The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-05-22

sassinate President Lincoln.
In the june number OF Harper's
Monthly, among other interesting arti-
Giles, is one in regard to the Baltimore
plot to assassinate Mr.. Lincoln, OF
which so little has been definitely
known. The account given is, at all
events, straightforward and consistent,
and as such deserves consideration. 1t
seems from this that it was Mr.. Allen
Pinkerton, noted detective from Chi
cago, to whom mainly Mr.. Lincoln was
indebted for his safety.
Employed Professionally at Balti-
more, he learned that there was con-
spiracy to take Mr.. Lincoln's life while
he was on his way to Washington. he
at once proposed to checkmate the
plans of the consPirators. The writer
in Harper says:
nHis plan was with his detectives to
enter Baltimore as residents ofCharles-
ton and New Orleans, and by ASSUME
! ing to be secessionists of the most ex-
IRENE violence, to secure entrance into
their secret societies and military
organizations, and thus possess them
selves of their secret plans. In looking
over his corps he found two men ad-
mira lily adapted to the object he had in
| view-both young, and both able to
assume and successfully carry out the
character of hot-blooded, fiery seces;
sionist. One Of these, whom / shall
call Howard, was OF French descent.
He had been carefully educated for a
Jesuit priest; and added to his collegiate
studies were the advantages of extern
sive foreign travel and the ability to
speak, with great facility, several mod
ern languages; and knowledge OF the
South, its localities, prejudices, Gus
toms, and leading men, derived from
several years. residence in New Or
| leans and other Southern cities. With
these qualifications he possessed fine
personal appearance, insinnatinH man
ners, and that power of adaptation to
the persons whom they wish to influ-
ence, popularly attributed to the Jesutts.
Howard was Instructed to assume the
chara cter of an extreme secessionist,
90 to a first.class hotel, register his
| name, and his residence as New Or
leans, visit places of amusement, seek
the acquaintance and secure the conf
dence OF the young aristocracy of that
city; enter their clubs, penetrate their
secrets, and learn the wild projects II
was known they were then forming.
| He was also instructed to make daily
reports to his chief, then under an as
al UNIV odA
nominally carrying on regular bust.
ness in Baltimore. Those reports, now
lying before me, are curious and inter
esting. They show that Howard was
eminently successful, that he soon be-
came a welcome guest among many OF
the first families in that old and refined
city, that he was a favorite with both
sexes among the ardent and mercurial
young aristocracy, which furnished to
the rebellion Harry Gilmor, the French
Lady, Stuart, and many other parti.
sans, and in whose circles Dixie and
My Maryland are still mournfully
sung over the lost cause Many Bal
timore bellies are living who might In
nocently blush at the disclosures OF the
daily reports of one whom, in Frebru-
airy, 1854, they called the facinnting
Howard of New Orleans."
He continues:
"By the 18th of February Pinker-
toms machinery was fairly in running
order; his agents In full communion
with the clubs and secret societies oil
Baltimore, SO that an interview was
planned and brought about between
| Howard's chief and Capt. Fernandina
one of the most active of the conspira-
tors. Fernandina was an Italian or OF
Italian descent. He had lived in the
South for many years, and was thor
oughly possessed of the idea of South
| 6Eu "TOuR5H dn0 LuaL Il6 OOuI4 hdO
been outraged by the election of Lin
coin; and, educated with Italian ideas
he justified the use of the stiletto and
assassination as a means of preventing
the President elect from taking his seal
in the Executive chair. He was an en-
thusiast and a fanatic. In the interview
with Fernandina. which took place al
- saloon, in the presence of some Of
| the military company which he com
| manded-his lieutenant and others In
their confidence-in the course of the
conversation Fernandfna, believing he
was addressing thorough secesstontst
said: "LIucoln shall never, never be
President. My life,' said he, lis of nc
consequence. am willing to give II
that Abolitionist. As Orsina gave his
life for Italy. I am ready to die for the
rights of the South
| "Some one present remarked: art
| there no means of saving the South
| except by asSassination2 NO. said he
| tyou might as we'll try to blow dowT
| the Washington monument with your
he must and shall; and,' he added
turning to Catain T, a co-conspira
tor, I'VE will, if necessary, all die to
| Rether. Every captain will in that day
prove himself hero. The first sho
fired, the head traitor Lincoln dead
and all Maryland Will be with us and
| the South freed. Mr.. Il said he
| turning to PInkerton, IF 1 alone mus
| do II, shall not hesitateI Lincoln shall
| die in this cityr
"The next day Pinkerton met the
same Captain T, one of Fernando
ana's associates, who called Pinkerton
aside and whispered: 1T Is determined
that the Cd d-n Lincoln shall never
pass through here alivei The id ao'
olitionist shall never set foot on south
ern soil but to find grave. BE added
u have seen Colonel Kane, Chief of Po'
lice, and he is all right, and In one
week from to-day the North shall wan
a new President, for Lincoln will be
dead:'"
He says further:
"The time for Mr.. Lincoln's passage
through Baltimore was rapidly APP
preaching, but the exact plan OF opera opera,
ton by the Conspirators had not Seen
agreed upon. The popular feellne
| against him had, through the press
| and by harangues and all the means I5
by which the public mind is operated
1 nnnn hean infiamed and exasperateo