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The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln

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There is nothing not to like about this book. The combination of exhaustive background research and the author's keen writing ability creates a historical drama that captures and keeps your attention throughout. There is something here for everyone. For history buffs, you will be engaged by the well-researched discussion of such an important time in our country's past. For those who enjoy legal drama, this book does not disappoint. The author leads you through the conspiracy evidence in a thought-provoking manner, such that you are the ultimate judge and jury on the critical issue of whether the conspiracy actually existed. As a lawyer myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the book. Finally, for anyone that simply enjoys a well-written book regardless of the subject matter, this one is for you. We should all keep our eyes out for more writings from Michael Kline.

The Baltimore Plot is brilliant in its presentation. Evocatively written and endnoted completely, this book is first rate. Of course, as with all history there is some speculation on the writer's part; but, I for one find those parts fascinating and the questions offered add greatly to the book.

The section on Lincoln's secret leave of Harrisburg, PA, is wonderfully rendered by Mr. Kline.

What a terrific book!!

Michael J. Kline has written an engrossing, detailed account of the events surround presiden-elect Abraham Lincoln's danger-laden journey to Washington for his inauguration in 1861. And he presents a persuasive case that there was indeed a plot (or plots) to kill Lincoln before he could reach his destimation, most especially as he traversed the city of Baltimore. The case cannot, at this distance in time, be proven beyond any doubt, but I think that Kline lays out a case that should dispell reasonable doubt on the part of anyone with an open mind on the subject.

Kline does not stop with the events of 1861, but carries on the story of connections between the 1861 conspirators and the eventual assassination of Lincoln in 1865 by John Wilkes Book. Again, a persuasive, but necessarily less than airtight case, is made that the connections were real, and that Booth's plot was not hatched in 1864 in a vacuum. Kline's work fits readily into recent scholarship that rejects the traditional portrait of Booth as merely a crazed individual, but places him in a larger context of secret operations and plots.

This book was a captivating documentary about Lincoln and the men who were with him and the men who were against him. Kline lays the ground work for the law defining the conspiracy then goes on to place you in the middle of the conspiracy as well as to place you in the middle of Lincoln's balancing game - of his plan to travel to his inaugural vs. the strategy of Pinkerton to keep him alive during the process. Underlying the plot the reader is placed in the mid 1800's immersed in the politics of Lincoln's election, more specifically in the politics of the region including Maryland and more specifically that of Baltimore. The book is written from many different perspectives: people, politics and the law - it is as though Lincoln and the Plot is sitting in the center of a diamond and you are viewing him and the Plot through the window of each facet, and at a different angle throughout the book - It is truly ingenious to view Lincoln and the Plot in this comprehensive manner.

To me though - the most important point of the entire book to me was the picture that was painted that answered the historical question as to the real reason WHY Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theater.
For this reason, I consider this Book a Historical compilation that is a must read for every American.

Are you familiar with 24 a TV show that's been on for about seven seasons? Keifer Sutherland plays Jack Baurer, an action hero with a big Internet and satellite team behind him. The show runs on 'real time' which means there are sometimes three windows, a ticking clock and bursts of music like Law and Order's chun-chung. Well, The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln, is the thinking person's 24. The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln, is rational like a courtroom is rational.

Kline turns his legal expertise to evaluating primary sources in order to discover the extent of the conspiracy and culpability of the many suspects surrounding the case. Memorable characters and intriguing plot twists, unfold the criminal conspiracy to murder. Much like a courtroom presentation in the best films and novels, the author allows the jury of readers to determine whether there was a true plot to kill Lincoln and if the perpetrators could have been brought to trial.

Relying upon his legal arguments, Kline brings the story to a narrative climax at Harrisburg. Does Lincoln have enough evidence to believe Pinkerton's report? Should he alter his travel schedule through Baltimore? It was a second, independent source of intelligence from Winfield Scott and William Seward that convinced Lincoln to accept to Pinkerton's plan. Gathering information, arguing its value, and re-creating the tension of the secession crisis, Kline's narrative absorbs readers.

Klein clearly states which parts of his arguement are conjecture and which are founded upon a close reading of primary sources. He does not hide behind generalizations or best guesses. By the end of the book, this reader accepts Klein's arguement. Louis T. Wigfall, senator from Texas, was a conspirator. John Wilkes Booth, Baltimore native, was a conspirator. Maryland's governor, Baltimore's mayor and it's chief marshal were conspirators. They and many more expected Lincoln to be dead by 2:00pm February 23, 1861 on Calvert Street between the Calvert and Camden Street railroad stations. Killed by a bullet or blade, Lincoln would have died surrounded by 20 assasins and a compliant Baltimore police force, both having motive, means and opportunity.

