Description: Excerpt from Magazine of American History, Vol. 14: With Notes and Queries; July December, 1885 One night, near midnight, I entered the grounds for the purpose of in specting the guard and was surprised to see a bright light in the East room. As I entered the basement I heard a loud noise as of many voices talking loudly, mingled with the ringing of arms, coming from the great reception room. On questioning the commander of the guard I learned that many gentlemen had entered the house at a late hour, but they had come in boldly, no objection had been made from within, but on the contrary Captain Todd had told him that all was right. I ascended the interior staircase and entered the East room, where I found more than fifty men, among whom were Hon. Cassius M. Clay and General Lane. All were armed with muskets which they were generally examining, and it was the ringing of many rammers in the musket barrels which had caused the noise I had heard. Mr. Clay informed me that he and a large number of political friends deeming it very improper that the President's person should in such times be unguarded, had formed a voluntary guard which would remain there every night and see to it that Mr. Lincoln was well protected. I ap plauded the good spirit exhibited, but did not, however, cease the posting of the outside guards, nor the nightly inspections myself as before, until the time came when others than myself became responsible for the safety of the President. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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