_Opposition to Mr. Lincoln's Inauguration.--A Plot to Assassinate
him.--The Journey from Springfield._
With the opening of the new year, the political condition evinced
alarming symptoms. As the day of the inauguration of the new President
drew near, the excitement became intense. Loud threats were made that
Mr. Lincoln should never be permitted to take the oath of office, and
the hostility of the South manifested itself in such a manner as to
excite the fears of those who desired the peaceful solution of the
important question of continued union.
The events about to be related have been for a long time shrouded in a
veil of mystery. While many are aware that a plot existed at this time
to assassinate the President-elect upon his contemplated journey to the
capital, but few have any knowledge of the mode by which the conspiracy
was detected, or the means employed to prevent the accomplishment of
that murderous design.
Considerations which affected the personal safety of those who actively
participated in this detection, precluded a disclosure at the time, but
that such a conspiracy existed no doubt can be entertained. Now,
however, that the dark clouds have passed away, and the bright sunshine
of an enduring peace is throwing its beneficent rays over a united
country, the truth may be disclosed, and a desire to peruse a hidden
page of history may now be gratified.
Early in the year 1861 I was at my headquarters in the city of Chicago,
attending to the manifold duties of my profession. I had, of course,
perused the daily journals which contained the reports of doings of the
malcontents of the South, but in common with others, I entertained no
serious fears of an open rebellion, and was disposed to regard the whole
matter as of trivial importance. The same tones had been listened to
before, and although the disunionists had hitherto never taken such
aggressive steps, I was inclined to believe that with the incoming of
the new administration, determined or conciliatory measures would be
adopted, and that secession and rebellion would be either averted or
summarily crushed.
At this time I received a letter from Mr. Samuel H. Felton, the
president of "The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad,"
requesting my presence in Philadelphia upon a matter of great
importance. From his communication it appeared that rumors were afloat
as to the intention of the roughs and secessionists of Maryland to
injure the road of which he was the President. From what had already
been learned, it was feared that their designs were to prevent travel
upon the road either by destroying the ferry-boats which then carried
the trains across the Susquehanna river at Havre de Grace or by
demolishing the railroad bridges over the Gunpowder river and other
streams. This road was the great connecting link between the metropolis
of the country and the capital of the nation, and it was of the utmost
importance that no interruption should be permitted to the free
communication between Washington and the great cities of the North and
West.
This letter at once aroused me to a realization of the danger that
threatened the country, and I determined to render whatever assistance
was in my power towards preventing the successful operation of these
ill-advised and dangerous men.
I lost no time, therefore, in making my arrangements, and soon after
receiving Mr. Felton's communication, in company with four members of my
force was upon the train speeding towards Philadelphia. Upon arriving in
that city, I went directly to the office of Mr. Felton and obtained from
him all the information he possessed of the movements and designs of the
Maryland secessionists. I also had a consultation with Mr. H. F. Kenney,
the superintendent of the road, with reference to a plan of operation
which I proposed, and which was considered would result in obtaining the
information so much to be desired.
I resolved to locate my men at the various towns along the road,
selecting such places where, it was believed, disaffection existed.
With a view, therefore, of acquiring the facts necessary for an
intelligent prosecution of the inquiry, I took passage on one of the
trains of the road, intending to see for myself how affairs stood, and
to distribute my men in such a manner as to me seemed best.
At the city of Wilmington, in Delaware, I found evidences of a great
political excitement, but nothing that indicated a hostile disposition
or which led me to believe that any danger was to be apprehended at this
place. Nothing that savored of organization was apparent, and I was
therefore compelled to look further for the existence of any antagonism
to the railroad or any desire to prevent the running of their trains.
At Perryville I found the same excitable condition of affairs, but
nothing of a more aggressive character than at Wilmington. Men indulged
in fierce arguments, in which both sides were forcibly represented, but
aside from this I discovered no cause for apprehension, and no occasion
for active detective work as yet.
At Havre de Grace, however, the lines were more clearly drawn and the
popular feeling much more bitter. It was at this point that the boats
which carried the trains crossed the Susquehanna river, and where
serious damage might be done to the company, should the ferries be
destroyed. I therefore left one man at this place, with instructions to
become acquainted with such men as he might, on observation, consider
suspicious, and to endeavor to obtain from them, by association, a
knowledge of their intentions.
At Perrymansville, in Maryland, the feeling was considerably more
intense. Under the influence of bad men the secession movement had
gained many supporters and sympathizers. Loud threats were uttered
against the railroad company, and it was boastfully asserted that "no
d--d abolitionist should be allowed to pass through the town alive."
