FLAG RAISED OVER INDEPENDENCE HALL 277 and the Union, and establishing an independent government as a free city,' admonished him, "because New York was deeply interested in the matter," that his great duty was to so conduct public affairs as to preserve the Union. "New York," said the Seceder, "is the child of the American Union. She has grown up under its maternal care, and been fostered by its maternal bounty, and we fear that if the Union dies, the present supremacy of New York will perish with it." The President elect assured him that he should endeavor to do his duty. On the following day," he passed on through New Jersey to Philadelphia, declaring at February 21, Trenton, on the way, to the assembled legislators of that State, that he was "exceedingly anxious that the Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people" should be perpetuated. "I shall be most happy," he said, "if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty and of this, his most chosen people, as the chosen instrument-also in the hands of the Almighty-for perpetuating the object of the great struggle" in which Washington and his compatriots were engaged. 1861. ¿ February 22. Mr. Lincoln was in Philadelphia on Washington's birthday,' and with his own hands, in the presence of an immense assemblage of the citizens, he raised the American flag high above the old State House, in which the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed almost eighty-five years before. The place and its hallowed associations sug gested the theme of a brief speech, which he made a short time before raising the flag over the Hall wherein the great deed was done. "I have never had a feeling," he said "politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept the Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the mother land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that, in due time, the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up this principle, I was about to say, I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. . . . My friends, I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, die by." Then, in beautiful contrast with the truculent speech of Davis at Montgomery a week earlier, in which that bold leader said that those who opposed himself and his fellow-conspirators, must expect "to smell 1 See page 205. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."— Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776. 278 war. ASSASSINATION OF MR. LINCOLN THOUGHT OF. Southern powder and feel Southern steel," Mr. Lincoln added:-"Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course; and I may say in advance, that there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the Government, and then it will be compelled to act in self-defense." He had said the day before, at Trenton, "I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am-no one who would do more to preserve it; but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly." The declaration of Mr. Lincoln, that he was about to say that he would rather be assassinated than to give up the great principles of the rights of man embodied in the Declaration of Independence, came back to the ears of the American people like a terrible echo, a little more than four years afterward, when he was assassinated because he firmly upheld those principles; and in the very hall wherein they were first enunciated in the clear voice of Charles Thomson, reading from the manuscript of Thomas Jefferson, his lifeless 1865. body lay in state all through one • April 23, Sabbath day," that his face might be looked upon for the last time by a sorrowing people. Perhaps the thought of assassination was in Mr. Lincoln's mind at that time, because he had been warned the night before that a band of men in Baltimore in the interest of the conspirators, and who held secret meetings in a room over a billiard and drinking saloon on Fayette Street, near Calvert, known as "The Taylor Building," had made preparations to take his life. Before he left home, threats had found their way to the public ear that he would never reach Washington alive. On the first day of his journey an attempt was made to throw the railway train in which he was conveyed from the track; and just as he was about leaving Cincinnati, a hand-grenade was found secreted in the car in which he was to travel. These and other suspicious circumstances had led to a thorough investigation, under the direction of a sagacious police detective. It resulted in the discovery of the conspiracy at Baltimore, and the revelation of the fact, that a small number of assassins, led, it was said, by an Italian who assumed the name of Orsini,3 the would THE TAYLOR BUILDING.2 1 See page 257. 2 This is from a sketch made in December, 1864. The front is of brown freestone. It is No. 66 Fayette Street. In this building, as we shall observe hereafter, the meetings of the Baltimore conspirators were held, to arrange for the attack on the Massachusetts troops, on the 19th of April, 1861. 3 History of the Administration of President Lincoln, by H. J. Raymond, page 109. A Baltimore correspondent of the New York Evening Post said that a notorious gambler of Baltimore, named Byrne, who went to Richmond soon after the events in question, was arrested there on a charge of keeping a gambling THE PRESIDENT ELECT WARNED OF DANGER.. 