Lincoln Abraham - The hour of peril: [the secret plot to murder Lincoln before the Civil War]

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For Sam and Jack,

Rebellious Sons of Maryland

CONTENTS

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

PART THREE:

In the hour of the nations peril, he conducted Abraham Lincoln safely through the ranks of treason to the scene of his first inauguration as President.

Inscription on the grave of Allan Pinkerton

It is perfectly manifest that there was no conspiracyno conspiracy of a hundred, of fifty, of twenty, of three; no definite purpose in the heart of even one man to murder Mr. Lincoln in Baltimore.

WARD H. LAMON, Lincolns friend and self-appointed bodyguard

AUTHORS NOTE

In the following pages, I have standardized some of the eccentric spellings and capitalizations found in the source materials, and replaced the initials and code names used in Allan Pinkertons records with the real names, when known, of the operatives concerned. Also, in that more genteel time, Pinkertons operatives refrained from using profanity, employing discreet elliptical devices to obscure offending phrases. Recognizing that at least some contemporary readers will be familiar with these phrases and may find the device distracting, I have restored the original intent.

INTRODUCTION

LONG, NARROW BOXES

THIS TRIP OF OURS has been very laborious and exciting, the young poet wrote to a friend back home in Illinois. I have had no time to think calmly since we left Springfield. There is one reason why I write tonight. Tomorrow we enter slave territory. Saturday evening, according to our arrangements, we will be in Washington. There may be trouble in Baltimore. If so, we will not go to Washington, unless in long, narrow boxes. The telegram will inform you of the result, long before this letter reaches you.

A special ticket issued for Abraham Lincolns inaugural train. Courtesy of the Alfred Whital Stern Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress

Twenty-two-year-old John Milton Hay had ample cause for worry as he set down these words in February 1861. He had signed on as a personal secretary to Abraham Lincoln just a few days earlier, on the eve of Lincolns inauguration as president of the United States. For several weeks, Lincoln had faced a mounting threat of assassination on his journey to the capital, culminating in a clear and well-considered murder plot to be carried out at a whistle-stop appearance in Baltimore. Over a period of thirteen days, as the president-elect traveled by train from Springfield to Washington, a makeshift, self-appointed security detail raced to uncover hard evidence of the looming peril, in the hope of persuading Lincoln to adopt necessary and urgent measures before placing himself in harms way.

Leading the effort was the detective Allan Pinkerton, whose fame as a fierce and incorruptible lawman was sweeping through Americas cities and out to the expanding edges of the frontier. Pinkerton and his agents were becoming legendary for their relentless, single-minded pursuit of lawbreakers, whose photographs were cataloged in a famous rogues gallery at their Chicago headquarters. The dramatic Pinkerton logowith the motto We Never Sleep coiled beneath the image of a stern, unblinking eyebecame a potent emblem of vigilance, bringing the term private eye into the American lexicon.

In Baltimore, however, Pinkerton would be tested as never before. The detective had built his success on a slow, methodical style of investigationOur operations are necessarily tedious, he once declaredbut the rapidly evolving situation in Baltimore required speed, improvisation, and no small measure of luck. Pinkerton, who had gone to the city to investigate a vague threat against railroad property and equipment, had not expected to uncover an assassination conspiracy. From my reports you will see how accidentally I discovered the plot, he later admitted. I was looking for nothing of the kind, and had certainly not the slightest idea of it. Once on the scent, however, he pursued it with feverish energy, and he soon became convinced that dramatic measures would be needed to spare the president-elects life. By this time, however, the train had already left the station, in every sense of the phrase, as Lincoln made his slow, inexorable progress toward the capital, determined to make a public display of openness and goodwill in the days leading up to his inaugural. Pinkerton now found himself contending not only with the conspirators but also with the intractability of Lincoln and his advisers, who were reluctant to alter their careful plansand invite public scornon the basis of vapory rumors. All imagination, Lincoln declared at one stage. What does anyone want to harm me for?

The stakes were enormous. Had Mr. Lincoln fallen at that time, wrote Pinkerton, it is frightful to think what the consequences might have been. Lincolns election three months earlier had thrown the country into crisis. By the time he set off for Washington, seven states had seceded from the Union. Lincoln hoped to soothe the public mind on his two-thousand-mile inaugural train journey, giving over a hundred speeches, in which he would offer calming words to the North and extend a hand of reconciliation to the South. Over half a million people flocked to see him at railroad depots and trackside watering stops, all of them anxious for a sign that the country would be safe in his hands. The gradual disruption of the Union that dark winter lay like an agony of personal bereavement, wrote one well-wisher. I longed to read in the face of our leader the indications of wisdom and strength that would compel the people to anchor in him and feel safe.

As the train rolled east, however, the warnings of danger grew more insistent. Newspapers throughout the South reported that a large cash bounty was on offer to whomsoever managed to assassinate Lincoln before he took office. There was also a real possibility that the state of Maryland, where Lincolns train would cross below the Mason-Dixon line for the first time, would secede from the Union before he reached the border. If so, Washington would be entirely cut off from the North. As Maryland went, many believed, so went the nation.

In Baltimore, Pinkerton and his detectives were doggedly piecing together details of a murderous compact to be carried out at one of the citys train stations. It had been fully determined that the assassination should take place at the Calvert Street depot, Pinkerton wrote. When the train entered the depot, and Mr. Lincoln attempted to pass through the narrow passage leading to the streets, a party already delegated were to engage in a conflict on the outside, and then the policemen were to rush away to quell the disturbance. At this momentthe police being entirely withdrawnMr. Lincoln would find himself surrounded by a dense, excited and hostile crowd, all hustling and jamming against him, and then the fatal blow was to be struck. As the detective would explain to William Herndon, Lincolns law partner turned biographer, the plot had been audaciously simple and efficient. Excuse me for endeavoring to impress the plan upon you, he wrote. It was a capital one, and much better conceived than the one which finally succeeded four years after in destroying Mr. Lincolns life.