Jackson Speed, that 19th Century reluctant adventurer and unlikely hero, is back with the second installment of his memoirs. It is early in 1861. Abraham Lincoln has been elected president and is currently bound by train from his home in Springfield, Illinois, to his inauguration in Washington, D.C. He has planned stops along the way. The last stop before Washington will be in Baltimore. But in Baltimore waits Cypriano Ferrandini, a sinister Corsican barber who in the hopes of sparking an American Civil War is plotting assassination with his gang of ruffians who call themselves the Blood Tubs. But America's Detective, Allan Pinkerton, has sent Jackson Speed to Baltimore to infiltrate the plotters and bring their plans to ruin. Along the way, Speed will seduce Baltimore's secessionist Belles with abolitionist poetry, fall for Pinkerton's prettiest detective Kate Cherry, and - so long as he doesn't get caught whistling Dixie - Ol' Speedy will save the president elect and foil the Blood Tubs.