Lafayette Curry Baker (1826 - 1868) chief of the United States Secret Service from 1862 to 1867, was a fascinating and somewhat tawdry, character in American Civil War history. Although biographers have covered Baker's life, scholars have overlooked an important letter he wrote to President Andrew Johnson in 1865. This letter reveals much about Baker and his relationship with the president It also adds meaningful insights into the troubling times and Baker's ultimate course in 1868. That written document as well as other aspects of his controversial career deserve recognition and merit further consideration.

Born in Stafford, New York, Baker was named for the French aristocrat, the Marquis de Lafayette, who aided the American cause during the Revolutionary War. The youth settled in Michigan with his parents in 1839 and attended local schools. As a young man he lived in over a dozen states, including Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. While operating a dry goods store in Philadelphia in 1852, Baker married Jennie C. Curry. The next year they relocated to California, where Baker belonged to the San Francisco Vigilante Committee. His work with the vigilantes helped bring order to a city known for its gambling houses, crime, and political corruption. from this activity Baker gained valuable experience in investigatory matters and the art of observing suspected persons.

After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Baker, then a resident of New York, volunteered to penetrate Confederate lines to obtain information for the North. Dispatched to Richmond by General Winfield Scott on a clandestine mission, Baker sought to ascertain the location and size of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard's forces around Manassas, secure date on the Black Horse Cavalry, and determine what forces were in Richmond and if any plans existed for an invasion of the North. Disguised as an unarmed itinerant photographer, Baker was accidentally arrested by the Confederates who suspected him of being a secret agent. During his brief incarceration, the rebel spy, Belle Boyd, attempted to trick him into revealing his identity. Posing as Samuel Munson of Knoxville, Baker convinced President Jefferson Davis that he was the son of a Tennessee judge, a friend of the President's orderly. Upon his return to Washington, Baker met with President Abraham Lincoln, who selected the wily detective to undertake secret missions and inform the president about the generals, officers, battles, and other pertinent war-related activities. Baker eventually gained a colonel's commission as special provost marshal of the War Department in 1862. Three years later, he earned the rank of Brigadier General.

Baker's years in the secret service were noteworthy. He headed a force that included his assistant John Odell, and nearly a dozen other able men, plus innumerable private citizens. In this capacity, Baker demonstrated admirable ability as a detective, modeling himself after Francois Vidocq, a french spy. Although an innovator of police methods, Baker often disregarded due process, search warrants, and other constitutional guarantees during the war. He defended his conduct by claiming that a detectives's professional work "forbids him to give his authority for certain acts or assign any reason for his procedure. Hence the clamor is often raised of rash and lawless abuse of power when all the time he is acting under the direct orders of the government.

Various adventures occupied baker's attention during the Civil war. Lincoln assigned him to root out disloyalty in the Union military forces. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton provided Baker with extraordinary power and large amounts of monet to pursue a campaign against traitors. On one special mission for Stanton, Baker broke through enemy lines to relay information to General Nathaniel P. Bank's army. On another occasion, Baker penetrated Confederate territory to learn of troop movements and in the process uncovered a rebel plot to capture the nation's capital. Baker's surveillance also lead to the imprisonment of Louisa Buckner, who had journeyed to Washington from Virginia to purchase supplies of quinine and other goods for delivery to the South. Upon learning of Baker's successful endeavors, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase,who later served as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, enlisted the chief detective to investigate charges of corruption and immorality in the Treasury Department. Baker's most famous achievement, however, was planning and leading the expedition that captured John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Southern sympathizer who assassinated Booth. [Internet Editor's note: Baker did not lead or participate with the group that captured and killed Booth. Baker's cousin, Lt. Luther Byron Baker, was one of the two detectives from Lafayette Baker's secret service that tracked down and killed Booth at the Garrett farm. Lafayette Baker remained in Washington the entire time the chase took place].

Following the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, Baker's reputation suffered grievously. His attempt to curtail the activities of Mrs. Lucy Cobb, a notorious Washington pardon broker who enjoyed ready access to the White House, led to his downfall. Hearing rumors of Mrs. Cobb's alleged affair with the president, Baker set a trap to catch her selling documents needed for pardons. He warned President Johnson that "a system of manipulation and corruption are being practiced by persons holding official positions under the government in connection with the procuring of pardons." On November 11, 1865, Baker incorporated this sentence in his famous lengthy letter to Johnson.

Washington City, Nov. 11th, 1865

To:

His Excellency The President

Sir:

I desire to call your attention to a certain class of persons (Males and Female) who are daily visiting the Executive Mansion, known as Pardon Brokers. My attention was sometime since called to these individuals, the means employed in the prosecution of their business; and also a number of persons holding official positions under the government, etc. I declined however to take any official cognizance of the matter, until quite recently; when I discovered that certain of these Females, of very questionable character and reputation (to say the least) were almost daily procuring pardons. They have repeatedly advertised or proclaimed themselves in the public Hotels, and Saloons of this City as Pardon Brokers; asserting that they could procure the pardon of anyone applying, on twelve hours. Some days since, an officer of the U. S. Army [Captain Clarence J. Howell], who had been convicted at St. Louis by Military Court Martial; sentenced to the penitentiary at Alton, Ills, for two years; but escaped to Canada in 1864, came to Washington to procure his pardon. He was advised to apply to A Mrs. L. L. Cobb, who assured the officer that she could obtain his pardon in twelve hours for the sum of three hundred dollars, remarking at the same time that she would have to pay a portion of said three hundred dollars to certain clerks and others. The officer paid Mrs. Cobb one hundred dollars as retaining fee, taking the following receipt for the same, the original of which is in your Department ...

