The Albany Plan

Advocated by Thurlow Weed, proprietor of the Albany Evening Journal, the secret plan calls for excluding people like Salmon P. Chase from the Cabinet and turning Lincoln into a figurehead for Charles Seward. Lincoln hears about it and refuses to be bullied.

The Executive Mansion

Known unofficially as the President's House or the White House, the Executive Mansion is in poor physical condition and badly guarded when Abraham Lincoln first visits as President-elect. The Red Room is shabby and vandalized for souvenirs. Servants are a mixture of black and white. Departing Pres. Buchanan offers his successor a tour, saying that the mansion is smaller than it looks, that its corridor connecting the private rooms and the offices is like the River Styx, and that nothing works upstairs in the ominous, dark living quarters. The oval sitting room above the Blue Room is bleakly furnished and...