"Abolition house" -- "Getting the hang of the house": Congressman Abraham Lincoln -- "At war with Washington": the abolitionists -- "A western free state man": Lincoln and slavery -- "Is the center nothing?": Lincoln's middle ground -- "Cleaning the devil out of Washington" -- "A wide spread and powerful conspiracy": warnings and threats from Washington -- "The way we skulked into this city": claiming the presidency -- "This big White House": the Lincoln family -- "White and black, all mixed up together": the African American community -- "A swift and terrible retribution": striking the first blows -- "Order out of confusion": preparing for war -- "I was slow to adopt the strong measures": loyalty and disloyalty -- "If I were only a boy I'd march off tomorrow": the tide of sick and wounded -- "An unknown something called freedom" -- "Tinkering experiments": toward emancipation -- "Freedom triumphant in war and peace": emancipation in Washington -- "We must use what tools we have": toward total war -- "On the soil where they were born": the former slaves -- "The step which, at once, shortens the war": the Emancipation Proclamation -- "Defend what is our own": the limits of freedom -- "Never forget what they did here": honoring the fallen -- "Worth more than a victory in the field": the end in sight -- Epilogue: "The country was ready to say amen".