Booth at Lincoln's Second Inauguration

[Laurie Verge]

The incident that Bill refers to above was reported shortly after the assassination. Lincoln was sworn into office inside the Capitol and then walked through the Rotunda to deliver his speech outside. John Westfall of the Capitol Police wrestled with a man in the Rotunda who supposedly had lunged at the President. The Commissioner of Public Buildings, Benjamin B. French, later reported that he ordered Westfall to grab the man. This person claimed that he had every right to be there and French was afraid it might be a new legislator that he did not know and ordered Westfall to let the man go. This is in French's papers in the Library of Congress.