^'Wifi malice toward mm^ iOkh chanty 
 
 far all, ^'^^h firmness in fh tight as 
 
 God gives us t& see fk right, kf us strive 
 
 m f()fi?mh the work m an in t . "
 
 LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY
 
 THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 
 OF THE SECOND INAUGURATION OF 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN • 1865-I965 
 
 REENACTMENT CEREMONIES 
 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, tvith firmness in the right as 
 God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the ivorl{ we are in . . ."
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN — THE PRESIDENT, 1865.
 
 LYNDON B. JOHNSON — THE PRESIDENT, 1965.
 
 THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 June 17, 1965 
 
 The moving ceremony that was held on the East Front of 
 the United States Capitol last March 4th was more than 
 a singular tribute to Abraham Lincoln. It represented 
 our entire nation's deep wish--and perhaps its deep need-- 
 to remember his second induction into the Presidency and 
 to draw strength from it. 
 
 Today, in retrospect, we think of the spring of 1865 as a 
 great watershed in our history. Profound and massive 
 forces were at work, reshaping our nation. So overwhelm- 
 ing were these forces that most men reacted with ennotion 
 and many with despair. 
 
 Yet the wise and thoughtful men of that spring saw it as a 
 time of hope, indeed, of challenge. And the wisest and 
 most thoughtful of those men was Abraham Lincoln. The 
 very theme of his Second Inaugural Address was that of 
 hope. Its whole thrust was forward. It beckoned men into 
 the future, with both hope and courage. 
 
 This is what the ceremony of last March 4th represented. 
 It symbolized our nation's profound and abiding conviction 
 that our task is never done, that the future offers hope 
 even as it offers challenge, and that courage is the first 
 requirement for achieving the national purpose, 
 
 I commend the Joint Committee on Arrangements to Com- 
 memorate the 100th Anniversary of the Second Inauguration 
 of Abraham Lincoln for the excellence of its centennial 
 program. 
 
 "With high hope for the future" let us today "cherish a just, 
 and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.'
 
 -S 89TH CONGRESS, 2D SESSION • HOUSE DOCUMENT NO. 497 l- 
 
 CEREMONIES AND REENACTMENT OF 
 THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
 
 The Second Inauguration of 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 1865-1965 
 
 On the East Front of the Capitol of the United Stated- 
 March /j., ig6^ 
 
 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 WASHINGTON : 1 967
 
 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printinj; Office 
 Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price $3
 
 Contents 
 
 Page 
 
 Letter of Transmittal ix 
 
 House Joint Resolution No. 925 xiii 
 
 The Joint Committee on Arrangements xv 
 
 Commemoration Ceremonies and Reenactment i 
 
 Second Lincoln Inaugural Reenactment and Ceremonies 17 
 
 The Lincoln Procession 35 
 
 Commemoration Events Collateral to the Major Ceremony and Reenact- 
 ment 37 
 
 Dore Schary Comments 39 
 
 The Committee's Evaluation 40 
 
 Presentation of Gold Medallion to President Johnson 49 
 
 Epilogue 52 
 
 vn ]
 
 Letter of Transmittal 
 
 The Honorable Hubert H. Humphrey, 
 President of the Senate 
 
 The Honorable John W. McCormack, 
 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives 
 
 This report o£ the official observance of the one hundredth anniversary of 
 the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln is submitted to you and to the 
 Congress of the United States in devout recognition of the importance to our 
 country, and to its youth, of the revitalization and dramatization of the high 
 points in American history. As Chairman, and on behalf of the Joint Com- 
 mittee on Arrangements, I hold it a high honor to present to you this record of 
 the ceremonies and reenactment as they occurred on the East Front of the 
 Capitol, March 4, 1965, exactly a century after the original event and at about 
 the same hallowed spot. 
 
 It is my contention, and I believe that of the Committee without exception, 
 that this event touched with electricity the deepest emotional patriotism of those 
 who witnessed it. Indeed, through the records and the films that the Com- 
 mittee has painstakingly had prepared and preserved, the emotional impact will 
 without a doubt be made to endure, recurringly, for decades, perhaps centuries 
 yet to come. 
 
 In the audience before the Capitol, apart from those reached by TV and by 
 radio and, later, the printed page, was a crowd estimated by the Capitol police 
 as between 30,000 and 35,000 people, many of them schoolchildren, and not a 
 few tourists from all over the United States and the world. It is the plan of the 
 Committee, as you know, to make filmed and taped portions of the ceremonies, 
 probably in color, available to every school and classroom in the United States, 
 and wherever they are sought abroad, the latter under the aegis of the United 
 States Information Agency. 
 
 What greatly impressed the Joint Committee on Arrangements was the 
 immediately apparent fact that the ceremonies and reenactment, as this report
 
 we hope will demonstrate, developed into an outstanding and unexpectedly 
 effective success. It proved an appealing, an inviting, even an entertaining, but 
 profound lesson in the deepest moral aspects of American history and tradition, 
 imparted like the highest order of human drama through the strangely soul 
 stirring and broodingly moving personality of the historic Abraham Lincoln, 
 the most American of Americans in the immortal chronicle of our country. 
 
 It was also apparent throughout to the Chairman and the Committee that 
 the benign, the tacit, often the enthusiastic and wholehearted support of the top 
 officials of government, from President Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President 
 Hubert H. Humphrey, Speaker John W. McCormack, on down through many 
 levels of government, rested behind the day's superb project and was respon- 
 sible for the over-plus of good fortune that accompanied it. 
 
 In this connection the Committee is pleased to emphasize the strategic 
 services of former Representative Fred Schwengel, of the First District of Iowa, 
 who introduced the joint resolution February 13, 1964, that authorized the 
 ceremonies. When he lost his seat in the ensuing election and therefore his 
 post as Chairman to which I succeeded, I and the Committee, warmly and 
 friendlily named him the project's overall Executive Director.* 
 
 The prestige and posture of the day's program rested, to be sure, squarely 
 on the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. Their brief and com- 
 pelling addresses, printed in full in this report, must have caught their in- 
 spiration from the second inaugural itself. Bruce Catton, the day's historian- 
 speaker, reached deep and brilliantly into the fountain-source and trend of 
 history to throw the light of 1965 on the event of a century before and to 
 project a scholar's path into the future. 
 
 Probably never to be forgotten and unprecedented in any program, from 
 an individual of his standing, was the role performed by Adlai E. Stevenson, 
 United States Ambassador to the United Nations. The Ambassador had been 
 invited and had accepted the role of narrator. Immediately after the contem- 
 porary program, which was the 1965 half of the exercises, the reenactment of 
 the 1865 inauguration began. It was at this point that Ambassador Stevenson 
 stood apart and read his interestingly and colorfully prepared script. This 
 script followed the action of the reenactment as the drama unfolded. He 
 offered an especially informed judgment of his own on this one hundred year 
 old tableau in the American chronicle as it was being duplicated — the Presi- 
 dential procession in costume and makeup moving slowly, almost grandly, down 
 the celebrated East Front; the immortal address, the swearing-in, the departure. 
 The Stevenson script was written by Mr. Schary. 
 
 •Representative Schwengel regained his seat in the 1966 election. 
 
 [x]
 
 In now submitting this report I must point out to the Congress, the 
 leadership and the American people, with the highest praise, the central 
 achievement of the commemoration event. This was the reenactment itself. 
 It bore the unmistakable stamp of the professional skill and excellence of 
 the reenactment's arranger and producer, Dore Schary, for a generation one of 
 the foremost American producer-director-playwrights of the American theater 
 both in Hollywood and on Broadway — a producer with a strong and reverent 
 sense of American history. It was he, in total charge of the reenactment, under 
 the authority of the Committee and myself, who gave us, with his star, Robert 
 Ryan as Lincoln, the dramatic essence of the imperishable Lincoln moving 
 into his second term. And Ryan as Lincoln, both in appearance and perform- 
 ance, proved an almost uncanny reincarnation of his prototype. 
 
 For the dramatis personae that accompanied and surrounded Lincoln in 
 that celebrated hour, Mr. Schary assembled, with the wholehearted cooperation 
 of Father Gilbert V. Hartke, O.P., head of the Department of Speech and 
 Drama at Catholic University of America, an enthusiastic and eager group of 
 students of the Department, and trained them quickly in their respective roles 
 supporting Ryan. With them Mr. Schary incorporated an equally willing 
 and helpful smaller group of young people from B'nai B'rith. And when it 
 was over Mr. Schary, with the whole company, including Ambassador Steven- 
 son, stayed behind for hours and went over again and again the various 
 moments, to make them perfect for the film aimed for the widest possible 
 distribution here and throughout the free world. 
 
 A hundred years ago when Lincoln was inaugurated there was no invoca- 
 tion and no benediction, the custom having not yet been introduced into the 
 presidential inaugural ceremony. And so there was none here, a hundred years 
 after, since authenticity in the reenactment forbade it. But in the contemporary 
 portions of the ceremony, not the reenactment, there was the invocation by 
 the Rev. Bernard Braskamp, Chaplain of the House of Representatives, and the 
 invocation, after the reenactment, by the Rev. Frederick Brown Harris, Chaplain 
 of the United States Senate. The eloquence of both, one at the beginning 
 of the exercises, the other at the finale, served like bookends holding the grand 
 and majestic performances of the day together, and bathing them in sacred 
 language superbly pertinent and beautifully rendered. This spiritual emphasis, 
 enveloping the whole, gave the event the divine blessing of Holy Writ. 
 
 This was all so emphatically and so wholly a labor of love for everybody 
 concerned that the total cost to the Treasury of the United States, apart from 
 materials supplied by government sources such as film and camera equipment, 
 was diligently constricted to a $25,000 emergency government appropriation. 
 
 [XI]
 
 This was provided on authority of a resolution (H. Res. 241) that I, as Chair- 
 man, introduced in the House February 24, 1965. It was, it may be added, 
 equally a labor of love for the several Civil War and Lincoln organizations, local 
 official and private groups, and for a number of government agencies all of 
 which are given recognition further on in this report. 
 
 The Committee and its Chairman hope that this reenactment and other 
 ceremonies like it that have gone before, and that are yet to come, will serve to 
 testify to the service the Capitol of the United States can perform as a sounding 
 board and a backdrop to relive and dramatize for the American people and the 
 free world interest in this Government's sublime history. We believe the event 
 itself, and the sound and filmed record to emerge from it, will renew in our 
 people a faith in their tradition and confidence in the future of democratic 
 government. 
 
 Respectfully submitted. 
 
 Melvin Price, Chairman. 
 
 [xii]
 
 House Joint Resolution 925 
 
 PUBLIC LAW 88-427 
 
 ^iightg-tifihth Congress of the lEnited States of 2imerica 
 
 AT THE SECOND SESSION 
 
 Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, the thirteenth of February, one 
 
 thousand nine hundred and sixty-four 
 
 Joint 'Resolution 
 
 Creating a joint committee to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the second 
 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Whereas March 4, 1965, will be the one hundredth anniversary of the second 
 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States; and 
 
 Whereas President Lincoln in his inaugural address looked to the end of a great 
 fratricidal struggle and spoke, "with malice toward none and charity for 
 all," of "a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations"; and 
 
 Whereas, in the administration he had completed, Abraham Lincoln had pre- 
 served the Union of the States, protected the Constitution of the United 
 States, and demonstrated to all men everywhere the success of the American 
 experiment in popular government; and 
 
 Whereas the previous actions of the Congress in observing the one hundred and 
 fiftieth anniversary of the birth of this unique American and the one hun- 
 dredth anniversary of his first inauguration as President had a vast and dra- 
 matic impact upon the people of this Nation and throughout the world; 
 and 
 
 Whereas these observances advanced the appreciation and understanding of 
 the history and heritage of this Nation ; and 
 
 Whereas today a part of the aspirations which Abraham Lincoln held for the 
 people of the United States has been achieved: Now, therefore, be it 
 
 [ XIII ]
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 
 of America in Congress assembled, That on Wednesday, March 4 next, the one 
 hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration shall be 
 commemorated by such observance as may be determined by the committee on 
 arrangements in cooperation with the National Civil War Centennial Commis- 
 sion, the Civil War Centennial Commission of the District of Columbia, and 
 the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia. 
 
 Upon passage of this resolution, the President of the Senate shall appoint 
 four Members of the Senate and the Speaker of the House shall appoint four 
 Members of the House of Representatives jointly to constitute a committee on 
 arrangements. 
 
 Upon passage of this resolution and after the Members of the Senate and 
 House have been appointed, the committee on arrangements shall meet and 
 select a chairman from one of their own group and such other officers as will be 
 appropriate and needed who will immediately proceed to plan, in cooperation 
 with the National Civil War Centennial Commission, the Civil War Centennial 
 Commission of the District of Columbia, and the Lincoln Group of the District 
 of Columbia, an appropriate ceremony, issue invitations to the President of the 
 United States, the Vice President of the United States, Secretaries of depart- 
 ments, heads of independent agencies, offices, and commissions, the Chief Jus- 
 tice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, the diplomatic corps, assistant 
 heads of departments. Commissioners of the District of Columbia, members of 
 the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, centennial, commissions from 
 the various States, Civil War roundtables, State and local historical and patriotic 
 societies, and such other students and scholars in the field of history as may 
 have a special interest in the occasion, organize a reenactment of Mr. Lincoln's 
 second inauguration on the eastern portico of the Capitol, select a speaker and 
 other participants, prepare and publish a program and submit a report not later 
 than June i, 1965. 
 
 John W. McCormack 
 Spea/{er of the House of Representatives. 
 Hubert H. Humphrey 
 Vice President of the United States and 
 
 President of the Senate. 
 
 Approved : 
 
 Lyndon B. Johnson 
 August 14, 1964. 
 
 [xiv]
 
 The Joint Committee on Arrangements 
 
 Melvin Price, Chairman 
 
 For the Senate 
 
 Paul H. Douglas 
 of Illinois 
 
 Everett M. Dirksen 
 of Illinois 
 
 John Sherman Cooper 
 of Kentucky 
 
 Vance Hartke 
 of Indiana 
 
 For the House 
 
 Melvin Price 
 of Illinois 
 
 WiNFiELD K. Denton 
 of Indiana 
 
 William G. Bray 
 
 of Indiana 
 
 Paul Findley 
 of Illinois 
 
 Fred Schwengel, Executive Director 
 William A. Coblenz, Chief Coordinator and Director 
 
 STAFF 
 
 David C. Mearns, Chief Consultant 
 
 Victor M. Birely, Consultant 
 George Cashman, Consultant 
 Virginia Daiker, Consultant 
 Josephine Cobb, Consultant 
 Lloyd A. Dunlap, Consultant 
 Eric Goldman, Consultant 
 Carl Haverlin, Consultant 
 
 H. Newlin Megill, Consultant 
 
 Ralph G. Newman, Consultant 
 
 James Robertson, Consultant 
 
 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Consultant 
 
 Clyde Walton, Consultant 
 
 Don Robert Kendall, Staging Manager 
 
 Paul J. Sedgwick, Public Relations 
 
 [XV]
 
 A summary of the ceremony and reenactment dramatization mar\ing the One Hundredth Anniversary 
 of the Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln — i86^-ig6§ 
 
 Commemoration Ceremonies and 
 Reenactment 
 
 npHE CEREMONIES and reenactmcnt of the 
 Lincoln second inaugural on the steps of 
 the Capitol of the United States, March 4th, 
 1965, proved, more than anything else, a trib- 
 ute to the intellectual and emotional, the al- 
 most religious hold, that American history 
 has upon the American people. The nearly 
 identical exercises four years before, and on 
 the same spot, commemorating the first Lin- 
 coln inauguration was, the Joint Committee 
 on Arrangements said then in its report, 
 "the greatest epic of its kind in the annals of 
 the Capitol of the United States." 
 
