broad street. The Capitol was reached by passing up on the north side of the grounds, and the party entered the building by the northern door over a temporary planked walk. During the hour and a half previous to the arrival of President Buchanan and the President-elect in the Senate Chamber, that hall presented a gayer spectacle than ever before. The usual desks of the senators had been removed, and concentric lines of ornamented chairs set for the dignitaries of this and other lands with which this country was in bonds of amity and friendship. The inner half-circle on the extreme left was occupied by the members of the cabinets of Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Lincoln, mingled together, and farther on by senators. The concentric circle farther back was filled with senators. The next half-circle immediately in the rear of that occupied by the ministers were the secretaries and attachés. The half-circles on the left, corresponding to those occupied by the corps diplomatique, furnished places for senators and governors of States and Territories. Outside of all, on both sides, stood-for there was no further room for seats-the members of the House of Representatives and chief officers of the executive bureaus. The galleries all round the Senate were occupied by ladies.

"At a quarter-past one o'clock, the President of the United States and the President-elect entered the Senate Chamber, preceded by Senator Foote and the marshal of the District of Columbia, and followed by Senators Baker and Pearce. They took seats immediately in front of the clerk's desk, facing outward; President Buchanan having the President-elect on his right, and the senators equally distributed right and left.

"In a few minutes, Vice-President Hamlin, who had been previously installed, ordered the reading of the

order of procession to the platform on the east of the Capitol; and the line was formed, the Marshal of the District of Columbia leading. Then followed Chief Justice Taney and the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, the Committee of Arrangements of the Senate, the President of the United States and the President-elect, Vice-President of the United States, and Senate, the members of the diplomatic corps, governors of State and Territories, and members of the House of Representatives. In this order the procession marched to the platform erected in the usual position over the main steps on the east front of the Capitol, where a temporary covering had been placed to protect the President-elect from possible rain during the reading of his inaugural address. The greater part of an hour was occupied in seating the procession on the platform, and in the delivery of the address of Mr. Lincoln, which he read with a clear, loud, and distinct voice, quite intelligible to at least ten thousand persons below him. At the close of the address, Mr. Lincoln took the oath of office from the venerable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.*

"After the ceremony of inauguration had been completed, the President and Ex-President retired by the same avenue, and the procession, or the military part of it, marched to the executive mansion. On arriving at the President's house, Mr. Lincoln met Gen. Scott, by whom he was warmly greeted; and then the doors of the house were opened, and thousands of persons rapidly passed through, shaking hands with the President, who stood in the reception-room for that purpose. In this simple and quiet manner was a change of rulers made." +

* Chief Justice Taney administered this oath to ten successive presidents. † "Annual Cyclopædia," 1861.

And thus the lowly-born son of the Western pioneer sat down in the presidential chair of a great Republic, a seat more honorable than any throne on earth. The contrast between his humble home in early life and this

high position is seen in the sketch thus purposely given of the imposing ceremonies of inauguration. Well might the eloquent statesman* add, after mentioning Cæsar, William of Orange, and Henry IV. of France, all of whom were assassinated, "his star will not pale by the side of theirs. These are illustrious names; but there is nothing in them which can eclipse the simple life of our President, whose example will be an epoch in the history of humanity, and a rebuke to every usurper, to be commemorated forever by history and by song. 'I called thee from the sheep-cot to be ruler over Israel,' said the Lord to David; and whoever is thus called is more than Cæsar. Such an appointment was his; and his simple devotion to human rights was more than genius or power."

* Hon. Charles Sumner.

CHAPTER V.

TROUBLOUS TIMES.

"We wait beneath the furnace-blast
The pangs of transformation:
Not painlessly doth God recast
And mould anew the nation.

Hot burns the fire

Where wrongs expire;

Nor spares the hand

That from the land

Uproots the ancient evil."

WHITTIER.

"I am for peace; but, when I speak, they are for war." - Ps. cxx. 7.

THE "Quaker drop" showed itself in the inaugural address of the new President. The blood of a pious and peaceful ancestry coursed along the veins of him whom God had called to be the head of a great nation in its most troublous times: with a prescience belonging to that inheritance, he saw the gathering cloud, and heard the thunders of war. Yet he would fain stay the glittering bolt of destiny, and, if possible, forbid the clashing of contending steel. Hence the deprecatory tone of his first inaugural; the evident desire for peace, that shone, like the golden symbol of the descending Spirit, in the illuminated missals of other days. But it was unavailing. The soft utterances of peace were drowned in the noisy clamors of war; and the closing paragraph of that inaugural address was, even more than its author knew, the very voice of prophecy. Only a few short months, and "the mystic cords of memory" did stretch from many a "battle-field and patriot grave" to living hearts and

hearth-stones all over our broad land; and at the close of the mighty conflict, from his own grave- the grave of a martyr was to come a voice pleading with humanity for liberty and righteousness. But we will not anticipate.

Mr. Lincoln's first act was to choose a Cabinet. This 、he did with his usual discrimination; and though the lapse of time and changing course of events led to changes in the Cabinet, yet none are willing to impeach the wisdom which selected the first set of Cabinet-officers. For the important position of Secretary of State, William H. Seward of New York was selected; Salmon P. Chase of Ohio was placed in charge of the Treasury Department; Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania became Secretary of War; Gideon Welles of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair of Maryland was appointed Postmaster-General; and Edward Bates of Missouri, Attorney-General.

As every reader of to-day knows, the Southern States manifested a rebellious spirit long before Lincoln filled the chair of Washington. Had the imbecile Buchanan but possessed the old Roman spirit of one of his predecessors, he would have shown that he had a "backbone," and taken a Jacksonian share of the "responsibility in using measures that would have crushed the viper in the egg. But the pusillanimous policy adopted just suited the "let-me-alone" theory of the Southern secessionists ; and so the infamous Floyd could steal our arms, and the double-dyed traitor, Robert E. Lee, could linger in our ranks till he had possessed himself of Gen. Scott's plans, and then desert to the enemy, thenceforth to use his knowledge in an effort to overthrow the best Government the world ever saw, and place a mán, who dis