279 be murderer of Louis Napoleon, were to kill Mr. Lincoln whilst passing through the streets in a carriage. General Scott and Mr. Seward were so well satisfied that such a plot was arranged, that they sent a special messenger to meet the President elect, and warn him of his danger. He heeded the warning, passed through Baltimore twelve hours earlier than he was expected there; and, to the astonishment of the people, the delight of his friends, and the chagrin and dismay of the conspirators, he appeared in Washington City early on the morning of the 23d of February. This movement gave life and currency to many absurd stories. It was asserted that Mr. Lincoln had assumed all sorts of disguises to prevent recognition that he was muffled in a long military cloak and wore a Scotch .cap-that he was wrapped in the shaggy dress of a hunter, et cætera ; and for a while his political opponents made merry at his expense, and the pencils of the caricaturists supplied fun for the public. Thoughtful men were made sad. They felt humiliated by the fact that there was a spot in our fair land where the constitutionally chosen Chief Magistrate of the nation might be in danger of personal injury at the hands of his fellow-citizens; and especially. mortifying was the allegation that he had been compelled to go in full disguise, by stealth, like a fugitive from justice, to the National Capital. It was properly felt to be a national disgrace. The occurrence was not so humiliating as represented by the politicians, the satirists, and caricaturists. The President did not travel in disguise; and the hired assassins or their employers were doubtless too timid or too prudent to attempt the execution of their murderous plan at the critical moment. While in Washington City, early in December, 1864, the writer called on the President, with Isaac N. Arnold, Member of Congress from Chicago, one of Mr. Lincoln's most trusted personal friends. We found him alone in the room wherein the Cabinet meetings are held (in the White House), whose windows overlook the Potomac and the Washington Monument.' At the request of the writer, the President related the circumstances of his clandestine journey between Philadelphia and Washington. The narrative is here given substantially in his own words, as follows: "I arrived at Philadelphia on the 21st. I agreed to stop over night, and on the following morning hoist the flag over Independence Hall. In the evening there was a great crowd where I received my friends, at the Continental Hotel. Mr. Judd, a warm personal friend from Chicago, sent for me to come to his room. I went, and found there Mr. Pinkerton, a skillful police detective, also from Chicago, who had been employed for some days in Baltimore, watching or searching for suspicious persons there. Pinkerton informed me that a plan had been laid for my assassination, the exact time when I expected to go through Baltimore being publicly known. He was well informed as to the plan, but did not know that the conspirators would have pluck enough to execute it. He urged me to go right through with him to Washington that night. I didn't like that. I had made engagements to visit Harrisburg, and go from there to Baltimore, and I resolved to do so. house, and of disloyalty to the "Southern Confederacy." His loyalty was made apparent by the notorious Senator Wigfall, who testified that he was captain of the gang who were to kill Mr. Lincoln." This evidence of his complicity in the premeditated crime was sufficient to cover every other sin of which he was guilty, and he was discharged from custody. 1 See the Frontispiece to this volume. 280 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE. I could not believe that there was a plot to murder me. I made arrangements, however, with Mr. Judd for my return to Philadelphia the next night, if I should be convinced that there was danger in going through Baltimore. I told him that if I should meet at Harrisburg, as I had at other places, a delegation to go with me to the next place (then Baltimore), I should feel safe, and go on. "When I was making my way back to my room, through crowds of people, I met Frederick Seward. We went together to my room, when he told me that he had been sent, at the instance of his father and General Scott, to inform me that their detectives in Baltimore had discovered a plot there to assassinate me. They knew nothing of Pinkerton's movements. I now believed such a plot to be in existence. "The next morning I raised the flag over Independence Hall, and then went on to Harrisburg with Mr. Sumner, Major (now General) Hunter, Mr. Judd, Mr. Lamon, and others. There I met the Legislature and people, dined, and waited until the time appointed for me to leave.' In the mean time, Mr. Judd had so secured the telegraph that no communication could pass to Baltimore and give the conspirators knowledge of a change in my plans. 