 This commemoration of the second in- 
 auguration, profiting from the experience of 
 the first, considerably outmatched it in scope, 
 in professional talent and audience appeal 
 and in public attention and residual influence. 
 What helped so much to make it so was that 
 everyone involved, from Vice President Hu- 
 bert H. Humphrey, Speaker John W. Mc- 
 Cormack, and historian Bruce Catton, to the 
 merest supernumerary serving as a Union 
 soldier at the foot of the podium before the 
 Capitol, and the crowd of 30,000 to 35,000 
 out on the Plaza, seemed immersed rever- 
 
 ently in one of the most honored and compas- 
 sionate moments in the life of the Nation. 
 
 The universal and oft-repeated theme 
 "with malice toward none, with charity for 
 all" that enveloped the whole and invested 
 every moment, lent a note to the proceedings 
 akin to the feelings inspired by the statue in 
 the Lincoln Memorial. Or the Gettysburg 
 Address. Or the words of farewell to his 
 townspeople as Lincoln left Springfield for 
 Washington and for the White House never 
 to return except as a corpse. For the players 
 under the dominating mood of Robert Ryan 
 as Lincoln it was not a play or a tableau so 
 much as a re-creation. It called into being a 
 hundred years after, tenderly and with a re- 
 spectful sensitivity, an evanescent instant in 
 mankind's unending reach for freedom, an 
 instant rich in the profoundest meanings for 
 people everywhere and through all time. 
 
 What came across to the onlookers in 1965 
 as in 1865 was not the spirit of exultation and 
 glory for a war practically won. There was 
 none of the atmosphere of a great military 
 triumph achieved on battlefields holding 600,- 
 000 American dead, not a celebration and the 
 
 [I]
 
 CONTEMPORARY SCENE LINCOLN S SECOND INAUGURATION MARCH 4, 1865 
 
 (FROM Leslie's newspaper). 
 
 shouting of multitudes. What the deeply im- 
 pressed and thoughtfully spoken speeches 
 conveyed, from the Reverend Braskamp's in- 
 vocation to the Reverend Harris' benediction, 
 and in every syllable of the words spoken by 
 Chairman Melvin Price and the participating 
 notables, was the emergence, amid the aw- 
 fullest national tragedy, of a great moral prin- 
 ciple. The moment, originally and as here 
 re-created, far from joy in impending victory, 
 was one of magnanimity and sadness, which 
 was so compelling in the words of the Lin- 
 coln inaugural that their impact, after a cen- 
 tury, permeated every syllable and every frac- 
 
 tion of time in this day's program of 
 commemoration. 
 
 The reenactment weather in 1965 was cold 
 but relatively clear and not nearly as uncom- 
 fortable as the mud, the clouds, the unpaved 
 streets of a century before. Then, as some of 
 the records say, the sun burst forth like a great 
 omen only as Lincoln spoke. This March 
 4th was brisk and chill but for the most part 
 pleasantly sunny throughout, ideal for the 
 massive and complicated camera equipment 
 and the electronic apparatus undreamt of in 
 Lincoln's day, that was crowded, with their 
 crews, onto a three-deck camera platform 
 
 [2]
 
 t'.^i 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH OF ACTUAL LINCOLN INAUGURATION CEREMONY — MARCH 4, 1865. 
 
 SCENE 100 YEARS LATER RE-ENACTING HISTORIC EVENT.
 
 several feet before the podium. And the 
 podium was in itself a stage setting made to 
 represent as authentically as possible the very 
 tone and color of the wooden boards and 
 beams, and the modest little white table, that 
 constituted the total furniture when President 
 Lincoln spoke. Out front crowds had begun 
 to assemble hours before, and soon school- 
 children by the thousands filled the periphery 
 of the Plaza, the inner area of which had 
 been carefully arranged with hundreds of 
 chairs for members of Congress — the House 
 on the right facing the Capitol, the Senate 
 on the left, precisely in relation to the House 
 and the Senate wings of the Capitol edifice. 
 The Supreme Court of the United States 
 found it impossible to attend in a body and 
 President Lyndon B. Johnson, expected to 
 participate in the speechmaking up to a few 
 days before the event, also found the pressure 
 of the public business too great. With these 
 exceptions the mass before the inauguration 
 stand was a long catalog of the most dis- 
 tinguished and the foremost names m Ameri- 
 can politics and government, in the city's 
 social, legal, and professional life, and the 
 names of celebrated statesmen and diplomats 
 known the world over. 
 
 The program had been set to begin at 12 
 noon in 1965 as in 1865. 
 
 By prearrangement — this being a Thurs- 
 day — both the House and the Senate ad- 
 journed for the approximate period of the 
 exercises. The Joint Committee on Arrange- 
 ments, the guests and speakers, the two Chap- 
 lains, all with reservations on the inaugural 
 stand. Speaker McCormack and Vice Presi- 
 dent Humphrey, and Chairman Melvin Price, 
 gathered in one of the great new rooms that 
 
 had been carved out of the extension of the 
 East Front of the Capitol, while Executive 
 Director Fred Schwengel, explained the ap- 
 proximate positions each was to take in ac- 
 cordance with Committee protocol. 
 
 The group moved through the Capitol 
 corridors to the platform almost on schedule. 
 
 Below and out front on the concrete to the 
 right or Senate side of the Capitol, the United 
 States Marine Band, Lt. Col. Albert F. 
 Schoepper, USMC conducting, had already 
 begun a concert of mostly Civil War music 
 and tunes of the period, that helped to estab- 
 lish the atmosphere of 10 decades before. 
 
 Deeper in the bowels of the Capitol, Dore 
 Schary, the producer, had collected his per- 
 formers in especially set-aside rooms, com- 
 plete with quickly assembled mirrors and 
 dressing tables, for changing into their cos- 
 tumes and Civil War makeup. Sandwiches 
 and coffee had been provided while trucks 
 arrived and were unloaded with the para- 
 phernalia and costumes of their art. Then, 
 the audience waiting, the distinguished par- 
 ticipants in the contemporary portion of the 
 program, not the players in the reenactment, 
 proceeded from inside the Capitol edifice, 
 through the corridors of the East Front exten- 
 sion, into the sunlight down the broad steps 
 to their places on the inaugural stand. The 
 Committee had divided the program exactly 
 in half so that the contemporary portion, pre- 
 ceding the reenactment of the Lincoln second 
 inauguration, would come first, followed by 
 the play that would reproduce the historical 
 circumstance all were anticipating. 
 
 The prelude to the reenactment that now 
 began was in itself a historic event of the first 
 magnitude for the contemporary light it shed 
 
 [4]
 
 
 ,^ . 
 
 
 V^^-'^^vitf f 
 
 
 >^jY»i-J^\\i /i 
 
 f. ,-:.% 
 
 jT/Vi ' ■ ■•^^^'^Ip >W* 
 
 -J. -i.,v\ ^ 
 
 r/T 1 / • -'j^^^gH^ 'l 
 
 7r-^""'j 
 
 f Ifi^i:^ jfj 
 
 ?^r. 
 
 ANOTHER PART OF THE CROWD COME TO LINCOLN S SECOND INAUGURATION, 1865. 
 
 PART OF THE CROWD TOO YEARS LATER COME TO WITNESS RE-ENACTMENT.
 
 NOTABLES WHOSE ADDRESSES MADE MEMORABI 
 SECOND INAUGURAL ON THE SPOT WHERE T 
 
 THE REV. BERNARD BRASKAMP, CHAPLAIN OF 
 THE HOUSE, OFFERS PRAYER. 
 
 CHAIRMAN MELVIN PRICE IN OPENING ADDRESS. 
 
 HISTORIAN BRUCE CATTON DISCUSSES LINCOLN S 
 PLACE IN AMERICAN TRADITION. 
 
 ADLAI STEVENSON, IN MAJOR ROLE, REVIEWS 
 LINCOLN SCENE OF CENTURY BEFORE. 
 
 [6
 
 [E BRILLIANT RE-ENACTMENT OF LINCOLN'S 
 IGINAL TOOK PLACE 100 YEARS BEFORE. 
 
 speaker john w. m cormack spoke of 
 Lincoln's influence in "present moment." 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT HUBERT H. HUMPHREY RE- 
 CALLED Lincoln's prayer for "lasting peace." 
 
 FRED SCHWENGEL, IOWA, WHO INITIATED LEGIS- 
 LATION FOR INAUGURAL RE-ENACTMENT. 
 
 THE REV. FREDERICK BROWN HARRIS, SENATE 
 CHAPLAIN, OFFERS CLOSING PRAYER. 
 
 [7]
 
 back into the history it extolled. Conductor 
 Schoepper lowered his baton. The Civil War 
 music ceased. The crowd of Representatives 
 and Senators, diplomats, judges, teachers, 
 government employes, cabinet members and 
 agency executives, and a vast scattering of 
 District schoolchildren and tourists, together 
 with visitors from abroad, momentarily 
 caught the awe of the moment, as Chairman 
 Price stepped forward to present the Rev. 
 Bernard Braskamp for the invocation. 
 
 "Above all," prayed the Chaplain of the 
 House of Representatives "he belonged to that 
 great 'aristocracy of souls' who daily struggle 
 with the hard facts of life but firmly believe 
 that the truth of God will prevail, whatever 
 may be the posture and temper of the times, 
 its days and its hours." 
 
 The Chaplain's words caught the essence 
 of the program and the meaning of the com- 
 
 memoration, and established the tone of the 
 speeches that followed: reverence for the past, 
 hope for the future. 
 
 "Help us," he said "to hasten the dawning 
 of that glorious day of prediction for which 
 Lincoln prayed and labored when all broken- 
 hearted humanity shall be drawn together 
 and healed and live in peace . . . ." 
 
 Chairman Price, in part said : 
 
 We are bearing witness to the realization of a 
 profound prophecy in free government made on 
 this spot and now hallowed by a century of the 
 reaffirmation of the democratic ideal. . . . 
 
 Referring to the imminent reenactment 
 performance he observed : 
 
 We cannot hope to achieve in all their brooding 
 sincerity, their humble and compassionate spirit of 
 victory, their moderating and healing influence, the 
 immortal moments of a century ago. We cannot 
 do this anymore than we can produce in duplicate 
 
 CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY PERFORMERS IN COSTUME 
 START DOWN CAPITOL STEPS. 
 
 SEATED ARE ACTORS IN ROLES OF THE LINCOLN 
 ENTOURAGE. 
 
 [8]
 
 the true and natural voice of Abraham Lincoln 
 himself. 
 
 But there are people here who, out of a boundless 
 love of country and the deepest respect for the 
 Lincoln legacy, will reenact for us the sceme on 
 these very steps before this noble edifice, that oc- 
 curred at that time and that has since done so much 
 to shape the destiny of free men everywhere .... 
 
 Speaker McCormack, speaking from his 
 firsthand experience with 45 years of elective 
 office behind him, told how the Lincoln in- 
 fluence permeates the legislation of our time. 
 
 At one point he said : 
 
 I venture to suggest, as one having had a little 
 something to do with the legislative decisions of 
 these crises-ridden decades, that the Lincoln phi- 
 losophy invested the thinking and the action of our 
 time in the Chambers of this great Capitol. Words 
 like "emancipation" and "freedom," words like 
 "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion that all men are created equal," can be shown 
 profoundly to have touched with resolution and to 
 
 ROBERT RYAN, DISTINGUISHED ACTOR, AS LIN- 
 COLN, EMERGES FOR CEREMONY. 
 
 have shaped into law much of the history of the 
 last 30 or 40 years. They shine in our enlightened 
 postwar legislative history when we rehabilitated 
 with our own treasury the very nations who had 
 been brought to book as our enemies after a fierce 
 and savage world war. 
 
 And of course our domestic legislative history 
 is an object lesson in wise and effective compassion 
 and thoughtfulness for all the American people. . . . 
 
 Vice President Humphrey immersed the 
 audience in the specific quality of the second 
 inaugural with a quotation from a speech 
 by Representative Sherwood, of Ohio, in 
 which the Congressman — 60 years after — 
 told what the inauguration was like when he, 
 a battle-weary Union soldier, saw Lincoln 
 take the oath. 
 
 The Vice President quoted Representative 
 Sherwood : 
 
 There was no general platform. There were no 
 reserved seats for Congressmen or anybody else. 
 
 HERE, AS 100 YEARS AGO, LINCOLN GREETS 
 INAUGURAL GUESTS. 
 
 [9]
 
 We were all standing up. There must have been 
 20,000 people in front of the Capitol. Lincoln stood 
 there on the East Front, on a little platform with a 
 little stand and a glass of water. He had a white 
 pocket handkerchief around his neck. A tall, spare 
 man with deep lines of care furrowing his cheeks; 
 a sad face, a strong face, the face of a man of many 
 sorrows; a face lit up with the inspiration of a great 
 soul as he voiced in prophecy the ultimate destiny 
 of this Nation. 
 
 Further in his address the Vice President 
 said: 
 
 We of this generation and indeed of generations 
 yet to come owe this Nation's life to Abraham Lin- 
 coln. To repay that we can do no less than to be 
 guided by his greatness and his compassion. It is 
 the strong who can afford to be peaceful. It is the 
 free who can be generous, and we will not be di- 
 verted from the wise course set for us by that wise 
 and good man lOO years ago today. We are all 
 living witnesses to Abraham Lincoln's pledge, and 
 that pledge continues to be our commitment to a 
 suffering humanity on this day. 
 
 Through all of the addresses there ran a 
 thread of relationship, strong and eloquent, 
 between the meaning of the second inaugural 
 for its time, for the present moment of history, 
 and for all time. This aspect was even 
 stronger in the major address of the day, the 
 carefully contemplative and beautifully 
 wrought speech of Bruce Catton, who had 
 been introduced to the audience by former 
 Congressman Fred Schwengel. 
 
 Thus historian Catton in the polished and 
 persuasive style that explains his literary fame 
 emphasized his view of the enduring quality 
 of Lincoln. 
 
 He said : 
 
 For what Lincoln was saying then remains true. 
 The Civil War was not an end but a beginning. 
 One great obstacle to the advance of human free- 
 
 dom and brotherhood had been destroyed — and 
 therefore an inescapable responsibility rested on 
 the shoulders of this, "His almost chosen people," 
 to build anew on the progress that had been made. 
 Only now are we beginning to insist that the 
 broader freedom that was won in the Civil War 
 must be made good all across the board in the 
 realities of day-to-day life. Only now are we be- 
 ginning to see that in our land there can be no 
 room for a second-class citizenship, and that the 
 freedom of the most fortunate of us is limited by 
 the freedom that can be enjoyed by the least for- 
 tunate. 
 
