Throughout his entire life, Abraham Lincoln’s physical courage was as
great and superb as his moral courage. When Mr. Pinkerton and Mr.
Judd urged the President-elect to leave for Washington that night, he
positively refused to do it. He said he had made an engagement to assist
at a flag raising in the forenoon of the next day and to show himself to
the people of Harrisburg in the afternoon, and that he intended to keep
both engagements.
At Philadelphia the Presidential party was met by Mr. Seward’s son,
Frederick, who had been sent to warn Mr. Lincoln of the plot against his
life. Mr. Judd, Mr. Pinkerton and Mr. Lamon figured out a plan to take
Mr. Lincoln through Baltimore between midnight and daybreak, when the
would-be assassins would not be expecting him, and this plan was carried
out so thoroughly that even the conductor on the train did not know the
President-elect was on board.
Mr. Lincoln was put into his berth and the curtains drawn. He was
supposed to be a sick man. When the conductor came around, Mr. Pinkerton
handed him the “sick man’s” ticket and he passed on without question.
When the train reached Baltimore, at half-past three o’clock in the
morning, it was met by one of Mr. Pinkerton’s detectives, who reported
that everything was “all right,” and in a short time the party was
speeding on to the national capital, where rooms had been engaged for
Mr. Lincoln and his guard at Willard’s Hotel.
Mr. Lincoln always regretted this “secret passage” to Washington, for
it was repugnant to a man of his high courage. He had agreed to the plan
simply because all of his friends urged it as the best thing to do.
Now that all the facts are known, it is assured that his friends were
right, and that there never was a moment from the day he crossed the
Maryland line until his assassination that his life was not in danger,
and was only saved as long as it was by the constant vigilance of those
who were guarding him.