Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-04

Incident. He was on his way from
Springfield to Washington for his first
Inauguration. The party had started
early, for they did not know what lay
between them and the Capital. Thus
far their train had moved through
friendly Northern villages with school
children gathered on the station plat.
forms to cheer them on their way. Soon
1t must turn South toward Washington
and proceed through a countryside the
temper Of whose populace was unknown.
Fort Sumter had been fired on. There.
were rumors of plots to assassinate the
newly elected President before he could
take the oath of Office. AS the train
moved through Ohio and Pennsylvania
Lincoln could see from the car window
militia companies drilling in the streets
His mind was absorbed in the great
problems before him.
Mrs. Lincoln watched the children
and the soldiers. She thought of the
blackbird that had flown from the
grave back in Indiana She was in
Baltimore and all the way to Washing
ton she heard the tolling of bells in
her ears.
The Lincolns were afraid of Balti-
more with its thousands of Southern
sympathizers. Before entering the city
the President-elect changed trains and
clothes. He altered his appearance
with travelling cap and shawl. His
train schedule was kept secret.
Thus the world was treated to the
curious spectacle of a man elected as
chief magistrate of great nation by
the suffrage OF Its people stealing into
his capital In partial disguise. Lincoln
arrived in Washington February g.
1861, early in the morning. He went
immediately to Wizards Hotel. with
which he had been acquainted while a
member OF Congress years before,
changed his clothes, ate breakfast, and
then made a formal call on President
Buchanan at the White House.
Unui his call at the White House
Lincoin had kept secret his presence
IN washington. The news had spread
around the city by the time he re-
turned to the hotel.
adjoining the hostelry was an old
Presbyterian church which had been
| converted into an assembly hall There
a former President of the United States
was presiding over a peace congress
made up of delegates from the Northern
and Southern States. John Tyler's
convictions were with the South. The
delegates could find no basis for agree
ment. It was a final. futile effort to
avert the impending war between
brothers.
| The peace congress adjourned for
| the morning when Tyler announced
tnat Lincoln was. In the hotel The
delegates formed in line and the presi-
dent-elect received them, one by one,
in the RECEPTION room.
X X n
There are always soldiers in an in
augural parade.
| They wear their dress uniforms. their
| shoes are shined, their buttons polished,
they march in perfect step, their gun
| barrels, bayonets and band instruments
! glitter in the sun. Military pageantry
Is a part of the inaugural ceremony.
1t derives from the days when the
monarch held his throne by right alone
and powerful bodyguard was a prac-
| tical necessity.
| For many generations the military
display at inaugurations and corona
lions has been symbolic. The soldiers
are there to parade and not to fight.
But on March 4, 1861, week after
| Lincoln and his family stole secretly
| into Washington in the chill damp of
| the Winter morning. 1t was different.
The shoes of the soldiers were not
shined so neatly, nor their guns so
shiny.
The guns were loaded The soldiers
were there to fight. The Capital. it
was well known. was thronged with
Southern sympathizers. There were
muttered threats that Lincoln would
never live to take the oath. Some said
that there was a Southern plot to cap
| tire the citv from within and take over
the machinery Of government.
The morning dawned warm and
sunny. Lincoln and Buchanan rode
together in an open carriage. On each
side of the carriage rode double file
of cavalrymen, ready for action. Com
| panies of infantry marched ahead and
1 behind. Sharpshooters We're stationed
at the upper windows of most Of the
| houses on Pennsylvania avenue Cavalry
patrols guarded the street crossings.
A regiment of District of Columbia
militia was drawn up at the Capitol
steps. On Capitol Hill was a battery
OF light artillery. Old Winfield Scott,