Part 12 (2/2)

It was refield ten days before, they had had at least two escapes The track had been tarenade had been found in one of the cars It is not likely that this deadly machine was taken on the train merely for fun

The members of the party were deeply concerned about the Baltiet Lincoln to take them seriously

With difficulty was he persuaded to follow Pinkerton's plan and enter Washi+ngton secretly He consented to do this really out of consideration for the judgment of others, not that he shared their apprehension On one thing, however, Lincoln was fir _en route_ which he would not abandon His pro-raising at Philadelphia, narrated above, and the other was to address the legislature at Harrisburg ”Both these appointments,” said he, ”I will keep _if it costs est that heto show

There are also inti which will be noticed by the careful reader of the speeches at Philadelphia and Harrisburg In declining to give a hint of the details of his proposed policy, he said: ”It were useless for me to speak of details of plans now; I shall speak officially next Monday week, _if ever_ If I should not speak then, it were useless for ain: ”If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle,--I was about to say that I would rather be _assassinated on this spot_ than surrender it”

And finally: ”Ibut what I ahty God, _die by_”

These veiled references would pass unnoticed by the crowd, but they would be perfectly intelligible to those who knew of the warnings that had just been received Lincoln was not in the habit of using such phrases, and the fact that he used them at this particular time can hardly be explained as a mere coincidence He took in the situation, and--except for keeping the engagements already made--he submitted meekly to Pinkerton's plans

An incident occurred at Harrisburg whichless than the loss of the ural address This precious document the President hiiven to his son Robert to hold When Robert was asked for it, it was iven it to a waiter--or somebody” This was one of the rare occasions on which Lincoln lost control of his te reat plainness of speech

For obvious reasons it was not judicious to say much about this loss

The President applied to Lamon for help ”Lamon,” he whispered, ”I have lost my certificate of ripsack containing ural address I want you to help me find it”

Lamon, who knew Lincoln intimately, said that he never saw hiry If the address were to be published preht be made the occasion of a vast amount ofthought and he had no duplicate copy

Lincoln and La satchel and were directed to the baggage-room of the hotel Here they spied a satchel that looked like the lost one Lincoln tried the key It fitted With great joy he opened it, and he found within--one bottle of whisky, one soiled shi+rt, and several paper collars So quickly froht satchel was found, and was not again entrusted to Robert The President kept it in his own hands After the nervous strain was over, the hurew on the President, and it reminded his until they reached the sum of fifteen hundred dollars This was deposited for safekeeping in a bank The bank failed and the man received as his share, ten per cent, or one hundred and fifty dollars This he deposited in another bank The second bank also failed and the poor fellow again received ten per cent, or fifteen dollars When this remnant of his fortune was paid over to hihtfully Finally he said: ”Now, I've got you reduced to a portable shape, so I'll put you inthe action to the word, Lincoln took his ”certificate of moral character” from the satchel and carefully put it in the inside pocket of his vest No further mishap ca to Washi+ngton was accomplished as planned, with the assistance of certain officials of the railway and telegraph co were cut, so that, if Lincoln's departure were discovered, the news could not be coraph Then, after the reception, Lincoln, attended by Lamon, left the hotel by a side door and was driven to the railway station Here they found waiting a special train consisting of one baggage car and one passenger car The track was for the ti at Philadelphia they stopped outside the station, where Pinkerton e in readiness They were driven rapidly across the city to the Washi+ngton train which had been detained a few er and one attendant” They entered the rear door of the sleeping car The ”sick passenger” went to his berth at once and the attendant gave the tickets to the conductor who did not even see the ”sick passenger,” and who did not drea They arrived at six o'clock in the ton City, where they were met by Seward and Washburn and taken to Willard's Hotel

The rest of the party cae crowd in waiting, but no disturbance The news of the President's arrival had been telegraphed over the country, and the band of assassins were for the time helpless Their intended victim had escaped There was no reason why they should create a disturbance

Lincoln always regretted this ”secret passage” He later came to discount heavily the revelations of a professional spy Long after, he said: ”I did not then, nor do I now, believe I should have been assassinated had I gone through Baltiht it wise to run no risk where no risk was necessary”

It is positively asserted by Lamon, who knehereof he spake, that there was no tifield to his death, when Lincoln was free froer of murder Yet he never could be prevailed on to accept precautions What were the reasons for his apparent carelessness?

It is almost certain that he realized, more than he would have his friends know, that he was surrounded by dangers He probably realized this ers, but no man ever better understood the murderous spirit which underlay much of the hatred towards thisHe felt that an escape fro into anotherbullets on the field of battle He, better than they, realized that the unseen dangers were greater than those which they thought they had discovered The only way, then, was to go straight ahead as if unh Lincoln could understand dangers in the abstract, his mind did not seem to be able to individualize them He knew full well that many persons wanted to kill hi done by X, or Y, or Z, he did not believe it possible that they would do such a thing

These explanations are suggested Thereand paradoxical facts h his public life he was oppressed with the belief that he would not live to see the end of the national crisis On the other hand, not all the importunities of his uard hiht ofknow, it is wonderful that he escaped these plots for ht not have escaped so long At the same time, as we shall presently see, had he heeded the last caution of his devoted friend, he would not have been shot in 1865

CHAPTER XXII

THE INAUGURATION

Beautiful for situation and beautiful in construction is the Washi+ngton City of to-day But it was not so in Lincoln's day The proper decoration of the city did not begin until Grant's administration In 1861 it was comparatively a snificent modern residences had not been built The houses were fe, not handso between The streets were not paved with asphalt Some were paved with cobble stones, and soinal mud

The dome of the Capitol was but half finished when Lincoln saw it for the first tigestive of the gallows The approach was not a well-kept lawn, but a ton society was then, as always, composed of people of education and social culture, but it was not such as would kindle the enthusiasm of the patriot From the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, it had been dominated by the slave power The District of Columbia is situated in a slave state The politics of South Carolina and Mississippi had always been aggressive, and the social leadershi+p had been the same J G Holland estimated that not ton in the winter of 1860-61 were glad to have Lincoln coht Laue and corruption”