Taylor to Lincoln (1849-1865)

Marked by polar opposites, this hour scrutinizes a fractious era of the presidency--from Taylor to Lincoln--one of the most turbulent in US history, when the volatile issues of states' rights and slavery erupted in civil war. We highlight the rough-hewn style of Zachary Taylor, the second president to die in office, through the compromising weaknesses of Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce (Barbara Pierce Bush's fourth cousin four times removed), the near-treasonous James Buchanan administration, to Abraham Lincoln, savior of the republic to some, destroyer of the nation to others. The episode ends with the first presidential assassination on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when Southern sympathizer and actor John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in the head at Ford's Theater in Washington during a performance of Our American Cousin.