Mrs. C informed the Officer at their first interview that she had procured or obtained a great number pardons but was always compelled to divide the amount received therefore with certain persons holding positions in different Departments and Bureaus.

Mrs. Cobb having failed to procure the pardon within the time mentioned in the above receipt, the officer became dissatisfied and complained to me that he feared he should lose the one hundred dollars advanced, After hearing his statement, I feared that Mrs. C. might be engaged with others, in forging the pardons, as I did not think it possible that a woman of her character could procure a Pardon under any circumstances, much less to procure it in the time specified in her agreement with the Officer. Being desirous and deeming that the ends of justice would but be subserved I asked the Officer, in case she should succeed in in procuring the Pardon to pay her the remaining two hundred dollars, in such funds as could be identified - accordingly I gave the Officer four fifty dollar Treasury notes and marked them. The same evening, the Officer went to Mrs. Cobb's room, No. 20, Avenue House, paid the two hundred dollars, taking Mrs. C. receipt & therefore I then went to Mrs. Cobb's room, and required her to give me the two hundred dollars, which she did. I then asked her and her husband to accompany me to my office immediately. The same evening I took the receipt and contract of Mrs. Cobb to you. The Pardon was found in Mrs. C's room and on inquiry I found it had been delivered to her, before the oath of amnesty had been made as required by law. Mrs. C remained at my office until nearly Eleven O'Clock, when I discharged her and her husband, and they returned to the Avenue House the same evening. During my conversation with her, she made a long statement, claiming that she was not the only Female engaged in procuring Pardons for pay, etc. The Pardon referred to, as procured by Mrs. Cobb, was in the name of Clarence J. Howell, a name assumed for the occasion. When we take into consideration the notorious bad character and Reputation of this woman (Mrs. Cobb) her conduct while at the Executive Mansion, which is well known to nearly every employee at the White House: - her public boastings that she could procure pardons at all times quicker than any other person in Washington. That she has (if her own statement can be relied upon) procured a large number of Pardons, through the assistance of certain attachees of the different Departments. I trust I shall be pardoned for calling your attention to the matter in a written statement of the facts in regard to Mrs. Ella P. Washington, another Female Pardon Broker and the person of whom I spoke at our interview not long since. I beg leave to say that she contracted to procure the Pardon of one John Kelly, as appears from the following Receipt, the original being in my possession ...

The Pardon was not procured however. I know but little of Mrs. W's previous character. She is however, the Wife or Widow of Louis P. Washington, heretofore known as one of the most bitter and uncompromising haters of our government. there are many other very important facts partially brought to light by this investigation, which go to show conclusively that a system of manipulation and corruption are being practiced by persons holding official positions under the Government in connection with the procurement of Pardons.

I am Sir

Most Respectfully

Your Obdt Sevt

L. C. Baker

Brig Genl & Prov Mar of the War Dept

Johnson did not appreciate baker's letter or advice. Over the next two years, upon hearing of other incidents involving Baker and his network of spies, the president concluded that his suspicions of the man and his actions justified removal. The doubts Johnson harbored finally crystallized in 1867. An angry chief executive dismissed Baker for insolence, meddling, and maintaining an espionage system at the White House.

Anxious to re ignite his dwindling notoriety, Baker in 1868 testified before the House Judiciary Committee during Johnson's impeachment trial. In some ways, Baker was caught in the web of conspiracy hatched by Congressman James M. Ashley, an Ohio Republican who attempted to prove that Johnson had improperly corresponded with Jefferson Davis. For his star witness, Ashley, contending that all previous presidents who died in office had been poisoned, turned to Baker, who readily complied with the request as part of his vendetta against the chief executive who had fired him. Baker told the House members of having seen a purported letter written by Johnson, while military governor of Tennessee, to Davis in which he disclosed the position of Federal forces in Tennessee and vaguely hinted of joining the rebel cause. Baker failed to produce the letter. In fact, he gave false testimony while talking of secret letters that never surfaced and mysterious individuals who never materialized in his scurrilous endeavor to besmirch the president. At one time, Baker even failed to appear before the committee, compelling the chairman to issue a warrant for his apprehension. Committee members ultimately discounted Baker's testimony due to his inability to substantiate his statements or provide evidence about some missing pages from Booth's diary.

Baker's misleading and cryptic remarks before the House committee corroborated the general impression that the former secret service agent was a dubious witness. Broken in spirit and in declining health, Baker succumbed to the pressures he endured in 1868, including overwhelming ridicule during the impeachment trial and a financial business failure in managing a hotel in Lansing, Michigan. Less than six weeks after Johnson's acquittal by the Senate, Baker died in Philadelphia of spinal meningitis and fever. Biographer Arthur Orrmont summed up Baker's career in the following manner: "Lafayette Baker, hero without honor, was the strong right arm of Abraham Lincoln and edwin Stanton in that crisis [Civil War] and a prime agent in the transformation it brought about, a transformation which effects virtually all our lives today. This is his final importance.

Baker was a man of good intuition and tenacity when he headed the secret service, an institutional predecessor to today's agency, but he fell victim to an unusual set of circumstances. A man of many sides, Baker was a tireless detective who could be egotistical, ruthless and reckless. He aroused much animosity by his relentless pursuits and tenacity, especially in the Cobb case. Although many of Baker's enemies denounced him for graft and comical adventures, others in government appreciated his methods. Intoxicated by his own power and infatuated with intrigue, Baker in the end became his own worse enemy. He published a book in 1867 entitled History of the United States Secret Service, an important source for information on the organization of the Secret Service Bureau, leading detectives of the time, and espionage experiences of the North and South during the Civil War . The book settled some disputed aspects of the Civil War but in many cases combined truth with fiction. Baker's death at a young age the following year ended the controversial career of one of America's most colorful and daring secret service agents.