National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-02-12
DIDN'T CARE WHICH.
An incident Preliminary 10 Lineoln's In
ACKNOWLEDGMENT SCOTS Alarm.

Speaking of inaugurations and inau-
/ gural committees" remarked Mr. Lewis Clephane
to REPUBLICAN, reporter, there was little Incl
dent connected with the iirS Inauguration of Presi-
| dent Lincoln which is interesting, if you would
/ like to hear it."
"Ofcourse would replied the scribe. who had
found it hard work to supply the city editors de-
mand for something interesting.
We'll" began Mr.. Clephanc, " those were tick
| liSh times, you know. The President elect was
threatened with assassination, and there was con-
siderable uncertainty regarding the inaugural cere-
monies. The Republican organizations, however.
determined toearry ont the programme they had
prepared. Mr.. B. B. French and were appointed a
committee to make arrangements, and in the
course of our duties we called upon General
Scott to confer with him i'll regard to the
procession. He at once protested against
having procession and became rather excited
about it. 1t would never do, he said; the PreSi-
dent was likely to be aSsasSinated We said that
that was all fol-de- rol-perfcct nonsense. Do you
think So? rctorted the General warmly; then
look at these, and putting his hand around to his
coattail pocket, a feat which he performed with
difficulty Oh account of the rotndity Of his Igure.
he drew forth big batch of letters threatening the
Presidents life At that juncture it happened
| that General Gaines of New York, who had been
attending the Peace Convention at Willard Hall,
came into General SCOTS room General Gaines
fell upon General SCOTS shoulder. They wept
| and otherwise eyinced greatemotion. This diver
sion appeared to mollify General Scott very much,
and, resuming the conference with s, he said that
we could have the procession, but there should be
no Wide Awakes i'll it. Hc would, he said, station
artillery the cross-strects and place picked men
on all the high houses. Under these condi-
tons we could have a procession. Before
we left he cnquired if we had seen
President Buchanan yet. We replied that
we had not. He said that he wished
we would. So down we went, and saw President
Buchanan. After we had explained our business,
the President said. Il don't see any for de-
parting from the general usage. Have YOU seen
General Scott YETI We told him the substance Of
the interview with General Scott. 'Well.' replied
the President, I think the General is unneces
sary alarmed but it is best do Difference to his
opinion. Before We left the President said: Now,
it will afford pleasure to tender M carriage TO
Mr.. Lincoln, ana accompany him to the Capitol to
be sworn ill.,. We told him that we had no doubt
Mr.. Lincoln would accept the offer.
From the White House we went to Wizards
Hotel, where Mr.. Lincoln stopping. Mr.. Lin
coin received Us in his room, and we told him
what President Buchanan had said Mary, Mary,
come here, cried the President elect, calling TO
his wife. and when Mrs Lincoln appeared he laid
has rendered to me the use of his carriage and
agreed TO accompany me TO the Capitol when am
sworn in Mrs. Lincoln said she thought that was
very kind. and, ofcourse, Mr.. Lincoln would ac
cept the offer. A, she retiring, Mr. Lincoln
called ont, Mary, by the way, see some one has
presented you with carriage referring to some
notice which had appeared i'll the papers. When
this scene over, we detailed to the President
elect what our business was and asked him what
his wishes were. Mr.. Lincoln rising from his seat
threw one leg The back of his chair rested his
chin on his PALM and, stopping moment to con-
slider, made the following characteristic reply:
g. WhenI was practising law il Illinois client of
mine, peculiar sort of fellow, was brought before
the court, and the judge ssked him. Do you swear
Or affirm ?" Mr.. Judge" my client replied, Il
don't care damn which"
We supposed we were to take that for an answer.
So We left. The result was that we had a fine in
auguration.