 And then further on author Catton said 
 this: 
 
 We live in a time of great trouble and perplexity, 
 when no man can see more than a few feet along 
 the road ahead. In the last two generations we have 
 seen the past destroyed for all the world. Immense 
 new forces are in action, profound changes are 
 being made, all of the old certainties seem to be dis- 
 appearing. To see us through this time of trial we 
 have no better reliance than the ancient faith that 
 lighted our way in the past. Now as never before 
 we need to remember that what we are struggling 
 for is, as Lincoln said, "something more than com- 
 mon — something that holds out a great promise to 
 all the people of the world, to all time to come." 
 That "something more than common" is of course 
 the thing we have always been dedicated to — ■ 
 human freedom, complete, unabridged and eternal, 
 here and everywhere, based on the belief in the 
 dignity and worth of the individual human being. 
 It still moves with power, and it is above everything 
 else important for us to continue our dedication to it. 
 
 Here in the proceedings the break occurred 
 between the contemporary program, now 
 ended, and the reenactment pageant of the 
 second inaugural that was about to begin. 
 Chairman Price had just spoken of the "im- 
 pressive and penetrating insight" afforded by 
 the Catton address, as the latter took his place 
 beside the podium. The notables moved off 
 
 [10]
 
 LINCOLN SECOND INAUGURATION RE-ENACTMENT SCENE, MARCH 4, 1965. 
 
 the Stage now to make way for the perform- 
 ers. The setting was being rearranged to 
 conform as much as may be to the scene al- 
 most exactly as it was in the days of Lincoln. 
 Even the paint on the beams, the little table, 
 the rustic and simple arrangement of what- 
 ever scant furniture there was, was brought 
 out in authentic simulation of the relatively 
 humble inauguration of a century before. 
 
 And as these arrangements were being 
 made Chairman Price introduced what was 
 without a doubt the most novel and extraor- 
 dinary feature of the day — Off to one side 
 a small, separate stand, carefully roped off, 
 had been put apart. This was the one-man 
 special domain of the narrator for the pag- 
 eant, who. Chairman Price announced, was 
 to be none other than the United States Am- 
 bassador to the United Nations. 
 
 Chairman Price said : 
 
 ... in another moment or so, Ambassador 
 Stevenson, one of the foremost figures of our time, 
 will take his place as chronicler and narrator, and 
 fill us in on the color and the atmosphere of this 
 place a hundred years ago, explaining much of the 
 recnactment as it proceeds. 
 
 Chairman Price moved off the central 
 
 stage — Director Schary unseen by the audi- 
 ence, gave the signal, and Ambassador Steven- 
 son, tall, distinguished, impressive, every inch 
 a diplomat and a statesman, emerged into the 
 spot set aside for him and began his role to 
 bring back to the audience the Lincoln situa- 
 tion at the time of the second inauguration. 
 The Ambassador, in superb voice, began: 
 We are met here, March 4, 1965, to mark the 
 centennial of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural. 
 Washington, a hundred years ago, had a very dif- 
 ferent look. . . . 
 
 And the narration by this Lincoln-scholar 
 and statesman-diplomat went into the char- 
 acter of the Capital and its color and excite- 
 ment a hundred years before. There was, of 
 course, throughout the audience the con- 
 sciousness that this narrator, in this instance 
 so clearly a merely leading member of the 
 Schary troupe, and a performer, held not only 
 the most critical ambassadorial post in the 
 gift of the President, but had been himself 
 a Governor of Illinois and twice his party's 
 candidate for President of the United States. 
 
 HIGH MOMENTS IN LINCOLN RE-ENACTMENT 
 CEREMONY (SEE FOLLOWING PAGE). 
 
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 From everywhere the attention to his nar- 
 ration was close and concentrated, except for 
 a few playing schoolchildren, on the outer 
 periphery of the crowd, for whom the voice 
 out of the loudspeaker was out of reach. 
 
 The Ambassador reset the 1865 scene. 
 
 He described in some detail the confusion 
 and noise, the crowd and the public business 
 transacted in the Senate Chamber that Satur- 
 day morning. There was the reading, amidst 
 the debate and the disorder, of an amend- 
 ment, he said, to a bill then being discussed, 
 an amendment profoundly significant a cen- 
 tury ago and in this 1965 moment of history. 
 
 The Ambassador quoted the amendment: 
 
 No citizen of the United States shall be excluded 
 from any railroad car, steamboat or other convey- 
 ance on account of any State or municipal law . . . 
 the penalty being $500 fine or imprisonment from 
 3 months to 5 years. 
 
 That amendment, Ambassador Stevenson 
 added, was passed 21 to 14. 
 
 From that acute vignette the Ambassador 
 went on to describe the whole inaugural pan- 
 orama. There was briefly an account of the 
 scene of the swearing in of Vice-President- 
 elect Andrew Johnson in the Senate and his 
 occupancy then of the chair, calling the new 
 Senate to order for the first time. There was 
 the recital of the proceedings at the White 
 House and of Mrs. Lincoln in her carriage 
 being escorted in a procession to the inaugu- 
 ration. 
 
 The President, signing bills in the Capitol, 
 had gone before. 
 
 The U.N. Ambassador gave a person-by- 
 person description of the Lincoln procession 
 coming down the East Front of the Capitol. 
 As he started to give the order of march, the 
 
 reenacted procession, beginning the pageant, 
 was at long last visible to the now fully as- 
 sembled audience of some 30,000. Ambassa- 
 dor Stevenson turned to point them out, one 
 by one, performers in costume in the role of 
 the Cabinet members, officials and celebrities, 
 of a century before. 
 
 It was at this juncture that Producer Schary 
 allowed himself the one dramatic license of 
 the day. He had his star, Robert Ryan, look- 
 ing, it seemed to some, more like Lincoln 
 than Lincoln in the life, emerge into the sun- 
 light of the noonday, in the manner of what 
 in any other context would have been a grand 
 entrance. There had been just before a mcv 
 ment of utter silence, absence of action and 
 anticipation. The members of the presiden- 
 tial entourage had finished descending down 
 the steps of the East Front. They had taken 
 their places for the inauguration. In the 
 moment of expectancy for the presence of 
 the President, the tall, almost solemn figure, 
 slowly appeared alone against the Capitol 
 edifice. 
 
 But this entrance, rather than smacking of 
 the grand, was touched movingly by a quality 
 at once of the great and the solitary. It was 
 not physically exactly what had happened a 
 hundred years ago, for Lincoln had marched 
 down with a group. But, poetically and for a 
 certain inner and historical truth, it was even 
 more real for it conveyed to the observer the 
 meaning of Lincoln's life from the vantage 
 point of a century after. 
 
 Almost simultaneously came the drum 
 ruffles and the Marine Band's performance of 
 "Hail to the Chief" as the Lincoln of 1965 
 came down the steps to the podium, a podium 
 equipped with about as modest a stick of 
 
 [14]
 
 ACTORS FROM CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY S SPEECH AND DRAMA DEPARTMENT WHO PLAYED LEAD ROLES 
 IN RE-ENACTMENT UNDER DIRECTION OF THE THEATRe's FAMED DORE SCHARY. 
 
 furniture as had ever been seen at a presiden- 
 tial inauguration, a tiny table and a water 
 glass. Ambassador Stevenson narrating this 
 scene now told of the matchless quality of the 
 second inaugural itself. Said the Ambas- 
 sador: 
 
 It was a short address, less than 700 words. The 
 second half of the speech contains 332 words. It is 
 this latter part where again we see the evidence 
 of Lincoln's incredible gift with words. Of these 
 332 words, 265 are of one syllable. It is a superb 
 lesson of style for writers and speakers. 
 
 The Ryan rendition was a deliberately un- 
 derstated performance. The words were 
 clearly heard, the emphasis as was called for 
 by the phrasing, the style bereft of all flourish 
 
 and oratory. Ryan was as nearly the real 
 Lincoln as an actor could make him. Ryan's 
 manner of adjusting the spectacles, of hold- 
 ing the tall hat and handing it to an associate 
 to retrieve it later, of speaking, it seemed, not 
 to this audience alone, but to whole genera- 
 tions of mankind for eons to come, conveyed 
 precisely what was called for by the reverence 
 of the moment and the meaning of the com- 
 memoration. 
 
 The grave, deeply lined face, the attitude 
 of total involvement in a great tragedy now 
 drawing to a close, and the intermittent spirit 
 of desolation that enveloped the Lincoln fig- 
 ure, held a touch of uncanny realism above 
 and beyond anything akin to the theater. For 
 
 [15]
 
 an evanescent instant it seemed that this was 
 not Robert Ryan playing Abraham Lincoln ; 
 but this was Lincoln indeed seen through the 
 true light of a whole century of history. 
 
 The immortal address was ended. 
 
 There was a moment of warm and em- 
 phatic handshaking, of sitting down and 
 standing up, and the appearance of the por- 
 tentous Salmon P. Chase, the Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court, who stepped forward to 
 administer the presidential oath. Never had 
 play-acting seemed so real. Again, after the 
 brief oath, there was a moment or two of 
 congratulations and President Lincoln, step- 
 ping down from the podium, was seen to 
 climb into a carriage that was actually the 
 one in which Ulysses S. Grant had ridden to 
 his inauguration. Another carriage of like 
 vintage drove up and carried Mrs. Lincoln 
 from the scene. The horse drawn vehicles 
 provided an unexpected and surprising touch 
 of genuineness and authenticity to the last 
 moments of the reenactment. 
 
 Indeed, research and negotiations by Paul 
 J. Sedgwick, Chairman of the Government 
 of the District of Columbia Civil War Cen- 
 tennial Commission, revealed that the man- 
 ufacturers of the Ulysses S. Grant carriage, 
 then as now The Meeks Carriage Works, are 
 still in business in the Capital and are the 
 owners of this famous conveyance. It is 
 notable that they have preserved it over the 
 century and more and that they prepare it 
 for public use without charge when this is 
 requested. In fact, when the carriage was 
 used in the 1961 Lincoln inaugural commem- 
 oration, under similar circumstances, and in 
 the same locale, it was found necessary to 
 
 soak the wheels and other somewhat cor- 
 roded parts in oil for not less than twelve 
 weeks prior to its use to insure its safety 
 and easy maneuverability. The current Mr. 
 Meeks, grandson of the Meeks of Civil War 
 days, is an avid student of history. 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson returned to the pub- 
 lic address system with a commentary and a 
 peroration : 
 
 "Let us pray," the Ambassador concluded, 
 that what he said then [the second inaugural] 
 will act as a beacon for good and just men to- 
 day and in years to come." 
 
 The reenactment over. Chairman Price 
 resuming, for the finale the contemporary 
 portion of the program, presented the Rever- 
 end Frederick Brown Harris, Chaplain of 
 U.S. Senate, for the benediction. 
 
 "And now," said the Chaplain, "let us go 
 forth to serve the present age. . . . Send us 
 forth into this divided world vowing here as 
 did Thy servant, Abraham Lincoln, 100 years 
 ago to bind up the wounds that hate has 
 made. . . ." 
 
 Chairman Price announced the commemo- 
 ration ceremonies over and the crowds melted 
 away — thoughtfully, dreamily, as a multitude 
 that had been witness to some unbelievable 
 duplication of history made possible by an 
 unimaginable time-machine. 
 
 The Congressional Record, in its issue of 
 March 4, 1965, detailed in full the commemo- 
 ration ceremony and reenactment marking 
 the one hundredth anniversary of the Second 
 Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, pages 
 4133-4138, which the Joint Committee on 
 Arrangements herewith reprints in this 
 report. 
 
 [16]
 
 The Committee inserts, at this point in the report, the full account of the ceremony and reenactment as 
 printed in the Congressional Record, Thursday, March 4, 196^, pages ^/jj-^/j5 
 
 Second Lincoln Inaugural Reenactment 
 
 and Ceremonies 
 
 East Front of the Capitol, March 4, 1965 
 
 Commemoration Ceremony of the igoth 
 Anniversary of the 2d Inauguration of 
 Abraham Lincoln, 1865-1965, March 4, 
 1965, ON THE East Front of the Capitol, 
 City of Washington, Hon. Melvin Price, 
 Chairman. 
 
 Mr. Price. Ladies and gentlemen, that was, 
 as always, an excellent and an appropriate 
 performance by the U.S. Marine Band, under 
 the conductorship of Lt. Col. Albert F. 
 Schoepper. We will now open this part of the 
 program commemorating the second inaugu- 
 ration of President Abraham Lincoln, 100 
 years ago, with the invocation by the Rever- 
 end Bernard Braskamp, Chaplain of the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 invocation by dr. BERNARD BRASKAMP, CHAP- 
 LAIN OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 Psalm 112: 6: The righteous shall be i« ever- 
 lasting remembrance. 
 
 Almightly God, we invoke Thy blessing as 
 we call to mind the grandeur and splendor 
 of the life of Abraham Lincoln, of whose 
 fame there shall be no end. 
 
 He made such an indelible impression 
 upon his own and succeeding generations be- 
 cause he was just, merciful, magnanimous, 
 humble, and had that calm, inner trust in 
 Thy divine will, greater than his own, which 
 he sought to know, to follow, and to work 
 with. 
 
 Above all he belonged to that great "aris- 
 tocracy of believing souls" who daily struggle 
 with the hard facts of life but firmly believe 
 that the truth of God will prevail, whatever 
 may be the posture and temper of the times, 
 its days or its hours. 
 
 Help us to hasten the dawning of that glori- 
 ous day of prediction for which Lincoln 
 prayed and labored when all brokenhearted 
 humanity shall be drawn together and 
 healed and live in peace "with malice to- 
 ward none, with charity for all, with firmness 
 in the right as God gives us to see the right." 
 
 Hear us in the name of the Prince of Peace. 
 Amen. 
 
 Mr. Price. Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speak- 
 er, Governor Kerner, Ambassador Stevenson, 
 the diplomatic corps, my fellow Americans, 
 it is in this spirit of prayer, this prayer we 
 
 [17]
 
 have just heard and which I find so moving, 
 this spirit of redeedication to the greatest prin- 
 ciples of righteousness since the dawn of reU- 
 gion and government, that I welcome you to 
 the ceremonies here today. 
 
 We are commemorating the looth anni- 
 versary of the 2d inauguration of Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 We are bearing witness to the realization 
 of a profound prophecy in free government 
 made on this spot and now hallowed by a 
 century of the reaffirmation of the democratic 
 ideal. 
 
 Our program today like the Government 
 under which we live — a government of 
 laws — is invoked by authority of Public Law 
 88-427. 
 
 We cannot hope to achieve in all their 
 brooding sincerity, their humble and com- 
 passionate spirit of victory, their moderating 
 and healing influence, the immortal moments 
 of a century ago. We cannot do this anymore 
 than we can produce in duplicate the true and 
 natural voice of Abraham Lincoln himself. 
 
 But there are people here who, out of a 
 boundless love of country and the deepest re- 
 spect for the Lincoln legacy, will reenact for 
 us the scene on these very steps before this 
 noble edifice, that occurred at that time and 
 that has since done so much to shape the 
 destiny of freemen everywhere. Thus we are 
 grateful for the services of the distinguished 
 producer-playwright, Dore Schary, his star 
 Robert Ryan, and his own staff, contributed 
 gratis to this event. We are indebted to the 
 several Federal agencies — such as the Marine 
 Band and the Army Signal Corps, the USIA, 
 the National Park Service, and to all branches 
 of our Government from the White House 
 
 and President Johnson on, through to espe- 
 cially assigned experts, for their wholehearted 
 and enthusiastic efforts. 
 