66 In New York some friend had given me a new beaver hat in a box, and in it had placed a soft wool hat. I had never worn one of the latter in my life. I had this box in my room. Having informed a very few friends of the secret of my new movements, and the cause, I put on an old overcoat that I had with me, and putting the soft hat in my pocket, I walked out of the house at a back door, bareheaded, without exciting any special curiosity. Then I put on the soft hat and joined my friends without being recognized by strangers, for I was not the same man. Sumner and Hunter wished to accompany me. I said no; you are known, and your presence might betray ine. I will only take Lamon (now Marshal of this District), whom nobody knew, and Mr. Judd. Sumner and Hunter felt hurt. "We went back to Philadelphia and found a message there from Pinkerton (who had returned to Baltimore), that the conspirators had held their final meeting that evening, and it was doubtful whether they had the nerve to attempt the execution of their purpose. I went on, however, as the arrangement had been made, in a special train. We were a long time in the station at Baltimore. I heard people talking around, but no one particularly observed me. At an early hour on Saturday morning," at about February 23, the time I was expected to leave Harrisburg, I arrived in Washington." 1861. Mr. Lincoln was received at the railway station in Washington by Mr. Washburne, member of Congress from Illinois, who was expecting him. He was taken in a carriage to Willard's Hotel, where Senator Seward was in waiting to receive him. Mrs. Lincoln had joined him at Philadelphia, on 1 Six o'clock in the evening. 2 According to a statement in the Albany Evening Journal, a confidential agent was sent by Mr. S. M. Felton with Mr. Lincoln who was called "George," and whose authority was recognized by engineer, conductor, fireman, and brakeman. He bore a large package marked Dispatches, and this was the pretext for sending the special train at near midnight. The telegraph wires leading toward Washington had been cut. They were reunited after sufficient time bad elapsed for the train to reach its destination, when George," on its arrival, sent back the following electrograph :-"The Dispatches have arrived, and are safely delivered." THE CONSPIRACY AT BALTIMORE. 281 the 22d, and she, Mr. Sumner, and others left Harrisburg at the time appointed, and passed on to the National Capital without interference. There has never been a public legal investigation concerning the alleged plot to assassinate the President elect at that time. Sufficient facts have been made known through the testimony of detectives to justify the historian in assuming that such a plot was formed, and that it failed only because of the change in Mr. Lincoln's movements. It was alleged that "statesmen, bankers, merchants, and others" were engaged in the conspiracy,' and that these were meeting secretly then, and did meet secretly a long time thereafter, in a private room in Taylor's Building. The plan, as revealed, seems to have been to create a mob of the most excitable elements of society in Baltimore, ostensibly against the Republican Committee in that city, while they and the nobly loyal citizens were honoring Mr. Lincoln by a public reception at the railway station. In the confusion created by the mob, the hired assassins were to rush forward, shoot or stab the President elect while in his carriage, and fly back to the shelter of the rioters. The policemen of Baltimore at that time were under the direction of George P. Kane, as Chief Marshal. He was a violent secessionist, and seems to have been the plastic instrument of conspirators in Baltimore, who were chiefly of the moneyed Oligarchy, connected by blood or marriage with the great land and slave holders in the more Southern States. Kane afterward fled beyond the Potomac, took up arms against his country, and received a commis-ft bolle polega sion in the insurgent army. It is asserted that an arrangement had been made for him to so control the police on that occasion, as not to allow a suppression of the mob until the terrible deed should be accomplished. His complicity in the movements which resulted in the murder of Massachusetts troops while passing through Baltimore, a few weeks later, makes it easy to believe that he was concerned in the plot to assassinate the President elect. GEORGE P. KANE, The disloyal press of Baltimore seemed to work in complicity with the conspirators on this occasion. A leading editorial in the Republican, on the 22d, was calculated to incite tumult and violence; and on the following morning, the day on which Mr. Lincoln was expected to arrive in Baltimore, the Exchange, in a significant article, said to its readers :-"The President elect of the United States will arrive in this city, with his suite, this afternoon, by special train from Harrisburg, and will proceed, we learn, directly to Washington. It is to be hoped that no opportunity will be afforded him-or that, if it be afforded, he will not embrace it-to repeat in our ears the sentiments which he is reported to have expressed yesterday in Philadelphia." Intelligence of Mr. Lincoln's arrival at Washington soon spread over the 1 Baltimore Correspondence of the New York Times, February 23, 1861. 2 For these sentiments, see page 277. |