The Hour of Peril

Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated just after the Civil War concluded, in 1865. Lesser known is that there was a credible plot to kill him before he even became president, on his way to Washington. Just how serious that plot may or may not have been, and the steps taken to protect him, are the subject of Daniel Stashower's book The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War.

There was no Secret Service in those days. Candidates and even presidents could be approached rather easily. Lincoln, after being elected with a plurality popular vote in 1860, had no official protection on his train route from Springfield to Washington. He would be passing through mostly friendly territory, but one city was a sore spot--Baltimore.

Maryland was a slave-holding state, and though it never joined the Confederacy, it, on a whole, hated Lincoln. In some towns he received zero votes. It was a hotbed of pro-secessionist fever, and even the chief of police thought that Lincoln didn't deserve any extra protection.

The fledgling Lincoln administration turned to the most famous detective in the land, Allan Pinkerton. The first few chapters of the book are a biography of the man, who was born in Scotland, lived in poverty as a barrel-maker, and then founded the biggest detective agency in the country. This is a very informative book, but the thing I'll take away is the tenacity of Pinkerton, who was firmly pro-Lincoln and extremely abolitionist (he was a friend of John Brown's).

The election of 1860 had four candidates instead of two, as the Democratic party splintered and Lincoln won without taking any Southern states. He, of course, was loathed by a large percentage of the country, who divisively called him the "rail-splitter." Dashower reports on the high volume of hate mail he received, such as this one:

"Mr. Abe Lincoln
If you don't Resign we are going to put a spider in your dumpling and play the Devil with you you god or mighty god dam sundde of a bith go to hell and buss my Ass suck my prick and call by Bolics your uncle Dick god dam a fool and goddam Abe Lincoln who would like you goddamn you excuse me for using such harsh words with you but you need it..."

Following the short biography of Pinkerton, Dashower devotes a day-by-day, almost hour-by-hour, description of Lincoln's journey from Springfield to Washington: "Over a period of thirteen days, as the president-elect traveled by train from Springfield to Washington, a makeshift, self-appointed security detail raced to uncover hard evidence of the looming peril, in the hope of persuading Lincoln to adopt 'necessary and urgent measures' before placing himself in harm's way."

Lincoln made many stops along the way and many speeches, and often the train was mobbed by well-wishers. His voice was sore from speaking, and while listening to Pinkerton's advice, he nevertheless did not take evasive measures. Not until he neared Baltimore.

Pinkerton had undercover agents palling around with pro-secessionists, including one named Otis Hillard, who eventually gave the agent information that Lincoln would not make it alive to Washington. He put him in touch with the flamboyantly named Cypriano Ferrandini, a Corsican-born barber who was said to be the ringleader. Apparently a ceremony was conducted, with men drawing slips of paper out of a hat to see who got to be the assassin. But was this all true?

What is true is that Lincoln finally agreed to take evasive measures and did not ride through Baltimore from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He, Pinkerton, and Lincoln aide Ward Lamon rode a carriage into Washington, bypassing Baltimore. Once this became known to the public Lincoln took some bad press, and the phrase "like a thief in the night" was hung around his neck. Some even thought he was disguised, although Dashower discounts this.

After Lincoln was sworn in there has been disputes with how real the threat was. Lamon and Pinkerton exchanged nasty words, with Lamon saying there was no threat at all, while Pinkerton was afraid that the train may have been forced off the tracks or mobbed by thousands. The train carrying vice-president-elect Hannibal Hamlin was boarded by ruffians, who did nothing because they did not recognize Hamlin. But Ferrandini was never arrested for anything and went on cutting hair for years.

This is a solid book, if not a scintillating one. The Pinkerton stuff is interesting, as I knew nothing of his early life. Dashower points out how ironic it is that the man who was very pro-union ended up being associated with anti-labor thugs: "Pinkerton and his men came to be reviled as strikebreakers and skull-crackers, an image that would be cemented in years to come by the ghastly carnage during a strike at Andrew Carnegie's steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, in which ten people died. This unhappy episode occurred during the tenure of his sons, several years after Pinkerton's death, but history has attached the blame to the agency's founder."

What lingers after reading the book is how almost one-half of a nation can so vociferously hate the President of the United States, so much so that the hatred spurs some, usually of soft mind, to take action. This has ever been so, and continues to be so.