that I was given the honor of raising it. And when it CHAP. XIX. went up, I was pleased that it went to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm. When, according to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it floated gloriously to the wind, without an accident, in the bright, glowing sunshine of the morning, I could not help hoping that there was, in the entire success of that beautiful ceremony, at least something of an omen of what is to come. Nor could I help feeling then, as I often have felt, in the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument. I had not provided the flag; I had not made the arrangements for elevating it to its place; I had applied but a very small portion of my feeble strength in raising it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of the people who had arranged it, and if I can have the same generous coöperation of the people of the nation, I think the flag of our country may yet be kept flaunting gloriously. I recur for a moment but to repeat some words uttered at the hotel, in regard to what has been said about the military support which the general Government may expect from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a proper emergency. To guard against any possible mistake do I recur to this. It is not with any pleasure that I contemplate the possibility that a necessity may arise in this country for the use of the military arm. While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon your streets of your military force here, and exceedingly gratified at your promise to use that force upon a proper emergency-while I make these acknowledgments I desire to repeat, in order to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use for them; that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall in anywise be brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine.

CHAP. XX.

1861.

ON

CHAPTER XX

LINCOLN'S SECRET NIGHT JOURNEY

N the morning of February 23 the whole country was surprised at the telegraphic announcement, coupled with diverse and generally very foggy explanations, that the President-elect, after his long and almost triumphal journey in the utmost publicity, and with well-nigh universal greetings of good-will, had suddenly abandoned his announced programme and made a quick and secret night journey through Baltimore to the Federal capital. Public opinion at the time, and for years afterwards, was puzzled by the event, and the utmost contrariety of comment, ranging from the highest praise to the severest detraction which caricature, ridicule, and denunciation could express, was long current. In the course of time, the narratives of the principal actors in the affair have been published,1 and a sufficient statement of the facts and motives involved may at

1 See narrative of S. M. Felton, in Schouler, "Massachusetts in the Civil War," Vol. I., pp. 5965; Judd to Pinkerton, Nov. 3, 1867, Edwards, "Life of N. B. Judd," pamphlet, pp. 11-17; Pinkerton, "The Spy of the Rebellion," pp. 45-103; Kennedy to Lossing, embracing narrative

of Colonel Stone, Lossing, "Civil War," Vol. II., pp. 147-49; Lincoln's statement to Lossing, Ib., Vol. I., pp. 279, 280; Lincoln's statement to Arnold, Arnold, "Lincoln and Slavery," p. 171; and Lamon, "Life of Lincoln," pp. 511-26. Also, MS. letters printed in this chapter.

length be made. The newspapers stated (without CHAP. XX. any prompting or suggestion from Mr. Lincoln) that an extensive plot to assassinate him on his expected trip through Baltimore about midday of Saturday had been discovered, which plot the earlier and unknown passage on Friday night disconcerted and prevented.

This theory has neither been proved nor disproved by the lapse of time; Mr. Lincoln did not entertain it in this form1 nor base his course upon it. But subsequent events did clearly demonstrate the possibility and probability of attempted personal violence from the fanatical impulse of individuals, or the sudden anger of a mob, and confirmed the propriety of his decision.

The threats of secession, revolution, plots to seize Washington, to burn the public buildings, to prevent the count of electoral votes and the inauguration of the new President, which had for six weeks filled the newspapers of the country, caused much uneasiness about the personal safety of Mr. Lincoln, particularly among the railroad officials over whose lines he was making his journey; and to no one of them so much as to Mr. S. M. Felton, the President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railway, whose line formed thé connecting link from the North to the South, from a free to a slave State, from the region of absolute loyalty to the territory of quasi

1 Mr. Lincoln, long afterwards, declared: "I did not then, nor do I now, believe I should have been assassinated, had I gone through Baltimore as first contemplated; but I thought it wise

to run no risk, where no risk was
necessary." Hon. I. N. Arnold,
in his work, "Lincoln and Sla-
very," says in a note, p. 171, that
the above was "stated to the
author by Mr. Lincoln."

CHAP. XX. rebellion. Independently of politics, the city of Baltimore at that time bore an unenviable reputation as containing a dangerous and disorderly element; her "roughs" had a degree of newspaper notoriety by no means agreeable to quiet and noncombative strangers.

But Baltimore and other portions of Maryland were also profoundly moved by the incipient rebellion. Governor Hicks had been plied with persuasion, protest, and even threats of personal violence, to induce him to convene the Legislature of that State, so that secession might begin under a legal pretext. The investigation of the Select Committee of Five, though it found no organized plot to seize the capital of the nation, gave abundant traces of secession conspiracy of various degreesespecially of half-formed military companies, organizing to prevent Northern troops from passing through Baltimore to Washington or other points in the South. As part and parcel of this scheme, the railroads were to be destroyed and the bridges burned. The events of April, as they actually occurred, had already been planned, informally at least, in January.

Aside from patriotism, the duty of protecting the tracks and bridges of the railroad of which he was president induced Mr. Felton to call to his aid Mr. Allan Pinkerton, chief of a Chicago detective agency, whom he had before employed on an important matter.

He was a man of great skill and resources [writes Mr. Felton]. I furnished him with a few hints and at once set him on the track with eight assistants. There were then drilling upon the line of the railroad some three