I am not certain which book Mister Durney was reading, but I have a hard time believing it was "The Baltimore Plot." I found the book fascinating and exactly what Michael Kline said it was - - an in-depth investigative look at circumstantial evidence surrounding the possibility of a plot. I am a former Federal Agent, and I found Kline's methodology interesting and thorough. He admits that it is circumstantial as there are no witnesses to interview, and written documents differ and contradict. His presentation kept my attention and I learned much from the text. What Kline did was very much like what is done in the intelligence community today when analyzing bits and pieces of unsubstantiated data from sources of varying reliability. Other than going back in time, as I'm certain Kline (and I) would love to do, his analysis is as good as it gets. I personally agree with his conclusion that there is a high probability of a plot, and recommend the book to anyone interested in Lincoln, the causes and political machinations of the Civil War, or anyone who wants to view an excellent word picture of those turbulent times.

Fascinating read and amazing that all the scattered information from so long ago is coherently pulled together. This is akin to CSI performed intellectually.

The Baltimore Plot is a thorough, well-written treatment of one of those stories that you can't believe hasn't been written on before--or at least not in decades. The author does a great job presenting the story of the newly elected Abraham Lincoln's perilous trip from Springfield to D.C. in February of 1861 against a backdrop of secessionist intrigue and political uncertainty. Along the way, Kline does some excellent detective work in primary sources and newspapers as to the whodunit (or did they?) aspects of the Plot itself, painting portraits of various suspects and exploring an ominous web of connections to another famous Baltimorean, John Wilkes Booth. Even the Hitchcockian (or Poe-ish?) chapter titles ("Night Train," "An Unexpected Arrival," "The Kossuth Hat," and others) are intriguing. The book ends with a closing argument of the "prosecution" and "defense" cases and sense of foreboding about the Lincoln tragedy still to come.

As a bonus, The Baltimore Plot is fairly brimming with illustrations (very helpful given the large cast of characters) and maps, including a particularly fine street map of Baltimore, circa 1861. Equal parts Bruce Catton and Arthur Conan Doyle, this book should land on the bedside table of Lincoln buffs and history readers everywhere and would make a great gift for those who think they know all they need to know about Old Abe.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in politics, history, or Abraham Lincoln. There are very interesting details that I have never read anywhere else. The author really did his homework.

THE BALTIMORE PLOT: THE FIRST CONSPIRACY TO ASSASSINATE ABRAHAM LINCOLN
MICHAEL J. KLINE
WESTHOLME PUBLISHING, 2008
HARDCOVER, $29.95, 520 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, CHART, NOTES

Baltimore's identification with secession was well known. Just 2,294 of the city's voters-2.5% of the total vote-cast their votes for Abraham Lincoln in the November, 1860 presidential election. Instead, 46% of Baltimore's voters had supported John Breckinridge, the South's Democratic Party candidate while John Bell, of the Constitutional Union Party (hastily formed in May, 1860 at Baltimore's First Presbyterian Church) had claimed 45% of the vote, and the Union Democratic Party candidate, Stephen Douglas, claimed 6.5% of the vote.

Baltimore's proximity to Washington D.C. established the city's importance to the Union. Almost all railroad and telegraph traffic between Washington D.C. and points north passed through Baltimore. The city was a transportation and communication hub but had no thru traffic because of where the many railroad depots were physically located.

As Southern states cascaded into secession and formed the Confederate States of America during the winter of 1860 and early spring, 1861, Baltimore's primary market was disrupted and the city's economy fell into bankruptcy and mass unemployment. Pro-Union and larger pro-secession rallies vied with the Workingmen's Aid Association for the attention of the unemployed before Lincoln had even departed Illinois to assume the presidency.

It was in this background, that Lincoln received a letter threatening him with assassination in Baltimore while on his trip to Washington D.C. Samuel Felton, president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, on which Lincoln was to ride to Baltimore, had heard of the plot and hired Alan Pinkerton, a detective already working for him, to investigate. Due to the railroads terminating in depots scattered around the city, two of these, the Calvert Street Station and the Bolton Street Station, were in the northern part of the city. The President Street Station, the terminal for Felton's railroad, lay on the eastern side of the harbor, while the Camden Station, depot for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company and the only link to Washington D.C., lay on the western side of the harbor. Everyone traveling from Pennsylvania through Baltimore to Washington D.C. had to get off the train at one of the three depots and then travel by foot or streetcar to the Camden Street Station. Lincoln himself did so on the night of 22 February 1861. In disguise in the middle of the night, President-elect Lincoln traveled in a closed, horse-drawn streetcar from the President Street Station to the Camden Street Station, doing so against the advice of his military advisors.

THE BALTIMORE PLOT: THE FIRST CONSPIRACY TO ASSASSINATE ABRAHAM LINCOLN is a lively, gutsy, and provocative book. This book crackles with drama and its characters are fresh and human. Written with an attention to detail, author Michael J. Kline has penned an absolute masterpiece of detection and reconstruction. This is historical sleuthing at its finest.

Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida