Chasing Lincoln’s Killer
Chapter 3
“I will prepare and some day my
chance will come.”
“He has a right to criticize,
who has a heart to help.”
- Abraham Lincoln
Who Protects the President?
• Protection for the President was established in 1865 by
Lincoln on the same day as his assassination.
• Original role was to help police stop small crimes and to
keep people from “annoying” the president on
inauguration day.
• It wasn’t until 1902 that full protection of the president
was enforced.
• 1913 – only president protected
• 1917 – immediate family included
• 1951 – vice-president received protection as well.
Who Protects the President?
• After the attempted assassination on presidential elect
Robert Kennedy – presidential elects were added to the
Secret Service protection plan.
• TODAY – the Secret Service protect president, vicepresident, their families, former presidents and their
spouses, and other foreign diplomats.
confidant
During the war, Lincoln and Seward had become good
friends and trusted confidants. (p. 46)
– a close friend or
associate to whom
secrets are confided or
with whom private
matters and problems
are discussed
aliases
Powell operated under several aliases – Payne,
Wood, and Hall. (p. 50)
– a false name used to conceal ones identity; an
assumed name
Christian
Bale
Batman
ill-mannered
William Bell, walking down ahead of Powell, looked
ahead to the front door through which, in a few
moments, he would take the ill-mannered visitor into
the street. (p. 52)
– having bad or poor
manners; impolite;
discourteous; rude
Secretary of
State
William Seward
easy target because
he was weak at home
in bed recuperating
from a carriage
accident
The Seward House was built in 1816 on four acres on the outskirts of Auburn, NY as a
ten-room townhouse for a wealthy Cayuga County Judge named Elijah Miller. Elijah
Miller died in November 1851. He left his estate to his two daughters and named his sonin-law William Henry Seward as Executor. William Henry Seward was one of the
foremost politicians of nineteenth century America; a New York State Senator, Governor
of New York, a U.S. Senator, and served as Secretary of State in the Lincoln and
Johnson administrations. His task during the Civil War was perhaps the most difficult
ever faced by any Secretary of State; to maintain the neutrality of foreign countries in our
darkest hour, at a period in history before international law and modern diplomacy.
New York
Seward
House
Home of
Secretary of
State
William
Seward
Fanny Seward
Frederick Seward
crushed skull
Augustus Seward
stabbed
a.k.a. Lewis
Powell
William Bell
Seward’s servant who answered the
door
Sergeant Robinson
Seward’s Nurse
Multiple stab wounds
Rio Grande Camp Knife used by Powell in
assassination attempt on William Seward, April 14,
1865. Steel blade, bone handle and leather sheath;
12 ½ inc. (8 1/8 in. blade)
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
National Police Gazette
4/22/65
“The Assassins Carnival”
Lewis Powell attacking
Frederick Seward.
Left: Lewis Powell launches
his attack on the household
of Secretary of State Seward
– woodcut published in Harper’s Weekly
Below: Fight with assassin
in Secretary Seward’s room
– published in National Police Gazette
Lincoln’s Cabinet
1865
Fanny’s diary entry of the night of the attack and Lincoln’s
assassination
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=1420&Print=436