How a Scots detective foiled an assassination plot ahead of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration

The security fears surrounding Joe Biden’s inauguration are unprecedented in modern American history, but some of the nation’s greatest leaders have endured grave threats as they took the oath of office.
Allan Pinkerton, the Glasgow-born founder of the famous US Pinkerton National Detective Agency.Allan Pinkerton, the Glasgow-born founder of the famous US Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Allan Pinkerton, the Glasgow-born founder of the famous US Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

In the case of the earliest conspiracy to assassinate a president-elect, it took a gruff, thick-set Glaswegian to foil the plot and ensure one of the young country’s greatest leaders could change history.

With the US on the brink of civil war in 1861, Abraham Lincoln set off from Springfield, Illinois, bound for Washington DC. The train journey would see him stop off in towns and cities along the way, meeting his supporters and, ultimately, finding his voice.

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But it was while in Philadelphia that word reached Lincoln of a dark plot to end his life before he arrived at the unfinished Capitol.

The rumours had reached Samuel Morse Felton, a railway executive, who in turn notified Allan Pinkerton, a Gorbals-raised cooper who eventually became the first detective in Chicago, and had formed his eponymous detective agency.

Pinkerton set to work, and identified plans to kill Lincoln as he stopped to speak in Baltimore on 23 February, less than a fortnight before his inauguration at the unfinished Capitol building.

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With the city teeming with southern sympathisers, Pinkerton learned that the would-be assassin was a barber by the name of Captain Ferrandi, who planned to slip away to the south after taking Lincoln’s life.

When Pinkerton relayed the news to Lincoln, it was met with scepticism initially, but after Fred Seward, a senator’s son, confirmed the plot with his own independent evidence, Lincoln relented and accepted the seriousness of the situation. His itinerary was amended, and he agreed to disguise himself as he took an earlier train through Baltimore to Washington.

It was only after he arrived safely that word got out of the plans. The New York Times broke the story of the “fiendish plot,” under the headline ‘Designs on Mr Lincoln’s Life’.

The president went on to change the course of history, and Pinkerton became one of his most trusted allies in the civil war that would break just a few weeks later.

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