March 4, 1861; The New York Herald
WASHINGTON, March 3, 1861.
The arrangements for the ceremonies of inauguration are progressing felicitously. As so far determined, at ten o’clock the procession will be formed in front of the White House, where President Buchanan will take a seat in an open barouche, which, preceded by a military escort, will proceed to Willard Hotel, where Mr. Lincoln will take a seat beside the President. Senators Foot and Baker, members of the Committee of Arrangements, will here also take places in the Presidential barouche. The procession will then proceed substantially in the following order:
Escort of District military.
Carriage containing thirty-four young ladies attired in white, each carrying an American flag, with the coat of arms of the several State.
A full corps of United States sappers and miners.
Presidential cortege, flanked by the Marshal of the District and aids on the right; on the left, by the Marshal of the procession and aids, ten in number.
Then follow the Presidential suite, such as the President elect may invite, in carriages, and so on, according to the published programme.
Extensive preparations have been made to prevent the interruption of the procession at any point, and a temporary fence has been placed around the space immediately in front of the platform from which the President will deliver his Inaugural, in order to prevent a crush.
To guard against surprise, an enclosed avenue of stout boards has been constructed from the point where the President elect will leave his carriage until he passes into the Capitol –a distance of about one hundred feet. A cotton umbrella would have served a similar purpose twelve years ago, when General Taylor was inaugurated, if the rain had been too hard.
The weather promises to be glorious, and the display will probably be the most imposing ever seen in the national capital.
There are at least five thousand persons who assert most positively that they have seen President Lincoln’s Inaugural, and that it is in all respects sound.
No one except his Cabinet has seen it or knows what it contains. One thing is pretty certain, it will not be finished entire before tomorrow. It has been submitted in part to members of his Cabinet known to be on the slate. He is trying to make it satisfactory and acceptable to the conservatives; but, mark my prediction, it will fail essentially in several important particulars in this respect. It will be high toned and conservative in one respect; that is, in reference to interference by the incoming administration with slavery in the States and the District of Columbia. But upon the vital question, the one upon which the peace and happiness of the country is at stake, it will be sadly deficient. It will denounce secession and squint strongly at coercion, maintaining that the laws must be executed, the property of the United States protected, South as well as North, and that the revenues must be collected. This is all that most radical republicans expect him to say, and it will be sufficient to precipitate the border slave States into revolution, which will find them embracing their brethren of the cotton States in less than sixty days. So say all the conservative Union men of Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky now here.
The next ten days will determine the question of peace or war; the most fearful of all wars –civil war. The radicals say, ‘Let it come; we will wipe out and destroy slavery in less than five years in the border State in the event of a collision between the sections. This is evidently what the radicals are aiming at. He will recommend a National Convention. This is as far as he will go towards opposing the South, except to assure them that his policy will be none other than friendly and conciliatory, acting on the defensive rather than the aggressive. In a word, he intends to be conciliatory, but firm.
The inaugural will not be delivered to the press until Mr. Lincoln begins to read it, when, by his own direction, a copy prepared for that purpose will be delivered to the Agent of the Associated Press for immediate transmission over the wires, and another copy will be submitted to the Washington papers. The inaugural will contain about three thousand words, and will occupy half an hour in delivery. It will be a bold, outspoken State paper. Mr. Lincoln will indicate that he will, upon entering on his duties, take a solemn oath to do this, and he will not violate that sacred obligation. He takes the ground that as he was constitutionally elected President of the entire confederacy, he intends to be President of the whole and not a part of the Union.
It is stated in Presidential circles that Mr. Lincoln will inaugurate a new system in regard to Cabinet consultations. Heretofore, it has been the custom of the President to be governed, to a great extent, by the opinions of the members of the Cabinet, as shown by their votes; but Mr. Lincoln has plainly intimated that under his administration no votes will be taken in the Cabinet, and that he will, after having consulted with it, take the responsibility of carrying out his line of policy irrespective of their opinions. The Cabinet, he says, must be a unit, and, if possible, he will descend to the details of every department to carry out his measures. He takes Jackson for his model, and we may expect lively times before the Cabinet is warm in their seats if he carries out his crude ideas.
The jam at the hotels continues. Willard today dined fifteen hundred; National one thousand; Brown, five hundred; Kirkwood, three hundred; Clay, three hundred; Clarendon, three hundred; Washington Hotel, three hundred. But notwithstanding these unusual numbers, they are in some instances not more than half so large as on the occasion of Buchanan’s inauguration.
An intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln asked him who will be Secretary of the Treasury? He promptly answered, ‘Tomorrow, at noon, I will be President,’ with marked emphasis on the pronoun.
The Cabinet stands tonight the same as yesterday, so far as the men are concerned. But the positions are not all settled upon. Mr. Seward for State; Chase, Treasury; Cameron, War; Welles, Navy, are fixed; but it is not certain what departments will be assigned to Blair, Smith and Bates. There is some talk tonight of making Blair Attorney General, and giving the Post Office to Bates, leaving the Interior for Smith.
Senator Seward has taken for four years the Washington Club House, directly opposite the White House, on Lafayette Square, for his private residence. It has been closed since the Sickles tragedy, but will now be refitted for the immediate occupancy of the new Secretary of State.
The inundation of Northern politicians continues unabated. No less than twenty-seven Governors and ex-Governors, and ex-Senators and ex-Congressmen without number, are now here. The hotels and lodgings houses are crowded to suffocation, and a general budling up has become necessary.
The amount of toadyism exhibited at Willard’s to the Presidential family and suite is fairly sickening. Mr. Lincoln himself continues unaffected by the disgusting servility and sycophancy showered upon him. But some of these that came with him are swelling with conceit at a fearful rate.
A number of your City fathers are in the city distinguishing themselves on the streets and barrooms by their ill manners. The New Yorkers propose to march in a body in the procession tomorrow, under the marshalship of Gavitt, of the Wide Awakes. They will turn out about five hundred strong.