March 4, 1865 began with torrential downpours that turned Pennsylvania Avenue into a sea of mud. The canal used to ferry supplies to the Capitol whose central dome was still under construction stank like a sewer. But the soaked crowds remained upbeat as they slogged through ankle-deep mud. Washington overflowed with politicians, hangers-on and excited citizens gathered to witness President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration.
As the big day dawned, Lincoln was sitting in a small space near the Senate Chamber. The outgoing Congress had worked through the night to pass legislation. As each new bill was passed, a scribe recorded the final wording and handed it to a clerk to carry to the president for signature.
When not signing the bills into new laws, Lincoln was talking with visitors. Some were friends congratulating him on his reelection; some were individuals begging for government jobs; and some were politicians trying to ingratiate themselves with the man they had been undermining because they thought he was unelectable.
Lincoln was unpopular during his presidency. He won the election in 1860 only because the pro-Southern vote split between two candidates. Southerners despised Lincoln as pro-abolitionist while many Northerners thought he was a hick from the sticks who would destroy the country in a needless war.
Facts on the ground could support both viewpoints. By 1864, the Union had bankrupted itself spending $1.4 billion a year on the war. To manage the huge deficit, the government borrowed extensively and imposed the first federal income tax. None of the expense seemed worth it as the body count rose and the Union continued losing battles.
During the 1864 campaign, even Lincoln didn’t think he could win reelection. He was opposed by General George B. McClellan whom he had fired and by Salmon P. Chase, a former Cabinet member with a bad case of Potomac (i.e., political) fever. But then, the unexpected happened.
The war swung decisively in favor of the Union. Four years of carefully calculated patronage had put Lincoln’s allies in key positions in Congress, in federal departments and in state governments. A groundswell of support carried Lincoln over the line in the Electoral College.
A relieved but exhausted Lincoln occasionally cracked jokes on the morning of March 4th as he finished signing the new laws at the Capitol. Outside the crowd swelled to an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 spectators, of which perhaps half were African-Americans, some newly freed from slavery. Black soldiers of the Colored Troops guarded federal buildings and watched over the crowd.
Vice President Andrew Johnson arrived at the Capitol around 10 am, nursing a hangover from a celebratory party the previous evening. Johnson haled from east Tennessee and owed his nomination to Lincoln’s desire to balance the ticket with a VP from a slave border state.
Johnson was jittery as he waited for his big moment and asked for whiskey to calm his nerves. Unfortunately, he didn’t stop at one drink. By noon when he was escorted into the Senate Chamber he was flushed and drunk as skunk.
Johnson slurred through the oath of office. He then ignored the seven minutes allotted for his acceptance speech and embarked on a lengthy drunken screed bragging of his humble roots and implying that other Cabinet members lived in a privileged bubble. It was so embarrassing that even Lincoln’s enemies prayed to God to preserve Lincoln so that Johnson could never become president.
Lincoln waited down the hall until Johnson was finally herded back to his seat. Then he appeared in the Senate Chamber to take the oath of office before heading out the door to the Capitol steps to give the inaugural address. As they walked down the hall, Lincoln told an aide, “Don’t let Andy speak outside”.
Closely following the president as he walked down the hall was John Wilkes Booth. Booth was the Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt of his day, a famous actor who had fans on both sides of the political divide. He used his connections to obtain a VIP pass that allowed him inside the Capitol, where he planned to shoot Lincoln. As he pushed through the crowd around Lincoln, his erratic behavior caught the eye of the security guards. They detained him. Lincoln walked outside to give his address.
After all the anticipation, his address was deemed a dud. The gist of it was that the war’s suffering was God’s punishment on the North and the South for the sin of slavery. But having punished all Americans, Lincoln said, it was time to “bind up the nation’s wounds” and work together for a brighter future in a free and equal society.
That’s not what anyone expected to hear. Northerners wanted to hear jingoistic triumphalism about finally beginning to win the war. Black spectators couldn’t believe they were hearing the president advocate for racial equality. Southerners hated anything said by Lincoln.
Lincoln’s second inaugural address is now ranked with the Declaration of Independence for encapsulating our country’s aspirations. The speech is carved into the wall of the Lincoln Memorial next to the Gettysburg Address. The final paragraph begins, “With malice toward none; with charity for all”.
Many of today’s politicians claim the mantle of Lincoln. None of them comes close. They lack his wit and his political skills when negotiating with his political opponents. Most of all, their petty bickering and obsession with plans of revenge against their “enemies” is a desolate message; the polar opposite of Lincoln’s message of hope for a brighter future.
More fascinating details of Lincoln’s second inauguration can be found in Every Drop of Blood, by Edward Achorn (2020), a lively book crammed with vivid details.
