At Springfield, immediately upon the election for President, Lincoln
began to receive letters with lethal menaces. His friends took them as
serious, and two or more carried weapons, and escorted him closely that
no one with a dagger might reach his side. Calling on his stepmother
for the farewell, she reiterated the general, and rising, fears. At
Philadelphia, detectives and others whispered of a plot matured at
Baltimore, and in his speech at raising the flag over Independence Hall
he said pointedly:
"If this country cannot be saved without giving up this
principle--liberty to the world--I was about to say I would rather be
assassinated on the spot than surrender it.... I have said nothing but
what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty
God, to die by."--(Speech, Philadelphia, February, 1861.)
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