I happened to be present, in the crowded gallery of the Senate, when Senator Wigfall, of Texas, during a speech in reply to Johnson, in an indirect and insinuating way, while glancing significantly toward Senator Johnson, quoted the celebrated words of Marmion: "Lord Angus, thou has lied." This incident being discussed at our table one day, at which Senator Johnson occupied the post of honor, I took a favorable opportunity to intimate to him that I was in possession of facts that would show Mr. Wigfall to be not only a traitor, but that he was then scheming to first rob the government he had sworn to protect, and afterward intended to destroy, and in my boyish way suggested that the Senator should hurl the epithets back at him.
I did not for a moment consider that I was betraying any confidence in thus telling of the traitorous schemes to which I had been an unwilling listener.
Mr. Johnson seemed to be impressed with my statements, and for a while lost interest in his dinner. In his free and kindly way he was easily able to "draw me out" to his entire satisfaction, and secured from me the story with the necessary "authorities and references." As he rose from the table he walked around to my seat, shaking my hand cordially, while he invited me to his room for a further conference.
After that day, while I remained in Washington City, during the time preceding the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and for some weeks following, I became a welcome visitor at the Senator's room, oscillating between the headquarters of the rebel conspirators at Brown's and the private rooms of the leader of the Union cause, and thus was begun my first secret-service work.
I had brought with me to Washington some letters from Mr. Scott and other railroad friends, and also enjoyed through this connection a personal acquaintance with "Old Glory to God," as the Hon. John Covode was called during the war. This name originated from a telegram which Mr. Covode wrote to a friend, in which he intended to convey the intelligence of a great Union victory; but in the excitement of his big, honest, loyal heart over a Union success, which in the early days was a rarity, he neglected to mention the important fact of the victory, and the telegram as received in Philadelphia simply read:
"To John W. Forney:
* * * * "Glory to God. "John Covode."
He spelled God with a little g, Philadelphia with an F, but he got there just the same.
My days in the Capitol at that time were usually spent in the gallery of the Senate, where were to be seen and heard the great leaders on both sides. Some of the Southern Senators were making their farewell speeches, the words of which I, in my youthful innocence, tried vainly to reconcile with their action, as well as with the proceedings of a peace Congress, which was being held at Willard's old hall on F street.
The evenings of these days I devoted to the observation of the operations of the Southern conspirators at the hotel, and watched with concern the preparations for the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, who had secretly arrived in the city.
In the course of my amateur work among the Southern leaders, it so happened that Mr. Covode and Senator Johnson had been brought together, and they became mutually interested in my services.