 The Library of Congress has been a main- 
 stay, through research directed by Mr. Wil- 
 liam A. Coblenz. 
 
 And we make our acknowledgements 
 thankfully to the Civil War Centennial Com- 
 mission and Lincoln groups and organiza- 
 tions, to the District of Columbia and the 
 board of trade, and especially to the National 
 Park Service and the Architect of the Capitol 
 for their contributions. Most of the perform- 
 ers in costume, whom we shall soon see, come 
 to us from Father Gilbert V. Hartke's Uni- 
 versity Players of Catholic University — a 
 brilliant and a devoted company. 
 
 I think I should pause here for a moment 
 to present to this large assemblage an un- 
 expected guest, one whom we are very happy 
 to have with us on this commemoration day, 
 the Honorable Otto Kerner, Governor of the 
 State of Illinois. [Applause.] 
 
 The joint committee of the Congress and I, 
 as its chairman, thank all these individuals 
 and groups, and those you will see mentioned 
 in your programs, for the goals they have set 
 to make this event today — the reenactment 
 proper — a work of dramatic perfection 
 worthy to be shown in every classroom and 
 schoolhouse in the United States. 
 
 To all this we welcome you today. 
 
 And now for the contemporary portion of 
 this commemoration I have the great honor 
 to present to you the eminent Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, the Honorable 
 John W. McCormack, of Massachusetts. 
 
 Speaker McCormack. Representative 
 Price, Mr. Vice President, reverend clergy, 
 
 [18]
 
 my distinguished colleagues in both branches 
 of the Congress, Governor Kerner, of Illinois, 
 Ambassador Adlai Stevenson, Mr. Bruce Cat- 
 ton, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies 
 and gentlemen, and my fellow Americans, 
 there is no event in our time that can get so 
 close to the heart and the history of our 
 country as this commemoration today reen- 
 acting a century later the second inauguration 
 of Abraham Lincoln. This commemoration 
 is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln for the im- 
 mense services he performed for our country 
 in preserving it against disintegration. 
 
 But it is more than that. 
 
 For what we are doing in this hour thrusts 
 the Lincoln influence into the present mo- 
 ment of our Nation's existence and promises 
 to project it far into the future. For, of all 
 men, down through the corridors of time 
 since the invention of the word "freedom," 
 few heroes in the long chronicle of man have 
 done so much in so brief a span as our Civil 
 War President. 
 
 Those words of his, on about this very spot 
 10 decades ago, compress within a matter of 
 
 minutes, in a few paragraphs of the spoken 
 word, the total meaning of civilization. I, 
 for one, having heard for a half century and 
 more, an endless procession of speeches, some 
 of them the noblest utterances in the literature 
 of our country, know nothing that quite sur- 
 passes those words mostly in the last para- 
 graph of the second inaugural we are to hear 
 reenacted today. I cannot recall anything 
 in the better language of politics that is at 
 once so rich in beauty, so vigorous in action 
 and so full of the promise of a policy of con- 
 ciliation, as that ever so simple and so humble 
 phrase: "with malice toward none; with 
 charity for all." 
 
 I venture to suggest, as one having had a 
 little something to do with the legislative deci- 
 sions of these crises-ridden decades, that the 
 Lincoln philosophy invested the thinking and 
 the action of our time in the Chambers of this 
 great Capitol. Words like "emancipation" 
 and "freedom", words like "conceived in lib- 
 erty and dedicated to the proposition that all 
 men are created equal," can be shown pro- 
 foundly to have touched with resolution and 
 
 HERE, BEFORE THE RE-ENACTMENT EXERCISES BEGAN, ARE THE DISTINGUISHED PARTICIPANTS 
 WHOSE ADDRESSES MARKED THE NATIOn's GESTURE OF RESPECT TOWARD THE lOOTH ANNIVERSARY 
 OF THE LINCOLN SECOND INAUGURAL. 
 
 [19]
 
 ARTISTS DRAWING OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN LINCOLN S TIME. 
 
 to have shaped into law much of the history 
 of the last 30 or 40 years. They shine in our 
 enlightened postwar legislative history when 
 we rehabilitated with our own treasure the 
 very nations who had been brought to book 
 as our enemies after a fierce and savage world 
 war. And of course our domestic legislative 
 history is an object lesson in wise and effective 
 compassion and thoughtfulness for all the 
 American people. 
 
 Lincoln gave us his enduring restatement 
 of our title deeds of freedom, created not a 
 
 few of his own, and left us with a heritage 
 that will benefit free men to the end of time. 
 It is for this reason that I, as Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives, congratulate the 
 members of the joint committee, and the bril- 
 liant producers and directors and the staff, 
 that have brought all this into this dramatic 
 moment of reverence and commemoration. 
 As you and I are gathered here today we 
 can see the spirit of Abraham Lincoln is with 
 us. If he could send a message to us from 
 the great beyond he would say to you and 
 
 [20]
 
 to me as Americans, "Carry on and preserve 
 and strengthen the spirit of this great coun- 
 try of ours." 
 
 Chairman Price. Mr. Speaker, I beHeve 
 you have given us the essence of the mean- 
 ing of these ceremonies. 
 
 It is now my high honor to present to you 
 the distinguished Vice President of the United 
 States and President of the Senate, the Hon- 
 orable Hubert H. Humphrey. 
 
 Vice President Humphrey. Thank you, 
 Representative Price. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, Governor Kerner, Ambassa- 
 dor Stevenson, Members of the Congress of 
 the United States, and my fellow Americans, 
 personally I commend this joint committee 
 for these ceremonies and may I just say a word 
 of commendation to the distinguished for- 
 mer Representative from the State of Iowa, 
 Mr. Schwengel, for his dedication to this 
 great occasion. 
 
 As the President of the Senate I bring you 
 greetings today from that body on this his- 
 toric occasion. 
 
 It was 100 years ago today that Abraham 
 Lincoln stood outside this Capitol to receive 
 the oath of office for his second term and to 
 deliver a memorable and unforgettable in- 
 augural address. Just 4 years before at Lin- 
 coln's first inauguration the setting had been 
 an unhappy one. Sharpshooters with rifles 
 stood on watch then at these very Capitol 
 windows and General Scott was ready on 
 Capitol Hill with troops and cannon. The 
 unfitted sections of this very Capitol dome 
 which you see today reminding us of our 
 American form of government, those un- 
 fitted sections lay scattered near the inaugural 
 stands. 
 
 In 1865 at the second inaugural which we 
 commemorate today the end of a horrible 
 war was in sight. Some 60 years later, Rep- 
 resentative Sherwood, of Ohio, rose in the 
 House of Representatives to tell how he 
 came from a battle as a weary Union soldier 
 to witness that inaugural. 
 This is Congressman Sherwood's account: 
 There was no general platform. There were no 
 reserved seats for Congressmen or anybody else. 
 We were all standing up. There must have been 
 20,000 people in front of the Capitol. Lincoln 
 stood there on the east front, on a litde platform 
 with a little stand and a glass of water. He had 
 a white pocket handkerchief around his neck. A 
 tall, spare man with deep lines of care furrowing 
 his cheeks; a sad face, a strong face, the face of a 
 man of many sorrows; a face lit up with the in- 
 spiration of a great soul as he voiced in prophecy 
 the ultimate destiny of this Nation. 
 
 Congressman Sherwood told us in these 
 graphic and telling words of that occasion. 
 Actually, there are possibly more people to- 
 day here than on that second inauguration. 
 It was from these very steps in front of this 
 Capitol that Abraham Lincoln took that oath 
 of office under such circumstances as I have 
 recounted. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln stood on that inaugural 
 platform as the leader of the most powerful 
 military force in the world. His theme that 
 day was not military victory; it was not re- 
 venge, wrath or bitterness. Abraham Lin- 
 coln prayed for the passing of war. He asked 
 for malice toward none, with charity for all. 
 He asked for binding of the Nation's wounds. 
 He called for a just and lasting peace among 
 ourselves and with all nations. 
 
 Yes, he was a strong man; yet he was a 
 forgiving man. Yes, he was a strong man; 
 yet he was a compassionate man. 
 
 [21]
 
 We of this generation and indeed of genera- 
 tions yet to come owe this Nation's hfe to 
 Abraham Lincoln. To repay that we can do 
 no less than to be guided by his greatness and 
 his compassion. It is the strong who can 
 afford to be peaceful, it is the free who can be 
 generous, and we will not be diverted from 
 the wise course set for us by that wise and 
 good man lOO years ago today. We are all 
 living witnesses to Abraham Lincoln's pledge, 
 and that pledge continues to be our commit- 
 ment to a suffering humanity on this day. 
 
 With malice toward none in this year of 
 1965 and with charity for all but with firm- 
 ness in the right now as then as God gives us 
 the knowledge to see the right this is our 
 commitment, ever humbly remembering in 
 our wealth and strength and gratefully in 
 our riches now as then that America is indeed 
 the last best hope on earth. [Applause.] 
 
 Chairman Price. Thank you, Mr. Vice 
 President. 
 
 There is at this point a place of particular 
 honor that the joint committee and I have 
 reserved for the Honorable Fred Schwengel. 
 The former Representative from the First Dis- 
 trict of Iowa is the father and the chief inspira- 
 tion of this commemoration today. Indeed, 
 it was he, who, in the first instance, intro- 
 duced the joint resolution in the 88th Con- 
 gress that is now public law and constitutes 
 the congressional authority for these proceed- 
 ings. He will present the historian on our 
 program. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, the Honorable Fred 
 Schwengel. 
 
 Mr. Schwengel. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice 
 President, Mr. Speaker, my fellow country- 
 men, first I want to thank very sincerely my 
 
 successor as chairman of the joint committee, 
 the Honorable Melvin Price, for his and the 
 committee's gracious gesture inviting me to 
 introduce the historian-speaker of the day. 
 
 My heart, of course, is altogether in the 
 Lincoln story and in the glorious chronicle 
 and tradition of our country. 
 
 It happens also that my association has been 
 close and more or less constant over the years 
 with the remarkable author and memorialist 
 whom I am about to present. 
 
 It is not unusual for the Congress of the 
 United States to invite the outstanding con- 
 temporary historians and poets to participate 
 in events of this nature. 
 
 We have had Carl Sandburg in the recent 
 past. 
 
 Further back we had the great historian, 
 George Bancroft. 
 
 Today we have a noted Lincoln authority 
 and a distinguished man of letters. His repu- 
 tation and fame I believe will live through 
 the centuries. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen for today's major 
 commentary on the significance of Abraham 
 Lincoln's second inaugural address, I have 
 the honor to present to you my friend and 
 one of the foremost historians of our time, Mr. 
 Bruce Catton. 
 
 Mr. Bruce Catton. One hundred years 
 ago today Abraham Lincoln, in this place, de- 
 livered one of the greatest of all his 
 speeches — his second inaugural. A few days 
 later a friend complimented him on this ad- 
 dress, and Lincoln said that he did not think 
 the speech would be immediately popular; 
 because, he said : 
 
 "Men are not flattered by being shown that 
 there has been a difference of purpose between 
 
 [22]
 
 the Almighty and them. To deny it, how- 
 ever, in this case, is to deny that there is a 
 God governing the world." 
 
 The second inaugural was in fact a brood- 
 ing, mystic attempt to explore that difference 
 of purpose as it applied to the American Civil 
 War; it was a reminder that in times of great 
 crisis men somehow do more than they mean 
 to do and serve an end larger than they are 
 able to see. 
 
 Americans of 1865, both in the North and 
 in the South, greatly needed such a reminder. 
 They had been through the most terrible 4 
 years in their history, years that had tried 
 them to the utmost. In those 4 years, the 
 lives of more than 630,000 young Americans 
 had been lost; a higher number, by the way, 
 than has been recorded by all of our other 
 wars put together, from the Revolution down 
 through Korea. Out of long agony and great 
 bewilderment, people desperately needed to 
 know what all of this had accomplished. 
 Had they done something that would finally 
 be worth all that it had cost — worth it to those 
 who had won, and also to those who had 
 lost — or was it simply an empty tragedy, 
 meaningless save that it testified to the mighty 
 reserves of courage and endurance which the 
 human spirit can display in time of trial ? 
 
 Abraham Lincoln did not try to give them 
 a soft, easy answer. Instead he reminded 
 them that in 1861, trying to make peace, they 
 had instead made a war, and that it was not 
 the kind of war they had supposed it was 
 going to be. When the war came, men on 
 both sides fought to the utmost to preserve a 
 cherished past. They saw that past in dif- 
 ferent ways, to be sure, one side fighting for 
 Union and the other side fighting for sepa- 
 
 ration; but in North and South alike they 
 had really fought to keep the quiet, uncom- 
 plicated national life they were used to. They 
 wanted to get back to something that seemed 
 to be in danger of slipping away from them. 
 Yet in 1865 the one thing that was clear to 
 everyone was that instead of preserving the 
 past they had destroyed it. America could 
 never again be what it had been before 1861. 
 Its people had opened a door to the future, 
 and although no one knew what the future 
 was going to be like they had to go on into it 
 because there was no other place for them to 
 go. In Lincoln's unforgettable words: "Each 
 looked for an easier triumph and a result less 
 fundamental and astounding." Here was the 
 most poignant of human tragedies. Each 
 side, as he pointed out, read the same Bible 
 and prayed to the same God : "the prayers of 
 both could not be answered — that of neither 
 has been answered fully." Then he added 
 the moving conclusion: "The Almighty has 
 His own purposes." 
 
 This speech, then, was first of all a reminder 
 that we are moving on a tide more powerful 
 than we are. History is not simply a mean- 
 ingless record of unrelated events, of accidents 
 without cause and tragedies without recom- 
 pense; it follows, in some way that goes be- 
 yond our immediate understanding a moral 
 imperative, and it is up to us to adjust our- 
 selves to it. A couple of years earlier Abra- 
 ham Lincoln had cried out: "My fellow citi- 
 zens, we cannot escape history," and he had 
 pleaded: "We must disenthrall ourselves." 
 Now, with the war at last coming to a close, 
 he called for an end to malice — an enc^, that is, 
 to the fears and hatreds and suspicions that 
 cause war and poison peace — and a return to 
 
 [23]
 
 n 
 
 
 THIS IS A STREET SCENE THAT LINCOLN MIGHT HAVE WITNESSED. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE PRESENTS A MILITARY SPECTACLE IN 1865. 
 
 t 
 
 
 [24]
 
 the charity and understanding that enable 
 men to move with the great tide of history 
 instead of trying to swim against it. 
 
 One of the notable things about the second 
 inaugural is that it is not exultant. It contains 
 no talk of victory. Here was a speech made 
 at the very moment of triumph, but the tri- 
 umph is not mentioned. The mood is like 
 that of the Gettysburg Address, in which 
 Lincoln took the position that victory by 
 itself was not enough. At Gettysburg he put 
 the emphasis on liberty and equality, and in- 
 stead of dedicating the ground where the sol- 
 diers had been buried he called on his listeners 
 to dedicate themselves— to something that 
 might in the end justify the agony Gettysburg 
 had cost. So it was here. Lincoln wanted to 
 look to the future — to a reunited nation 
 which, at fearful cost to both sides, had at last 
 rid itself of the crippling blight of slavery and 
 could go on now to realize the magnificent 
 ideals that had inspired it from the beginning. 
 
