How the Civil War Started: Lincoln, Early Battles, and America’s Deadliest Turning Point | The American Story | Ep 16

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Have you seen any dinosaurs? What kind of question is that?

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On August 14th.

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I think that our neighborhood has moved.

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We're in the past.

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Summer ends on Oak Street.

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Run! From producer GJ.

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Abrams and Hathaway, Ewan McGregor.

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We're gonna survive.

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The End of Oak Street, directed by David Robert Mitchell. Rated PG-13, may be inappropriate for children under 13

**Glenn Beck** (0:29)
August 14th, 1867
Baltimore, Maryland, February 18th, 1867 Young man from New Orleans, named Harry Davis, sits across the table from Otis Hillard at a restaurant. The two men became fast friends just a few weeks earlier, bonding quickly over their shared passion for southern white supremacy and their hatred of Abraham Lincoln. Over dinner, Hillard shares thrilling news with Davis. A secretive group of pro-southern revolutionaries that he belongs to plans to kill the president-elect, Lincoln. Hillard looks Davis in the eye and admits that if he is granted the task of pulling the trigger, I would do it willingly. There would be a meeting soon at which the assassination plans would be finalized. Davis insists he must be there. Hillard promises to see what he can do. Two days later, Hillard has more good news for Davis. If he swears a loyalty oath to join the southern patriots, he'll be able to join the meeting.
Inside the drawing room of a secret house that night, a Corsican barber named Cipriano Faradini holds court. He is fiery, he's theatrical, as he addresses the group of 20 or so men.
The cantalike dancing in the frames of his round spectacles, Faradini has Davis step forward, raise his right hand, and swear allegiance to the southern cause. Then, Faradini goes over the details of their plan. Lincoln's travel schedule had been released to the press. His train would pull into Baltimore's Calvert Street Station at 12:30 p.m. February 23rd. Lincoln would have to exit the station for a one-mile carriage ride to the Camden Station, where he would catch his final train to Washington. A large crowd would surge toward the president as he walked through the station. Police officers, many of them southern sympathizers, would be conveniently distracted by a staged fight. In the chaos, an assassin would slip through the crowd, fire on Lincoln, and vanish into the fleeing mob. With a flourish, Faradini, his eyes blazing, holds a long knife over his head, and says, Gentlemen, this hireling Lincoln shall never, never be president.
The room erupts in lusty cheers. Faradini continues, Who should do the deed?

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Who should assume the task of liberating the nation of the foul presence of the abolitionist leader?

**Glenn Beck** (3:09)
The room grows quiet again. Then, Faradini answers his own question. They will each draw a ballot from a box that he's already prepared. Whoever draws the one marked in red is the assassin. But the ballots will remain secret, so no one knows who the assassin is until the final moment. The men take turns stepping forward and pulling a folded slip of paper from the box. Once everyone has a ballot, Faradini reaches in and takes the last one.
The evening is over. The plan is set in motion.
On their way to the saloon, Davis and Hilliard open their ballots. Davis' ballot is blank. His face fails to hide the disappointment. But Hilliard tells him not to worry. He explains that Faradini put eight ballots marked in red to ensure that no matter what, at least one man would pull the trigger.
Later, Davis bids Hilliard good night, and they go their separate ways. And Hilliard goes to his home, and Davis to a large office building on South Street. It was a strange destination for such a late hour, but Davis was desperate to speak with a man he knew would be there. His boss, a detective named Alan Pinkerton. You see, Harry Davis was not a Southern revolutionary. He was an undercover agent with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:45)
This is the American Story, The Beginnings, adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton. Episode 16, How the Civil War Started.

**Glenn Beck** (5:02)
Election Day, November 6, 1860 A lanky lawyer from Illinois sat on a sofa in a Springfield Telegraph office. Arms folded, legs crossed, yawning. Abraham Lincoln had been waiting all night. The Telegraph wires hummed with the numbers that felt more like a verdict on the nation's future. At the center of it all was a man who, on paper at least, seemed like he had no business holding the fate of the nation in his hands. He had run for Senate twice and lost. He had served a single two-year term in the US. House of Representatives. Well, when the wires finally spelled it out, 180 electoral votes. Lincoln stood up, calmly made his way through the throng of people cheering in the streets outside and walked home. There he found his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, fast asleep. He touched her shoulder and when she started to stir, with a half smile cracking his weary face, he said, Mary, we are elected.