“This expression,” writes Colonel Halpine, “called my attention afresh to what I had remarked to myself almost every time I entered the White House, and to which I had very frequently called the attention both of Major Hay and General Halleck--the utterly unprotected condition of the President’s person, and the fact that any assassin or maniac, seeking his life, could enter his presence without the interference of a single armed man to hold him back. The entrance-doors, and all doors on the official side of the building, were open at all hours of the day, and very late into the evening; and I have many times entered the mansion, and walked up to the rooms of the two private secretaries, as late as nine or ten o’clock at night, without seeing or being challenged by a single soul. There were, indeed, two attendants,--one for the outer door, and the other for the door of the official chambers; but these--thinking, I suppose, that none would call after office hours save persons who were personally acquainted, or had the right of official entry--were, not unfrequently, somewhat remiss in their duties. “To this fact I now ventured to call the President’s attention, saying that to me--perhaps from my European education--it appeared a deliberate courting of danger, even if the country were in a state of the profoundest peace, for the person at the head of the nation to remain so unprotected. “‘There are two dangers,’ I wound up by saying; ‘the danger of deliberate political assassination, and the mere brute violence of insanity.’ “Mr. Lincoln heard me through with a smile, his hands locked across his knees, his body rocking back and forth,--the common indication that he was amused. “‘Now, as to political assassination,’ he said, ‘do you think the Richmond people would like to have Hannibal Hamlin here any better than myself? In that one alternative, I have an insurance on my life worth half the prairie land of Illinois. And beside,’--this more gravely,--‘if there were such a plot, and they wanted to get at me, no vigilance could keep them out. We are so mixed up in our affairs, that--no matter what the system established--a conspiracy to assassinate, if such there were, could easily obtain a pass to see me for any one or more of its instruments. “‘To betray fear of this, by placing guards or so forth, would only be to put the idea into their heads, and perhaps lead to the very result it was intended to prevent. As to the crazy folks, Major, why I must only take my chances,--the worst crazy people at present, I fear, being some of my own too zealous adherents. That there may be such dangers as you and many others have suggested to me, is quite possible; but I guess it wouldn’t improve things any to publish that we were afraid of them in advance.’