sitation, he
pushed the cane into a corner of the railing, but could not find a place
for the hat, except on the floor, where I could see he did not like to
risk it. Douglas, who fully took in the situation, came to the rescue of
his old friend and rival, and held the precious hat until the owner
needed it again; a service which, if predicted two years before, would
probably have astonished him. The oath of office was administered by
Chief Justice Taney, whose black robes, attenuated figure, and
cadaverous countenance reminded me of a galvanized corpse. Then the
President came forward and read his inaugural address in a clear and
distinct voice. It was attentively listened to by all; but the closest
listener was Douglas, who leaned forward as if to catch every word,
nodding his head emphatically at those passages which most pleased him.
I must not forget to mention the presence of a Mephistopheles in the
person of Senator Wigfall of Texas, who stood with folded arms leaning
against the doorway of the Capitol, looking down upon the crowd and the
ceremony with a contemptuous air which sufficiently indicated his
opinion of the whole performance. To him, the Southern Confederacy was
already an accomplished fact."

"Under the shadow of the great Eastern portico of the Capitol," says
General John A. Logan, "with the retiring President and Cabinet, the
Supreme Court Justices, the Foreign Diplomatic Corps, and hundreds of
Senators, Representatives, and other distinguished persons filling the
great platform on either side and behind them, Abraham Lincoln stood
bareheaded before full thirty thousand people, upon whose uplifted faces
the unveiled glory of the mild Spring sun now shone--stood reverently
before that far greater and mightier Presence termed by himself, 'My
rightful masters, the American people'--and pleaded in a manly,
earnest, and affectionate strain with 'such as were dissatisfied' to
listen to the 'better angels' of their nature. 'Temperate, reasonable,
kindly persuasive'--it seems strange that Lincoln's inaugural address
did not disarm at least the personal resentment of the South toward him,
and sufficiently strengthen Union-loving people there against the
red-hot Secessionists, to put the 'brakes' down on rebellion."

The address was devoted almost exclusively to the great absorbing topic
of the hour--the attempt of the Southern States to withdraw from the
Union and erect an independent republic. The calm, fir