Douglas, among others.

She was educated, she came
from a long line of diplomats,

ambassadors, governors.

She was very
interested in politics.

- She was from a prominent
Whig political family.

Her father was a slave holder,

but he was also a Whig
who knew Henry Clay,

who was Lincoln's
political hero.

- I myself am a great
admirer of Henry Clay.

- Really?

Wow, I didn't think that a
lady like yourself would be-

- Interested in politics?

I hope you'll find I'm not
like other ladies, Mr. Lincoln.

Now tell me,

what is this cliff you're
determined to drive over?

- Lincoln felt an
instant connection to

her and she, to him.

She saw something
in him right away.

- Well, Mr. Lincoln,

you said you wanted to dance
with me in the worst way

and you certainly did.

- Oh, well.
- Don't look so wounded.

It's not your dancing
skills I'm interested in.

- Finally, it seems like
all those pieces of his life

came together to
allow him to rise

beyond the adverse circumstances

of his childhood
on the frontier.

- At the time, like Lincoln,
there's another young man

who was trying to rise up

through education and
literacy to escape.

Frederick Douglass had
been born into slavery,

he was separated from his mother

when he was about a year old.

He was chosen when he was
about eight or nine years old

to go to Baltimore

to be the house servant
for his master's family.

His mistress had never
had a slave before

and didn't know that it
was illegal to teach him

to read and write.

And so out of the
goodness of her heart

she began to teach young
Frederick his ABCs.

- And the more he reads,
it's a fire in his belly.

This is why they don't
want to educate the Negro,

because when we become
aware, when we understand,

we can no longer be enslaved.

- And Frederick
knew that he would one day

make his attempt to escape.

- Fred?

Fred!

- You got the ticket?

- Had to show em my papers
before they'd sell it to me.

Straight through to
Newark, then a ferry.

Listen, that's where you
have to be extra careful.

They slave catches
on the lookout there.

- Anna, I'll be all right.

- You don't know that.

Let me see your
sailor's pass again.

They catch you this time
they gonna sell you south.

- I have to go.

- Douglass was helped by my
great, great, great grandmother,

Anna Murray, who was
the first in her family

to be born free.

She sold a feather bed to
help finance his escape.

She sold the sailors
disguise that he would wear,

and he carried with him
seaman's protection papers

that he had borrowed
from a friend.

- It's dangerous
because there's slave patrols

looking for runaways.

- There were lots
of consequences

for people that
attempted to run away

and that were recaptured.

People would have their feet
cut off, other limbs cut off.

They would have to wear

these grotesque contraptions
around their necks.

- Severe whipping
with a bullwhip,

cutting your Achilles tendon.

You can still work, can't run.

And the ultimate
punishment is death.

- He successfully escaped on
that train and then by boat.

And he would taste
freedom for the first time

in New York City.

Anna would join him two weeks
later and become his wife.

- In Springfield, Abraham and
Mary courted for two years.

But they had kind of
a stormy courtship.

Opposites attract

and they were definitely
opposite in temperament.

He was laconic and laid back,

she was mercurial,
she was temperamental.

But they decided to get married.

- Meanwhile, because of the
sustained recession in Illinois,

the state legislature
can't finish these projects

that Lincoln has promised his
constituents he will deliver.

And he shouldered the blame
and he actually said then

that and that he would not run

for the legislature
the next time.

So it seemed like it was the
end of his political career.

- Abraham and Mary were
supposed to be married

on January 1st, 1841, but
Lincoln got cold feet.

They broke up, he called it
the fatal 1st of January.

- And now he'd
broken two promises.

He broke the promise
to his constituents

and he'd broken his
promise to Mary.

And he said at the time that
the chief gem of his character

was his ability
to keep his word,

and now that he was no longer
confident he could do that,

he wasn't sure he
could do anything.

That's what led him into
this most profound depression

that he had ever suffered.

His friends worried that
he might take his life.

- Joshua's Speed, his roommate,

actually hides all of Lincoln's
knives and razorblades.

- Meanwhile, Joshua
Speed announces

that he's closing up
shop in Springfield

and moving back to Kentucky.

Lincoln loses his
closest friend.

- You're off then?

- What will you do?

- I'll be better or
I'll be dead.

Don't worry, Speed, I won't die.

Haven't done anything

to make anyone remember
that I ever lived.

- Lincoln isn't in
such a state of depression,

he can barely drag
himself out of bed.

- He had been going on
such a high, in a sense,

going from the fields to
political office, a lawyer,

to about to marry a woman
from a very elite family.

And it all comes apart.

- But that drive that he'd had

ever since he was a little kid,
ever since his mother died,

to create something that would
allow his story to be told,

saved him.

He finished his term in
the state legislature.

He went back to his
practice of law.

He and Mary had stayed
apart for an entire year.

And then finally in 1842 friends
brought them back together

and they renewed their
engagement, they got married.

- His ambition provided
the fuel of energy for him

and his aim will next be for
the United States Congress.

He is elected to
Congress as a Whig

and the Whigs were bitterly
critical of the Mexican War.

Mexican War broke out in 1846

and was widely viewed
as the pet project

of democratic president
James Knox Polk.

War with Mexico could
open new territory

for the extension of slavery.

- Going through with
that speech today?

- I am.

- What speech?

- Lincoln wants to put
our president in his place

over the Mexican War.

- I wouldn't do that,
the president's popular.

Don't poke the bear.

- But what if the bear is wrong.

President Polk provoked this war

'cause he wants California
and the whole west

and he wants them
as slave states.

Slave power's got
to be reigned in.

That's the end of it.

- We agree.

But if you make a speech
against the president

before the fighting's even
over, you'll be crucified.

