On this day, Feb. 23, in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to thwart an alleged assassination plot.
Allan Pinkerton, considered America’s first detective, was convinced of a conspiracy to kill Lincoln in Baltimore during his whistle-stop tour from Illinois to his inauguration.
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Wearing a disguise, Lincoln sneaked through Baltimore in the middle of the night. Once he made it out of town safely, Pinkerton sent a coded telegraph: “Plums delivered nuts safely.”
Crowds in Baltimore showed up at the station to see the president, but Lincoln was already in the nation’s capital.
The new president was ridiculed by the press, accused of being a coward. Lincoln vowed to never hide from the public again.
Most historians believe there was no conspiracy to assassinate the president during his inaugural train ride.
