The Illinois state capital, Springfield, Illinois, spreads out from a neat, leafy downtown grid, 320 kilometers south of Chicago. Abraham Lincoln honed his legal and political skills here, and tourists flock to his old homes, haunts and final resting place. What they find is neither tacky nor pompous. The sites portray the life of the sixteenth president of the USA and, as well, the uncertainty and turmoil of a nation on the brink of civil war.