The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-20 00:00:00

re-inauguration of President Lincoln.

(From the Times' Correspondent)
WASHINGTON, March 7,
. _ _

Four years ago Abraham Lincoln, elected by a
majority of the States, but by a minority of the
American people, took the oath of office adminis-
tered to him by the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, an ardent pro-slavery politician and friend
of the Southern cause. Washington was more than
half rebellious, and it was at the risk of his life that
the new President--whose personal character and
ability were then little known or appreciated—ven-
tured to show himself in public. Very different were
the circumstances of his re-installation yesterday.
Though fully one-third of the States took no part
in his re-election and considered him a foreigner,
and the bitter enemy of their liberty and inde-
pendence, the other two-thirds re-appointed him to
office by a majority so triumphant as to prove
that in spite of many errors, shortcomings, and
failures he was their deliberate choice for the
highest honour they could confer, and the only
man who, in their judgment, was fit to carry to its
close the fearful war of which his first election had
been the signal. On this second occasion, Wash-
ington, which was crammed to overflowing with
visitors from all parts of the country, instead of re-
ceiving Mr. Lincoln with distrust, or even with
scant courtesy, was ardent in the expression of its
joy. If he had an enemy in the capital none such
dared to show himself. He drove unprotected
through the streets in an open carriage, receiving at
every pace the vociferous plaudits of the multitude,
and when at last he arrived in the Senate Chamber
and walked to the platform, when in the presence
of the people the oath was to be administered, he
took it from the lip of a Chief Justice of his own
appointment, a man whose opinions on the great
questions which agitate the country and underline
its mighty struggle for existence are identical with
his own.

The night previous to the inauguration was cold
and rainy. The Senate and House of Represeta-
tives, both of which sat till daylight of the 4th to
despatch the vast arrears of business which they
had suffered to accumulate, were startled at short
intervals by sharp gusts of wind and hail which
battered on the skylights, and which on one occasion,
in the dim grey of the early dawn suddenly burst
with such fury as to suggest the idea of an explosion
within the building. Many of the members rose
affrighted from their seats and rushed towards the
door. The deliberations were for a while suspended
in the general alarm, until the Speaker rising from
his chair, begged the representatives to resume their
places, announcing that the noise " was only a
storm." When day broke the rain was falling in
torrents, and scarcely ceased until ten o'clock.
Washington, never free from horrible mud in
wet weather and from still more horrible dust in
the dry, was more than ankle-deep in the middle of
the streets and ankle-deep at least in the footpaths.
Every one predicted that the ceremonial of the day
would take place under cover, in the Senate Cham-
ber, and that the unprivileged multitude would lose
their share of the spectacle. At 11 o'clock, however,
the storm began to moderate, and a streak of light
in the far horizon gave promise of fair weather. The
procession speedily began to form, including regi-
ments of soldiers in their shabby blue uniforms—
horse, foot, and artillery—white men as well as
black—deputations of firemen from Baltimore, Phil-
adelphia, and other cities, Masonic lodges, friendly
societies, all with bands of music, and banners, amid
which the " green flag of Erin" was next in con-
spicuousness to the all-pervading stars and stripes.
From the White House, down the wide and preten-
tious but mean-looking thoroughfare called Penn-
sylvania-avenue, the Broadway and High-street of
Washington, which connects the Presidential man-
sion with the Capitol, all was life and bustle. In
spite of the mire and the weather the streets
swarmed with people. The women trailed their
long garments through the slush, as if silks were of
no value, and the men trampled on heedlessly in
long boots worn over their trousers, through mud
and filth of a consistency and depth which no Euro-
pean who did not know the contrary from his Ame-
rican experience could believe to be compatible with
the government of a civilised city. It was remarked
by everybody, strangers as well as natives, that there
never had been such crowds of negroes in the streets
of the capital. At least one-half of the multitude
were coloured people, pouring in from far and near
to " assist" in the ceremonial of a day which to them
and to many wiser people seemed the triumph of
their race over a fast fading social prejudice and
political injustice. The negresses, "dressed all in
their best," flaunted in red, blue, yellow, and
every variety of brilliant and gaudy colour, and
looked as buoyantly happy as servant girls usually
do when out for a holiday. The negroes held their
heads high, as if they thoroughly understood that,
under the beneficent sway of Abraham Lincoln, "a
man was a man for a' that ;" if even he were not
something better than a man—if his skin happened
to be of the Ethiopian and not of the Caucasian
colour.

On reaching the Senate Chamber, about half-past
11, I found the spacious galleries crowded with
ladies, as brilliant as a parterre of flowers at mid-
summer. The Senate was devoting its attention
during the last few minutes of the Session, which
was legally to expire at noon, to the all-engrossing
question of the negro: The negro was lord of the
hour and the place, and the Senate was but his
minister. The motion before the House was the
passing of a bill to punish by fine of $5OO, and by
imprisonment for any period not shorter than three
months, or longer than three years, any driver or con-
ductor of any railroad, car, or omnibus, or steamship,
or public conveyance of any kind whatever, who
should eject therefrom or refuse to admit therein
any person on account of his or her colour. To this
proposal some senator—whether in earnest or deri-
sion it was impossible to ascertain, or even to hear,
on account of the incessant buzz and chatter kept
up by the ladies in the galleries, which the Senate
was either too indifferent or too gallant to notice—
moved an addition, to the effect that the same penal-
ties should apply to any hotel or inn keeper who
should refuse accommodation in his house to any
negro or negress, or mulatto, male or female, who
applied for emission like other travellers. The
Senate had not decided this question, nor had time
to ask how any penal enactment could reach a hotel-
keeper who, not liking negro company, should simply
inform any negro or negress wishing to pay for his
hospitality that his house was full, when the arrival
of some distinguished persons drew all eyes to the
gangway and put an end to all further discussion.
Whether the bill had passed with or without the
amendment, or whether it had dropped through
altogether, no one could tell. The new comers were
Mr. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of the
United States, and ex ofilcio President of the Senate,
and Mr. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, the Vice-
President elect. The acting President, Mr. Andrew
Foote, cordially shook hands with both gentlemen
and vacated the chair, which Mr. Hamlin assumed,
and beckoned Mr. Johnson to a seat beside him.
There entered immediately afterwards Mr. Seward,
Mr. Stanton, Mr. Welles, and other members of the
Cabinet, who took their places on chairs reserved
for them to the right of the presiding officer.
Scarcely had they seated themselves, when the jus-
tices of the Supreme Court, in their black silk gowns,
preceded by Chief Justice Chase, looking every inch
_Ht.," a judge, entered and took their places oir the
left, and were closely followed by the Foreign Mi-
nisters, conspicuous among whom were M. de Ras-
sloff, the Danish, and Baron Stoeckl, the Russian
Ambassador, and a whole bevy of smaller magnates
from other countries. Their. brilliant uniforms were
conspicuous amid the sombre costumes of the sena-
tors and Ministers, and lit up the place with a ra-
diance agreeable enough to my European eyes, but
which an irreverent New Englander, who stood next
to me, assured me confidentially was "gimcrack"
and " flunkeyism," and a " kind of thing that did
not suit a free country." It was remarked that Eng-
land and France were represented on this occasion
by attaches only, and that Mexico was not repre-
sented at all.

Mr. Hamlin rose as soon as the little flutter caused
by these arrivals had subsided, and, in a short, un-
pretending, and effective speech, took his official
farewell...of the body over whose deliberations he had