Fortunately, among the guests was the late Colonel Thomas A. Scott, and when Governor Curtin declared that the question was not one for Lincoln to decide, Colonel Scott at once proposed to take charge of the new programme, and send Lincoln back to Philadelphia on a special train in time to make the eleven o’clock from Broad and Prime Streets to Washington that night. Scott was a master alike in keenness of perception and swiftness of execution. He at once directed the Governor to take Lincoln down to the front of the hotel, where there were multitudes awaiting to cheer them, and loudly call a carriage to take them to the Executive Mansion, as that would be the natural place for them to go. They entered the carriage, drove up along the river front toward the Executive Mansion, and then made a detour to reach the depot in thirty minutes, as instructed by Colonel Scott. I accompanied Colonel Scott to the depot, when he first cleared one track of his line to Philadelphia, forbidding anything to enter upon it until released, and with his own hands cut all of the few telegraph wires which then came into Harrisburg. A locomotive and a car were in readiness at the time appointed a square below the depot, where Lincoln and Curtin arrived with Colonel Lamon, and Lincoln and Lamon entered the car for their journey. When I shook hands with Lincoln and wished him God’s protection on his journey, he was as cool and deliberate as ever in his life. Every precaution had been taken to prevent the knowledge of a change in Lincoln’s programme being known to any who might possibly communicate by telegraph, and when the wires were all cut we felt assured that unless Lincoln should be accidentally detected in Philadelphia, none would know of his journey until he arrived at Washington. But one person in Philadelphia was advised of the movement, and he was Superintendent Kenney, of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, still prominently connected with its service, who was instructed by Colonel Scott to meet Lincoln at the Pennsylvania depot and conduct him to the Broad and Prime station. Beyond Superintendent Kenney, no one outside of the few in Harrisburg who had arranged and started Lincoln on his journey had any knowledge of the change in his route. He was received by Superintendent Kenney in a carriage, taken to the Broad and Prime station, where a section of a sleeping car had been engaged for him, entered it without attracting attention, and at six o’clock the next morning he was in Washington. We had a sleepless and a terribly long and anxious night at Harrisburg, but about six o’clock Colonel Scott reunited the wires in his railroad station, and received the despatch: “Plums delivered Nuts safely,” which announced the safe arrival of the President. THE LINCOLN-McCLELLAN CONTEST 1864