On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln climbed into an open carriage to travel to the United States Capitol to be sworn in as the country’s 16th president. There, in his inaugural address, he movingly called for unity in the deeply divided nation, famously appealing to “the better angels of our nature.”
It’s possible Lincoln might never have made it to Washington, D.C. at all. Openly despised by Southerners for his vocal opposition to slavery, he had been receiving daily death threats since his election.
One of those threats might well have been carried out—if not for the efforts of America’s first female private detective. Hired by famed Pinkerton Detective Agency, Kate Warne not only sussed out details of an assassination attempt against Lincoln, but she successfully fronted a scheme to foil the conspirators, who planned to ambush the president-elect during his train journey into Washington.
Before the creation of the Secret Service, presidents relied on the military to protect them. Lincoln loathed ostentation, though, and despite the volume of threats against his life, rejected any idea of a military escort on the lengthy and well-publicized train tour from his home in Springfield, Illinois to the nation’s capital.
One of Lincoln’s supporters, railroad executive Samuel Morse Felton, had grown alarmed both by rumors of conspiracies that involved Lincoln’s assassination and by the president-elect’s apparent unconcern. Looking for help, he turned to detective Allan Pinkerton. Not only had the Scottish-born sleuth established his business by providing security services to the railroad industry, but he had solid abolitionist credentials. Pinkerton had met Lincoln when both had worked on behalf of the Illinois Central Railroad, Lincoln offering legal advice and Pinkerton providing security.
Pinkerton, for his part, enlisted one of his most unlikely but most stalwart operatives to keep the president safe. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY