Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-03-03
1861-18S5.

voice of the people to surrender the con-
trol of the government to republican adj
ministratlon. On Wednesday of this week
the republicans retire and the democracy
resume the executive power laid down by
them twenty-four years ago. Great events
have taken place during this period. The
greatest rebellion of modern times has
been crushed by the government, the dis
memberment of the Union has been pre-
vented. the honor, strength and prosperity
of the nation have been greatly increased.
slavery has been abolished, and as hap
py. free, enlightened people we surpass
any other.
Looking back and recalling the condi-
ton OF affairs at Mr.. Lincoln's Inaugural
ton in 1861 and contrasting it with the
state Of things existing as Mr.. Cleveland
assumes the Office of President. what a
vast difference appears in the circumstan-
ces and surroundings of the two events
When Mr.. Lincoln was Oh his way to
Washington to be inaugurated. his friends
compelled him TO pass through Baltimore
secretly in order to avoid the danger of
threatened assassination. In Greeley's
History of the American Conflict" is the
following in relation to Mr. Lincoln's pas
sage through the city Of monuments, then
hot bed of secession and treason.
The city government was in the hands of
the Breckenridge democracy, Who had seized
it under a cry of reform and the leaders of
that democracy we're deep in the counsels of
treason. 1t had been proclaimed, in many
quarters, and through various channels, that
MIR. Lincoln should never live to be naugur-
sted and The Baltimore Republican of the
23d had leading article directly calculated
T. incite tumult and violence on the occasion
Of Mr. I.incoln'S passage through the city.
The police was directed by Marshal George
=. Kane, who. after sOjourn in Fort
Mchenrv. fled in 1864 TO the congenial asso-
Citations of Richmond and the Confederate
Army. 1t being considered certain that an
attempt to assassinate the President would be
made under cover of mob violence, should
he pass through the city originally in
tended. Mr.. Lincoln was persuaded to take
the ears secretly, during the evening of the
22a and passed through Baltimore, I'M
Known ana UDsuspecttu carry on JHe morn
ing of the 23d-reaching Washington about
the hour that he was expected to leave Har-
rsburg rhe prudence of this step has since
bt en- abundantly demonstrated; but 1t wound
ed, Il, the time, the sensibilites of many
friends, who would have mnch preferred to
form an escort of one hundred thousand
armed men to see him safely through Balti-
more. than to have him pass through it clan
destnely and like a hunted fugitive.
SO Lincoln went to his inauguration as
Greeley well says, like hunted fugi-
tive" Arrived in Washington he found
that General Scott had taken as ample
military precautions as possible to secure
his peaceable Inauguration. Secretary
Holt had brought seven companies of ar
tillerv and one company OF sappers and
miners to the city for the protection of the
national capital. This aroused the anger
of the conspirators. and Mr.. Branch of
North Carolina presented a resolution in
the House against quartering troops
around the capital. declaring that if per
mitted it would be obstructive of civil
liberty and therefore the troops should be
forthwith removed " The resolution was
defeated bv a vote of 1875 to 3d. but its in
PRODUCTION showed what was IN the hearts
of men who then sat in the national Con,
gress
Secretary Holt in his report to the Pres
ident let the light of truth upon the exist
ing situation. In his Twenty Years OF
Congress" Mr.. Blaine says:
He Mr.. Holt stated in very plain
language that revolution had been in pro-
gress FOR the preceding three months in
several of the Southern States : that its his
tory was one of surprises, treacheries and
ruthless spoliationS;' that forts of the United
States had been captured and gsrrsoned, and
hostile flags unfured from the ramparts
that arsenals had been seized, and the arms
which they contained appropriated to the use
Of the csptors that more than half million
of dollars found in the mint at New Orleans
had been unscrupulousiv applied to replenisl
the treasury of Louisiana; that conspiracy
had been entered into for the armed occupa.
ton of Washington as part of the revolution
airy programme and that he could not fail &c
remember that, if the early admonitons in
regard to the designs of lawless men il
Charleston Harbor had been acted on, and
adequate re-enforcemeuts sent there before
the revolution began, the iisas, rous political
complications which ,nsued might not have
occurred
This gives a slight idea of the state o.
things when Mr.. Lincoln was inaugurated
twenty-four years ago-when the de-
mocracy unwilingly left the quarter deck
of the Ship of State and the republicans
assumed command. There was not only
treason in the air appropriations for civil
war had already begun in the South.
Now how different is the situation as
Mr.. Cleveland takes the oath of office
though fraud and violence are the un
doubted>age by which his election was
secured. His passage to the capital from
Albany is without interruption of any
kind, aud the only clamor that will attend
his Inauguration will be that of the multi
tude of ofiice-seekers urging their claims
for positions under the government. Fol
the changed situation since 1861. honor tc
the brave men whose sacrifices and gal
Al IT, |.