^^^^rOy^LyM^ 
 
 COMMEMORATION CEREMONY 
 
 THE ONE HUNDIIEDTH ANNIVERSAllY OF 
 HIS FIRST INAUGURATION 
 
 East Front of th Capitol 
 
 IQOI 
 
 IVe are not enemies, hut friends, 
 We must not be enemies."
 
 c,,.- 
 
 C i^'>
 
 LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER
 
 THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
 FIRST INAUGURATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN • I86I-I96I 
 
 REENACTMENT CEREMONIES 
 
 . . . The mystic cords of memory, stretching from 
 every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living 
 heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will 
 yet swell the chorus of the Union, ivhen again 
 touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
 of our nature. . . .
 
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 -^ 87TH CONGRESS, 2D SESSION . . HOUSE DOCUMENT NO. 523 }~ 
 
 CEREMONIES AND RE-ENACTMENT OF 
 THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
 
 The First Inauguration of 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 1861-1961 
 
 On the East Front of the Capitol of the United States 
 March 4, ig6i 
 
 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
 WASHINGTON : 1962
 
 Contents 
 
 Page 
 
 House Joint Resolution No. 155 x 
 
 Introduction and Synopsis xvii 
 
 Congressional Record Report — March 9, ig6i .... i 
 
 Report — Lincoln Inauguration Centennial, March 4, 
 
 1 961 21 
 
 Editorial from the Washington Post 31 
 
 Arrangements for the Original Lincoln Inaugural ... 33 
 
 Epilogue 37 
 
 [VII ]
 
 Letter of Transmittal 
 
 The Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson, 
 President of the Senate 
 
 The Honorable John W. McCormack, 
 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives 
 
 Dear Mr. President and Mr. Speaker: 
 
 It is my pleasant duty and high honor on behalf of the Joint 
 Committee on Arrangements, the District of Columbia Civil War 
 Centennial Commission, Paul J. Sedgwick, Chairman, and the Lincoln 
 Group of the District of Columbia, Paul H. Gantt, President, to present 
 to you and to the Congress this report of the One Hundredth Anni- 
 versary of the First Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, as reproduced 
 on the East Front of the United States Capitol and at the Willard Hotel, 
 March 4, 1961. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Fred Schwengel, Chairman. 
 
 [ IX ]
 
 House Joint Resolution No. 155 
 
 l^ightg'Scticnth Congress of the United States of 2imerica 
 
 AT THE FIRST SESSION 
 
 Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the third day of January, 
 one thousaftd nine hundred and sixty-one 
 
 Joint 'Resolution 
 
 To create a joint committee to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary 
 of the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Whereas Saturday, March 4, 1961, will mark the centenary of 
 
 Abraham Lincoln's taking the oath of office as sixteenth President 
 
 of the United States; and 
 Whereas the anniversary will be widely observed and noted through- 
 out this land and overseas; and 
 Whereas the occasion will coincide with exercises commemorative of 
 
 the American Civil War of 1861-1865; and 
 Whereas Mr. Lincoln stood at the head of the Government of the 
 
 United States and its Armed Forces during those years of tragedy 
 
 and travail; and 
 Whereas he foresaw the difficulty of the task before him as "greater 
 
 than that which rested on Washington"; and 
 Whereas he sought the guidance of Almighty God, saying, "Without 
 
 the assistance of that Divine Being ... I cannot succeed. With 
 
 that assistance I cannot fail"; and 
 Whereas one who stood in the audience at his first inauguration would 
 
 later write, "the shouts which have resounded for him at the Capitol 
 
 are still ringing in my ears."; and 
 Whereas from a wooden platform, projected from the eastern portico, 
 
 beneath an unfinished dome, he pleaded and reasoned that day for 
 
 reconciliation and the preservation of the Union, saying: 
 
 [X]
 