And for what?

- Lincoln makes a
speech in Congress

denouncing President Polk

for a triggering the Mexican
War on false pretenses.

- The war was
incredibly popular.

The United States won
a huge amount of land,

including future
states of California

and New Mexico and Arizona.

So the Democrats use
that against Lincoln

to basically try and paint
him as not being patriotic.

- The speech
backfired on Lincoln

and he suffered for it.

- Can't have been so bad.

- I won't talk about it.

- It might not have been wise
to have made that speech,

but it needed to be said.

Presidents can just go to
war because they want to,

it's outrageous.

- Well

- I'm afraid this might
be my one and only term.

- You'll make other speeches.

I know you will.

- At the end of 1849,
he's a lame duck,

he comes back to
Springfield, Illinois,

very dispirited,
he's out of politics.

- He felt like a failure,
he wasn't popular.

He embarrassed himself.

- So he
turns back to the law,

traveling the big eighth
judicial circuit in Illinois.

- He was quite happy
early in his marriage.

They had a nice home on
Jackson Street in Springfield.

He had two children at that
time, Robert and Edward.

- And as Lincoln
is practicing law

and making a
reputation for himself,

the country is increasingly
having to deal with slavery.

- The issue
is dividing the nation.

- The slave holding south

wants to to not only
maintain slavery,

but also be able
to expand it west

into those territories
that have been acquired

through the war with Mexico.

- And then the Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850

says northern states
have an obligation

to return slaves that have fled

from the south into the north.

And the north is up in arms,
they are absolutely livid.

- People are being kidnapped,

bounty hunters are
going into the north

and capturing free people,

whether they've been free
for generations or not,

it just is if you got
a random black person

and I can get to 'em, I can
capture them and take them away.

Lincoln is aware of all this.

- At the same time,

the abolitionists they're
agitating against slavery

through the formation
of societies,

publication of newspapers,

the lecturers that are
going about the country,

whipping folks up
against slavery.

- The most important
abolitionists

are formerly enslaved
men and women.

What better way to
describe slavery

than someone like a
Frederick Douglass.

- After escaping from slavery,

Frederick Douglass wrote
his first autobiography.

It became a bestseller,
made him a household name.

It made him an
instant celebrity,

and he joined the
anti-slavery lecture circuit.

- What to the American
slave is your 4th of July?

I answer, a day
that reveals to him

more than all other
days in the year,

the gross injustice and cruelty

to which he is the
constant victim.

To him, your
celebration is a sham.

Your shouts of liberty and
equality, hollow mockery.

Your sermons and Thanksgivings

with all their religious
parade and solemnity

are to him mere, bombast,
fraud, deception,

impiety and hypocrisy.

A thin veil to cover up crimes

which would disgrace
a nation of savages.

There's not a
nation on this earth

guilty of practices
more shocking and bloody

than are the people
of these United States

at this very hour.

- Gents of the jury, if
it's all right by you,

I'll just remind you of a few
of the facts of this case.

Poor Mr. Fleming,

he almost got burnt in a fire,

and his legs, they were
broken, getting away.

Now, Mr. Fleming, he begged
the doctor to fix him up

and well, my client obliged.

But now Fleming is complaining

that one of his
legs didn't straight

and that it's the
doctor's fault.

And I do, I reckon that's his
right, to complain, I mean.

- Lincoln was an
extraordinarily good lawyer.

When he was in front of a jury,

he sort of was just having
a conversation with them.

- Usually judge David Davis
was the presiding judge.

He became a good
friend of Lincoln's.

- Your honor, may I
perform a demonstration?

This is the bone
of a young chicken.

Pretty flexible.

Probably heal pretty
good if injured.

Now this is the bone of one
that's done some living.

Your honor, may I ask
the plaintiff to stand?

- Stand up.

- Gentlemen of the jury,

I think you'll all agree
that Mr. Fleming here is,

well, he's no spring chicken.

- I ain't none kinda chicken.

- But you are complaining
that you now have a limp

and you want some money for it.

Now, if it were me,

I'd get down on my knees and
thank my heavenly father.

And also this doctor for
legs to stand on at all.

Thank you, judge,
nothing further.

- Lincoln is so good
at persuading a jury,

he's almost imagining
that he's really had

his political game for his life.

It's about as far as
he's likely to get.

- He was very well-respected.

He established the most
successful law practice

in central Illinois.

- Lincoln's able to make a
good living, ride circuit,

and tell tall tales
and tell funny stories.

He's got this self-deprecating
humor and folksy charm

combined with a high intellect.

That's a pretty
potent combination.

- He's reading philosophy,

he's reading history
and literature.

He's growing his mind.

- And then Stephen A. Douglas,

Lincoln's long time rival,

United States,
Senator from Illinois,

introduced a law in 1854

that he thought would end
slavery agitation forever.

And it was called the
Kansas Nebraska Act.

- The Kansas Nebraska Act

says the new territories
of Kansas Nebraska,

when they come into the union

can choose themselves
by popular sovereignty

whether they want to come in

as a free state
or a slave state.

- With this act,

the balance between free
states and enslave states

is going to be
thrown into jeopardy.

Since the Missouri
Compromise of 1820,

northerners thought
slavery will never

be north of the southern
border of Missouri.

Now, potentially there could
be even more slave states

and they will have
even more power.

- And that's just
unacceptable, to Lincoln.

Rather than reduce and
ultimately eliminate

the existence of slavery
in this country over time,

which is how
Lincoln imagined it,

this might allow
slavery's power to grow.

- But he's
out of politics.

He's still on the road
throughout his judicial circuit,

making friends
and telling jokes.

- So we stayed
with this old lady.