 This had been in his mind all along. In 
 the winter of 1861, when he was on his way 
 to Washington to begin his first term as 
 President, he had stopped at Trenton, N.J., 
 to address the State senate, and in that speech 
 he said that he had always felt that George 
 Washington's army at Trenton had been 
 fighting— as he put it— "for something more 
 than common — something that held out a 
 great promise to all the people of the world, 
 to all time to come." He said then that he 
 hoped that he himself might become an in- 
 strument, in the hands of the Almighty "and 
 of this, His almost chosen people, for per- 
 petuating the object of that great struggle." 
 Running all through the second inaugural is 
 the deep conviction that the "something more 
 
 than common" which might bring hope to 
 everyone, everywhere, had somehow been 
 brought a little nearer to realization in the 
 four terrible years of the Civil War. 
 
 Yet even though he emphasized this point, 
 President Lincoln said nothing whatever 
 about specific plans for the difficult time of 
 reconstruction that lay ahead. Inviting his 
 countrymen to look to the future, he did not 
 give them a blueprint to show what the future 
 ought to be like or how it might be con- 
 structed. In the second inaugural there is 
 not a hint of the concrete things he might be 
 preparing to ask people to do. Instead of 
 recommending a course of action he simply 
 called for a new mental and emotional atti- 
 tude. In no sense did he lay out anything 
 resembling a program. 
 
 Perhaps that is the strangest thing about 
 this great speech. It almost seems as if Lin- 
 coln were saying that if men's hearts were 
 right their heads could be trusted. What he 
 wanted most of all, as he began his second 
 term in the White House, was nationwide 
 understanding of the inner meaning of the 
 terrible experience that was then coming to 
 an end. Somehow, suffering much at their 
 own hands, the American people had pushed 
 their national horizon outward to infinity. 
 Abraham Lincoln obviously believed that if 
 that fact could be fully grasped the people 
 would do what had to be done. 
 
 So he offered no suggestions, even though 
 a definite program for action was greatly 
 needed. The country has to be put back to- 
 gether again and the sections could not be 
 nailed together with bayonets. Reunion had 
 to be accepted in such a way that it would 
 endure forever by common consent. Lincoln 
 
 [25]
 
 did not say how this ought to be done; he 
 simply called on everyone to shed the crip- 
 pling emotions born of war and build on a 
 basis of good will and understanding. In the 
 same way he said nothing at all about the 
 way in which four million former slaves 
 should be brought forward into full freedom. 
 Instead — devoting nearly half of his brief 
 speech to the subject of slavery — he defined 
 slavery as an immense evil, pointed out that 
 both sides shared in the responsibility for its 
 existence, and remarked that both sides had 
 paid an awful price for its removal. For the 
 moment, that was all he had to say. What he 
 apparently wanted more than anything else, 
 on March 4, 1865, was for people to read the 
 lesson of the past prayerfully and earnestly 
 before they began to build the future. 
 
 And that of course is why this centennial 
 of the second inaugural is so much worth 
 commemorating today. That speech was 
 nothing less than a challenge to all men to 
 recognize the divine purpose that had been 
 served, to put themselves in tune with it, and 
 then to get on with the job. And that is a 
 challenge to us, today, as well as to the people 
 who stood here a century ago to listen to it. 
 
 For what Lincoln was saying then remains 
 true. The Civil War was not an end but a 
 beginning. One great obstacle to the advance 
 of human freedom and brotherhood had been 
 destroyed — and therefore an inescapable re- 
 sponsibility rested on the shoulders of this, 
 "His almost chosen people," to build anew on 
 the progress that had been made. 
 
 Today we are compelled to realize that 
 during the last century poor progress was 
 made. Only now are we beginning to insist 
 that the broader freedom that was won in the 
 
 Civil War must be made good all across the 
 board in the realities of day-to-day life. Only 
 now are we beginning to see that in our land 
 there can be no room for a second-class citi- 
 zenship, and that die freedom of the most for- 
 tunate of us is limited by the freedom that 
 can be enjoyed by the least fortunate. 
 
 The Civil War ended a century ago, and the 
 brief and pain it caused no longer have any 
 place in the memories of living men; but the 
 cause that was served then still lives, and the 
 responsibility which the war created still ex- 
 ists. It rests upon our shoulders, here and 
 now, today. As Abraham Lincoln said, we 
 cannot escape history. 
 
 Nor can we escape the sobering knowledge 
 that what we do can serve ends that we our- 
 selves do not always see. You may if you 
 choose deny that a hidden purpose runs 
 through history, but it is impossible to deny 
 that history is inexorable, bringing far-reach- 
 ing results out of innumerable small actions. 
 Whether we mean it or not, we are always 
 moving — in one direction or another. If for 
 instance we accept the notion that our class- 
 less American society really does contain 
 classes which must be kept on their separate 
 levels, we open the way to a denial of all free- 
 doms. If we accept a racist doctrine for one 
 group, we accept it for all. Freedom is a 
 seamless robe — cut it anywhere and you de- 
 stroy all of it. There is no use trying to find 
 an easy ground halfway between Abraham 
 Lincoln and Adolf Hitler. There simply is 
 not any such place. 
 
 What we do with our responsibility today 
 is of terrible importance. 
 
 We live in a time of great trouble and per- 
 plexity, when no man can see more than a 
 
 [26]
 
 few feet along the road ahead. In the last 
 two generations we have seen the past de- 
 stroyed for all the world. Immense new 
 forces are in action, profound changes are be- 
 ing made, all of the old certainties seem to 
 be disappearing. To see us through this time 
 of trial we have no better reliance than the 
 ancient faith that lighted our way in the past. 
 Now as never before we need to remember 
 that what we are struggling for is, as Lincoln 
 said, "something more than common — some- 
 thing that holds out a great promise to all 
 the people of the world, to all time to come." 
 That "something more than common" is of 
 course the thing we have always been dedi- 
 cated to — human freedom, complete, un- 
 abridged and eternal, here and everywhere, 
 based on the belief in the dignity and worth 
 of the individual human being. It still moves 
 with power, and it is above everything else 
 important for us to continue our dedication 
 to it. 
 
 On the last day of his life — Good Friday, 
 April 14, 1865 — Lincoln told his Cabinet 
 about a haunting dream he had had the night 
 before; a dream that had often come to him 
 in the past, always on the eve of some great 
 event. As Gideon Welles remembered it, 
 Lincoln said he dreamed that he was in an 
 indiscribable ship, that was "moving with 
 great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite 
 shore." We usually take it for granted that 
 in that eerie dream Lincoln simply had a fey 
 moment of second sight, in which he saw his 
 own death approaching but failed to recog- 
 nize it. But he spoke also for his people. 
 North and South, of that generation and of 
 this. We are all moving on the tide toward 
 a dark and indefinite shore. We have no 
 
 chart, and the lights are dim. We only know 
 that we are on our way toward something 
 incalculable. What we eventually find there, 
 like the progress we make, will depend in 
 the last analysis on what we carry in our own 
 hearts. 
 
 When he stood here a century ago Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was talking to us, and his urging 
 is still good: That we go forward without 
 malice, with charity for all the struggling 
 peoples of the earth, standing firmly for the 
 right as God permits us to see it — to the end 
 that we may do all in our power "to achieve 
 and cherish a just and a lasting peace, among 
 ourselves and with all nations." 
 
 Chairman Price. We have just had an im- 
 pressive and penetrating insight from a great 
 and a sympathetic historian to the immortal 
 words spoken here a century ago. 
 
 In a moment or two, after the necessary 
 rearrangement of the setting, bringing us 
 back through a whole century of time, we 
 will all be witness to the great scene that, for 
 the opening of a second term, reestablished 
 Abraham Lincoln as the President of the 
 United States. We will see recreated on this 
 spot the image of the agonizing action, 
 when, at the moment of impending victory, 
 Abraham Lincoln bound up the open wounds 
 of the Nation with the bandage of reconcilia- 
 tion and compassion. 
 
 For the high drama of this priceless instant 
 in man's march to freedom, this committee 
 of the Congress, has, I must repeat, entrusted 
 the art and the sincerity, the authenticity and 
 the emotion, to Dore Schary, who is among 
 the greatest executive and writing talents in 
 the American theater; to his assistant, Mr. Joel 
 Freeman, and their staflf; to the players from 
 
 [27]
 
 Catholic University and the young people of 
 B'nai B'rith, all of whom, now, in emphasis 
 for the second time, I am pleased to accord 
 the acknowledgements of the Congress of 
 the United States, expressed through this 
 joint committee. 
 
 But today there is an element unique in a 
 pageant even of this dimension. 
 
 This new ingredient, this totally original 
 touch, this dynamic and hitherto unexampled 
 feature, is the presence among us — as the nar- 
 rator of no less a distinguished American than 
 the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. 
 Twice a candidate for the Presidency of the 
 United States, a former Governor of Illinois, 
 and, above all, a devout and recognized Lin- 
 coln scholar, his role today is the key in many 
 ways to the reenactment we are about to 
 witness. 
 
 Thus, in another moment or so. Ambassa- 
 dor Stevenson, one of the foremost figures 
 of our time, will take his place as chronicler 
 and narrator, and fill us in on the color and 
 the atmosphere of this place a hundred years 
 ago, explaining much of the reenactment as it 
 proceeds. 
 
 And now I turn the program over to this 
 brilliant and internationally famous Ameri- 
 can — Adlai Stevenson — who will take his 
 place as soon as the stage has been reset. 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson. We are met here, 
 March 4, 1965, to mark the centennial of 
 Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural. Wash- 
 ington, a hundred years ago, had a very differ- 
 ent look. A writer for the Evening Star in 
 this city, reported: 
 
 This 4th of March 1865 opened rather disagree- 
 ably, especially in the eyes of those designing to 
 take part in the procession and who do not relish 
 
 having their fancy fixin's spotted by drenching rain 
 and mudbath combined. The night had been 
 drizzling and this morning, about 6 o'clock, a heavy 
 gale sprang up from the south lasting but for a 
 few minutes and doing considerable damage, up- 
 rooting shade trees. It was followed by brighter 
 skies through the morning, but as the day wore 
 on, it became pretty certain that the manhood of 
 the processionists was to be tried by a march of 
 considerable discomfort. 
 
 It was further reported that the Engineer 
 Corps had made a survey for the purpose of 
 determining the practicability of laying pon- 
 toons from the Capitol to the White House, 
 but it was found that the mud bottom was 
 too soft to hold the anchors of the boats and 
 the project was abandoned. 
 
 Wryly the reporter commented : 
 
 The police were careful to confine all to the side- 
 walks who could not swim. At some of the shallow 
 crossings, a steady stream of people were passing 
 throughout the day, some of whom dashed out 
 into the avenue in the most reckless manner, but 
 fortunately no one is believed to have been lost. 
 
 The Nation was still at war and the cere- 
 monies had a military look due to the pres- 
 ence of many generals and their aides. 
 
 There was some anticipation that secession- 
 ists would make an effort to prevent the 
 President-elect from taking his oath of office 
 and according to our reporter, this possibility 
 caused an extraordinary rush to the city some 
 days in advance of the inauguration. All 
 roads leading to Washington were heavily 
 picketed and all the bridges were guarded 
 with extra vigilance. Cavalry units were as- 
 signed to a continual search for suspicious 
 looking characters. The dark rumors faded 
 as the day drew on and the visitors became 
 more interested in the approaching cere- 
 
 [28]
 
 aqueduct bridge as seen from virginia in 
 Lincoln's day. 
 
 LONG BRIDGE IN THE CAPITAL AND OTHER 
 POINTS WERE STRICTLY GUARDED DURING IN- 
 AUGURATION. 
 
 monies and less concerned with the possi- 
 bility of violence. 
 
 Enterprising pickpockets who had made 
 their way from other cities were carefully 
 watched or corralled by detectives. 
 
 Needless to say, the hotels were crowded 
 and firehouses provided extra sleeping spaces. 
 No mention is made if there was a charge for 
 these accommodations. 
 
 With Grant's victories in the West, the 
 war was soon to be won, but at this point in 
 1865, the Nation was tired. Determined, but 
 tired. The agony of the war and its horrible 
 casualties had created a festering anger that 
 supported the Union's resolve and tempered 
 the weariness. 
 
 It was a Saturday and the Senate had con- 
 tinued in session all Friday night until 7 
 o'clock in the morning. But it reconvened 
 3 hours later at 10 o'clock. The Senate 
 Chambers were crowded and noisy and sev- 
 eral Senators complained that there was so 
 much confusion that they did not know 
 
 which bills the Senate was considering. 
 
 Apparently the Sergeant at Arms achieved 
 some semblance of order and one amendment 
 to a bill under discussion declared that — 
 
 No citizen of the United States shall be excluded 
 from any railroad car, steamboat or other convey- 
 ance on account of any State or municipal law * * * 
 the penalty being I500 fine or imprisonment from 
 3 months to 5 years. 
 
 The amendment was passsed — yeas 21, 
 nays 14. 
 
 While debate on that matter had been 
 going on. Cabinet members and Justices of 
 the Supreme Court had entered the Chamber. 
 They were followed by members of the diplo- 
 matic corps in their ornate and elegant official 
 dress. Soon Members of the House arrived 
 and the floor was filled. The hour of 12 was 
 approaching. Vice President Hamlin deliv- 
 ered his valedictory and introduced the Vice- 
 President-elect, the Honorable Andrew John- 
 son, who was ready to take the oath of office. 
 Mr. Johnson first delivered a speech identi- 
 
 [29]
 
 fying himself as a plebian and maintained to 
 everyone crowding the Chamber that the 
 power of the United States came from the 
 people. He took the opportunity to mention 
 that Tennessee— even though it had se- 
 ceded — was a State of this Union and he 
 thanked God that it was. After offering these 
 verbal credentials, Mr. Johnson was sworn 
 in and the Senate again adjourned — for a 
 moment. 
 
 Then Vice President Johnson assumed the 
 chair and called the new Senate to order. The 
 newly elected Senators then took office and 
 proceedings were terminated until 12 o'clock 
 on Monday, March 6. 
 
 At the White House, a large crowd had 
 gathered, waiting to see President Lincoln 
 start the procession to the Capitol. It was not 
 until II o'clock that everyone, including a 
 number of U.S. marshals, learned that the 
 President was working at the Capitol. Mrs. 
 Lincoln entered her carriage in the company 
 of Senators Harlan and Anthony and under 
 escort of the Union Light Guard, drove in 
 advance of the procession to the Capitol. 
 
 It was a fine procession. It included police, 
 squadrons of the New York Cavalry, fire bri- 
 gades, floats, companies of marines, mounted 
 and marching bands, and all manners of mar- 
 shals, officials, and military units. 
 
 As the hour of 12 approached, the black 
 clouds which had threatened rain dispersed 
 and the sun came through, lighting up the 
 parade. 
 
 Crowds were massed in front of the Capitol 
 and as the Marine Band struck up appropriate 
 tunes, the favored dignitaries and officials 
 came to take their places on the platform. 
 
 [The officials appear] 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson. The marshal of 
 the District of Columbia, Ward Hill Lamon, 
 escorting Mrs. Lincoln. 
 
 The ex-Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin. 
 