 "I take the official oath today, with no mental reservations, and 
 with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws, by any hyper- 
 critical rules .... I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, 
 and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual .... 
 It is safe to say that no government proper, ever had a provision in 
 its organic law for its own termination .... Before entering upon 
 so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all 
 its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascer- 
 tain precisely why we do it ? Will you hazard so desperate a step, 
 while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from, 
 have no real existence ? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to, 
 are greater than all the real ones you fly from ? Will you risk the 
 commisison of so fearful a mistake? . . . Physically speaking, we 
 cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from 
 each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband 
 and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence, and beyond 
 the reach of each other ; but the different parts of our country cannot 
 do this. They cannot but remain face to face ; and intercourse, either 
 amicable or hostile, must continue between them .... We are not 
 enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion 
 may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. 
 The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, 
 and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over 
 this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when 
 again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our 
 nature." and 
 Whereas the better angels do, in fact, touch us: Now, therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
 States of America in Congress assembled, That on Saturday, March 4 
 next, the one hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's first in- 
 auguration shall be commemorated by such observance as may be de- 
 termined by the committee on arrangements 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. 
 
 Immediately 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 Representa- 
 tives jointly to constitute a committee on arrangements. 
 
 [ XI ]
 
 Immediately upon passage of this resolution and after the Members 
 of the Senate and House have been appointed, the Speaker shall direct 
 the committee on arrangements to 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 departments, heads of independent 
 agencies, office, and commissions, the Chief Justice 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 com- 
 missions 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 first inauguration 
 on the eastern portico of the Capitol, select a speaker and other par- 
 ticipants, prepare and publish a program and submit a report not later 
 than June i, 1961. 
 
 Sam Rayburn, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 Lyndon B. Johnson, 
 Vice President of the United States and 
 
 President of the Senate. 
 Approved : 
 
 John F. Kennedy, 
 March i, ig6i. 
 
 [ XII ]
 
 The Joint Committee on Arrangements 
 
 Fred Schwengel, Chairman 
 
 For the Senate 
 
 For the House 
 
 Paul H. Douglas 
 of Illinois 
 
 Everett M. Dirksen 
 of Illinois 
 
 John Sherman Cooper 
 of Kentucl{y 
 
 Vance Hartke 
 of Indiana 
 
 Peter F. Mack, Jr. 
 of Illinois 
 
 WiNFiELD K. Denton 
 of Indiana 
 
 Fred Schwengel 
 of Iowa 
 
 William G. Bray 
 of Indiana 
 
 STAFF 
 
 David C. Mearns, Secretary 
 
 H. Newlin Megill, Chief Consultant 
 
 William A. Coblenz, Director of Tableau 
 
 Lloyd A. Dunlap, Assistant Secretary 
 
 Edmund Gass, Consultant 
 
 Victor M. Birely, Consultant 
 
 Carl Haverlin, Consultant 
 
 i XIII ]
 
 AS PART OF THE COMMEMORATIVE CEREMONIES 
 
 Invuaiion 10 LmLuIn Inuugunil Centennial Lunclicon 
 1 |>.m. WilUrd Hoiel 
 
 Sub>cri)><ii>n ul ten >liiMjt> Imluda iiiiiiniL'nmialivc pliic ind ntnJal 
 
 For rcscnadons call: Sicrling ^-35^5, Lincoln In.iu^i.ral CcnicnniaJ Commii 
 
 P.S. — Subtcripiitw lu lunilicim ii not rn]uiin) iix iiIiciKlanic at Cipiiul ceremony 
 
 1861 1961 
 
 CentenniAl Com raem oration Ccremonie* 
 IjuugniracioQ of 
 
 ABRAHAM LrNCOLN 
 
 Admit Bearer to East Front of Cnpttol 
 
 Mircl. Fourth l-^l Owlt-wm. 
 
 T'h'^ One Hundredth 
 Anniversary 
 °^ "le Inaugura] 
 of 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 March Fourth 1961 
 
 CetitcnninI Commemoration Ceremonies 
 
 Iti.iugurntmn of 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Admit HONORED CUF.ST to OH Scn.itc ClinmK-. 
 The Capitol 
 
 :^,4lC^y^- 
 
 INVITATIONS AND TICKETS TO FUNCTIONS OF THE LINCOLN RE-ENACTMENT CEREMONIES.
 
