The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

by Erik Larson

When Pinkerton urged Lincoln to leave immediately for Washington on a train scheduled to depart Philadelphia in one hour, he rejected the idea. “I didn’t like that,” Lincoln would later tell an early biographer. “I had made engagements to visit Harrisburg and go from there to Baltimore and I resolved to do so. I could not believe there was a plot to murder me.” Lincoln considered the next morning to be particularly important. He had timed his Philadelphia stop to coincide with Washington’s birthday itself. He was scheduled to climb atop a stage in front of Independence Hall and raise the new thirty-four-star American flag. The symbolism was powerful. The flag represented the entire Union, seceded states and all. Only his actual arrival in Washington would have more importance. Meanwhile, in Lincoln’s bedroom at the Continental, Frederick Seward waited, savoring the quiet “that was in such contrast to the bustle outside.”