On Colonel Halpine trying to make the chief see that even indoors there
was danger, he debated about the two menaces--violence of "cranks" and
of a political fanatic. He thought too well of the sense of the "people
at Richmond," some of whom had been colleagues of his in his first stay
in Washington as congressman.
"Do you think that they would like to have Hannibal Hamlin--his first
vice-president--here any better than myself?"
The story is repeated with his second Vice substituted for the first,
with the more justification, as "Andy" Johnson was impeached for his
incompetency. Detective Baker put it this way: "As to the crazy folks,
I must take my chances. The most crazy people being, I fear, some of my
own too zealous adherents."
(He had the same idea as in an ancient Chinese proverb: "You may steal
the captain out of his castle, but you cannot steal the castle.")
"I am but a single individual, and it would not help their cause, or
make the least difference in the progress of the war." [Footnote: He
might have said, as truly as his predecessor, John Tyler, reproached
also for going about unguarded: "My body-guard is the people who
elected me."]--(Cited by F. B. Carpenter.)
* * * * *