 District of Columbia Civil War Centennial Commission 
 
 Paul J. Sedgwick, Chairman 
 
 Sigurd Anderson 
 Marshall Andrews 
 Elden Billings 
 Henry Brylawski 
 Leon Chatelain 
 Henry A. Dudley 
 E. M. Eller 
 Robert E. Freer 
 West A. Hamilton 
 
 Samuel D. Sturgis 
 
 J. B. Heffernan 
 Alexander Holtzoff 
 C. M. Keller 
 Mrs. B. Y. Martin 
 William H. Press 
 William H. Price 
 B. M. McKelway 
 Roger Robb 
 J. Gay Seabourne 
 
 The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia 
 
 Paul H. Gantt, President 
 
 Elden E. Billings, ist Vice President 
 
 Judge Arthur M. Smith, 2d Vice President 
 
 Mrs. Louise W. Williams, Treasurer 
 
 George H. Landes, Jr., Recording Secretary 
 
 Mrs. Anna V. Hausman, Corresponding Secretary 
 
 Lincoln Inaugural Centennial Committee 
 
 Cochairman 
 Earle D. Chesney 
 
 Cochairman 
 C. Wyatt Dickerson 
 
 Chairman of Arrangements 
 Ralph E. Becker 
 
 [ XV]
 
 Introduction and Synopsis 
 
 IT IS the opinion of this Committee that the 
 Commemoration Ceremony, March 4th, 
 1961, of the One Hundredth Anniversary of 
 the First Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, 
 duphcating on the steps of the Capitol the 
 swearing in exercises of exactly a century 
 before, was the greatest epic of its kind in the 
 annals of the Capitol of the United States. 
 Historically it was of course secondary and 
 far less than the event it so dramatically 
 reproduced. It was, in fact, a restatement 
 of a powerful moral lesson in the philosophy 
 of the American tradition and American 
 government implying how richly this gener- 
 ation of Americans is living off the achieve- 
 ments in unity and justice bequeathed to it 
 by Lincoln and his time. 
 
 It afforded a remarkable stimulus to the 
 people of the era of 1961 to match for them- 
 selves and their posterity by their own deeds 
 what their forebears of the era of 1861 had 
 done to make freedom — at whatever cost — 
 an established fact on this soil. The restate- 
 ment was the more compelling, not only 
 because of the brilliant commentary from 
 contemporary notables that was so vital a 
 part of the ceremony, but because the Na- 
 tion in 1961, as in 1861, was distressed by a 
 complex of crises that now extended from 
 Cuba to Berlin and from Berhn to Southeast 
 
 Asia and thus encompassed the earth and 
 reached even to vast competitive potentials 
 of contention in outer space. 
 
 This was also a reenactment of history that 
 had for the current generation what the 
 actual Lincoln audience could not be 
 expected to have had : full knowledge of the 
 immense meaning of the extraordinary cir- 
 cumstances that were in 1861 to catapult the 
 Nation into the greatest tragedy of its some- 
 what less than four-score and seven years. 
 
 The grandeur and the stature of the per- 
 sonality who was the focus of this national 
 disaster had so grown in the century since, 
 that the 1961 audience come to witness this 
 play acting and listen to the contemporary 
 speeches, was twice the size of the audience 
 that originally — on this very plaza — witnessed 
 the actual inauguration. 
 
 Nor that alone. For this same central 
 figure, now re-created in living personifica- 
 tion, had shaken the ideas of world statesmen 
 and invested the thinking of nation builders 
 from China's Sun Yat-sen to India's Nehru. 
 Schoolchildren in Tokyo named him "the 
 most respected of all world figures." Not 
 only men of action, but poets and dreamers 
 everywhere, recognized in him the divine 
 culmination of some turning point for good 
 in the tortured record of mankind. Tolstoy 
 
 [ XVII ] 
 
 88157 O - 62 - 2
 
 LINCOLN ARRIVES IN WASHINGTON, I86I, FOR INAUGURATION — ARTISTS CONCEPTION. 
 
 classified Lincoln the "only giant" among 
 "all the great national statesmen of his- 
 tory" — a formidable testimonial coming from 
 this literary titan of ante-Communist Russia. 
 Even Soviet propagandists of this decade, in 
 their own confused and distorted techniques, 
 
 went far out of their way to pay Lincoln 
 their kind of homage. 
 
