The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-03-11
Letter from thu Federal Capital.
The Inauguration.
WAsHrNcToN. March g. is

TO the &0eSOF 81 the 1feso' Las
Whether we, as people, are more OF ~ ~
fond Of pomps, pageants and display, Co...;r
others, I will not undertake to say -
is is that we respond very promptly 70 Su'n
appeals to the eve and ea---the fancy ana tne
Imagination. Perhaps the fact that we nave
daniaa o,r..,ves almost all governmental ois-
nlavs sa,s keener edge upon our rellsn ior
the few in which we do indulge. Our hepoo-
lcsn court affords no splendors to be gazed
.,,ro,, far off with half yelled eye; along the
.,,ea,s of our Republican Capital passes no
IordIy procession, Respondent with gilded
trappnQs and heraldic blazonry, through
awed and wondering crowds; our Republican
institutions offer no state ceremonies wherein
government parades itself before the govern
ed in an imposing aud overawing display OF
gorgeous signs and emblems. For this rea-
son, or more probably because we are able to
discern, even when embodied in the piainest
and simplest form, the sublime idea OF the
state, we throng in crowds to witness so elm
pie ceremony as the counting and declaring
of the Electoral votes in the House of Repre-
sentatives, and make pilgrimages from the re-
hottest part Of our vast territory to behold
that greatest OF our state occasions, Presi-
Dental Inauguration.
To one born and reared amid monarchical
institutions, who may have seen prince Of
the blood, amid all the pomp of privileged or
ders, ancient and exclusive, amid popular fer
vors OF loyalty-that loyalty which inspires
patriotism with the warmth of personal re-
gard, receive, in accordance with the venera-
BILE traditions of dead generations and the au-
gust will Of a living people, the crown, which
for better or worse consecrated him to the
state--to him who may have witnessed and
fully sympsthized with such scene, this Re-
publican coronation of ours may seem a very
tame affair. But to us who, choosing to fol-
low living principles rather than obey dead
traditions, and believing, in affairs of govern
ment, the good Of the people to be the only
end, and the will Of the people the only law,
seek to realize our grand ideal in the most
simple and direct way, who with small pos
sessions In the past still claim as our own
the glorious future, the sail hail hereafter,"-
TO US, IL is an event more worthy of our en-
thusiasm than the most brilliant pageant, the
most stately ceremony OF royalty. To see
man who, from the people and of the people,
has been for time clothed with the majesty
Of the state ahd entrusted for the defense and
maintenance of the Republic with powers in
eomparably more vast and real than those of
many petty imperious despot, at our behest
submissiyely laying down the tremendous bur-
den Of executive labor, and the awful respon-
sibilities of executive power; to behold an
other, or perchance the same one, at our bid
ding, calmly and quietly assuming the mighty
trust-this, to us at least, is something far too
grand for the proudest heraldic pomp, too
majestic, too gloriously sublime for gaudy
blazon or gorgeous tinselry.
Perhaps the Inauguration that has Just
taken place has never been surpassed by any
since the first one of Washington, In the num-
bers drawn together, in the popular enthusi-
asm manifested, or 10 the moral grandeur of
the occasion. 1t could but gain somewhat in
interest by comparison, in mems thoughts,
with that of four years since, Then the Presi-
dent elect, an almost new man, without COM
handing name or prestige, entering his own
Capital as IL by stealth, was indicted into his
great Office, while In the streets of Washing
ton the flying batteries of Scott kept watch
and ward, and the whole land held it's breath
lest the next report should be one of assassi-
nation, national downfall and anarchy, was
inaugurated President of a country already
rent by rebellion and overhung by the black
and lowering and thunderous clouds of ire
mendous civil war.
Four years have passed away, and the same
man, now known and recognized as the Mo
Ses OF our Exodus from Past sullied with
the shame of bondage, to Future of univer-
sal freedom, called by the almost unanimous
voice of people not yet delivered, but
strong in the hope and joyous in the. pros
pect of speedy deliverance, to reassume the
powers which he has exercised so wisely and
80 well, is raised once more amid the acclama-
lions of a grateful country to the highest
place in its gift.
Few events are wholly sublime; and among
them, If such there are, can hardly be reckon
ed Presidential Inauguration, attended as it
is by medley of odd circumstances and in
cidents, and favored with some sly dashes of
the ludicrous and serio-comic. The influx of
strangers for day or two previous to the
Fourth Of March into the already crowded
city was sufficiently large and varied. Men
from Maine, from Minnesota, from California,
from all about, in attire and array of all sorts,
with trunks, travelling bags and valisee,
swarmed from the arriving trains. soon to find
themselves wandering disconsolately through
streets and lanes, avenues and alleys, high
ways and by-ways, seeking some place where
to bestow their bundles and stretch their tired
limbs. Where they were all packed away it
Is hard to say, unless they were slowed upon.
some such magical principle as that by virtue
Of which Down-east mass meeting just be-
fore election, comfortably accommodates its
enthusiastic thousands In room ordinarily
capable Of holding only few hundreds. To
plvouac in bar-rooms and kitchens, to sleep
three In bed or take that least desirable side
OF it-the under. ITO perch at night in easy (P)
cnairs, somewhat like chickens at roost, 10
least upon viands at charges in inverse ratio
70 'ner quality and quantity-to do these and
many Osner Ingenious and surprising things
may seem easy enough to those who. stayinr
comfortably At home. acquire their ideas from
tne picture papers, but to those who actually
achieve these exploits, they are not wholly
sublime, nor yet wholly amusing. The storv
about the hotels having their outer walls cor
eaed with rows Of pins, on which guests were
privileged to be hing at night, at two dollars
per peg reject, after careful inquiry, as hav-
ing no sufhcient foundation, and fabulous
Inc philosophical axiom, however. that two
bodies cannot occupy the same place at the
same time, may be considered as thoroughly
demonstrated and absolutely true.
The morning of Inauguration day was as
cheerless and comfortless with mud and dr;v