Now, this fella',

he loved anything to
do with our revolution

and he venerated any
artifacts he found.

So when he had heard
that this old woman

still had a dress that
she'd worn during that time,

oh, he begged her
to bring it out.

Well, the lady, she takes out
this dusty dress from a trunk

and this fella is so excited

that he oh so
tenderly kisses it.

Well, he old woman
watches this and she says,

mister, if you want
to kiss something old,

why don't you kiss my ass?

It's 16 years older
than that dress.

- Evening edition, the
Kansas Nebraska Act,

they passed it.

- There goes the compromise.
- Good riddance.

- No, Douglas is a fool!

- Let the people decide.

- You're talking rubbish!
- This is a democracy!

- Lincoln
was outraged by this.

- There comes a point for him

when morality and the idea of
the expansion of human dignity

takes the fore.

- Abe?

- Judge, you say that A
is white and B is black.

So, it's color that
dictates that hierarchy?

- Abe, it's five in the morning.

You've been up all night?

- I've got to start
at the beginning

in order to see this
through to the end.

That's what this is
all about, isn't it?

A lighter man having the
right to enslave the darker?

By that rule, you oughta be
slave to the first man you meet

with a fairer skin
than your own.

- That's not all there is
to it, and you know it.

- So it's not just
color that justifies

one man owning another?

- There are other ways a man
might be superior to another.

- You're saying that whites
are intellectually superior?

And so they have a
right to enslave blacks?

Follow that rule and
you're bound to be slave

to the first man you meet
that's smarter than you.

- Well, then I'm your
slave, Abe.

- No.

- Unless you are fool enough

to think you can figure
it all out in one night.

- But it has got
to be figured out.

Can't you see?

This, this Kansas Act,

just opened the door to
slavery in every single state.

Gonna be a big argument
in this country, judge.

I intend to be ready for it.

- Get him!

Get him!

- Call it Bleeding Kansas.

That Kansas Nebraska
Act kicks open

the door to slavery
existing anywhere

and that leads to
serious bloodshed.

- Most settlers want
Kansas to be a free state,

but border ruffians
from Missouri,

which was a slave state, invade
Kansas and steal elections

to try to make it a slave state.

There's a full
fledged war going on.

- For Lincoln, the young lawyer,

there's this series of
events from 1850 through 1860

that are going to sharply shape

his thinking about what's
happening to his country.

- There's the
fugitive slave law,

there's the Kansas Nebraska Act,

there's the Dred Scott decision.

- Dred Scott is an
enslaved man in Missouri

who was taken to a free state,
so he sues for his freedom

on the basis of having
been in a free state.

And this case goes all the way

to the United States
Supreme Court.

- The Dred Scott decision
essentially says that,

black Americans, if they're
enslaved their property, period,

and therefore they don't
have a right to suit.

- The Supreme Court
ruled that black people

had never been and could not be

citizens of the United States.

So blacks have no rights,

which white men are
bound to respect.

- Which leads us to John Brown.

John Brown is an
abolitionist zealot.

He settled in Kansas and he
believes through his faith

that it is his calling and
his purpose in this life

to end the atrocity of
slavery in the United States,

because it's an
antithesis to God.

- John Brown was either
a maniac or a saint.

He was a white man who cared
enough about black freedom

to try to start a revolution.

And in Kansas, John
Brown hacked to death

five pro slavery men.

- Lincoln saw that all
these series of events

divided the country.

It divided every party.

The Whig Party divides
between the anti-slavery Whigs

and the pro-slavery Whigs.

The Democratic Party divides

between the
anti-slavery Democrats

and the pro-slavery Democrats.

The Whig Party eventually
is gonna collapse

as a result of this.

And out of this comes
the New Republican Party.

- This new party,
this Republican Party,

begins in earnest
in the early 1850s

and its platform
isn't anti-slavery,

it's no extension of slavery
into the western territories.

- But there are radical
Republicans who say,

slavery is vile, evil, we
need to get rid of slavery.

- In the late 1850s, the
rhetoric within Congress

was becoming increasingly hot.

Charles Sumner of Massachusetts

was one of the radical wing
of the Republican Party.

He had made a speech called
"The Crime against Kansas"

on the floor of Congress,

where he used very
salacious language

about a US Senator from South
Carolina named Andrew Butler.

- Senator Sumner,

you have impugn the honor of
my cousin, Senator Butler.

- All I've done is told
the world the truth,

that your cousin backs
the hideous Kansas Act

and he has a mistress who
he obeys without question.

An ugly mistress,
whose name is slavery.

- Sumner's carried
out unconscious,

unable to return to the
Senate for three years.

After the caning of Sumner,

in the north there is
a visceral reaction

to an attack right
in the Capitol.

Rallies are formed,

mass numbers of people begin
to join the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, in the
south, however,

Preston Brooks
has become a hero.

People start
carrying canes around

as if they're gonna
attack somebody.

The split between the
north and the south

goes deeper and
deeper and deeper.

- Lincoln's so unsettled
by what's happening

that he decides, I need
to be a part of this.

This is an ambition he
had since he was young

to be a part of something
that was bigger than himself.

- He may have been somewhat
content being a lawyer,

but he obviously still
had the political bug.

He still had the itch.

- Lincoln helped form the
Republican Party in Illinois.

And he becomes the
leading candidate in 1858

for the next Senate run,

running against Stephen Douglas,

who was not only now
already a Senator,

but he's the presumptive
presidential candidate in 1860

for the Democratic Party.

- Lincoln gives an
acceptance speech

and it's the most radical
thing he's ever said.

And his friends,
hearing him rehearse it,

had begged him not to
deliver that speech.

They thought it
would end his career.