 For Americans the pure gold of the Lincoln 
 story from 1861 to the end of time consists 
 in the fact that this President, more than 
 any other President before or since, and per- 
 
 [ XVIII ]
 
 LINCOLN, ON ARM OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN, ENTERS SENATE CHAMBER BEFORE INAUGURATION. 
 
 haps more than any other figure in all 
 American history, was so absolutely and in- 
 digenously, so utterly and typically, Amer- 
 ican. Some like Andrew Jackson who 
 approached him in this regard, and had much 
 of the stuff of greatness, have not, like 
 Lincoln, matched either his universal appeal, 
 or made so compelling an impact on the 
 world stage. 
 
 The sense of all this was deeply reflected 
 in what was said that day by Speaker Sam 
 Rayburn and by Carl Sandburg. 
 
 It was inspiringly manifest in the reaction 
 of the crowds. They followed avidly the 
 words of the 1861 Inaugural from the lips of 
 this 1961 Lincoln. And then affectionately 
 
 and even reverently they trailed after the 
 ancient horse-drawn carriage that had 
 belonged to President Grant and that took 
 him from the ceremonies, giving their 
 applause and their devotion as if he were, 
 indeed, the real Lincoln of a century before. 
 
 The crowd seemed to be expressing an 
 unspoken paean of thankfulness to Provi- 
 dence that this immortal of all the ages is 
 "one of ours." 
 
 The repercussions afterwards in the news- 
 papers, on the radio and via television — even 
 on phonograph records — reporting the com- 
 memoration, was a further measure of the 
 almost spiritual hold Abraham Lincoln has 
 upon the minds and the hearts of whole 
 
 [ XIX 1
 
 generations of his fellow-citizens. For this 
 theatric reproduction had far less the quality 
 of an entertainment or a documentary 
 pageant and much more the atmosphere of 
 the reincarnation of the essence of history — 
 almost like a devoutly religious play predi- 
 cated upon a sacred event in Holy Writ. 
 
 What follows in this document is the ful- 
 fillment of the Committee's function, as pre- 
 scribed in House Joint Resolution 155, pre- 
 senting as compactly as may be, a full report 
 of the commemoration to the Congress of the 
 United States. The Committee is especially 
 earger to proclaim its indebtedness not only 
 to the participants in the event whose con- 
 tribution was so apparent, but also to those 
 behind the scenes who organized and 
 planned, who avoided a thousand and one 
 possible pitfalls, and who made certain that 
 the timing and pacing, the drama, the move- 
 ment of the whole, measured up to high 
 standards of professional competence. For 
 all this was done. 
 
 Speaker Rayburn and Poet Sandburg lent 
 a special significance to the event because 
 each in terms of his position in American 
 life was a singularly outstanding personality. 
 The Rayburn speech, referring to himself 
 as the son of a Confederate soldier, had a 
 quality and a content that only he himself 
 could have given it: "I have always thought," 
 he said, "if it had not been for hotheads in the 
 South and the inane and insane agitators of 
 the North that Abraham Lincoln, by his 
 justice, his fairness his great statesmanship, 
 would have prevented the Civil War. . . ." 
 The 83-year-old Carl Sandburg said of the 
 first Inauguration: "It was a great day in 
 American history, of which we might say 
 
 it was sunset and dawn, moonrise and noon 
 sun, dry leaves in an autumn wind, and 
 springtime blossoms, dying time and birth- 
 ing hour. . . ." The tone of these orations 
 was superbly set by the music of the U.S. 
 Marine Band under the baton of Lt. Col. 
 Albert F. Schoepper, and then, solemnly, by 
 the invocation of the Reverend Donald W. 
 Mayberry, of St. John's Episcopal Church. 
 Later, on the same prayerful note, the Rev- 
 erend George M. Docherty, pastor of the 
 New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, 
 closed the formal portion of the ceremonies, 
 pleading that: ". . . In our day and genera- 
 tion grant us such courage and self-sacrifice 
 as we do this day commemorate. . . ." 
 
