Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-08-05
MeDOuble
Tragedy
Of President Lincoln and the Man
Who Had Saved His Life
By WILLARD MALTBIE
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.

ever lived who was connected with
more romances. But in them all there
IS something sad. 1t was a period Of
war in which these events Of which he
was the central figure occurred, and
only a very few Of the romances ex-
tracted from war have happy termina.
J tons. No one can look upon the por-
trait of Abraham Lincoln without see
ing there the solemnity Of those four
years when the boys Of '61 TO 60 were
being moved down like wheat, when
every family in the north and in the
south were mourners.
There is one event in the life Of
President Lincoln which, if CertaiE
efforts that were made had been I'M
successful, would have left noneXist-
ent his leadership in the great struggle
and he would have gone down IL
history simply as the man whose cleo
ton brought it on. True, it wOuA
have been adorned with the crown Of
martyrdom, but at the beginning in
stead of the end of his career.
This is the story of his escape from
that earlier attempt to assaSinate hiIS
which was a failure:
1t was in the spring of 1861, when
| secession sympathi2ers were plotting
against the lines of communication
leading from the national capital, that
a man, middle aged, muscular and
with a determined though tranquil
face, appeared in Perrymansvilla
Md He was a PinkeEton detective
and had been sent there to discover
plots to damage railroad property.
When Mr.. Lincoln went to Washing
ton for his first Inauguration, having
passed through New York, he went
southwark on the Pennsylvania anG
Baltimore and Ohio railroads. Allan
Pinkerton, chief of Chicago detec-
tive bureau, learned through a master
machinist of the latter road that
number of secessionists had bound
themselves by an oath to assassinats
Mr.. Lincoln while journeying to the
capital. There was but little time to
act, for the president elect was about
= to leave his home. When the assassi.
nation plan was conceived it was not
known by the conspirators by what
route Mr.. Lincoln would go to the cap.
ital. They were therefore obliged tE
arrange for an attack upon him at sew
y eral different points. The Perrymans
vile branch of the organization pre-,
tended to be cavalry company. Web
D ster, who though Of a quiet exterior,
knew how to sham very deep feeling
Z against the Yankee government, at
once enrolled himself in this cavalry
n company.
But getting into the company was
= far from getting its plans, and unfor-
tunately there was very little time to
discover them. Webster relied on his
pretended hatred of the government to
q secure his initiation into the inner cir
Gle. His ruse succeeded. He was in
b vited to go to the house of the captain
of the company, but not to say word
about the invitation. In a room every
window of which was protected
against hearing and seeing from the
D outside he met men from the central
o point Of the conspiracy, Baltimore, and
was received as one of the planners
Of the work to be done.
Seated about a table, the party dis"
- cussed different methods of assassk
mating the president elect. Webster,
being a new man and of a reserved
u disposition, listened to the others, only
occasionally pointing out some weak
n spot in a proposition or suggesting a
way to obviate it. Before the confer
ence broke up it had been decided to
shoot Mr.. Lincoln at the depot as he
% was passing through Baltimore on the
n Esd of March.
?, Webster now had the plans in his
possession. Taking himself away
from the so called cavalry company,
x he went where he could safely commu-
% uicate with his chief, Allan Pinkerton.
On the night of the Dist of February
L Pinkerton met Mr. Lincoln at the Con-
| tinental hotel at Philadelphia and re-
/ vealed the plot
The question now arose how, having
the plan, to defeat it. A ruse was
adopted. Instead of going on to Wash
d ington direct, Mr. Lincoln was taken
10 northwest to Harrisburg. But it was
g. no easy job to turn the gaze of mil,
ri lions Of people from tho most promi-
n nent figure in the land with hosts OF
= newspaper correspondents watching
bis every movement The telegraph
&c wires leading out of Harrisburg wers
d secretly grounded, thus cutting off that
- city from the rest of the world.
OIL Mr.. Lincoln NOW being able to travel
II without news OF his passage being tel.
N egraphed from every station. private
Il train was made up at Harrisburg, and
the president elect-it is said that he
was disguiSed-was taken back to Phil
adelphia and at midnight of the 22d
| instead Of the ODD as had been ar,
= ranged, was rushed through Baltimore
and early the next morning arrived
safe in Washington.
This brief statement Of the plan to
assassinate the president elect and its
defeat is essential to the story-a story
Of Abraham Lincoln as the central fig
n ure and Timothy Webster, whose
I uuiCl; work was Instrumental I'm saw