HIGHLY IMORTANT NEWS: Secret Departure of the President Elect from Harrisburgh; MR. LINCOLN IN WASHINGTON; THE GEORGIA REPRISALS (2/25/1861)

New York Times archives – Times Machine ^ | 2/25/1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

HARRISBURG, Saturday, Feb. 23 -- 8 A.M.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the President Elect of the United States, is safe in the capital of the nation. By the admirable arrangement of Gen. SCOTT, the country has been spared the lasting disgrace, which would have been fastened indelibly upon it had Mr. LINCOLN been murdered upon his journey thither, as he would have been had he followed the programme as announced in the papers and gone by the Northern Central Railroad to Baltimore.

On Thursday night after he had retired, Mr. LINCOLN was aroused and informed that a stranger desired to see him on a matter of life and death. He declined to admit him unless he gave his name, which he at once did, and such prestige did the name carry that while Mr. LINCOLN was yet disrobed he granted an interview to the caller.

A prolonged conversation elicited the fact that an organized body of men had determined that Mr. LINCOLN should not be inaugurated, and that he should never leave the City of Baltimore alive, if, indeed, he ever entered it.

The list of the names of the conspirators presented a most astonishing array of persons high in Southern confidence, and some whose fame is not confined to this country alone.

Statesmen laid the plan, Bankers indorsed it, and adventurers were to carry it into effect. As they understood, Mr. LINCOLN was to leave Harrisburgh at 9 o'clock this morning by special train, the idea was, if possible, to throw the cars from the road at some point where they would rush down a steep embankment and destroy in a moment the lives of all on board.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3936999/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Highly Important News: Secret Departure of the President Elect from Harrisburgh – 2
Mr. Lincoln in Washington – 2-4
The Georgia Reprisals: The Second Seizure of Vessels at Savannah – 5
The Presidential Progress – 5-7
The Charleston Floating Battery – 7
A Serious Railroad Accident – 7
From Charleston: South Carolina Stock – 7-8
General Political Intelligence: A Navy for the South, Little Rock Arsenal – 8
Editorial: Mr. Lincoln in Washington – 8
Editorial: Mr. Seward and Mr. Lincoln – 8-9
Editorial: Seceding from Secession – 9
Editorial: The “Ways and Means” of the New Confederacy – 9-10
Editorial: New Mexico Again – 10-11 Arrivals in the City – 11
The New-York Times – 11

[ml/nj]

Very important articles which illuminate Lincoln’s true character.

ML/NJ

[M Kehoe]

Ah ha!

I knew something nefarious was going on in Baltimore.

5.56mm

[arthurus]

The Democrats will not disintegrate as a Party. They may fall into internecine scrambling for power and the main contenders may well engage in a bloody fight that involves some suicides and heart attacks and defenestrations but that will come later in the process of consolidating total control.

[BroJoeK]

"The Georgia Reprisals: The Second Seizure of Vessels at Savannah – 5"

In this article we see for the first time (so far as I know) the word "contraband".
In this case it refers to shipments of weapons in New York intended for Georgia's governor but seized by New York authorities and prevented from leaving New York.
In reprisals, Georgia's governor ordered several New York owned ships in Savanah harbor seized and held for ransom.
He soon released those ships when informed his purchase of weapons would proceed.
Then it turned out the weapons would instead be held as "contraband" until a court decides what to do, so Georgia seized other New York ships.

That word, "contraband" is usually associated with acts of war, though nobody has yet officially claimed that's what they're doing.

[jmacusa]

Hello Bro Joe. I had a book years ago, can't recall the publishers name but it was an illustrated and chronological history of the Civil War that had many dozens of Matthew Brady photos of blacks who were runaway slaves who had made it to Union territory.

They were referred to in the captions as ''contrabands''. Can you imagine referring to human beings like that?