 There was an impressive assembly of 
 notables, Members of Congress from both 
 Houses, Ambassadors, Government officials 
 and people prominent in the life of the 
 country and the District of Columbia, who 
 formed part of the massive dramatis persons. 
 Particularly distinguished among these and 
 on the podium on the opposite end of the 
 platform from Chairman Fred Schwengel, 
 was the Chief Justice of the United States, 
 Earl Warren. It was arranged that the con- 
 temporary speeches be delivered first. This 
 was to occur from the podium built in replica 
 of the stand that served Lincoln in 1861. 
 When this contemporary portion of the 
 ceremony was completed with the Sandburg 
 address, the speakers. Chairman Schwengel, 
 the Chief Justice, and others invited to the 
 podium, withdrew to a section on the steps 
 of the Capitol reserved for them, and the 
 reenactment began. For this again the recon- 
 structed stand, built on the lines of the 
 Lincoln original, was the stage setting. 
 
 [ XX]
 
 ARTISTS I86I SKETCH OF LINCOLN INAUGURAL PROCESSION PASSING CAPITOL GATES.
 
 The audience, twice the size of that which 
 hstened to Lincoln — 10,000 then, 20,000 
 now — settled down for the pageant of the 
 day, as Chairman Schwengel, pointing to the 
 narrator, signaled the beginning of this part 
 of the commemoration. From the time that 
 the duplicate Lincoln, John C. Collison, of 
 Richmond, Va., and the Fellow Community 
 Actors came with slow and steady steps out 
 of the Capitol and down the grand stone 
 stairs to the podium, to the moment the old 
 Ulysses Grant carriage disappeared with this 
 Lincoln down Pennsylvania Avenue, the 
 reenactment won the wholehearted approval 
 of the crowds. 
 
 The actors that formed his entourage : Mrs. 
 Jane Gill as Mary Todd Lincoln; Ralph E. 
 Becker as Stephen A. Douglas; William 
 Tredway as Roger B. Taney; Clarence B. 
 Gill, Jr., as Hannibal Hamlin, the Vice Presi- 
 dent; Ray Moore as President James 
 Buchanan ; H. P. Newson as Senator Edward 
 D. Baker of Oregon; Al Carwil as Henry 
 Watterson, the journalist; and A. Tyler as 
 Senator James A. Pearce from Maryland — 
 all in costume — gave the pageant an added 
 note of validity. 
 
 The pageantry and the drama derived fur- 
 ther charm — and authenticity, too — from the 
 appearance, as a kind of guard of honor, 
 around the podium of the Sharpsburg Rifle 
 Guard, of Sharpsburg, Md., in brilliant, dis- 
 tinguishable, and realistic Union uniforms, 
 carrying the actual rifles of the period. With 
 them came their ladies, some of them in what 
 were said to be actual costumes of the Lincoln 
 era or reproductions, the whole filling out the 
 general scene with conviction and color. 
 The interesting and exciting anachronism 
 
 was the presence of communication parapher- 
 nalia undreamed of in Lincoln's time that 
 provided in bold relief the changes wrought 
 by a century. 
 
 The ultimate touch of pertinence and 
 dramatic effectiveness occurred at the mo- 
 ment when, the reenactment over, a horse- 
 drawn carriage of the Lincoln period — 
 refurbished for the event — drove up to the 
 steps of the Capitol to take "President Lin- 
 coln" to the Hotel Willard. The coachman 
 in the high hat and buggy whip was careful 
 to wear the expressionless stone face suitable 
 to his part. The procurement of the carriage 
 was one of the smaller achievements of the 
 District of Columbia Civil War Centennial 
 Commission's Chairman, Paul J. Sedgwick. 
 He obtained it through Fearson S. Meeks, 
 whose grandfather made the carriage, the 
 Meeks Body Works having prospered in the 
 area for more than a century. This, 
 incidentally, was the very carriage that served 
 Ulysses S. Grant during his Presidency. A 
 second carriage that now joined the parade 
 and was of a similar vintage was obtained 
 for the event by Henry Brylawski, another 
 member of the Commission. 
 
