March 4, 1861; The New York Herald
At noon today, at the national Capitol in Washington city, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, will be inaugurated President and Vice President of the United States. The inaugural address of Mr. Lincoln, which is looked for with great anxiety throughout the entire country, will, in its general tone, it is said, be conciliatory toward the South, but in firm and positive terms will assert the right and duty of the government to enforce the federal laws, and to possess and hold all the forts, navy yards, arsenals, &c., belonging to the United States. We expect to be able to spread this important document before the public in our afternoon edition of today’s paper.
Numerous reports were current in Washington yesterday that changes had been made in the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, but there is no good reason to believe that any alteration will be made in the list published in the HERALD on Saturday and yesterday. Our despatches this morning furnish a report of the rumors, reports and surmises that were afloat until a late hour last night.
The United States Senate were in session last evening, and the chamber was overcrowded with persons anxious to witness their deliberations. At the commencement of the proceedings the noise and confusion in the galleries were so great that quiet was not restored until they had been ordered to be cleared. Mr. Crittenden made a most forcible and eloquent appeal in favor of his peace measure and for the preservation of the Union. He was followed by Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, in a most ultra and uncompromising speech against all compromise. In answer to a question as to what would be the policy of the new administration respecting the captured forts and arsenals, he indicated very clearly that it would be to recapture them, a declaration which produced considerable excitement among the Southern Senators. The Senate had not adjourned when we were compelled to go to press.
On Saturday last the new tariff bill, recently passed by Congress, received the signature of Mr. Buchanan. The new tariff goes into effect the first day of April next, but the last section of the bill provides that goods, wares and merchandise actually on shipboard and bound to the United States, within fifteen days after the passage of this act, and all goods, wares and merchandise in deposit in warehouse or public store on the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, shall be subject to pay such duties as provided by law before and at the time of the passage of this act; and all goods in warehouses at the time this act takes effect, on which the duties are lessened by its provisions, may be withdrawn on payment of the duties herein provided.”
The Congress of the Southern Confederacy on Saturday admitted the Texas delegates to all the privileges of the other members.
Advices received in Washington from Texas, throw some additional light on the surrender of the public property by General Twiggs. The officers and soldiers, when ordered to vacate the barracks for the use of the Texas Troops, acted in the most spirited and patriotic manner by raising the flag of the Union, the band playing “Yankee Doodle.” The provision made for their subsistence while on their way to the coast was of the most meagre and inadequate character.
Considerable excitement was created in the neighborhood of Norfolk, Va., on Friday last by a report of an insurrection by the negroes aided by a few whites. Precautionary measures were at once adopted, and the fears seem to have subsided.
A very interesting chronological history of political events in this country since the Presidential election in November last, will be found in the pages of the HERALD this morning. The ordinances of the seceding States, the account of the seizure of the public property, and the proceedings of the Conventions and legislative bodies in the Southern States, are valuable at the present time, and will enable the reader to form a correct idea of the present condition of the country.
By the way of San Francisco we have some interesting items of intelligence from the Sandwich Islands. The annual statistics show that there has been a large falling off in the staple products of the islands during the past year; a decrease in imports of $332,000, in exports of $128,000, and in exports of domestic produce of $148,000. The falling off in the domestic produce is by some persons attributed to blight, and by others to the financial policy of the government. The last census gives Honolulu a population of 12,408 natives and half caste, 1,616 foreigners and their children, and 285 Chinamen. The exportation of Hawaiian salt during 1860 amounted to 884 tons.
Advices from Mayaguez, P.R., dated February 22, 1861, says:- The health of this port and that of the whole island is very good. Crops good and abundant and weather very fair and fine, but business is exceedingly dull, occasioned by the revolution in the United States, which has caused a panic in commercial affairs.