...began wet and windy. it had been raining for several days in washington and the streets were a sea of mud at least 10 inches deep. during the previous week delegations from all parts of the country had been arriving in the capital, and all the hotels were full, with willard's accommodating overflow guests on cots in the hallways and parlors. despite the abominable weather, a crowd began to gather at the east front of the capitol before ten o'clock, and by the time the ceremonies began at noon, the spectators were sodden. women, wearing their long, cumbersome dresses, were in a 'most wretched, wretched plight', noah brooks observed; crinoline was smashed, skirts bedaubed, and moire antique, velvet, laces, and such dry goods were streaked with mud from end to end'.
first came the swearing in of the vice president, which took place in the senate chamber. andrew johnson had hoped to remain in tennessee to witness the installation of a new, loyal state government under a constitution with 'the foul blot of slavery erased from her escutcheon' (a shield or shieldlike surface upon which a coat of arms is portrayed), but l and his advisers felt that it was unsafe for him not to be in washington on march 4. exhausted from the long trip, unsteady from a recent bout of typhoid fever, johnson asked for some whiskey to calm his v=nerves. he was especially sensitive to alcohol, and the drink went to his head. in a long, maudlin (tearfully or weakly emotional) speech he boasted of his plebeian origins and reminded the embarrassed members of the supreme court, the cabinet, and even the diplomatic corps-'with all your fine feathers and gewgaws'-that they were but creatures of the people. l had to sit silently through johnson's ramblings and on observer noted that he 'closed his eyes and seemed to retire into himself as though beset by melancholy reflections'. when johnson finally finished and took the oath, the president leaned over to the parade marshal and whispered, 'do not let johnson speak outside'.
then the presidential party moved onto the platform at the east front of the capitol as l's tall figure appeared, 'cheer upon cheer arose, bands blatted (bleat) upon the air, and flags waved all over the scene'. after the sergeant-at-arms of the senate quieted the crowd, the president stepped forward holding a half sheet of foolscap on which his inaugural address was printed in 2 columns. at just that moment the sun burst through the clouds and flooded the scene with light; chief justice chase saw it as 'an auspicious omen of the dispersion of the clouds of war and the restoration of the clear sunlight of prosperous peace'.
in his clear, high-pitched voice that reached even the outer edges of the huge crowd. l read one of the shortest inaugural address in american history (703 words) and also the most memorable. he began by reminding his listeners that at this time there was 'less occasion for an extended address' outlining policy than there had been at his firs inauguration. during the past 4 years of war, he noted in a tone of weariness, 'public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest'. consequently he could devote the larger part of his address to an explanation of the origins of the conflict and an examination of its significance.
it was a remarkably impersonal address. after the opening paragraph, l did not use the first-person-singular pronoun, nor did he refer to anything he had said or done during the previous 4 years. notably lacking from his brief account of how the war began was any attribution of blame. 'all dreaded it-all sought to avert it'. but one of the parties to the conflict -throughout, he carefully avoided referring to the south or the confederacy-would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish'. interrupted by a burst of applause at this point, l continued, 'and the war came'. slavery was 'somehow, the cause of the war'. it was the one institution that divide the nation. the people of both sections had shared values; they 'read the same bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other'. in his one deviation from impartiality between the sections, l felt obliged to remark that ' it may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but he promptly added, let us judge not that we be not judged'.
l then sought, bot for himself and for the american people, an explanation of why the war was so protracted. his answer showed no trace of any late-at-night anguish over his own responsibility for the conflict. if there was guilt, the burden had been shifted from his shoulders to those of a Higher Power. the war continued because 'the Almighty has His own purposes', which are different from men's purposes. this, l said later was 'a truth which i though needed to be told', because to deny it was 'to deny that there is a God governing the world'.
he might have put his argument in terms of the doctrine of necessity, in which he had long believed; but that was not a dogma accepted by most americans. in an earlier private meditation he had concluded that it was 'probably true-that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end', thinking it 'quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party' to the conflict. but that was to gnostic (understood by or meant for only a select few who have special knowledge) a doctrine to gain general credence. addressing a devout, bible-reading public, l knew he would be understood when he invoked the familiar doctrine of exact retribution, the belief that the punishment for a violation of God's law would equal the offense itself. quoting from matthew, he announced, 'woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!' that warning might seem to apply only to slaveholders, but l had consistently held northerners as well as southerners responsible for introducing slavery and for protecting it under the constitution. consequently, as God now willed to remove the offense of slavery, He gave to both north and south, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came'.
how long, then, would the war last, and when would retribution cease? in the summer of 1864, l had said that the war might go on for 3 more years. more recently he had spoken of another year, or at least another 100 days, of fighting. now he offered no promises. early in the address he said flatly, 'with high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured'. returning to the subject, he made no firmer pledge: 'fondly do we hope-fervently do we pray-that this might scourge of war may speedily pass away'. then he went on to add one of the most terrible statements ever made by an american public official:'
'ye, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether" .'
this was a harsh doctrine, but it was one that absolved both the south and the north of guilt for the never ending bloodshed. and, by leaving the execution of this sanguinary judgment to the Almighty, l could turn in his final paragraph to the more limited responsibilities of mortals. here he had a chance to voice his deeply held sense of the nations's debt to those who had fought, suffered, and died in the army and navy. recently he had expressed that feeling..to mrs. lydia bixby, a boston widow who, he was told, was 'the mother of 5 sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle'. 'i pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, he wrote her, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom'. now he returned to that theme, promising '[to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan'.
with soaring eloquence l concluded his address: 'with malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; ...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations'.
after immense applause, l turned to chief justice chase, and, laying his right hand on an open page of the bible, repeated after him the oath of office, ending with an emphatic 'so help me God!' he then kissed the bible and, as a salvo of artillery boomed and the crowd cheered, he began his second term.
except for copperhead journals like the chicago times, which denounced the speech as 'so slop shod, so loose-joined, so puerile' that 'by the side of it, mediocrity is superb', most newspapers gave l's second inaugural address a respectful if somewhat puzzled reception. in general english editors praise it more highly than did the americans. but the washington national intelligencer felt the president's final words, 'equally distinguished for patriotism, statesmanship and benevolence', deserved ' be printed in gold'.
l was not troubled that his address was not immediately popular. he recognized that ' men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them;. but he was pleased when it received praise. he positively beamed when frederick douglass, who was in the throng at the white house reception after the inauguration pronounced it 'a sacred effort'. as l told thurlow weed, he expected it 'to wear as well as-perhaps better than-anything i have produced'. 'lots of wisdom in that document, i suspect,' as he filed away his manuscript.
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