February 28, 1861; The New York Herald
We have at last got a clue to the way the terrible conspiracy to assassinate Mr. Lincoln was discovered, and it certainly reflects great credit upon our police system, which we shall not be slow to accord to it. It appears that there were two sets of most effective detectives sent to work upon the matter. Mr. Fouche Kennedy, of New York, at the instance of Thurlow Weed, despatched one band of detective police to Baltimore and the interlying points between that place and Harrisburg, to ferret out the plot, and the Vidoc of Baltimore had another band employed in the same localities, neither chief being aware of the action of the other. If there was anything to be discovered this efficient combination of detective talent would be sure to find it out; and so it did; for it happened that the detectives from New York came into frequent communion with the detectives from Baltimore, and, not knowing one another, each supposed that he had found a conspirator in the other party, and forthwith commenced to sympathize with the plot and draw his communicative companion out, for the purpose of getting information, as these wise officials are wont to do; and so between them they unravelled, if they did not concoct, the whole terrible conspiracy against the life of Mr. Lincoln, which compelled him to resort to the Scotch cap of the Camerons and the long military cloak, in which undignified disguise he reached the federal capital with a whole skin. No sooner did Mr. Fouche Kennedy succeed in discovering this awful conspiracy than he turned up at Washington, in search of an office, we suppose, to which he is undoubtedly entitled at the hands of Mr. Lincoln, whose life he so miraculously preserved.
But there are more plots against the new President which it may require detective sagacity to discover. Mr. Fouche Weed and Mr. Vidoc Greeley have each their detectives at work to discover a conspiracy against the political existence of Mr. Lincoln, and whichever of the two finds out the plot – whether it be got up by the ultras or the moderates of the party – will, of course, be entitled to the spoils.