Lincoln’s Protector - Ward Hill (Article 122)

He was a large man, imposing, outspoken, vain, and stern faced, unless loosened up by a few drinks of whiskey. And he was absolutely dedicated to protecting Abraham Lincoln.                                     

Ward Hill Lamon was known as “Hill” to most family and friends, including Abraham Lincoln. Lamon was born in Virginia but moved to Illinois when he was nineteen to live with relatives. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1851 and he married Angelina Turner that same year; and they had a daughter, Dorothy. After Angelina’s death a few years later, Lamon married Sally Logan, daughter of Judge Stephen Logan, a former law partner and friend of Abraham Lincoln.

Lamon and Lincoln became acquainted in 1852 when both were lawyers in the sprawling Eighth judicial district in central and northern Illinois. Although Lincoln lived in Springfield and Lamon in Danville, the two crossed paths frequently when both were “riding the circuit” for trials.  Lamon, a Virginian, was vocal about his sympathies to Southern grievances and thought Northerners who proposed abolition were more interested in undermining the South’s economy than they were concerned about the Black slaves. On the other hand, Lincoln, even back then, was just as vocal that slavery was wrong and needed to be limited, if not abolished. Somehow, they became, and remained, friends despite their differences of opinion.

A newspaper publisher, Clint Tilton, who knew both men, wrote: “No two men ever were more unlike than Lincoln and Lamon, but each recognized some quality in the other that was a perfect foil. Lincoln trusted and depended upon the Virginian and the latter responded with a devotion and loyalty that would inspire a classic friendship.”

One contemporary wrote, “Whenever the circuit riders reached Danville, Lamon felt it his duty to act as host to the travelers. After completion of court business, when the cavalcade had assembled at the local hotel, the Danville lawyer would bring a pitcher of whiskey and bid his guests make merry. Lincoln never drank intoxicants but otherwise joined in the jollification. When the whiskey had made Lamon ‘mellow’ enough, he would strike up some nonsensical tune on his banjo, sing ballads, and be the life of the party.”

Another wrote, “Lamon’s vanity, self-importance and ego were in sharp contrast to Mr. Lincoln’s humility. Lamon was hard-drinking and hard-fighting – as careful of his appearance as Mr. Lincoln was negligent of his. Lincoln, however, closed his eyes to all of Lamon’s imperfections and clung tenaciously to their companionship.”

Lamon joined the then-emerging Republican Party and campaigned for Lincoln in 1860. Lincoln was up against three other experienced politicians for the Republican Presidential nomination, including New York Senator William Seward, who was expected to prevail. In a gambit that worked, Lamon and his associates printed extra tickets for the meeting hall where the nominating convention was held, rounded up non-delegates from the streets, and filled the building with Lincoln supporters. That tactic kept many of Seward delegates and supporters from entering the hall and the larger boisterous Lincoln throng was instrumental in influencing other delegates to vote for their man.  A representative for Seward said that the shouting for Lincoln during roll calls “Became a test of lungs.” Lincoln, surprising most observers, including Lincoln himself, won the Republican nomination. Six months later, when Lincoln was elected President, Lamon hoped that his efforts on the new President’s behalf would earn him a foreign diplomatic post or a significant domestic position. Instead, he received a letter from his friend that said, "Dear Hill, I need you. I want you to go to Washington with me and be prepared for a long stay." Lamon then accompanied the new President-elect as he traveled from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington D.C. in February 1861 to prepare for the inauguration on March 4th.

Before they arrived in Washington, detective Allan Pinkerton uncovered a plot whereby Lincoln would be assassinated when he arrived in Baltimore on his way to his March 4th inauguration in Washington. Pinkerton advised Lincoln that rather than ride publicly through the city between train stations as planned, he should take a night-time train straight through to Washington. Lamon was chosen, perhaps after demanding the assignment, to accompany him.

Lamon, who considered himself responsible for Lincoln’s safety, clashed with Pinkerton over the President-elect's protection for the trip. Lamon even offered Lincoln a pistol to personally carry, but Pinkerton, perhaps more attuned to political realities, was adamant that the President-elect should not be seen as thinking he needed to be armed to enter the nation’s capital. Pinkerton later wrote of Lamon’s interference calling him, “a brainless, egotistical fool". Lamon did not learn of Pinkerton’s disparaging remarks until a few years later because Pinkerton had asked the recipient to keep the comments confidential. The recipient? None other than Lincoln’s former law partner William Herndon, who, as requested by Pinkerton, withheld the remarks until after Lincoln’s death.

But Pinkerton prevailed in the matter of the diversionary 1861 train route to Washington DC and Lincoln, wearing a cloth cap instead of his customary tall hat as a rudimentary disguise, rode a train around Baltimore on a secret route to the nation’s capital.

Lamon, however, never believed there was a serious plot in Baltimore and wrote later, “It is perfectly manifest that there was no conspiracy, – no conspiracy of a hundred, of fifty, of twenty, of three; no definite purpose in the heart of even one man to murder Mr. Lincoln in Baltimore."

While there were many secessionists in Baltimore, despite research by many historians, no one knows for sure whether Pinkerton or Lamon was right about an actual assassination plot.

