Guard in Front of Seward House

[BettyO]

Found this today -- it's obviously a painting/drawing from a Seward biography circa 1891 - but I had never seen this before: A guard stationed in front of the Seward House after the assassination attempt.

   

Also found a rather humorous mistake in a diary account of the assassination in which Seward's assailant is "identified" as John Howard Payne - i.e. the American actor/playwright whose opera inspired the song, Home Sweet Home..."Be it ever so humble.....!" Definitely the wrong Payne!

[Linda Anderson]

A guard patrolled the Seward house until he left Washington in 1869. Some people were not happy about that.

"The Washington Correspondent of the Baltimore Gazette says, 'It will surprise your readers to hear that the Secretary of State still keeps up the ridiculous parade of a military guard before the door of his private residence. Even Stanton dismissed this nuisance shortly before he was ejected from his office. General Grant, however, in this respect outdoes Seward. He not only has the War Department guarded at every entrance by armed soldiers, but his son, a lad of about nine years old, daily rides a charger to school with an orderly in his rear.'" Cincinnati Daily Enquirer - Oct. 29, 1867

From the Times Picayune, May 4, 1868:

"We quote as follows from the Washington (May 7th) letter to the Mobile Tribune.
"Three years have now passed since the memorable night when the bullet of Booth terminated the earthly career of Lincoln, and the knife of the assassin was directed at the bosom of Mr. Seward. Immediately a guard was placed over the White House and the house of Mr. Seward. The guard at the Executive Mansion has long since been withdrawn, but that at the house of Mr. Seward has been continued to this time. At all hours of the day and night, in summer and winter, and in storm and sunshine, may be seen the sentry, with his musket at a half *****, tramping back and forth on the pavement in front of the large old fashioned brick house where Mr. Seward resides."

When he was closing down the house in March 1869, Fred Seward wrote to his father who had already left Washington, "Even the sentry, on finally being taken away as he left last night, volunteered to come back and stay if needed during the hours he should be off duty."

[L Verge]

I wonder how the pundits of yesteryear would handle security issues today... Right now, we are trying to plan one of the trips for the Surratt conference that will take us into some important buildings in D.C. Thanks to 9/11, however, buses cannot get within 2-3 blocks of most of these buildings. It poses a walking issue for many of our conference attendees who are no longer spring chickens. Gone are the days when we can unload at the door and have the bus wait around the corner!