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Zelda is amazing damntThe '''Baltimore Plot''' was an alleged conspiracy in late February 1861 to assassinate [[President-elect]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] ''en route'' to his [[First inauguration of Abraham Lincoln|inauguration]]. [[Allan Pinkerton]], founder of the [[Pinkerton National Detective Agency]], played a key role by managing Lincoln's security throughout the journey. Though scholars debate whether or not the threat was real, clearly Lincoln and his advisors believed that there was a threat and took actions to ensure his safe passage through [[Baltimore, Maryland]].

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected as the 16th [[President of the United States]], a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]], and the first to be elected from that [[political party|party]].  Shortly after his election, many representatives of Southern states made it clear that secession was inevitable, which greatly increased tension across the nation. A plot to assassinate Lincoln in Baltimore was alleged. On February 23, 1861, he arrived secretly in Washington, D.C. For the remainder of his presidency Lincoln's many critics would hound him for the seemingly cowardly act of sneaking through Baltimore at night, in disguise, sacrificing his honor for his personal safety. However, the efforts at security may well have been prudent.

==Background==
{{Refimprove|date=November 2010}}
[[Allan Pinkerton]] was commissioned by the railroad to provide security for the president-elect on his journey to Washington, D.C., through Baltimore. Maryland was a [[slave state]], and was considered a border state with strong Southern sympathies and was considered dangerous territory through which to travel for such a controversial politician.  Two months later, Baltimoreans [[Baltimore riot of 1861|attacked Union Army soldiers]] marching to Washington.  When Virginia joined the Confederacy, it was necessary to travel through Maryland to reach Washington.

Feelings were running high in the other direction as well, and the U.S. government was not about to take risks.  Later the same year, many civil liberties were effectively suspended.  Pinkerton, in particular, was a very careful man.<!--cite his work for the army, and perhaps his habitual over-estimation of Confed. troop strength?-->

==Lincoln's actions==
[[Image:Pinkerton allan late harpers.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of [[Allan Pinkerton]] from ''Harper's Weekly'', 1884]]
On February 11, 1861, President-elect Lincoln boarded an east-bound train in [[Springfield, Illinois]] at the start of a [[Whistle stop train tour|whistle stop tour]] of seventy towns and cities ending with his inauguration in Washington, D.C. Pinkerton had been hired by railroad officials to investigate suspicious activities and acts of destruction of railroad property along Lincoln's route through Baltimore. Pinkerton became convinced that a plot existed to ambush Lincoln's carriage between the Calvert Street Station of the [[Northern Central Railway]] and the Camden Street Station of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]. This opportunity would present itself during the President-elect's passage through Baltimore on February 23, 1861.  Pinkerton tried to persuade Lincoln to cancel his stop at [[Harrisburg]], [[Pennsylvania]], and to proceed secretly straight through Baltimore, but Lincoln insisted upon keeping to his schedule.

Pinkerton famously clashed with Lincoln’s friend and escort, [[Ward Hill Lamon]], over the President-elect's protection.  Lamon offered Lincoln "a Revolver and a Bowie Knife" but Pinkerton protested that he "would not for the world have it said that Mr. Lincoln had to enter the National Capitol armed."<ref>Cuthbert, N: ''Lincoln and the Baltimore Plot, 1861,'' page 79. Huntington Library, 1949.</ref>

On the evening of February 22 telegraph lines to Baltimore were cut at Pinkerton's behest to prevent communications from passing between potential conspirators in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Meanwhile, Lincoln left Harrisburg on a special train and arrived secretly in Baltimore in the middle of the night. The most dangerous link in the journey was in Baltimore, where a city ordinance prohibited night-time rail travel through the downtown area. Therefore, the railcars had to be horse-drawn between the President Street and Camden Street stations.

According to Pinkerton, a captain of the roads reported that there was a plot to stab the President-elect.  The alleged plan was to have several assassins, armed with knives, interspersed throughout the crowd that would gather to greet Lincoln at the President Street station. When Lincoln emerged from the car, which he must do to change trains, at least one of the assassins would be able to get close enough to kill him.

Once Lincoln's rail carriage had safely passed through Baltimore, Pinkerton sent a one-line telegram to the president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad: "Plums delivered nuts safely."

On the afternoon of February 23, Lincoln's scheduled train arrived in Baltimore. The large crowd that gathered at the station to see the President-elect quickly learned that Lincoln had already passed by. Even though the rest of the Lincoln party, including [[Mary Todd Lincoln|Mrs. Lincoln]] and the children, had been on this train as originally scheduled, they had already alighted from the train in an unscheduled stop several blocks north of the President Street station.<ref>Scharf, John, History of Maryland vol.III, Tradition Press, p.39</ref><ref>{{Cite news
  | last = Arnold
  | first = Isaac H.
  | coauthors =
  | title = The Baltimore Plot To Assassinate Abraham Lincoln.
  | newspaper = Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 37
  | location = New York
  | pages = 123–128
  | language =
  | publisher = Harper and Brothers
  | date = June to November 1868
  | url =  http://books.google.com/books?id=If0vAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA123&dq=The+Baltimore+Plot+To+Assassinate+Abraham+Lincoln&as_brr=1&cd=1#v=onepage&q=The%20Baltimore%20Plot%20To%20Assassinate%20Abraham%20Lincoln&f=false
  | accessdate = 23 February 2010}}</ref>

===People associated with the alleged plot===
*[[Cipriano Ferrandini]] - a hairdresser from [[Corsica]] who emigrated to the United States, and established himself as the long-time barber and hairdresser in the basement of Barnum's Hotel, in Baltimore. There he practiced his trade from the mid 1850s to his retirement long after the close of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. He was accused, but never indicted, for plotting to assassinate Abraham Lincoln on February 23, 1861.
*[[Allan Pinkerton]] - Head of the Pinkerton Agency
*[[Kate Warne]] - female Pinkerton agent who is credited with gathering and supplying information which helped convince Allan Pinkerton that there was a plot to assassinate Lincoln in Baltimore.
*[[Ward Hill Lamon]] - personal friend of Lincoln who accompanied him through Baltimore.
*[[George Proctor Kane]] - Baltimore's Marshall of Police who protected [[Mary Todd Lincoln]] as she passed through the city. He escorted her to the home of John Gittings.
*John Gittings - hosted [[Mary Todd Lincoln]] in Baltimore.
*[[Hattie Lawton]] - also known as Hattie H. Lawton,<ref>Cuthbert (1949) Lincoln
and the Baltimore Plot. p. 4.</ref>  Lawton was part of Pinkerton's Female Detective Bureau, formed in 1860 to ‘worm out secrets’ by means unavailable to male detectives.

==Aftermath—The public's perception of Lincoln's courage==
[[Image:Lincoln in a cattle car.jpg|thumb|250px|right|"Passage Through Baltimore". President-elect Lincoln depicted ignominiously hiding in a cattle car by [[Adalbert J. Volck]], 1863.]]
[[Image:Plot-kill-lincoln-1861 Picture2.jpg|right|250px|thumb|"Flight of Abraham", ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', March 9, 1861.]]⏎
[[Image:Maclincoln harrisburg Highland fling.jpg|right|250px|thumb|"The MacLincoln Harrisburg Highland Fling", ''[[Vanity Fair (American magazine 1859-1863)|Vanity Fair]]'', March 9, 1861.]]‎
(contracted; show full)[[Category:Assassination attempts]]
[[Category:Causes of war|American Civil War, Origins of the]]
[[Category:History of Maryland]]
[[Category:History of the United States (1849–1865)]]
[[Category:Lincoln conspirators]]
[[Category:1861 in Maryland]]

[[fr:Complot de Baltimore]]