Ward Hill Lamon - Lamon and The Baltimore Plot, 1861

Lamon and The Baltimore Plot, 1861

Lamon was a physically imposing man, and during the presidency, often took it upon himself to guard Lincoln. In February 1861, detective Allan Pinkerton uncovered a plot to assassinate Lincoln when he arrived in Baltimore on his way to his inauguration in Washington. Pinkerton advised Lincoln that rather than ride publicly through the city between train stations as planned, he take a midnight train straight through to the capitol. Lamon was the sole friend chosen to accompany him. Lamon and Pinkerton famously clashed 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". The two men further disagreed over Lamon's desire to alert the Chicago Journal to their early arrival in Washington because Pinkerton, more prudently, wished not to publicize their change of plans. In Pinkerton's account of the plot, he wrote disparagingly of Lamon, referring to him as a "brainless, egotistical fool". Pinkerton allowed William Herndon to copy his report, which later fell into Lamon's hands when he purchased Herndon's papers to write his Life of Abraham Lincoln. However, when Herndon first requested copies of Pinkerton's report, Pinkerton agreed only on the condition that certain material be kept as confidential, specifically naming his remarks about Lamon. Lamon retaliated by avowing his disbelief in the plot in the biography: "It is perfectly manifest that there was no conspiracy, -- no conspiracy of a hundred, of fifty, of twenty, of three; no definite purpose in the heart of even one man to murder Mr. Lincoln in Baltimore."