 Members of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States headed by the Chief Justice Sal- 
 mon P. Chase. 
 
 The Sergeant at Arms of the Senate, George 
 T. Brown. 
 
 The Vice President, Andrew Johnson. 
 
 The Secretary of the Senate, John W. For- 
 ney. 
 
 Members of the Senate, diplomatic corps, 
 heads of departments. Governors of States 
 and Territories, and escorts and guests. 
 
 [As the last official is seated] 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson. There was a mo- 
 ment of quiet and then the crowd heard the 
 drum ruffles and the first sounds of "Hail to 
 the Chief" as President Lincoln appeared and 
 made his way to the podium. 
 
 [President Lincoln appears and the Marine 
 Band plays "Hail to the Chief"] 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson. It was a short ad- 
 dress, less than 700 words. The second half 
 of the speech contains 332 words. It is in this 
 latter part where again we see the evidence 
 of Lincoln's incredible gift with words. Of 
 those 332 words, 265 are of one syllable. It 
 is a superb lesson of style for writers and 
 speakers. 
 
 [30]
 
 [ Lincoln goes to podium] 
 
 Lincoln's second inaugural address 
 [Mr. Lincoln]. Fellow countrymen, at this 
 second appearing to take the oath of the Presi- 
 dential Office there is less occasion for an ex- 
 tended address than there was at the first. 
 Then a statement somewhat in detail of a 
 course to be pursued seemed fitting and 
 proper. Now, at the expiration of 4 years, 
 during which public declarations had not 
 been constantly called forth on every point 
 and phase of the great contest which still ab- 
 sorbs the attention and engrosses the energies 
 of the Nation, little that is new could be pre- 
 sented. The progress of our arms, upon 
 which all else chiefly depends, is as well 
 known to the public as to myself, and it is, I 
 trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging 
 to all. With high hope for the future, no pre- 
 diction in regard to it is ventured. On the 
 occasion corresponding to this 4 years ago all 
 thoughts were anxiously directed to an im- 
 pending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought 
 to avert it. While the inaugural address was 
 being delivered from this place, devoted alto- 
 gether to saving the Union without war in- 
 surgent agents were in the city seeking to 
 destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve 
 the Union and divide effects by negotiation. 
 Both parties deprecated war, but one of them 
 would make war rather than let the Nation 
 survive, and the other would accept war rather 
 than let it perish, and the war came. 
 
 One-eighth of the whole population was 
 colored slaves, not distributed generally over 
 the Union, but localized in the southern part 
 of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and 
 powerful interest. All knew that this interest 
 
 was somehow the cause of the war. To 
 strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this inter- 
 est was the object for which the insurgents 
 would rend the Union even by war, while 
 the Government claimed no right to do more 
 than to restrict the territorial enlargement of 
 it. Neither party expected for the war the 
 magnitude or the duration which it has al- 
 ready attained. Neither anticipated that the 
 cause of the conflict might cease with or even 
 before the conflict itself should cease. Each 
 
 reproduced here is the original programme 
 OF arrangements for Lincoln's second in- 
 auguration. (SEE also pages 32 AND 33) 
 
 ARRANGEMENTS 
 
 THE INAUGURATION 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 I'orRTIl OF MARCH. IHfiTi 
 
 so-.-' r.or.r.., R<i i,si,ii., ic--<-ii 
 
 WA«II1NOTON; 
 
 [31]
 
 looked for an easier triumph, and a result less 
 fundamental and astounding. Both read the 
 same Bible and pray to the same God, and 
 each invokes his aid against the other. 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 let us judge not, that we be not 
 judged. The prayers of both could not be 
 answered. That of neither has been an- 
 swered fully. The Almighty has His own 
 purposes. "Woe unto the world because of 
 offenses; for it must needs be that offenses 
 come, but woe to that man by whom the 
 
 ofTense cometh." If we shall suppose that 
 American slavery is one of those offenses 
 which, in the providence of God, must needs 
 come, but which, having continued through 
 His appointed time. He now wills to re- 
 move, and that He gives to both North and 
 South this terrible war as the woe due to 
 those by whom the offense came, shall we 
 discern therein any departure from those 
 divine attributes which the believers in a liv- 
 ing God always ascribe to Him ? Fondly do 
 we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
 mighty scourge of war may speedily pass 
 away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until 
 
 
 PIiOGRA.MME. 
 
 T\k iliMfM of the ^ctMtv OinuiIxT will he oiiriieit at IL uVluck ». lu. fur llic 
 
 HFC cutilkil ID 8ilii>i»ai»ii. M I'liloWS : 
 Ex-l'rcBidi-iita aiiJ Vicf-rn-fidciiti'. 
 
 
 
 Tlic IJiplomatic Corpx. lU'ncln ori)i-pnrtiiiL-iit.<. K.x-M<.-iiiW-r:i of cillur branch 
 
 
 
 of Congrc*)^, Kiid Mvmbcrd of Congress uIltI. 
 
 Officer of the Army nnil Navy, whn. Ity name, have received the thnnks of 
 CongroM. 
 
 
 
 GovCrrion of .Slnli'r* nnil 'IVrritorics of the Union, unci Kx-Cmvcniora of 
 
 
 
 SmtcH ; Af siHlant Scei-elurica of Uc[inrtiiieiitfl, mid tlie A»i>i»lBnt tWliiindlers 
 General; llic AfuUtniit Attorney GcniTnl. nnd llif Judge Advociilc General; 
 the ComiitrolkTB. Aiidilore, nnd ItegiHlcr of ihc Trva.-ury; the Soliiitor« of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iiigtoii nnd Georgetown ; iiud ihe Ueporters iu ihe SeiinU'. 
 
 AH of wliom will be admitled nt tlic iwi door of ibe north whig of the 
 Capitol. 
 
 The fBmilii'8 of the Ditdomnlic Corps will enter at the ciwt door of the north 
 wing of the Cnpito), and he condncled to llic diplomntic gutlery. Tlie Udiea 
 
 
 of the famdicB of th« other iHTtfons ndmilled. ns ahove. to ihe flour nf the Scn- 
 fttc. will enter at the Mmc d.ior, nnd he cniiducteii to the pdlery on the iionth 
 
 A flent will he pliiced in finiit of tlic Sccretiiry'x Uhlir for llit- I'rrniukyt of 
 ihL- United Sliile!-, l'iii>iiiKNT KLKtT. ninl, on hiit hrt, for the Cnninilti-e of Ar- 
 mngcmentf. 
 
 Kx-rreMidents mid VtcG-rn'Kid>'»ls, the Chief Jtmticc nnd A!>#ocrBie JuBlicea 
 of the Snirtfine Cowrl. will have Heiito on the right of ihu Chair. 
 
 [32]
 
 all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 250 
 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 3,000 years ago, so still it 
 must be said, "The judgments of the Lord 
 are true and righteous altogether." 
 
 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 care for him who shall 
 have borne the battle and for his widow 
 and his orphan, to do all which may achieve 
 
 and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
 ourselves and with all nations. 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson. Sometime after 
 President Lincoln made his address, he was 
 asked of his views concerning it. He said: 
 
 I expect it to wear as well as, perhaps better than 
 anything I have produced; but I believe it is not im- 
 mediately popular. Men are not flattered by being 
 shown that there has been a diiTerence of purpose 
 between the Almighty and them. To deny it how- 
 ever, in this case, is to deny that there is a God 
 governing the world. It is a truth which I thought 
 needed to be told, and, as whatever of humiliation 
 there is in it falls most direcdy on myself, I thought 
 others might afford for me to tell it. 
 
 [33]
 
 Neither the President nor the audience to 
 whom he spoke knew that some of those 
 words were to become immortal. 
 
 [Lincoln goes to the podium to be joined by 
 Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase] 
 
 president's oath of office 
 
 Chief Justice Chase and the PRESIDENT 
 (the oath of office). I do solemnly swear (or 
 affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office 
 of President of the United States, and will to 
 the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States. 
 (Article II of the Constitution.) 
 
 Ambassador Stevenson. And now the day 
 began anew for the President. There were 
 dispatches to read. Field orders to be dis- 
 cussed. Plans, bills, dreams to be considered 
 for the days of peace to come. There was 
 left the drive back to the White House. A 
 drive to take the soon to be martyred Presi- 
 dent on his way to his destiny. The words 
 he spoke are meaningful today as they were 
 then. They are meaningful not only to 
 Americans but to citizens of all nations of 
 the world in these troubled and tormented 
 days. Let us pray that what he said then will 
 act as a beacon for good and just men today 
 and in years to come. 
 
 Chairman Price. It must be apparent to 
 all of us — as it certainly is to the joint com- 
 mittee — that this reenactment surpassed, in 
 its detail and perfection, the fondest expec- 
 tations of those who helped to bring it to pass. 
 
 We congratulate them all. I salute the 
 Honorable Fred Schwengel for his brilliant 
 
 efforts, and Mr. William Coblenz, of the Li- 
 brary of Congress, as director of research. 
 
 Again I want to thank Speaker John W. 
 McCoRMACK, whose cooperation was so 
 wholehearted, to Vice President Hubert H. 
 Humphrey to whom we owe so much, and to 
 our distinguished historian, Bruce Catton. 
 We are thankful also to the presence here of 
 members of the U.S. Supreme Court and the 
 diplomatic corps, and to our guests here on 
 the Capitol plaza, and the viewers on tele- 
 vision and the auditors on radio. 
 
 Now once more we invoke the blessing of 
 almighty God by returning to our contempo- 
 rary program and closing the looth anniver- 
 sary commemoration of the second inaugura- 
 tion of Abraham Lincoln, with the benedic- 
 tion from our old friend, the Reverend Fred- 
 erick Brown Harris, Chaplain of the U.S. 
 Senate. 
 
 Chaplain Harris. And now let us go forth 
 to serve the present age, whose standards and 
 acts are being weighed in the scales of justice 
 by that one of whom a historic voice at this 
 spot a century ago this day declared the judg- 
 ments of the Lord are true and righteous 
 altogether. Send us forth into this divided 
 world vowing here as did Thy servant, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, lOO years ago to bind up the 
 wounds that hate has made, and with malice 
 toward none, with charity for all, and with 
 firmness in the right as Thou dost give us to 
 see the right to strive on to finish the work 
 we are in and to do all which may achieve 
 and cherish a just and a lasting peace among 
 ourselves and with all nations. Amen. 
 
 Chairman Price. Ladies and gentlemen, 
 the commemoration is ended. 
 
 [34]
 
 The Inaugural Committee for the Lincoln Second Inaugural, March 4, 186^, prepared the following 
 arrangements which were procured by the Joint Committee on Arrangements for the one hundredth an- 
 niversary commemoration from the Library of Congress. 
 
 The Lincoln Procession 
 
 'T~'HE ORDER of the proccssion down the 
 East Front of the Capitol on the day 
 Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President 
 of the United States for the second time was 
 detailed in a subsequent report, March 20, 
 1865, in the Daily Globe, of Washington, D.C. 
 This report was taken from an account of a 
 
 special session of the Senate on March 4, 1865, 
 the day of the inauguration. 
 
 According to the report of the special ses- 
 sion the order of the procession was like this: 
 
 Those assembled in the Senate Chamber 
 proceeded to the platform on the central por- 
 tico of the Capitol in the following order: 
 
 The marshal of the District of Columbia 
 
 The ex-Vice President 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States 
 
 The Sergeant of Arms of the Senate 
 
 The President of the United States, the President elect 
 
 The Vice President and the Secretary of the Senate 
 
 The members of the Senate 
 The Diplomatic Corps 
 Heads of Departments 
 Governors of States and Territories 
 The Mayors of Washington and Georgetown 
 Other persons admitted to the floor of the Senate 
 Chamber 
 
 [Ward Hill Lamon] 
 [Hannibal Hamlin] 
 
 [George T. Brown] 
 [Abraham Lincoln] 
 [Andrew Johnson ant 
 JohnW. Forney] 
 
 [35]
 
 UNVEILING OF HITHERTO UNKNOWN LINCOLN PORTRAIT, STATUTORY HALL, U.S. CAPITOL: (L. TO R.) 
 MRS. DOROTHY MESERVE KUNHARDT, OF NEW YORK CITY, OWNER OF THE MESERVE COLLECTION OF 
 LINCOLNIANA; FRED SCHWENGEL, former IOWA REPRESENTATIVE, WHO PRESIDED; MISS JOSEPHINE 
 COBB, NATIONAL ARCHIVES; REPRESENTATIVE HOWARD W. ROBISON, OF OWEGO, N.Y.; MR. AND MRS. 
 LEWIS B. PARMERTON, OF OWEGO ; MR. ROSCOE GELLER, PRESIDENT OF THE TIOGA COUNTY HISTORICAL 
 SOCIETY, OWNERS OF THE PORTRAIT; AND PRESIDENT ELDEN E. BILLINGS OF THE LINCOLN GROUP OF 
 THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 [36]
 
 Commemoration Events 
 
 COLLATERAL TO THE 
 
 Major Ceremony and Reenactment 
 
 npHE COMMEMORATION was signalizccl by sev- 
 cral incidental but memorable events col- 
 lateral to the principal ceremony and reen- 
 actment. One of these inside the Capitol edi- 
 fice proper, and about a half hour before the 
 main program was to begin, was the unveil- 
 ing of an oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln 
 never exhibited publicly before. It is known 
 that the artist, working from a Mathew 
 Brady photograph, was a contemporary of 
 Lincoln whose name was withheld pending 
 its announcement at some date to be de- 
 termined by the Tioga County Historical 
 Society, of Owego, N.Y., who own the 
 painting. 
 
 The authenticity of the portrait bears the 
 imprimatur of Miss Josephine Cobb, an au- 
 thority on iconography at the National Ar- 
 chives and a Lincoln devotee active in bring- 
 ing the find to the commemoration exercises. 
 The portrait first made its appearance in 
 Washington, D.C., through the offices of Rep- 
 resentative Howard W. Robison, of New 
 York, whose home is in Owego, where the 
 Tioga County Historical Society engaged his 
 interest, leading to the portrait's authentica- 
 tion and soon its restoration by Mrs. Minna 
 
 Horwitz Nagel, a conservator with the Pier- 
 pont Morgan Library of New York. 
 
 Circumstances of the unveiling were par- 
 ticularly pertinent to the commemoration. 
 Statuary Hall where it took place had been 
 the Chamber of the House of Representatives 
 when Lincoln was a Congressman from Illi- 
 nois in 1847-48. Behind the portrait at the 
 unveiling was an American flag that had been 
 flown in Washington, D.C. on the day of the 
 Lincoln funeral. The actual unveiling was 
 done by Mrs. Dorothy Meserve Kunhardt, of 
 New York, noted authority of Lincoln photo- 
 graphs and Lincoln history. 
 
 Former Representative Fred Schwengel, of 
 Iowa, presided. 
 
 Among the guests and speakers were: 
 
 Roscoe Geller, president of the Tioga 
 County Historical Society; Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lewis B. Parmerton, of Owego; Elden Bill- 
 ings, president of the Lincoln Group of 
 the District of Columbia, that helped sponsor 
 the event, and members and officers of the 
 Group; Mrs. Minna Horowitz Nagel; and 
 others. 
 
