The son of a Scottish constable, Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) founded the nation's first detective agency, which is still in existence! Born in Glasgow and trained as a cooper, Pinkerton became involved in labor demonstrations and fled to the United States in 1842 in order to avoid arrest. He settled in Dundee, Illinois, where, as a freelance detective, he helped apprehend a band of local counterfeiters. While in Illinois Pinkerton also became an ardent abolitionist and smuggled fugitive slaves into Canada. After becoming the first detective on the Chicago police force in 1850, he established Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, specializing in railroad security. Its emblem was an eye, and its motto was "We Never Sleep." In 1861 Pinkerton uncovered a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, and he personally guarded the president-elect as he traveled to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration. When the Civil War...