Shortly after his inauguration, Lincoln appointed Lamon as a United States Marshal of the District of Columbia, which provided him with an official law enforcement position to keep Lincoln informed of issues within the city. Then a few days later, the President asked Lamon to accompany a small group of Federal representatives to Charleston, South Carolina, a state which had already seceded from the Union and declared itself an independent nation-state. The delegation had three purposes, (1) to assess the viability of defending Fort Sumter, a large Federal installation in Charleston Bay. (2) to assess the “mind of the people in Charleston as to secession and support for a civil war”, and (3) to seek an audience with the governor to assess his plans for governing the seceded state. But Lamon overstepped his authority and suggested to the governor that Lincoln might consider withdrawing from Fort Sumter, which was a major diplomatic blunder! We do not know what led Lamon to mis-understand his role in the meeting with the secessionist Governor, but Lincoln was angered and let Lamon know. Somehow, however, the two men repaired their relationship because Lamon continued to be close to Lincoln.

For the entire time President Lincoln served in Washington DC, Lamon was never far away. Although his title did not convey that Lamon was to be Lincoln’s bodyguard, he assumed that role. Most evenings he would walk around the Executive Mansion to satisfy himself that the guards were diligent. Occasionally, perhaps hearing of a rumor that the President might be in danger, he would literally sleep sprawled in front of Lincoln’s bedroom door.

As fate would have it, one of the few times Lamon was separated from Lincoln was Easter weekend, in 1865. Lamon had traveled the fifty miles to Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy, which was now in Union hands. He was to assess the level of public resistance to Union occupation troops and any danger that might imply for the President. Lamon claimed in his later biography of Lincoln that he cautioned the President to not go out at night while he was away. But Lincoln did go out, on Good Friday, April 14th, to Ford’s Theater. Some recent writers have questioned Lamon’s absence on the night Lincoln was assassinated, probably just to add drama to an already tragic event. Such speculation is a dis-service to Lamon because he was simply, as always, doing his duty on behalf of Lincoln in Richmond; and that is a historical fact.

Sadly, Lamon’s last duty for President Lincoln was to ride on the funeral train back to Springfield. Later, for $10,000, Lamon purchased the funeral rail car which had transported Lincoln's remains. The car remained in Springfield, stationery on a side rail, for many years.

In 1865, soon after returning to Springfield, Lamon formed a law partnership with Jeremiah Black, a local lawyer with a modest practice. And the partnership did well, boosted perhaps with Lamon emphasizing his relationship with President Lincoln. Then, in 1872, expecting a financial gain from his association with Lincoln, Lamon published a biography of Lincoln titled; The Life of Abraham Lincoln; From his Birth to his Inauguration as President. The book was co-written by Chauncey Black, the son of Lamon’s partner. The book included purported statements by Lincoln, many of which were likely made-up, and, in any case, such disclosures, even if true, were considered inappropriate violations of personal and private conversations by most people in the 18th century. As a result, many newspaper publishers denounced the book, the public at large was offended, and very few copies were sold. Although there were many other books published about Lincoln during that time which became best-sellers, Lamon’s self-serving book was an absolute financial failure. Today, most Lincoln scholars believe Lamon revised (or even made up) purported private statements by Lincoln on many subjects to more closely represent Lamon’s opinions rather than the actual quotations of the former President. As a result, even today, that “biography” is not considered a very useful source by most historians.

Because of the negative reception of the book, the law partnership with the senior Mr. Black suffered and was dissolved in 1879. For the next few years, Lamon managed a mediocre law practice on his own and he and his wife Sally enjoyed a quiet life until her death in 1892. Lamon was cared for by his daughter Dorothy until his death on May 7, 1893. He was 65 years old.

Two years after his death, Dorothy re-edited the original biography, and removed the more disturbing and exaggerated (and likely untruthful) sections. She also added anecdotes about the two men which she had discovered in her father’s notes and which she deemed reliable. The revised book titled “Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,” was well received by editors and critics and became a best seller! And, unlike the previous edition, it is considered a valuable resource by many Lincoln historians.

In his first book, Lamon had written, “No one knew Mr. Lincoln better, none loved him more than I. My friendship did not begin with his official career. I was near him in private life; I was near him in all the darkest hours of the late struggle; I was near him when the first rational hope of peace dawned upon the land. In truth, I might say without offense to the people of his State and mine, that I retained his confidence unshaken as he retained my affections unbroken, until his own life was offered up the last great sacrifice to domestic discord, on the very threshold of peace, and in the actual blaze and glory of the nation’s triumph.” Note that the focus here was clearly on Lamon as was much of the first book.

In the second book, however, his daughter included this note her father had written, “It was my good fortune to have known Mr. Lincoln long and well, – so long and so intimately that as the shadows lengthen and the years recede, I am more and more impressed by the rugged grandeur and nobility of his character, his strength of intellect, and his singular purity of heart. Surely, I am the last man on earth to say or do aught in derogation of his matchless worth, or to tarnish the fair fame of him who was, during eighteen of the most eventful years of my life, a constant, considerate, and never-failing friend.”

Note that in this last passage included by his daughter, Lamon seems to assure that the focus was now on Abraham Lincoln, his friend and his President.