 A dinner at the Capitol Hill Club, near the 
 Capitol, Wednesday evening, March 3, 1965, 
 
 [37]
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 1 
 
 ROBERT RYANS ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEETS 
 REP. HOWARD W. ROBISON, OF N.Y. 
 
 provided an opportunity for the principal par- 
 ticipants — or most of them — in the com- 
 memorative exercises to meet socially, includ- 
 ing wives, members of families, and friends. 
 Thus Chairman Melvin Price, of the Joint 
 Committee on Arrangements^ presented by 
 the evening's toastmaster, Fred Schwengel, 
 spoke briefly. Dore Schary, the producer, and 
 Robert Ryan, the actor, were introduced, 
 Bruce Catton, too, being called upon for the 
 applause of the guests. Similar honors were 
 accorded Senator Paul H. Douglas, of Illi- 
 
 nois, Representatives Winfield K. Denton, of 
 Indiana, Paul Findley, of Illinois, and Mr. 
 and Mrs. George Cashman, Curators of the 
 Lincoln Tomb at Springfield. 
 
 The Cashmans had come from Illinois to 
 participate in an ancillary program of their 
 own. 
 
 This was the third side-event of the com- 
 memoration and took place in the Speaker's 
 dining room of the Capitol with Representa- 
 tive Findley as sponsor, March 4, 1965, the day 
 following the commemoration ceremonies 
 proper. The outstanding guest was Speaker 
 John W. McCormack who volunteered his 
 support on the spot for a necessary reprinting 
 of the commemoration program to be used 
 in connection with the forthcoming Commit- 
 tee report of the commemoration ceremonies 
 and reenactment, due some time in June 1965. 
 Former Representative Fred Schwengel, an 
 old authority on Lincoln commemorations, 
 predicted that the prints in connection with 
 these second inaugural centennial events 
 would soon become collectors' items. 
 
 Ralph E. Becker, Chairman of the Special 
 Program Committee, showed the gathering 
 the Lincoln medal (see picture p. 48) espe- 
 cially struck off in honor of the centennial. 
 It was after this that the Cashmans, with 
 Mrs. Cashman as narrator, presented a series 
 of carefully planned and authentically related 
 color slides that told in pictures the life of 
 Lincoln from his birth to his burial. 
 
 [38]
 
 Dore Schary Comments 
 
 npHE WORK surrounding the staging and 
 -'- filming of the Reenactment of Abraham 
 Lincoln's Second Inaugural reminds me of 
 the old story of the bass player in the orches- 
 tra who was acutely aware during a certain 
 concerto that all he played was a series of 
 notes. These came to sound monotonous 
 and repetitive to him. 
 
 He took the night off and went into the 
 concert hall to listen to the orchestra. He 
 returned home and told his wife happily that 
 he had had no idea that those few notes he 
 played created the wonderful sound which 
 he had heard sitting in the concert hall. 
 
 Everyone who worked on the staging and 
 filming of the Lincoln Reenactment played 
 some notes and I trust that the combined 
 result was something worth while. Chief 
 among the contributors was, of course, Am- 
 bassador Stevenson and Robert Ryan, but 
 special mention has to be made of former 
 Congressman Fred Schwengel, the Coordi- 
 nator of the Lincoln Reenactment, and cer- 
 tainly I must give a special thank you to 
 William A. Coblenz of the Library of Con- 
 gress whose thorough and patient coorpera- 
 tion was of enormous value and whose 
 knowledge and experience stepped us off on 
 the right foot. 
 
 Mr. Joel Freeman, my Production As- 
 sistant, and the assistant directorial aid of 
 my son Jeb, helped me during that long 
 
 i 
 
 
 day of March 4th, 
 1965. 
 
 And then came 
 the long and ardu- 
 ous task of putting 
 the film together. 
 We had to find 
 pictorial material 
 to back up the nar- 
 ration, get the ex- 
 act sound and music we wanted, and trim, 
 rearrange and rerecord some of the voices. 
 
 One of the ironic GI remarks that came 
 out of World War II was "I found a home 
 in the Army." Well, the fact is and I say 
 this with no irony, I found a home in the 
 Army at the Motion Picture Center in Long 
 Island. Mr. Frank Payne, a producer, and 
 Mr. Robert Mathews, a film editor, moved 
 in beside me and went to work and they 
 brought to their jobs long experience and 
 expert skill. If the film works, it is because 
 they made it work. 
 
 I am grateful to all those who helped me. 
 Perhaps by putting together all those little 
 sounds each of us made, we have produced 
 something of merit. 
 
 What we all started with was a reverence 
 for Abraham Lincoln and what we have 
 ended with is, I trust, a worthy tribute to 
 his memory. 
 
 DoRE Schary 
 
 [39]
 
 ]oint Committee on Arrangements Evaluates Impact of the Decision of the Congress of the United States 
 to Commemorate the Centennial of the Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United 
 States 
 
 The Committee's Evaluation 
 
 T^HE Joint Committee on Arrangements 
 for the celebration of the centennial of 
 the Lincoln Second Inauguration is sincerely 
 and profoundly moved to report, on the high- 
 est level of satisfaction, that the merely im- 
 mediate impact of the event produced the 
 most fruitful and exciting values on behalf 
 of the American inheritage and the public 
 interest. Its residual values cannot so early 
 be computed but they promise on the basis 
 of manifest evidences to be little short of ex- 
 traordinary. All this was achieved through 
 the employment of the regular government 
 agencies and personnel and at an absolutely 
 irreducible minimum of expense. 
 
 In fact the total appropriation for the event 
 by Congress was $25,000, of which, as of this 
 writing, a goodly portion may be returned 
 to the Treasury. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the inspirational 
 influence of the event proper on the 30,000 to 
 35,000 people present on the Capitol Plaza 
 as the contemporary ceremony and the reen- 
 actment unfolded because inspiration is not 
 a measurable quantity. Nor can the Com- 
 mittee say, like an answer to a poll or a prob- 
 lem in arithmetic, just how much apprecia- 
 tion of American history and the American 
 dream was advanced at home and abroad — 
 
 and will be in the future — by this commemo- 
 ration and the monumental acceptance and 
 public attention the centennial received 
 throughout the Nation and in many parts of 
 the world — including the Soviet Union. 
 
 The centennial, as a fact in history, was to 
 be sure a landmark in the chronicle of free 
 government apart from any celebration of 
 the event. But the focus of interest, national 
 and international, was provided by this of- 
 ficial, congressionally ordered and directed 
 commemoration on the East Front of the 
 Capitol of the United States. Here were as- 
 sembled on this day the eyes and ears of the 
 Nation and the world through the commu- 
 nication media for which very special ar- 
 rangements had been provided. The Capi- 
 tol itself afforded one of the world's most dig- 
 nified and respected stage sets for the exer- 
 cises. The immediate setting and platform 
 were of course precisely pertinent because, 
 with slight variations due to alterations to the 
 East Front authorized by Congress in 1955, 
 this was the spot almost exactly where the 
 second inaugural of Abraham Lincoln had 
 actually taken place. And the lofty distinc- 
 tion of the orators of the day, and the assur- 
 ance of excellence of the film to come from 
 the reenactment because of the professional 
 
 [40]
 
 talent behind it, guaranteed contemporary 
 and historic attention. 
 
 The members of the Senate and the House 
 and their guests, and the audience, so far as 
 possible generally, were furnished a compre- 
 hensive and excellently compiled program of 
 the occasion, assembled by Lloyd A. Dunlap, 
 of the Manuscripts Division of the Library of 
 Congress, and rushed through the Govern- 
 ment Printing Office at high pressure through 
 the offices of H. Newlin Megill, a consultant 
 to the Committee. A copy of this program 
 may be found in a pocket of this report. 
 
 Moreover, the convenience of the guests 
 and the notables on the platform had the ad- 
 vantage of skillful arrangements by the Capi- 
 tol Police under Chief Carl D. Schamp and 
 Captain Leonard H. Ballard — old and ex- 
 perienced hands at handling huge Capitol 
 crowds. All automobile parking on the Capi- 
 tol grounds was prohibited for the period of 
 the exercises. 
 
 Much of this perfection of detail resulted 
 from careful planning in advance by the office 
 of the Architect of the Capitol through the 
 supervising engineer, Thomas F. Clancy, and 
 the assistant supervising engineer, Carl S. 
 Fogle. There was also the overseership and 
 participation of T. Sutton Jett, the Regional 
 Director of the Department of the Interior; 
 Cornelius W. Heine of that Department's 
 National Park Service, who directed the car- 
 pentering and planning of the inaugural 
 stand to conform as much as may be to the 
 stand of a hundred years ago, and the overall 
 direction of these aspects of the program by 
 Don Robert Kendall, the staging manager, 
 working out of the office of Representative 
 William G. Bray, of Indiana, a member of 
 
 this, the Joint Committee on Arrangements. 
 
 A painstakingly engineered asset of the 
 event that helped bring the voices of the par- 
 ticipating groups and individuals to the 
 crowds and that stored the happenings, syl- 
 lable for syllable, on tape and film, was the 
 apparatus furnished the Committee by the 
 MDWUSA Signal Support Unit of the Audio 
 Visual Communication Center, of Fort Myer, 
 Va., under Signal Corps Lt. Charles Badgett. 
 For reasons outside the control of this unit 
 the coverage was not total although adequate 
 for the most part so that the success, however 
 incomplete, was beyond normal expectations. 
 
 On an even greater technical level of pro- 
 ficiency and vital because it is a record for his- 
 tory, was the work of the Photographic Di- 
 vision, Pictorial and Audio Visual Director- 
 ate, of the Office of Chief of Communications 
 and Electronics, Department of the Army. 
 This outfit, with a most competent team of 
 engineers and technicians, operated under the 
 direction of the Division's chief. Col. Charles 
 E. Campbell. Its work dovetailed with the 
 needs of Dore Schary, producer of the reen- 
 actment, and worked with its companion unit 
 of MDW for the filming in sound of the con- 
 temporary program as well as the reenact- 
 ment. 
 
 The National Park Service of the Depart- 
 ment of the Interior, through the Division of 
 Operations and Maintenance of the regional 
 office, provided more than some 2,000 chaiis 
 for members of the House and the Senate, 
 and for the diplomatic corps. From the same 
 source came the inaugural stand proper, the 
 low Victorian table of the type used by Lin- 
 coln, and the small, set-apart platform, from 
 which the famous narrator. Ambassador 
 
 [41]
 
 'p'V'^ 
 
 J'i Bf f 
 
 HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE OF ABOUT LINCOLN 
 VINTAGE USED IN RE-ENACTENT DEPARTURE. 
 
 ROBERT RYAN AS LINCOLN MOUNTS CARRIAGE 
 AFTER INAUGURATION 
 
 Adlai Stevenson, performed his role. 
 
 The four sections of platforms varying 
 from 5 to 15 feet in height, which the regional 
 office set up for the use of motion picture and 
 other cameras, and for the apparatus of the 
 several TV networks, were planned so as to 
 offer a minimum of obstruction to the crowd's 
 full view of the proceedings. In fact the ar- 
 rangement of the seats especially provided for 
 members of Congress, diplomats, and other 
 invited guests, gave them at least an unim- 
 peded view of the ceremonies. 
 
 An item of authentic color that proved so 
 satisfying to the Committee, the crowds, the 
 communication media and the record, was 
 the Civil War vintage carriage that took the 
 1965 Abraham Lincoln from the scene in 
 front of the Capitol ostensibly to the White 
 House. This was not the actual conveyance 
 in which President Lincoln rode at any time, 
 but it was the carriage used by President 
 Ulysses S. Grant at his inauguration. This 
 time the carriage merely circled the Capitol. 
 And this was about as near as the Committee 
 could come to the authentic thing. There 
 was supplied in addition another carriage of 
 identical vintage, and this was the conveyance 
 
 in which the 1965 Mary Todd Lincoln drove 
 behind the President, in departing from the 
 Capitol Plaza. The Grant carriage which 
 the Committee had carefully insured with a 
 $20,000 policy came to the project through 
 the offices of Chairman Paul J. Sedgwick of 
 the District of Columbia Civil War Centen- 
 nial Commission, and is the property of S. J. 
 Meeks' son, of Washington, D.C., who built 
 the carriage originally, the present inheritor 
 of the enterprise being Pearson S. Meeks, 
 The other carriage was provided through the 
 cooperation of Col. Joseph B. Conmy, Jr., of 
 the ist Battalion (Reinf), 3d Infantry (The 
 Old Guard), Fort Myer, Va., Capt. Morris L. 
 Coston being in charge. The headquarters 
 of this battalion also furnished four white 
 horses, two for each carriage, and the drivers 
 in costume, who looked every inch out of the 
 Lincoln era. 
 
 The cumulative effect of arrangements so 
 thorough and detailed and the brilliant ora- 
 tory throughout from the most important 
 figures in American government and the 
 world of scholarship was reflected in the ac- 
 claim audible on the spot and in printed and 
 video form afterward. The body of this 
 
 [42]
 
 CAMERAS OF 1965 CAPTURE RYAN S LINCOLN 
 DEPARTING CEREMONIES. 
 
 REST OF CAST APPLAUDS AS MARY TODD LINCOLN 
 DRIVES OFF. 
 
 report prints in full the spoken works of the 
 galaxy of notables so vital to the program. 
 It records, too, the work of the selfless and 
 devoted folk from the American theater and 
 from the local repertory groups who gave a 
 dimension to this event that is believed to 
 be without precedent in commemorative 
 projects. 
 
 Evidence from all over the Nation shows 
 the sweep and scope of the impact throughout 
 the Nation's news media, printed and elec- 
 tronic. An inquiry, for example, from the 
 Committee to the National Association of 
 Broadcasters for precise data, brought the fol- 
 lowing reply April 9, 1965, from HoUis M. 
 Seavey, the association's representative on 
 government affairs. 
 
 In part Mr. Seavey wrote the Committee: 
 
 I am writing this letter in response to your recent 
 request for a report on radio and television coverage 
 of the ceremonies commemorating the Centennial 
 of the Second Inauguration of President Lincoln. 
 The networks have provided the following 
 information: 
 
 ABC Television — An excerpt from the cere- 
 monies was shown on the Evening News, March 4. 
 This program reaches five million homes. 
 
 CBS Television — i minute and 15 seconds of film 
 were used on the Walter Cronkite news program 
 on March 4. Additionally, a 2 minute film segment 
 was offered in syndication to 86 domestic clients 
 and 30 foreign clients. 
 
 CBS Radio — There were brief stories and ex- 
 cerpts, ranging in length from 30 seconds to 3 min- 
 utes, on the 9 a.m. news, the noon news, the Lowell 
 Thomas news program, and "The World Tonight." 
 
 NBC Television — Film and/or reports were 
 scheduled on the "Afternoon Report" at 12:55 ^""^ 
 4:25 p.m. on March 4. On March 5 stories were 
 scheduled on the "TODAY" show at 7:25 and 8:25 
 a.m. Additionally, on March 4, the NBC affiliate 
 in Washington, WRC, scheduled stories about the 
 event on its 7 and 11 p.m. news program. 
 
 Thus tens of millions of American homes 
 heard some manner of report of the Wash- 
 ington commemoration exercises and saw — 
 if for no more than a matter of minutes or 
 seconds — some aspect of the event. The 
 newspaper reports were even more complete 
 and respectful in their coverage. Thus the 
 Committee has in its possession clippings or 
 
 NEWSPAPERS FROM ALL OVER THE NATION GAVE 
 AMPLE REPORTAGE OF THE RE-ENACTMENT 
 (SEE PAGES 44 AND 45). 
 