I have always found it a truism that "a barking dog never bites," and
although I had but little fear that these blatant talkers would perform
any dangerous deeds, I considered it best to be fully posted as to their
movements, in order to prevent a catastrophe, if possible.
I accordingly directed Timothy Webster, a daring and discreet man upon
my force, to locate himself at this point, and to carefully note
everything that transpired which had any relation to attempted violence
or a disposition to resort to aggressive measures.
As I neared the city of Baltimore the opposition to the government and
the sympathy with secession was manifestly more intense. At Magnolia,
particularly, I observed a very dangerous feeling, and among men of all
classes the general sentiment was in favor of resistance and force.
Another operative, John Seaford, was accordingly left at this place,
with instructions similar to those which had been given to the others.
I then proceeded on to Baltimore, and there I found the greatest amount
of excitement that I had yet experienced. I took quarters at the Howard
House, and proceeded to inquire closely and carefully into the political
situation. I soon found that the fears of the railroad officials were
not wholly without foundation. The opposition to Mr. Lincoln's
inauguration was most violent and bitter, and a few days' sojourn in
this city convinced me that great danger was to be apprehended, and that
the sentiment of disunion was far more widespread and deeply rooted than
I had before imagined.
The police force of the city was under the control of Marshal George P.
Kane, and was almost entirely composed of men with disunion
proclivities. Their leader was pronouncedly in favor of secession, and
by his orders the broadest license was given to disorderly persons and
to the dissemination of insurrectionary information. This individual was
subsequently arrested, and, after a brief sojourn in Fort McHenry, fled
in 1863 to the more congenial associations of Richmond.
From the knowledge I gained of the situation in Baltimore, I resolved to
establish my headquarters in that city. I accordingly engaged a building
situated on South street, and in a position where I could receive prompt
reports from all quarters of the metropolis. I also sent for an
additional force of men, whom I distributed among the people of all
grades and conditions of life. The building I had selected was admirably
adapted for my purpose, and was so constructed that entrance could be
gained to it from all four sides, through alleyways that led in from
neighboring streets.
Day by day, the reports of my men contained many important revelations
of the designs of the opposition, and as a matter of additional
precaution, I advised Mr. Felton to employ a small number of men to
guard the various bridges and ferries, who could be warned in time to
resist attack should such be made.
The chief opposition seemed to be to the inauguration of President
Lincoln, and the plan of the conspirators was to excite and exasperate
the popular feeling against the President-elect to the utmost, and so
successfully had this been done that a majority of the wealthier
classes, with few exceptions--those in office--and the mob element in
general were in full accord in their desire to prevent the inauguration
from taking place.
On the eleventh day of February, Mr. Lincoln, with a few of his personal
friends, left his quiet home in Springfield to enter upon that
tempestuous political career which eventually carried him to a martyr's
grave. Among the party who accompanied the President were Norman B.
Judd, Esq., Col. Ward H. Lamon, Judge Davis, Col. Sumner, a brave and
impetuous officer, Major Hunter, Capt. John Pope, Col. Ellsworth, whose
heroic death took place shortly afterwards, and John G. Nicolay, the
President's private secretary.
As the President was about leaving his home, the people turned out en
masse to bid him farewell, and to them Mr. Lincoln addressed the
following pathetic words of parting:
"My Friends: No one who has never been placed in a like
position can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the
oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a
quarter of a century I have lived among you, and during all
that time I have received nothing but kindness at your
hands. Here I have lived from youth until now I am an old
man; here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed; here
all my children were born, and here one of them lies buried.
To you, dear friends, I owe all that I have, and all that I
am. All the strange checkered past seems now to crowd upon
my mind. To-day I leave you. I go to assume a task more
difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless
the great God who assisted him shall be with me and aid me,
I must fail; but if the same Omniscient Mind and Almighty
Arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support
me, I shall not fail--I shall succeed. Let us all pray that
the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him I
commend you all. Permit me to ask that with equal sincerity
and faith you will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me.
With these few words I must leave you, for how long I know
not. Friends, one and all, I must bid you an affectionate
farewell."
How touchingly simple and earnest seem these words. A strange and almost
weird presentiment of grief and suffering give his utterances a pathos
that becomes profoundly impressive when linked with subsequent events.
How prophetic too--full of tears and fraught with the prescience of a
future terrible and bloody war--they bear yet an echo like that of the
voice that sounded in the ear of Halleck's dying hero--for surely in
their tones are heard the thanks of millions yet to be. How more than
prophetic they seemed when, four years later, "a funeral train, covered
with the emblems of splendid mourning, rolled into the same city,
bearing a corpse whose obsequies were being celebrated in every part of
the civilized world."
From Springfield the passage was a perfect continuous ovation. Cities
and towns, villages and hamlets, vied with each other in testifying
their devotion to Union and their determination to uphold the chief
magistrate in the great trial before him. Immense crowds surrounded the
stations at which the special train halted, and in the cities of
Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo,
Albany, New York, Trenton, Newark, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, public
demonstrations of an imposing character were given in his honor, and
vast concourses of people assembled to greet him. Everywhere he was
received and honored as the chief of a free people, and in reply to
complimentary addresses which he day by day received, the President
endeavored to utter cheering words, and indicated a disbelief in any
bloody issue of our domestic complications.
On the day prior to the departure of Mr. Lincoln from his home, I
received a letter from the master mechanic of the railroad, of which the
following is an extract:
"I am informed that a son of a distinguished citizen of
Maryland said that he had taken an oath with others to
assassinate Mr. Lincoln before he gets to Washington, and
they may attempt to do it while he is passing over our road.
I think you had better look after this man, if possible.
This information is perfectly reliable. I have nothing more
to say at this time, but will try to see you in a few days."
This communication was confirmatory of reports of an indefinite
character which had reached me prior to this, and the information was
far too important to be disregarded. I determined, therefore, to probe
the matter to the bottom, and obtaining the authority of Mr. Felton for
such action, I immediately set about the discovery of the existence of
the conspiracy and the intention of its organization, and then, if
coolness, courage and skill could save the life of Mr. Lincoln, and
prevent the revolution which would inevitably follow his violent death,
I felt sure of accomplishing it.
My plans were soon perfected, and they were to have several of my men,
together with myself, announced as residents of Charleston and New
Orleans, and by assuming to be secessionists of the most ultra type, to
secure entrance into their secret societies and military organizations,
and thus become possessed of their secret designs. In looking over the
qualifications of the members of my corps I found two men admirably
adapted to the object I had in view. They were both young and both fully
able to assume and successfully carry out the character of a
hot-blooded, fiery secessionist.
One of these men, whom I shall call Joseph Howard, was a young man of
fine personal appearance, and of insinuating manners. He was of French
descent, and in his youth had been carefully educated for a Jesuit
priest, but finding the vocation distasteful to him, he had abandoned
it. Added to his collegiate studies, he possessed the advantage of
extensive foreign travel, and the ability to speak, with great facility,
several foreign languages. He had a thorough knowledge of the South, its
localities, prejudices, customs and leading men, which had been derived
from several years residence in New Orleans and other Southern cities,
and was gifted with the power of adaptation to persons whom they wish to
influence, so popularly attributed to the Jesuits.
Howard was instructed to assume the character of an extreme
secessionist, to obtain quarters at one of the first-class hotels, and
register his name, with residence at New Orleans. This was done because
he was well acquainted with the city, having resided there for a long
time, and was consequently enabled to talk familiarly of prominent
individuals of that city whom he had met.
The other man whom I selected for this important work was Timothy
Webster. He was a man of great physical strength and endurance, skilled
in all athletic sports, and a good shot. Possessed of a strong will and
a courage that knew no fear, he was the very man to operate upon the
middle and lower classes who composed the disunion element.
His subsequent career as a Union spy--one of the most perilous and
thankless positions--and his ignominious death at Richmond, at the hands
of the rebels, have passed into history, but no historian will ever
relate the thousand perils through which he passed in the service of his
country; of his boldness and ingenuity in acquiring information that was
of incalculable value to the Union officers, nor of his wonderful
fertility of invention, which frequently enabled him to escape from
dangers which would have appalled a less brave or less devoted man.
Arrested at last, he was condemned as a spy, and on the thirtieth day of
April, 1862, he was executed in the City of Richmond, by order of
Jefferson Davis. Even then he would have succeeded in effecting a
well-devised plan of escape, had he not been rendered incapable of
movement by reason of a prostrating sickness. His name is unknown to
fame, but fewer hearts beat truer to the Union, and fewer arms performed
more devoted service in its cause, and a record of his daring and
romantic adventures as a Union spy, would certainly equal, if not
surpass, those of the Harvey Birch of Cooper.
It was not long before I received undoubted evidence of the existence of
a systematized organization whose avowed object was to assist the
rebellious States, but which was in reality formed to compass the death
of the President, and thus accomplish the separation of the States. I
learned also that a branch of this conspiracy existed at Perrymansville,
under the guise of a company of cavalry, who met frequently and drilled
regularly. Leaving Harwood to operate in Baltimore with the others, I
dispatched Timothy Webster back to Perrymansville, and in twenty-four
hours thereafter he had enrolled himself as a member of the company, and
was recognized as a hail fellow among his rebel associates.