 The Committee feels particularly grateful 
 to the toilers behind the scenes who had to 
 complete all the arrangements under the 
 pressure of what is generally known as a 
 "crash program" — in this instance in i week, 
 from a Saturday to a Saturday. There is 
 hardly a person named anywhere in the 
 program who did not make a contribution. 
 Oustanding, it must be added, were the 
 services on the staff and directorial level of: 
 David C. Mearns, Victor M. Birely, Lloyd A. 
 Dunlap, Earle D. Chesney, Paul H. Gantt, 
 
 [ XXII ]
 
 ••?Ti 
 
 m'^_^ '^ ' 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 ^'i ^iWHM 
 
 ^ 
 
 s^«»^ 
 
 
 ui rt 
 
 CONTEMPORARY LINCOLN INAUGURAL SCENE AS PHOTOGRAPHED MARCH 4, I86I, SHOWING THE 
 STILL UNFINISHED DOME OF THE CAPITOL, AND THE CROWD OF ABOUT 10,000. 
 
 William H. Press, C. Wyatt Dickerson, H. 
 Newlin Megill, Ralph E. Becker, Represent- 
 ative Winfield K. Denton, Paul J. Sedgwick, 
 and Carl Haverlin. Critical and extraordi- 
 nary, in the face of the limited time and only 
 
 a single rehearsal, were the talents of 
 Lawrence Beckerman, public affairs director 
 for WTOP News, and that station's popular 
 news commentator, Roger Mudd. Mudd, 
 as narrator, had the dramatic voice, the 
 
 [ XXIII ]
 
 THE I86I SCENE OF LINCOLN S FIRST INAUGURATION WITNESSED BY HALF THE SIZE OF THE CROWD 
 THAT CAME TO ATTEND THE RE-ENACTMENT A CENTURY LATER. 
 
 confidence and the command, that made his 
 performance a key factor in the event's 
 success. Moreover he had been fortified with 
 an especially contrived script so that in the 
 event of some unforeseen difficulty, it was 
 
 his responsibility to cover the situation by 
 diverting attention to his narration. No 
 difficulty developed. The writing of the 
 script, direction of the pageant, rehearsal of 
 the principals, arrangement for the settings, 
 
 [ XXIV ]
 
 were assigned by the Chairman to William 
 A. Coblenz, Public Affairs Specialist of the 
 Legislative Reference Service of the Library 
 of Congress. It is a pleasure gratefully to 
 acknowledge his magnificent contribution to 
 the exercises. 
 
 The Committee cannot pass from this 
 reference to the assistance rendered by Mr. 
 Coblenz without expressing its deep apprecia- 
 tion of his work. As the warm, vibrant 
 author and director of the tableau, he wove 
 into the commemorative program a spirit of 
 realism and natural color which only the 
 well-developed talents of a fine mind and 
 disciplined imagination can create. 
 
 The basic idea for the commemoration may 
 be said to have been inherent in history itself. 
 The event obviously called for observance 
 and the homage to it was bound therefore 
 to occur in many places at once. The 
 atmosphere in Washington that constantly 
 bathed the Capital with an intense conscious- 
 ness of the Nation's past demanded recog- 
 nition for so signal a chapter in the Nation's 
 annals as the first Lincoln Inauguration. 
 Thus the idea was a joint growth among the 
 several committees named in this document, 
 but matured quickly and on a giant scale 
 when the Congress, on the initiative of Repre- 
 sentative Fred Schwengel, who introduced 
 the resolution, took hold to give it a national 
 stance. It gained immense momentum 
 from the immediate and wholehearted 
 cooperation of Speaker Sam Rayburn and the 
 minority as well as the majority leaderships 
 in both Houses. Cooperation from non- 
 Government groups was total, but the major 
 sponsor was, of course, the Congress of the 
 United States. No Federal appropriation 
 
 was involved and none is mentioned in the 
 Resolution. 
 