- Lincoln's speech
uses a biblical phrase

from the book of Mark, calling
America a house divided.

- He declares, a house
divided shall not stand.

We can't have a nation that's
half slave and half free.

It does mark a turning
point in his mind.

He recognizes that in
his political life,

he's gonna have to
object to slavery

in a way that is tougher
and more controversial.

- Lincoln begins to
campaign through the state

and invites Douglas to a
series of joint debates.

Douglas writes back and says,

I'm under no obligation
to meet jointly with you.

I'm the incumbent Senator,

I'm the most famous politician
in America at this moment.

Why am I going to give you
space on a platform with me?

But Douglas can't resist.

- How you doing, everyone?

Thank you so much
for coming out.

I Appreciate you.

- Douglas comes
in as the champion.

He comes in to train with
a special car decorated.

He comes with servants
and his secretaries.

- Mayor, good to see you.

- And
Lincoln has to walk

from one debate to another.

The reputation of
Lincoln and Douglas

were both on the line here.

- They
literally are setting up

the conflict in the nation.

- Now I've known Lincoln from
when we were both young men,

and no one can compete
with him in wrestling,

or a foot race or on whiskey
in his grocery store.

We served on the state
legislature together.

And then Mr. Lincoln
submerged for a time,

until he reappeared in the
hallowed halls of Congress,

where he distinguished himself

by his opposition to
the war with Mexico.

Taking the side of the common
enemy against his own country.

And he, again, submerged.

He came up again in 1854,

this time in cahoots
with Fred Douglass

and his abolitionist friends,

just in time to create this
black Republican platform.

- That's right,
Douglas, hit him again.

- Lincoln you're two faced!

- If I had two faces you
think I'd be wearing this one?

- This old
rivalry has come to roost.

- Very good, very good.

- Lincoln felt that his
life had been a flat failure

compared to Douglas's.

Douglas had gotten
further than he had,

and now they're running against
each other for the Senate.

- Now, I am no giant
like judge Douglas.

I'm a mere mortal.

No, his ambition, it
far exceeds my own.

His party, they all expect
him to be president one day.

And then they will all reap
the benefits of his greatness.

But nobody has ever looked
at my lean, lank face

and expected me to be president.

- People come to these debates

with all the fervent
love and attention

that they would bring to a
giant sporting event today.

But these were more important

than any sporting
event could have been.

- I am here to talk
about basic principles.

Now, if the Negro is a man,

while then my ancient
faith teaches me

that all men are created equal,

and that there can
be no moral right

in connection with one man
making a slave of another.

- Now let's talk
about principle.

I care more for the great
principle of self government,

the right of the people to rule,

than I do for all the
Negros in Christiandom.

- When a white man governs
himself, that is self-governed.

But when he governed himself

and he also governs another man,

that is more than self
government, there is despotism.

- Mr. Lincoln and his ilk want
Negro equality in all things.

If they get their way,

Negroes and whites will
be permitted to marry.

Negroes will serve on juries.

Negroes will vote.

- During these debates,

Lincoln's not an
abolitionist by any stretch,

but he's inadvertently
making their arguments

as he's looking for logic

in the constitutionality
of all this.

- And he goes way
back to Euclid.

Euclid is very much about
how you prove something

beyond any shadow of a doubt.

And he's working toward crushing
the fallacious arguments

on behalf of slavery.

- But like most
people of the day,

he absolutely fervently believes

that black people are inferior,

and whether they're
enslaved or freed.

- Just because I believe
the Negro should be free,

does not mean that
I want to marry one.

As a nation, we
began by declaring

that all men are created equal.

We now practically read it
all men are created equal,

except Negroes.

Soon it will read, all
men are created equal

except Negroes and
foreigners and Catholics.

Negroes, like many other men,

may not be equal in all things.

But if they are men,

they are entitled to their right

to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.

The real issue, which
will last long after

the tongues of judge
Douglas and I are silent,

is the eternal struggle
between these two principles,

between right and wrong.

- What Lincoln
does so brilliantly

is he takes that core language

of the Declaration
of Independence

and turns it into a
nation's moral compass.

And he couples that
with constitutionality.

And he couples that
with scripture,

he has a really
powerful argument.

- This is where
Lincoln makes his name.

One debate after another.

Everything had prepared him
for the repertoire of talents

that he was able to
show in these debates.

He's telling
stories, he's funny.

He can talk philosophically,
he can talk politically.

- The Lincoln Douglas
debates helped Lincoln,

it raised his profile,
lifted him up a lot.

But he loses the election.

- One of the things about
Lincoln that's amazing

is that he loses a lot,
but the great ones in life

take a loss and they come back.

- Even though he
loses this election,

once again the loss becomes
a platform for him to grow.

Underlying it all is there's
a passion that he has,

a passion for that
cause of antislavery,

which is coming to a head.

- In 1859, John Brown,
who left Kansas.

He and his small band of
people, blacks and whites,

many of them his own children,

went into what was
then Western Virginia

to a town called Harper's Ferry,

which was a federal armory,
to attack the arsenal.

He's trying to organize an
army of interracial folks

to go into the south,
arm the slaves,

and destroy the slave system.

- Those who would not join
him, like Frederick Douglass,

gave him moral support
and gave him funds.

- The
attack was a disaster.

- John Brown was
captured and executed

and he sacrificed
two of his sons.

- In the south there
is an absolute fear

that there are more John
Browns out there lurking.

The thought of a
massive slave rebellion

unhinged white southerners.

And so we start to see
more talks about secession.

Meanwhile, many people in
the north celebrated Brown.

Church bells are tolling.

People thought that
what he had done

was the right thing to do.

