The New York herald., 1865-03-04

| vestigated
| The annual commencement Of the New York Univer
sty Medical College took place last evening in the chape
Of the institution sxiy-two graduates received thei
diplomas and numerous certificates Of honor, medal
and prizes awarded The address 70 the graduate
was delivers d by Professor J. w. Draper
very destructive re occurred at Louisville on IN,
morning Of the 27th ut destroying property valued
hundred thousand dollars and suocatng two youn
men sleeping In the upper stories Of the building,
burned The property was fully insured
Tho stock market steady but dull yesterday Gov
ernments were frmer Gold was inactive, and CLOSED
down town at 100. At the evening board It was very
dull and closed at 100
Business yesterday continued - dull as ever, II MOI
more The uncertainty regarding the future price Of
gold the rates Of tax and tariff &c. combined TO restrict
commercial transactions within the narrowest limits
Foreign goods quiet and almost nominal Many
kinds Of domestic produce were dull and entirely nom
nal while nearly everything shade lower Cotton
waso 1c. lower Petroleum was duh and nominal On
Change the flour market ruled quiet, while wheat
steady Corn dull, but prices were without decided
change Oats wers scarcely so firm. Pork was lower,
with limited demand. Beef ruled steady, while lard
shade easier with less doing Freights were dun
and rates nominal whiskey was nrmer and more active
President Lincoln's Second Term-His
Cabinet and His Policy.
The second term of Abraham Lincoln as
President Of the United States, commences to-
day. He is our first President who has had o
second Inauguration since that Of General jack
son, in lS33-thirty-two years ago. From
Jackson to Lincoln we have had lot of one
term Presidents; and, excepting General Harri-
son and General Taylor-both prematurely cut
off-they have been Of the order of temporizing
and trading politicians. Through all the batch.
we look in vain for the marks Of statesman
We find them, without exceptions, the mere
creatures Of Juggling conventions and cor
rupting bargains, going on from bad to worse,
from Van Buren, down to Buchanan. Nor were
the arts by which these men were advanced to
power more demoralizing than their base de-
vices to retain it. The consequences are before
us in the armed legions of this terrible civil
war;
Abraham Lincoln himself. in 1860, like Polk,
Pierce and Buchanan, was adopted only as a
one term compromise by the various cliques of
his party wranglng and scheming for the nomi-
nation. In this view his very obscurity and
apparently unambitious mediocrity made him
preferable to more prominent men among the
quarrelling politicians concerned. The repub-
lican wirepullers, like the democrats, since the
reign Of Jackson, were looking for convenient
instrument, when they picked up their master
in that good-natured, uncouth, ungainly and
unpretending Illinois railsplitter, Abraham
Lincoln. It is said that the College of Cardi-
nails at Rome, in their elections Of the Pope, on
several occasions, in resorting to the same ex-
pedient have been cheated in the same way.
We are sure that Honest Old Abe was nomi-
mated at Chicago without the remotest idea Of
his becoming candidate for reelection, but
with deliberate calculation from Seward men,
Chase men and others that he was the very
man to be moulded to their purposes for the
succession.
Nor were the events of the first three years
Of Mr.. Lincoln in the White House such as to
suggest the probability Of his denomination.
The magnates of his party laughed at the pro-
position when first thrown out by the HERALD.
1t was as amusing as one of Old Abe's jokes.
But with the approach Of the Baltimore Con-
vention the radical dignitaries of the party
began to discover their mistake. They were
outwitted and outgeneralled completely. They
became mutinous; they threatened secession;
they tried it in feeble experiment or two, but
they were subdued-from Chase and Fremont,
Wade and Winter Davis, down to Bryant and
Greeley. We need not repeat the story. Old
Abe was renominated and reelected, and he
enters upon his second term of Office to-day.
What line Of policy will he now pursue!
What changes will he make in his Cabinet? To
the first question we shall probably have
satisfactory answer in his inaugural address to-
day-and perhaps not. To the second inquiry
no very elaborate answer is needed. Except
ing the appointment of Mr.. McCulloch to
the Treasury, and change in the Inte-
rior Department, we expect no Cabinet changes;
and under Old Abe's system Of discipline no
further changes are necessary. He is the mas
ter, and the members of his Cabinet are his
chief clerks. He consults them, he hears them,
and then tells them what to do. He indulges
Mr.. Seward in his diplomatic correspondence
by the volume, but his theories and arguments
touching our foreign policy and domestic rela-
tions stand merely rs the opinions of Mr.. Sew
ard. Old Abe is not bound by them. It Is
hardly possible that he has ever read or heard
q tenth part Of the voluminous writings Of his
inexhaustible Premier. In Short it matters lit
tie whether Mr.. LiHcolns chief advisers are
Tom, Dick and Harry or Sam, Bob and Peter,
so long as they are subject to his opinions "a
~ - T. H. L. x~ll xIok 4
course has been shaped by the logic Of events,
and we presume that this will continue to be
his policy. Meantime Greeley and the other
anti-Seward radicals may point as much o.
they like to the broad hints Of the Baltimore
platform in reference to the Secretary Of State
II is all moonshine to Old Abe. t
He is most remarkable man. He may
seem TO be the most credulous, docile and
pliable Of backwoodsmen, and yet when ht