-while I make these acknowledgments, I desire to repeat, in order to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use for them; that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that, so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise be brought about, it shall be through no fault of mine."

The general expectation was that Lincoln, with the party that had come on from the West with him, should take a late train that night for Washington, passing through Baltimore. In order to frustrate the plans of the conspirators, it was privately arranged that he should take an earlier train and depart from Harrisburg without the usual public announcement being given by telegraph. Accordingly, the telegraph wires were cut in every direction. Harrisburg was isolated from the rest of the country, so far as this means of communication was concerned, and Lincoln, accompanied by two or three devoted personal friends, took a special train to Philadelphia, drove at once to the railway station, found ready the Washington train, and so passed through Baltimore hours before he was expected to arrive there. There have been many absurd stories circulated since then as to Lincoln being compelled to assume a disguise for this dangerous part of the journey. It is sufficiently disgraceful to the republic of the United States, that its lawfully elected chief magistrate should have been put in danger of his life when proceeding from his home to the seat of government. the tales of a masquerading disguise, donned for this occasion, were invented, for the most part, by those who se

But

HIS SAFE ARRIVAL AT THE CAPITAL. 235

cretly sympathized with the would-be assassins. Unfortunately, some of these idle tales have survived, to be repeated by careless writers.

Speaking of this sad episode long afterwards, Lincoln said: "I did not then, nor do I now, believe I should have been assassinated had I gone through Baltimore, as first contemplated, but I thought it wise to run no risk where no risk was necessary." Washington was surprised to wake up early on the morning of February 23, 1861, to find that the President-elect, so soon to be President in fact, had arrived safely. His family came on soon after him, and the party were installed at temporary quarters in a hotel, pending his formal inauguration into the great office to which he had been chosen. Washington was intensely secession in its social sympathies. It had been dominated for years by the Southern and slave-holding element. The leaders of society hated the " black Republicans" and all connected with them. They were glad that a war for slavery was coming, and they showed their disloyalty to the Union by every possible means, serious or silly. The rebels had adopted "Dixie" as a "national" air for the new confederacy, and this and other alleged rebel tunes poured from the windows of the houses of the rebel sympathizers, day and night, until some of the regiments that occupied Washington later in the year took up the so-called rebel strains and made them too common to be regarded any longer as exclusively rebel property. These envenomed and irritated people were at a loss for slanders vile enough, and epithets unsavory enough, to

express their detestation of Lincoln and all that appertained to him. To this day, undoubtedly, many honest and worthy people entertain false notions of Lincoln, his family, his antecedents, and his conduct in office, derived from the malicious gossip of those who hoped, for a time, that he would be sent back to Illinois dead or alive, and that "President Davis" would come and take his place. All this was of short duration. The truth of history sooner or later is vindicated. But it is worth while to put on record, as a faithful chronicle of the time, the fact that no man was more thoroughly misunderstood or more bitterly maligned than was Abraham Lincoln when, on the brink of civil war, he took up the reins of government.

A Notable Gathering in Washington-The First Inaugural AddressHow it was Received North and South-Precautions against Plots -Formation of the Cabinet-Representative Men.

IT

T was a notable gathering of men that was assembled about Lincoln when he was inaugurated President of the United States, March 4, 1861. Among these were many whose names will always hold place in the history of our country. James Buchanan, the weak and irresolute, was just relinquishing the reins of government to the new man, "from the West." Taney, Chief-Justice of the United States, whose name is forever linked with the Dred Scott decision, administered the oath of office to the incoming President. W. H. Seward, formerly Governor of and then Senator from New York, soon to be Secretary of State, was there. Senators Sumner and Wilson, of Massachusetts, early Free Soilers, and each destined to occupy prominent places in the management of public affairs, were also there. Senator "Ben" Wade, of Ohio, another Free-Soil leader; General Scott, the great military leader of the time; Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's old rival; Edward D. Baker, Lincoln's friend and

dearly-beloved companion, and many more who were either famous then or subsequently became so,—these all formed a group of historic interest. The ceremony of inauguration took place on a platform constructed at the east front of the capitol, then not fully finished, overlooking a large and open esplanade, at the outer verge of which a marble statue of Washington shone whitely in the brilliant sunshine. Curiosity to see the face of the new President, and anxiety to hear what he might say, had drawn enormous crowds to the national capital. The pressure of people was something unprecedented, even in Washington, where the inauguration of an Administration has always been a great event, once in four years. The multitudes of office-hunters doubtless added greatly to the press of people. The major portion of the crowd that thronged the capital was made up of people who were profoundly impressed with a sense of the gravity of the occasion, the solemnity of the crisis through which the nation was now about to pass. Treason lurked in every quarter. Not only were the departments of the government and the halls of Congress poisoned by the presence of open or secret rebels, but many officers of the army and navy were ready to serve in the ranks of the seceders. Some of these had already accepted appointments and commissions from the so-called "Confederate States of America," while they were yet in the service of the republic. Men distrusted each other. Spies were known to be about, and suspicions of a plot to assassinate the President-elect were rife. Even while