Using violence to end slavery

in a way that most
Republican politicians,

including Lincoln,

were not willing to even
consider at this point.

And the reaction to
Brown is so important

in setting up the
election of 1860.

- In 1860, the Republican Party

was only running a second
presidential candidate.

Many Republicans assumed
that the famous New Yorker,

William Henry Seward, would
be the Republican nominee.

- Seward had carried the banner

of the anti-slavery
movement for a decade,

he was a great orator,

and beloved in large
sections of the north.

- But Dred Scott, Kansas
Nebraska Act, John Brown,

all these things have been
ripping the country apart.

Seward was not a candidate

who people saw as could
bring that together.

- So Republican
leaders in the east

began looking around for
other possible alternatives.

- The Young
Men's Republican Union

decides to organize a series
of lectures in New York.

- Lincoln accepted the
invitation immediately.

He was relatively
unknown in the east.

If he can make an
impression there,

then he can leave an
impression nationwide.

The day of the speech he
had his photograph taken

by Matthew Brady.

That's an awareness

that he's making himself
a national figure.

- I'd like to
start by expressing

my sincere gratitude to the

Young Men's Central
Republican Union

for all the work they've
done to publicize-

- By the time
he got to Cooper Union,

even though he's gotten a new
suit, it's badly wrinkled,

his hair was disheveled.

He does look awkward.

- That's Lincoln?

Looks like he slept in a barn.

- Mr. Lincoln, is there
anything you need?

- No, Mr. McCormick.

I reckon if I needed
anything, it's too late now.

- Eminent
citizen of the west,

ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.

- Mister chairman and
citizens of New York.

The facts I will deal with,

the facts I will deal with
tonight are nothing new to you.

If there shall be any novelty,

it may be in the mode

of presenting the
facts and observations.

- Sounds like an
out of tune fiddle.

- Give him a chance.

- Lincoln comes out

with his Indiana hick
accent filling the air.

A man taking notes writes,

this is New York,
this will never do.

- And now if they would listen,
as I suppose they will not,

I would address a few words
to the southern people.

You have a specific and
well understood illusion

to an assumed
constitutional right

to take slaves into
federal territories

and hold them there as property.

But no such right

is specifically written
in the Constitution.

Your purpose then,
plainly stated,

is that you will
destroy the government

unless you be
allowed to construe

and enforce the
Constitution as pleased.

You will rule or
ruin in all events.

- Something happens
around 10 minutes in.

His voice relaxes, its
high pitch tininess melts

into something more
endurable, more bearable.

His eyes begin to flash.

- Wrong as we think slavery is,

we can yet afford to let
it alone where it is.

But can we allow it to spread
into the national territories

and overrun us here
in the free states?

If our sense of
duty forbids this,

then let us stand by our duty,
fearlessly and effectively.

Let us have faith that
right makes might.

And in that faith,
let us to the end,

dare to do our duty
as we understand it.

- Here here!

What do you think
of Lincoln now?

- I appreciate that very much.

I appreciate that very much.

- He
mesmerized this crowd.

- After the Cooper Union speech,
he was all over the media.

If it had been on
the internet today,

it would have gone viral.

- The next morning, every
newspaper in New York City

carried an account
of this speech.

And it's reprinted in Detroit,
in Washington, in Chicago,

even a German language
version of this speech.

- Invitations poured into him

to go on further speeches
all throughout New England.

- You have the 1860
election coming up.

There are some
Republicans who see

this guy in Lincoln
that is fresh,

he's folksy, he's moderate.

- He does seem to not be as
radical as William Seward,

the absolute front
runner or Salmon Chase,

the governor of Ohio.

He's not as conservative
as Edward Bates,

a judge, former
Congressman, from Missouri.

Those are the three main
contenders for the nomination.

So step-by-step, he's
accepting the fact that,

I'm really running for the
president of the United States.

And then he had this
extraordinary team

headed by judge Davis going
to be his representative

at the Republican
National Convention.

And they loved him.

They wanted to do everything
they could for him.

- Now judge, you've got to
make sure that everyone knows

which delegation
they're supposed

to make friends with in Chicago.

- I've drawn up a list for
our people to look after.

- Tell them not to press
too hard or fuss too much.

- We have to make some fuss.

There'll be a lot of
New York men there

pushing hard for Seward.

If he takes it on the
first ballot we're licked.

- He won't.
- He might.

I understand that I'm
not anybody's first love,

but I could be people's second.

If I'm the second biggest
frog in that puddle,

I got a fighting chance to
jump over the biggest one.

- What we've got to do

is get the delegates from
Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio

to go Lincoln.

- Isn't Ohio just
gonna go to Chase?

- Yeah, and Pennsylvania'll
be solid Cameron.

- That's just the first ballot.

They're gonna have to
switch to somebody.

But we're gonna have to
promise them something,

to make it worth their while.

- No.

No, judge.

Don't make any pledges
that will tie me up.

Okay?

I can't be there so you've
got to do as I would do.

- The Republican
National Committee

meets in May, 1860 in Chicago.

- It's a
very exciting thing,

the Republican Party
is feeling its oats.

- The presidential nominee
for the Republican Party,

needs 233 votes to win.

- So while
Lincoln is in Springfield,

he has his friends on
the ground in Chicago,

headed by Judge Davis,
organizing as busily as beavers.

- Order!

Fellow Republicans, please
join your delegations.

- His team knows
that the importance is

to win the battleground states,

Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Indiana.

- We're about to begin
the first ballot.

- I know you're gonna vote
Cameron in the first ballot.

What about Lincoln
in the second?

Can you swing
Pennsylvania our way?

- That's a big ask.

- What's it gonna take?

- What've you got?

