Hey everyone, thanks for downloading Episode 32 of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich, and I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. We actually have to start off this episode with an apology.

Yeah, that's right. We or I made a mistake last week, and I made it not once, but twice. I called James Buchanan's Pennsylvania Estate Wheatfield when it was actually Wheatland.

It's kind of funny, because after listening to the episode in its entirety on Monday and catching my mistake, I went back and looked at my notes, and they said Wheatland.

So the only thing I can figure is that with just having been to the battlefield, I still had Gettysburg on the brain and was subconsciously thinking of the Wheatfield hence my mistake.

But just to set the record straight, Buchanan's Pennsylvania Estate in your Lancaster was indeed named Wheatland.

And if y'all ever catch a mistake and want to bring it to our attention, you can contact us on Facebook or through the website or even on Twitter.

Yeah, we were kind of disappointed this past week that we didn't hear from all you Buchanan scholars out there about our mistake.

Our mistake.

Hey, this is a team effort. There's no I in Civil War Tracy.

But that's probably enough about James Buchanan for now, because this promised for this episode, the crisis over Fort Sumpter will still be an ongoing concern, of course.

But our main focus in this show will be President-elect Abraham Lincoln's journey from Illinois to Washington, and then his inauguration as the 16th President of the United States.

When last we left Abraham Lincoln, he was still at home in Springfield, Illinois, besieged by hordes of office seekers each day,

but working diligently behind the scenes to shape the Republican Party's response to the growing secession crisis.

And also working to put together his cabinet, his celebrated team of rivals.

With the new year of 1861 and the escalating secession crisis, more and more of Abraham Lincoln's Springfield neighbors noticed the President-elect almost continually wore a concerned expression now.

He was grave and reflective as if he were constantly carrying a heavy burden around with him.

And well-might Lincoln seemed more care-worn. For on January 9th, South Carolina artillery opened fire on the Star of the West, an unarmed merchant vessel that President Buchanan had sent to reinforce and resupply Major Robert Anderson's command at Fort Sumpter.

On that same day, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, quickly followed by Florida on the 10th, Alabama on the 11th, and then Georgia on January 19th.

Shortly before that widely expected wave of secession kicked off, a Pennsylvania Republican anxious to avert disunion, Congressman James T. Hale had begged Lincoln to reconsider a compromise that would revive and extend the Missouri Compromise line.

But in his reply to Hale, the President-elect reaffirmed his steadfast determination not only to preserve the permanence of the Union, but also to reject any further compromise over the extension of slavery. Lincoln said, quote,

We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance the government shall be broken up unless we surrender to those we have beaten before we take the offices.

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