The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-02-26
INAUGURAL MEMORIES.
History of TWenty-six Cere-
monies Antecedent to
That of Next
Thursday.
THREE OUTSIDE WASHINGTON
Paraders and Page ants Of Bygone
Days-Three Presidents Who
Had No Circus.

| WASHINGTON. Feb. 20, 1S97.-Since
George Washington subscribed to the
office as Chief Magistrate Of the United
/ States of America. the event occurring
| in the city of New York, April 80, 1883,
the imposing ceremony, when Mr.. McKin-
ley shall have assumed his office will have
/ been performed twenty-seven times. True,
/ there have been thirty Presidents Of these
United States, but four of them became so
| by the deaths of those elected by the peo-
| pie and their installations were shrouded
in sorrow. These four were John Tyler
| (who succeeded William Henry Harrison,
| the grandfather of the present living ex-
! President Benjamin Harrison. April 4,
l 1S4l): Millard Fillmore. who became Presi-
dent on the death of Zachary Taylor,
| July g. 1850; Andrew johnson, who as
sumed the office when Abraham Lincoln
was assassinated April IA, 1866. and Ches-
| ter A. Arthur, who was elected Vice
President with James A. Garfield at the
| head Of the ticket. and who also went
| into office through a National tragedy
There were no ceremonies or addresses
| to their fellow citizens by these four
Presidents. Their inaugural addresses
! were generally brief and in all cases adj
dressed to the people through the medium
| VI eiic puuiiC PRESS. In one case, IndI OF
Millard Fillmore, there was no inaugural
address. The President simply despatched
message to his fellow citizens of the
| Senate and House of Representatives,
| announcing officially the calamity that
| has fallen upon the country in the death
of the President and calling upon the two
Houses of Congress to adopt proper
measures for the performance of the
| funeral ObSeQuieg,
| With three exceptions all inaugurations
| OF residents OF this nation have oc-
| Cured In the city of Washington The
exceptions were George Washington,s S
first inauguration In New York; his sec
ond Inauguration in Independence Hall,
| IN Philadelphia. when the briefest inaug-
ural address of the whole line of Presi-
dents was made. 1t simply announced
| his reelection and his presence in the
Senate Chamber to take the oath of
office required by the Constitution of the
United States. John Adams, the second
President of the United States, was in
augurated for the third Presidential term
in the Old State House, Philadelphia, Pa,
on March 4, 1897. Each succeeding in
| auguration beginning with Thomas JEFF
| ferson, has taken place III Washington
City. Jefferson's inauguration gave rise
| the new President would have no osten-
tat1ots parade or gorgeous ceremony as
| q, part of his official incoming The most
notable of all later inaugurations was
his first term. Washington City was on
that occasion the centre of most intense
sectional feeling. The city was an armed
camp. The day was cold, though the sun
shone brightly and the atmosphere was
pure. The President was escorted to the
Capitol building from his hotel by a
small army, with loaded guns. The in
augural address was a model of patriot
ism and pathos. ending: Il am 10th to
close; we are not enemies but friends
We must not be enemies Though pas
sion may have strained It must not break
our bonds of affection. The mystic chords
of memory stretching from every battle
field and patriot grave to every. living
heart and hearthstone all over this broad
land will yet swell the chorus of the
Union, then again touched as surely as
they will be, by the better angels of our
nature
The second inauguration Of President
lincoln, on March 4, 1865, found the city,
though spared of actual carnage, still
exhibiting the dread realities of a war
happily coming to a close. 1t was a
wet and disagreeable day, but the city
was decorated and signs of rejoicing over
the reelection of the patriot Lincoln
We're visible, where month later mourn
ing draperies indicated a martyred patriot
the echoes of whose merciful words at
the close of his second inaugural address
were still ringing in the corridors of the
capitol: with malice towards none;
with charity for all; with firmness for
the right as God gives US to see the right,
in; to bind UP the nations wounds; to
care for all who shall have borne the
battle and for his widow and his orphan
to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among ourselves
and with all nations"
Another memorable day of inauguration
was that upon which Ulysses s. Grant
was iflducted into the Presidential office
for his first term, March A, 1862 The day
was atmospherically one of gloom. but
peace reigned within the land and the
inaugural procession was one of the
grandest that had ever graced the wide
Pennsylvania avenue, along which all
such professions move. President Grant,
who was bitterly antagonistic to Presi-
cent Johnson, who filled out the unex-
pired term Of President Lincoln de-
clined to recognize the usual formalities
of the occasion by riding to the capitol
IN the carriage with the outgoing Presi-
dent, but instead, left army headquarters
"a building opposite the War Depart
ment, and now occupied by the American
National Red Cross Society-and in com
pany with General John A. Rawlins,
Secretary of War, Joined the procession
as it passed by Seventeenth street
near by the executive mansion, and drove
m buggy, himself holding the reins,
10 the Capitol, where he took the official
oath. The second Inauguration of Grant
Will be noted among other things as hav-
ing been beyond doubt the coolest day
upon which any President was ever inau-
~ stteN III lVliiS5 s5<tlC I'll WtIlQ aW1llT16Q
about the streets; soldiers were frozen on
parade, some left the ranks to die from
pnellmonia and kindred disorders. Ranks
were thinned to a mere apology for
parade, and the seats rrat were erected
along the avenue by enterprising specula-
tors from which to view the military pag-s
amt presented a. .'beggarly account of
empty bench es' and little else. All day
the storm ragged and officers of the army
and navy In dress Suits many without
overceats shfvered and suffered and did
honor to the occasion. The youthful ca
dets from the military academy at West
Point and the midshipmen from the Ma
val Academy, located in the more South
ern region of Annapolis, spic and span in
trim uniforms and Without overcoats, suf-
fered severely. The temporary building
erected for the inaugural ball became an
ice palace, and before the bells rung out
the midnight chimes the ice king drove
home assembled guests, and the ball was
thus practically g. failure.
Since the adoption of the constitution of
this country, three times only has the
fourth OF March fallen upon Sunday With
one exception the ceremonies OF the day
have been postponed until the following
Monday. Rutherford B. Hayes, the six
teenth elected President Of the I'm
ited States took the oath of
office on Saturday evening, March 3, 1897
1t was administered by Chief Justice
Justice Waite in the Red Parlor Of the
Executive mansion In the presence Of
President Grant, whose second term had
then practically expired No one else
was present These were also stirring
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