- As the first
round of voting goes,

Seward, as expected,
gets the most votes.

- The
extraordinary thing is

that Lincoln comes in second.

- Seward might
have some problems.

He's too radical.

The backdrop of all of this

is we've just dealt with
an execution of John Brown

and the fever around John Brown.

You've got this
relatively new party

talking about holding
slavery where it is,

but you also know that people
who have aligned themselves

with Republicans are
saying, end it now.

- And so the Republican Party
has to make a determination,

principle

electability.

- We're about to begin
the second ballot.

- So, what did Pennsylvania say?

- They want treasury
for Cameron.

- Abe said, make no
pledges, remember?

- Abe's not here.

- So what did you tell them?

- Lincoln is in
Springfield the entire time.

- Mr. Lincoln, good
luck for today.

- I appreciate that, Mr. Hay.

- Don't you have
anything for us?

- All I have is this
message from Judge Davis,

I'm very hopeful,
don't be excited.

Any idea what that means?

- After the second ballot,
Seward gains a few more votes,

Lincoln gains many more

as delegations now
switch to Lincoln.

They call for a third ballot.

- That idea that I would
like to be your second love

if I can't get your first love

means that people who might've
gone for Chase or Bates

now are going for Lincoln.

- That concludes
the third ballot.

And as yet, no candidate
has the majority.

So we will now reconvene.

- So on the final
round of voting,

Lincoln has 231
and a half votes.

All he needs is another
one and a half votes.

- Order.

Order!

The state of Ohio wishes
to change its vote.

Ohio, what is your final vote?

Ohio, give me a vote now,
what is your final vote?

Order!

The state of Ohio wishes
to change its vote.

It wishes to switch four
votes from Mr. Chase

to Mr. Lincoln.

- We've won.

- Send a telegram to
Springfield, straight away!

Yes!

Yes, yes, yes, Lincoln, Lincoln!

- The gentlemen walks
into the theater,

and sets his stovetop
hat down beside him.

Well, he gets so
wrapped up in the drama

that he didn't realize
that old stout woman

come and sit down
right next to him.

Yes?

It's from Chicago.

- Congratulations, sir.

- Mr. Hay, thank you.

Thank you, gentlemen.
- Congratulations.

- Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Wow.

Well, thank you. gentlemen.

If you'll excuse me,

there's a little
woman on Eighth Street

who will be glad
to hear the news.

- Yes she will.

- Lincoln's nomination
shocked people.

They had expected Seward to win,

but this new guy had won.

And there's an excitement
and they rally around him.

- When Lincoln gets the
nomination in May of 1860

in the north, he's
the surprise nominee.

He doesn't have that much
experience running anything.

He's not that well known.

- Frederick Douglass and
other African-Americans

were not too sure of Lincoln.

Just because he was a Republican

doesn't mean that this
man is an abolitionists

or that he's going
to do us any good.

- At the same time,
he's hated in the south,

and it was pretty
clearly a racist hatred.

There were accusations
that he had African blood

or his wife did.

Southern newspapers
call him terrible names,

he's a baboon, he's a gorilla.

He's illiterate, he's a tyrant.

- But going into the
general election,

there's a great possibility
that the Republicans will win,

because the Democratic
Party has split apart.

- There are four candidates
in the election of 1860.

Of course, Lincoln for
the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, the Democratic
Party has split itself

into two factions.

You have John Breckenridge,

who's representing the
white slaveholding south.

You have Stephen Douglas
representing white northerners.

And then you have the Union
Party led by John Bell.

- This is one of the
most exciting elections

in American history
to that point.

- The future of the nation,

the future of the democracy
really seemed at stake.

In Europe during this time,
some experiments in democracy

in France and Germany had failed

and had gone back to being
monarchies and dictatorships.

This great American
experiment in democracy

was so new and so fragile.

- Meanwhile, Lincoln's
at home in Springfield.

It was not considered
proper for a candidate

to really campaign for
himself in those days.

- But during the election,

Matthew Brady's
photograph of Lincoln

was so widely reproduced,
that picture was everywhere.

It was in illustrated
newspapers,

engravings for display,

pins you could
wear on your lapel.

- A few weeks
before the election,

Lincoln's receiving letters
from people and reading them.

And he receives a letter
from an 11 year old girl.

She asked him to grow a beard.

She said that she thought
he would look better

and Lincoln does grow a beard
and it looks good on him.

He's listening to
his constituency.

- The day of the
general election,

he's restless all day long.

He's been so familiar
with disappointment

that he just fears
something bad will happen.

About nine o'clock he and
Judge Davis and the friends

go to the Telegraph office to
hear the returns coming in.

Finally at midnight,

the word comes in

that New York has
gone Republican.

Then the church bells ring,
people gather in the streets.

This new guy had won.

And then he runs
home, as he says,

to tell Mary and famously says,
Mary Mary, we are elected.

Mary always believed
that he had a destiny.

She surely believed in him

at the lowest
moments of his life.

And now his great
moment has arrived.

- But Lincoln, our
most beloved president,

won with the second
worst popular vote.

He only got 39.8% of the
vote, which is very small.

We now get worried if
someone has less than 50%,

he had less than 40%.

In the electoral college he

got more than half, got 180,

but still it was not

a resounding victory.

- Southern states have been
saying, if this man is elected,

we will have no
choice but to secede.

And as soon as he is elected,

South Carolina decided to
have a secession convention

and by December of 1860, they
decide to leave the Union.

- In February of 1861,
seven US states seceded.

The Confederate
government formed

and puts Jefferson Davis
in place as president.

- They're seceding, for one
thing and one thing only,

and that is the preservation
of slavery and its expansion.

