alan pinkerton of the legendary pinkerton detective agency is on the scene. he is already there in baltimore and he has just under two weeks to uncover hard evidence of this looming plot before time runs out. what makes the situation even more difficult and more dangerous is that there is no good way to get from springfield to washington at this time. america's railroads are expanding at a fantastic rate but there is no single direct railway line, no transcontinental railroad yet. the railway system in 1861 looked as if you had taken a plate of spaghetti and thrown it at a map and wherever it lands there is an independent regional railway line. in all, lincoln took a route that zigzag crisscroscrisscros s then doubled back on itself covering a distance of 2000 miles on 18 separate independent railroad lines as opposed to a journey of a few hundred miles as the crow flies. at each stop lincoln gets out of the train, gets a little speech, waves into the crowd and shakes hands. for him this is the whole point. by the time lincoln sets off for washington, seven s

my point is alan pinkerton's story has gotten tangled up over the years with the darker aspects of his agency's legacy. allan pinkerton, the founder of the agency, spent his youth marching for the rights of working men in his native scotland and came under fire literally for doing so. allan pinkerton, founder of the agency, ran a station on the underground railroad in illinois, helping fugitive slaves on their way north to freedom. he was a friend of john brown, the fire and brimstone abolitionist, even though the assistance he gave to brown in the days leading up to harpers ferry put him on the wrong side of the law. he was a lawman by day, lawbreaker by night. and believe me, i am not putting him up for sainthood and i am not looking to apologize for some of the terrible things he did and that happened on his watch and especially later on. but there is based lori here that never gets told. it is the story of a barefoot cooper who becomes a world fame detective and makes his bone protecting america's railroads. his biggest client is the illinois central railroad. the illinois central

joining us is jim pinkerton, contributor writer for the american conservative may go zone and alan colmes, host of the alan colmes show. i'm sure your answer to that question is now. "new york times" is not doing the p.r. job of the administration. >> this wasn't an editorial by the nie"the new york times.the"" this was not a news article nor an editorial in the "new york times" so it was the opinion of one writer. i happen to agree with them. this is what obamacare was supposed to do and according to the head of the c.b.o., that's what it does. it's really a demand issue. it creates more demand as a supply changes because people are going to want to -- people who are stuck in jobs only because they're getting health care may want to retire, may want to leave to restore their own businesses and those jobs have to be filled by new workers. this is not firing a bunch of people, getting people out of the work force. it's giving people more flexibility which is exactly what the affordable care act is supposed to do. jon: i suspect you see it differently. >> they have more flexibility to work

the plot was discovered by detective alan pinkerton. was executed in baltimore as lincoln stopped in the city on the way to washington d.c.. this is about 40 minutes. >> thank you. thank you for coming out. it is a real pleasure to be here in illinois especially because this is literally where the wheels of this story started turning both figuratively and literally. the book is the story to a large extent of allan pinkerton, famous detective of the ninete