 [43]
 
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 L 10 Ampncari to mend their 
 
 jiinjftil today M *''*" 
 
 m Ui« dir. 
 
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 ■■wlin I 
 
 THE I- E R E M O N T *-8« 
 
 r„f filmed under sponsorvhlp o( •■■•-■,■;, 
 
 ■ *^ OA Alri^g'mcnU. The film For -r.-uH^ 
 
 will be made available to dl<l^ 
 
 Congress authortacd Ih' "■ <■"' 
 
 euBclment and ctdered « re- n»i; 
 
 cew fj members could ■tleod T 
 
 Vire prrwdcnl Hubert H 1'* 
 
 Hump^feJ■ and House EpeiVer l\ 
 
 ' -1 W McCorniBcli were titu 
 
 ,«d eue-'W' **""' ^'"^ 
 :(ied the event. 
 
 AmbasMdor 
 
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 W// 
 
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 T'y/.r/''^^o. 
 
 Wsin/ 'v^"l-,/ "ne^J' 11,../°' „..y>»r .'' '■A 
 
 
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 the mary todd lincoln carriage follows 
 Lincoln's from capitol plaza. 
 
 THE 1965 CROWDS WITNESS CLOSING OF LIN- 
 COLN second inaugural RE-ENACTMENT CERE- 
 MONY. 
 
 photographic facsimiles from newspapers in 
 the Capital itself, from Boston, Dallas, New- 
 ark, Chicago, San Francisco, Tulsa, Philadel- 
 phia, and other cities. In fact newspaper cov- 
 erage practically blanketed the Nation. And 
 all this, the Committee feels bound to say, is 
 a credit to the mass news media in all its 
 forms not only for the time and space devoted 
 to the commemoration but also for the taste 
 and balance and the reverence generally with 
 which the story was handled. , A montage of 
 the news coverage in these pages gives a frag- 
 ment of the solid reportorial treatment via 
 the wire services and correspondents that the 
 press accorded the centennial. This, cer- 
 tainly, is some indicia of the dramatic repor- 
 torial impact. 
 
 Whether the Soviet Union was alerted to 
 its own commemoration of the centennial of 
 Lincoln's death by the worldwide attention to 
 the commemoration of the second inaugural 
 on the East Front of the Capitol, or whether 
 the Soviet officials arrived at the idea on their 
 own, cannot be determined here. But an 
 Associated Press story from Moscow under an 
 April 14, 1965, dateline is self-explanatory. 
 
 Here it is: 
 
 Russia Honors Lincoln 
 
 Moscow (AP) — A Memorial exhibition 
 devoted to the looth anniversary of the death 
 of Abraham Lincoln has opened in Moscow's 
 Library of Foreign Literature. The exhibit 
 includes about 100 publications by and about 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Before the commemoration preliminary 
 press releases and press contacts were made 
 and the press and other communication media 
 kept informed through the offices of the 
 Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade 
 and its William A. Ring, and through Paul J. 
 Sedgwick who was in charge of public rela- 
 tions. The pertinent officials of the Library 
 of Congress, associated with the project, kept 
 the news media informed on developments 
 and furnished other preliminary data, largely 
 of a historical nature. 
 
 Raleph E. Becker, General Counsel for the 
 Board of Trade, directed one of the most 
 permanent features to come out of the com- 
 memoration. This is the lOoth anniversary 
 medallion and the official plate in honor of the 
 event. 
 
 [46] 
 
 I
 
 OFFICIAL PLATE IN HONOR OF ANNIVERSARY IS STRUCK OFF UNDER PUBLIC LAW 88-427, 88TH 
 CONGRESS. ILLUSTRATIONS WERE TAKEN FROM THE COLLECTION OF RALPH E. BECKER, POLITICAL 
 AMERICANA, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 
 
 The medal carries a sculptured profile of 
 Abraham Lincoln by Charles Calverley, an 
 artist of considerable reputation who was a 
 native of Albany, N.Y., and who died in 1914 
 (see picture p. 48). One side of the medal 
 has the legend: "1865-1965. Second Inaugu- 
 ral Centennial. — Abraham Lincoln." On the 
 
 reverse side there is the famous excerpt from 
 the second inaugural: "With malice toward 
 none . . ." inscribed in a frame consisting of 
 two fasces. The medallions were struck off 
 in bronze and sterling silver. A few in 14 
 karat gold are for presentation to the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, the Vice President, 
 
 [47
 
 
 
 MEDALLION TO COMMEMORATE INAUGURAL RE-ENACTMENT. 
 
 and the Speaker of the House. The bronze 
 medals are being sold for $3 and the sterling 
 for $10. The official distributor of the medal 
 is Charles Ernest, #711 14th Street, Washing- 
 ton, D.C. The medals were cast by Medallic 
 Arts. 
 
 The official ceramic plate (see picture 
 p. 47) was illustrated from the collection of 
 General Counsel Becker of political Ameri- 
 cana now in the Smithsonian Institution. Its 
 central and dominating scene shows the 
 reception at the White House, March 4, 1865. 
 Surrounding it are scenes of the taking of the 
 Presidential oath, a background view of the 
 general inaugural scene, the "without malice" 
 excerpt, and facing each other the portraits of 
 Lincoln and his Vice President, Andrew 
 Johnson. In a small inset just below the 
 scene of the White House reception is an 
 interesting and gay reproduction of the spec- 
 tacle at the Patent Office Building during the 
 Grand Ball celebrating the inauguration. 
 
 The educational significance of the Dore 
 
 Schary film to come from the commemora- 
 tion is expected to be of compelling classroom 
 value as a pictorial lesson, of intriguing inter- 
 est, in one of the most absorbing moments of 
 American history. It is anticipated that its 
 distribution will be practically unlimited and 
 for time without end. Assurance of this 
 effectiveness is predicated upon the quality of 
 the product under the direction it enjoyed, 
 the dignity of its sponsorship under con- 
 gressional aegis, and the engaging, appealing 
 and historical nature of the subject. 
 
 It is an official congressional documentary 
 on freedom. 
 
 This Committee feels that a first rate 
 achievement of excellent merit throughout 
 has been accomplished by the commemora- 
 tion of the one hundredth anniversary of the 
 second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln on 
 the steps of the Capitol and takes pleasure in 
 paying tribute to the Congress for passing the 
 resolution making it possible, and to all those 
 who did their part for its success. 
 
 [48]
 
 Presentation of Gold Medallion 
 to President Johnson 
 
 TN A SMALL but distinguished White House 
 -*■ ceremony, April 5, 1967, a special com- 
 mittee of the Joint Committee on Arrange- 
 ments of the Congress of the United States, 
 celebrating the centennial of Abraham Lin- 
 coln's second inauguration presented Presi- 
 dent Lyndon B. Johnson, with an especially 
 struck off gold medal of the occasion. Thus 
 a full two years after the commemoration 
 of the hundredth anniversary of the second 
 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln the offi- 
 cial function honoring this point in history 
 reached one of its high moments. 
 
 The medal (see page 47) bears the profile 
 on one side of Abraham Lincoln with the 
 inscription in raised lettering at the circum- 
 ference: "1865-1965. 2nd Inaugural Cen- 
 tennial — Abraham Lincoln." The superbly 
 sculptured profile was taken from the work 
 of the noted Charles Calverley who died in 
 1914. The reverse side has carved upon it 
 the immortal sentence from the second in- 
 augural "with malice toward none . . ." 
 
 The White House presentation was rich in 
 dignity and addresses of mutual appreciation. 
 
 The special committee was headed by the 
 
 Chairman of the Joint Committee, Repre- 
 sentative Melvin Price, of Illinois, and his 
 appointees, who were: 
 
 Ralph E. Becker, a noted Washington lawyer, 
 who was Chairman of the Special Program 
 Committee. 
 
 Representative Paul Findley of Illinois. 
 
 Representative Fred Schwengel, of Iowa, who 
 had been re-elected in 1966, and who was the 
 Executive Director of the re-enactment. 
 
 The actual hand-to-hand presentation 
 was made by Mr. Becker, who said: 
 
 "Mr. President, I am honored that Con- 
 gressman Price has requested me to be the 
 spokesman as the Chairman of the Program 
 Committee of the Second Inaugural Cen- 
 tennial of Abraham Lincoln to present you 
 with this gold medal which was struck to 
 commemorate this important historic occa- 
 sion. This is an important commemorative 
 item that has sculptured on one side a pro- 
 file of Abraham Lincoln by Charles Calver- 
 ley of New York, who died about 50 years 
 ago. The medal was made by the Medallic 
 Art Company of New York. This company 
 also made many of the recent inaugural 
 medals. 
 
 [49]
 
 THE WHITE HOUSE PRESENTATION CEREMONY 
 
 a special committee of the joint committee on arrangements on april 5, 1967, presents 
 president johnson with the gold medallion commemorating the centennial of abraham 
 Lincoln's second inauguration, (l. to r.) : ralph e. becker, chairman program committee; 
 
 REP. MELVIN price, OF ILLINOIS, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS; THE 
 president; rep. PAUL FINDLEY, of ILLINOIS; REP. FRED SCHWENGEL, OF IOWA, WHO INITIATED 
 CENTENNIAL PROGRAM. 
 
 [50]
 
 "On the reverse side of the medal, as you 
 will see, is an excerpt from the Second Inau- 
 gural speech: 
 
 " With Malice Toward None 
 With Chanty For All 
 With Firmness in The Right 
 As God Gives us To See the Right 
 Let Us Strife On To Finish 
 The Worl{ We Are In." 
 
 "This philosophy, Mr. President, is as true 
 today as it was when it was uttered over loo 
 years ago. I know full well, as millions of 
 others do, the heavy and burdensome respon- 
 sibilities of your office. This philosophy 
 transcends political parties and today it is an 
 international goal for the well-being of man- 
 kind. I know that you have lived up to this 
 high and noble standard. You have also 
 exemplified this philosophy through the 
 most difficult circumstances." 
 
 President Johnson replied: 
 
 "I appreciate your kind words. I truly 
 
 believe that Abraham Lincoln was and is 
 one of our greatest if not the greatest Presi- 
 dent in the history of the United States. I 
 hope that I will merit the confidence and the 
 loyalty that you have indicated. In carrying 
 out the duties of my office it is this Lincoln 
 philosophy that has guided this administra- 
 tion in both domestic and foreign policy." 
 
 The President then called the small group 
 to his desk and showed them a pile of letters 
 that had come to him from soldiers and the 
 parents of soldiers in Vietnam. The Presi- 
 dent read from some of the letters, selecting 
 them at random. He explained he receives 
 hundreds of such letters every week and 
 made it a point to reply to them individually. 
 The letters— with some few exceptions — 
 expressed deep loyalty for President Johnson 
 and endorsed the position he is taking in 
 Vietnam. 
 
 [51]
 
 Tragic Sequel to the Second Inauguration — The Death of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Epilogue 
 
 "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be 
 a master. This expresses my idea of democ- 
 racy. Whatever differs from this, to the ex- 
 tent of the difference, is no democracy." 
 
 The assassination of Abraham Lincoln fol- 
 lowed so close upon the second inauguration 
 that the Committee feels this report incom- 
 plete without a brief and compact summary 
 of this agonizing historical tragedy second 
 only to the tragedy of the Civil War itself. It 
 is simple enough to foresee how different the 
 immediate post-Civil War period and recon- 
 struction would have been in conciliation and 
 
 decency had Lincoln survived his full second 
 term in the White House. 
 
 "We must extinguish our resentment if we 
 expect harmony and union. There is too 
 much of the desire on the part of some of 
 our very good friends to be master, to inter- 
 fere with and dictate to those States, to treat 
 people not as fellow citizens; there is too little 
 respect for their rights. I do not sympathize 
 in these feelings." 
 
 On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, a flam- 
 boyant, ranting hopelessly vain actor, whose 
 sanity is for historians still a matter of grave 
 
 FORD S THEATRE, 
 
 SCENE OF Lincoln's 
 
 ASSASSINATION, 
 NOW BEING 
 REMODELED.
 
 PHOTOGRAPH OF ACTUAL LINCOLN FUNERAL HEARSE. 
 
 3-^s?i 
 
 THE LINCOLN FUNERAL PROCESSION ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 
 
 m;'-'^r ■;;.:
 
 doubt, shot and killed President Lincoln. 
 This was during a performance of a play of 
 no special distinction: "Our American 
 Cousin," in Ford's Theatre in Washington, 
 D.C. This theater is even now, 1965, being 
 restored to its identical appearance as of the 
 time of the assassination. On April 15, 1865, 
 just 42 days after the words— "with charity 
 for all"— that contribute so much to making 
 the second inaugural address perhaps the 
 greatest speech ever spoken outside of Holy 
 Writ, Lincoln died. Lincoln's secretaries, 
 who were present at the bedside observed 
 that: "A look of unspeakable peace came over 
 his worn features." And at about 7:22 that 
 fateful April morning, Stanton, seeing the 
 President breathe his last, spoke the words 
 that will be recalled in history to the end of 
 time: "NOW HE BELONGS TO THE 
 AGES." 
 
 Here, from the Library of Congress 
 through the courtesy of the 5th Precinct of the 
 Washington Metropolitan Police, is the text 
 of the pertinent portion of a page from 
 the Precinct's ARREST BOOK. The entry 
 on Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1865, 
 is preceded by the record of several routine 
 arrests. One, at 4 in the afternoon of that 
 fateful day, tells of a 20-year-old woman 
 hauled into the station on a charge of va- 
 grancy. Another at about 6 o'clock reports 
 the arrest of a 36-year-old soldier who was 
 charged with "suspicion" and dismissed. 
 Then at 7 in the evening a 36-year-old ma- 
 
 chinist was arrested for assault and battery. 
 
 This is followed by perhaps the most ex- 
 traordinary paragraph in the annals of police 
 history in the United States. 
 
 Here it is verbatim: 
 
 "Between the hours of ten and Eleven 
 o'clock at Night A telegram was received at 
 the 8th precinct station from headquarters 
 that Abraham Lincoln President of the U S. 
 had been shot while sitting in a private box at 
 Fords new theatre on tenth street west be- 
 tween E & F streets North Also that the 
 Honourable William H. Seward Secretary 
 of State had been stabed [sic] and seriously 
 injured in the neck and his sons — F. W. 
 Seward Assistant Secretary of State and 
 Major C. Seward U.S.A.— had been fa- 
 tally injured. The assasin or assasins [sic] 
 were at [the] time unknown. At a late hour 
 it became currently reported J. W. Booth was 
 the person who shot the president. The ex- 
 citement was Great throughout the precinct 
 the feeling deep but the people were orderly 
 and quiet. The whole force were immedi- 
 ately put on duty by order of Supt Richards 
 and were vigilant in the discharge of their 
 duty. The sad inteligence [sic] was received 
 by them with feelings of deep regret and an 
 unbounded willing[nes]s was manifested to 
 avenge the death of their beloved Chief Mag- 
 istrate The gloom that overshadowed the 
 nation by the sad occurrence deeply affected 
 the whole force and brought forth many heart 
 felt sympathies for the Nations loss." 
 
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