Anybody who says its'
states' rights, it's tariffs,

this is nonsense.

You have not read the
articles of secession

that every single
state laid out.

And in every single one of
them they've made very clear

why they are seceding.

And it is to preserve the
institution of slavery

to control that financial
interest forever.

- Lincoln believed
over optimistically,

that there was a way

to get these southern
slave holding states

back in the Union once he
actually got to Washington.

But before he left Illinois,

Lincoln decided to visit his
stepmother one more time.

He had refused to visit his
father on his death bed,

so his father died without
Lincoln seeing him again.

- If it were up to me,

you'd have no part
in being a president.

The way folks talk, I can't
help but worry about you.

- Oh, stop your
worrying, I'll be fine.

Gotta get him a proper stone.

- He'd be proud of you.

- You always see the
best in folks, momma.

We'll see each other
again, I promise.

- On February 11th, 1861,

Lincoln begins the train
journey to Washington D.C.

It would have been nice to
take the shortest route,

but he couldn't go through
Kentucky, the state he was born,

or Virginia, because
it was too dangerous.

He wrote a letter to a friend

that he was worried
he might be lynched.

So he has to go in this very
winding roundabout route

over 1900 miles.

Whenever Lincoln
comes in anywhere,

everybody comes out to see him.

- There's hope, but
there's also this fear.

People would have known

that the southern
states have seceded.

These are difficult times

and there are credible
assassination threats

against Lincoln.

- There was
intelligence of a

massive conspiracy

to try to assassinate him as
he came through Baltimore.

The leader of the plot had
a system of drawing lots,

pieces of paper with
a red dot on them.

And those who got a red dot
would try to kill Lincoln

with guns and
knives and grenades.

But Allen Pinkerton, who
was a railroad detective,

penetrated the conspiracy
with operatives.

- Davis?
- Mr. Pinkerton.

It's all true.

Anyone who picked one with
a red dot is an assassin.

- How many have red dots?

- Eight.

- It's worse than I thought.

- The door's locked
from the inside?

- Yes, ma'am.

- Key, please.

My uncle is an invalid, he
requires absolute privacy.

Do you understand?

- We'll take a special
overnight train.

I've cleared the tracks

and had the telegraph lanes
cut from here to Baltimore.

These men intend to create
a diversion with the police

and stab you to death.

- That's all?

Like Julius Caesar.

- You need to take
this seriously, Abe.

You have fierce enemies.

- If I sneak into the
Capitol with fear,

I'm showing good people
there's reason to fear.

- Sir, the worst thing
that could happen

is you don't make it
to Washington at all.

You can't risk being recognized.

- Take care of it.

- This is my associate,
Mrs. Kate Warne.

- Mr. Lincoln, it's an honor.

- Mrs. Warne, I am far to
plain to pass for your uncle.

- Not at all, sir.

- I take comfort in the idea

that common folk are
the best lookin'.

That's why the lord
made us so many.

Well

this is not how I planned
to get to Washington.

- Lincoln goes from
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

to Philadelphia, to
Baltimore, to Washington

at night in secret
wearing a disguise.

He arrives in Washington,
six A.M., unannounced,

and he was attacked
in the press,

depicted in these crazy
disguises, including kilts,

doing the McLincoln
Highland Fling,

and just ridiculed.

Not a good thing for a president

who was coming to Washington
to exhibit courage.

Frederick Douglass says,

at least now Mr. Lincoln
knows what it's like

to travel on the
Underground Railroad.

- When Lincoln ascends
to the presidency

and he issues his first
inaugural address,

African-Americans are
waiting in anticipation

to see what he's going to say.

Because by this time

seven states have
seceded from the Union

and African-Americans
are thinking,

this is our opportunity.

You know, this is the
time to end slavery.

You got this
Republican who has won,

he's not an abolitionist,

but you've got
enough Republicans

who are ready to move

on these people who are seen
as traitors to the country.

- His first inaugural address

is a moment fraught
with tension.

- There were still

very serious fears
of assassination.

- Fellow citizens of
the United States,

in your hands my dissatisfied
fellow countrymen,

and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of Civil War.

- Lincoln wanted the
speech to be strong

without being threatening,

to try to stem the
tide of secession.

- The government
will not assail you.

You can have no conflict

without yourselves
being the aggressors.

- He says federal forts and
armories would be protected.

And at the same time, he
says, I'm not a threat.

And he promised to enforce
the hated fugitive slave law.

- We are not
enemies, but friends.

We must not be enemies.

Though passion
may have strained,

it must not break our
bonds of affection.

- Lincoln had shown this
speech to William Seward

and Seward made corrections.

And then Seward looked at
the ending of the draft

and it says, it's your choice,
my friends in the south,

will it be peace or a sword?

And Seward says, you
can end it like this.

So Seward writes out
a really good idea.

Lincoln looks at the suggestion

and displaying as much
brilliance as an editor

as he showed as a writer,

he recast Seward's
proposal into poetry.

- The mystic chords of memory,

stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave

to every heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land

will yet swell the
chorus of the Union

when again touched, as
surely they will be,

by the better angels
of our nature.

- This beautifully
crafted final paragraph

steps away from threats
and just says, remember,

we are all part of
the same country

with equally valid
memories of the revolution

that not only gave
us our independence,

but created a new
kind of country.

- But Lincoln was
totally disappointing

to Frederick Douglass and
other black men and women.

Because in that first
inaugural address,

Lincoln talked about the fact
that he had no inclination,

no right, to actually do
anything about slavery,

where it already existed.

- But he's also
telling the south,

he will not permit
an illegal rebellion

to happen without a response.

- Lincoln has an immediate
military problem on his plate.

