Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/410



BRAHAM LINCOLN was inaugurated President of the United States on Monday, March 4th, 1861. For four months the country had been in a state of unrest in consequence of his election difficult to portray so as to be well understood at a date removed by a third of a century from those times of painful occurrences.

Preparations for the inauguration of an unusual and dangerous military character had been made by General Scott to protect the President-elect from dangers wholly imaginary, as has been abundantly proved. Other preparations accorded with the dignity of the occasion when an eminent citizen, duly elected, was to be installed in an office equal to any which a nation may create. Mr. Lincoln s route from Springfield to the capital was made the scene of popular demonstrations, particularly in Philadelphia, where it was determined to convey him secretly into Washington &quot; because General Scott feared he would be assassinated. Mr. Lincoln did not share in these anxieties, as he himself stated, and that there were no &quot; plotters of assassination &quot; is evidenced by the positive testimony of men competent and credible. The lack of proof that any plot of this dastardly kind existed a plot which would at that time have been utterly