- When those states
in the south secede,

they take over many of the
federal arsenals and forts.

That leaves the United States

with just a few federal
ports that it keeps,

including Fort Sumter in
Charleston, South Carolina.

- The first day after
his inauguration,

he receives a message from
Major Anderson at Fort Sumter,

telling him that they are
running out of supplies

and unless an expedition
can bring them relief,

they will have to evacuate.

- Lincoln and the federal
government maintained

that all federal property
still belongs to the Union.

- So he meets with his cabinet.

The night Lincoln
won the election

he had made a decision that
will define his presidency

to put each of his
chief three rivals,

Seward and Chase and Bates,

into the top positions
of the cabinet.

William Seward as
Secretary of State.

Salmon Chase, Secretary
of the Treasury,

Edward Bates, Attorney General.

Each one of those
three rivals thought

he should have been president
instead of Abraham Lincoln.

And they think that Lincoln's
rather unremarkable,

but Lincoln realized
the country is in peril.

These are the most able
men in the country.

They each represented a
different point of view,

the moderate,
conservative, and radical.

I need them by my side.

President Lyndon Johnson
might've talked about that issue

in less noble terms.

He liked to say, it's
better to have your enemies

inside the tent pissing out

than outside the
tent pissing in.

- General Scott
says we have no hope

but to surrender Fort Sumter.

- Yes.

And I think he's right.

- But Mr. Seward,
only yesterday,

I gave my solemn vow to hold,
occupy, and possess our forts.

I believe you helped
me craft that passage.

- The situation
has changed, sir.

Fort Sumter can't hold
out, not without supplies.

And the South Carolinians

have made their intentions
more than clear.

I advise withdrawal.

It'll make it seem
like our idea,

not that this a secessionists
have forced us out.

- It seems the most
reasonable course.

- No.

I'd be encouraging
their rebellion.

The country would crumble.

- It's already crumbling.

We need time to
shore it back up.

Wait for cooler heads.

- We must send more ships.

A fleet carrying
reinforcements and long guns.

I'll bet a bombardment will
force them to back off.

- Since when were you
a Navy man, Blair?

I say, we withdraw.

- Mr. President, look where
compromise has gotten us.

We have to crush them now
before they grow stronger.

- I will not be the first
to fire on my country men.

I told them that my speech too.

- That leaves no alternative.

- How long can
Sumter, hold out for?

- General Scott thinks 26 days.

- How many of you
say give up the fort?

- You have to give up the fort,

or we'll bring this
country to war.

- Those weeks of
anticipation before Fort Sumter,

where the hardest weeks for him.

He's still hoping that
maybe there'd be some way

to prevent a war.

- Look.

All the papers want to know

what you're gonna
do about that fort.

- Well, so do I.

- Huh.

You have done a fine job
with this scrapbook, Willie.

- He's thinking, if I
provision Fort Sumter,

it might bring about a war.

If I don't do that,

then maybe we're gonna look like

we're so emboldening the south

that it will make the
secession even more permanent.

There's division in the cabinet
as to what he should do.

- Seward is talking
to South Carolina.

He's having discussions with
the secessionist leaders.

Basically suggesting that
this can be negotiated,

things can be worked out.

And he's doing so without
Lincoln's knowledge or approval.

- If we send troops down south

we'll lose Virginia, Arkansas,
all the border states.

Time is running out.

Abandoning the
fort is inevitable.

We can't let the rebels
humiliate us by overrunning it.

The sooner we leave on
our own, the better.

Now we have a clear cut
majority in agreement,

so it's decided.

- No, it's not decided,
Secretary Seward.

It's not decided
until I decide it.

- Mr. President.

- Now, I reckon that everything

Secretary Seward says is true.

But there are also other
things that are true.

One of them bein' that I'm not
willing to go back on my word

and I'm also not
ready to give up.

The way I see it,

is that surrender would
be ruinous to the Union

by discouraging
the folks at home

and encouraging our adversaries.

And it might get this
illegal confederacy

recognized by foreign powers.

I have talked to a Navy man

who's got a plan to
send supplies by sea

backed by a warship.

And I have decided to do it.

- Lincoln's response
was brief and firm.

That puts Seward pretty
firmly in his place

and it is something
of a tribute to Seward

that he understood that
Lincoln was the boss

and that there was
more to Abraham Lincoln

than he had originally thought.

- Lincoln doesn't
want to create war.

So he tries to, again,
thread the needle on this.

And he says to the
governor of South Carolina,

look, I will just
send food and water.

I won't send one more man,
not one more grain of powder,

not one more bullet
to Fort Sumter.

You couldn't be against someone

getting food or
water, could you?

He puts the
Confederacy in a bind.

If they allow the ship to come
in, the stalemate continues.

If they fire, well then
the Confederacy has fired

the first shot of the war.

- The Confederates decide
to ask Major Anderson

to surrender the fort.

Anderson says, no.

- Fire!

- The Confederates
fire for 36 hours

until finally the
United States flag

is lowered within Fort Sumter.

- Is there any word
on the Powhatan?

I need to know the minute
Fort Sumter's resupplied.

- This is for you.

- We're at war.

- Charge!

- I hope you boys all reenlist.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause I need every
single one of you.

- What can I do for you?

- It's about that army of yours.

Came by to find out when you
were intending to use it again?

- Why don't you leave military
matters to military men?

- This war has nothing
to do with generals.

- The rebels fight
on their own land.

- There's something else too.

- Make this a war for abolition

and we'll drive
Kentucky to the rebels.

It'll lead to
insurrection in the north,

massacre in the streets.

And the rebels will
only fight harder.

Blood will be on your hands.

- Blood is already on my hands!