 The Joint Committee on Arrangements of 
 the Congress is pleased to accord special 
 recognition to the District of Columbia Civil 
 War Centennial Commission for conceiving 
 and inspiring the idea of the commemoration 
 fully 2 years before its final fruition, thus 
 working toward the event long before the 
 Congress gave it its massive endorsement and 
 contributed its own powerful and original 
 plans. The prime mover for the Commis- 
 sion was its Chairman, Mr. Sedgwick, who 
 broached the commemoration idea in the first 
 instance to the Washington Round Table, 
 from whence it gravitated to the Commission 
 under his chairmanship. Wyatt Dickerson 
 and Earle Chesney were called in to assist the 
 Commission and the Committee as was 
 Ralph E. Becker who served as Chairman of 
 the Committee on Arrangements. In due 
 course the Commission created plans for its 
 participation in the reenactment, for the 
 parade, and for the luncheon at the Willard. 
 There was thenceforward wholehearted co- 
 operation between the Commission and the 
 Joint Committee on Arrangements of the 
 Congress when it was called into being in 
 February 1961. 
 
 The complete closing ceremonies at the 
 Hotel Willard downtown, and the luncheon 
 there immediately after the Capitol proceed- 
 ings, seemed to be invested with the less 
 solemn and more gala note that probably 
 marked that part of the day a century before. 
 There were addresses again — mostly extem- 
 poraneous — from Carl Sandburg, Chairman 
 Schwengel, and others, and some comments 
 from John C. Collison, the impersonator of 
 
 [ XXV ]
 
 Lincoln, all of it under the skillful toast- 
 mastership of Robert V. Fleming. Toast- 
 master Fleming, it was explained, is himself 
 a distant cousin of President Abraham Lin- 
 coln through his relationship to the Hanks 
 branch of the family, Joshua Hanks and 
 Abraham Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks 
 having been distant cousins. 
 
 The immense banquet hall was crowded 
 out to the elevators and the air was filled with 
 the lighter and exultant note associated with 
 the celebration of a political party enjoying 
 a national triumph. This was due in part 
 also to the sensation of seeking a repetition — 
 down even to the menu — of this occurrence 
 a century ago. Much of the felicity of the 
 Willard luncheon stemmed from the effort 
 that had been given the arrangements by the 
 District of Columbia Civil War Centennial 
 Commission under whose auspices it was 
 held in conjunction with the Metropolitan 
 Washington Board of Trade. The Com- 
 mittee not only brought the U.S. Marine 
 Orchestra into the festivities, and singers of 
 note, but added a vital and a novel feature 
 by having present Washington business firms 
 that had been operating during and before 
 1861, all of whom were suitably recognized 
 and who are identified later in this report 
 (p. 29). 
 
 Diligent efforts were made to crown the 
 commemoration with a Lincoln Inaugural 
 Ball for the evening of March 4, but the 
 lack of time and other factors led to its 
 abandonment — an omission that left no great 
 disappointment in the light of the extraordi- 
 nary gratification that accompanied the 
 program without it. 
 
 For the rest it is the hope of this Committee 
 that this document will serve as a footnote to 
 history revealing how our generation was in 
 no small part touched by the eternal flame 
 that moved Lincoln and his fellow-citizens 
 to deeds of greatness. These, as we know, 
 are the deeds and the words, that perhaps 
 more than any other, immortalize the Amer- 
 ican story and make it enduring. Here, too, 
 giving testimony to this reverence for a great 
 hour are the words of such respected and 
 honored men of our time as will be found 
 in the ensuing pages. Finally, this Committee 
 entertains most earnestly the hope that within 
 the limits of restraint and dignity, other his- 
 toric events in the annals of American his- 
 tory will, like Lincoln's First Inauguration, 
 become the subject of renewal and revival. 
 As representatives of the people, we will cer- 
 tainly strive to that end in order that our 
 people will forever derive faith and convic- 
 tion from their American traditions. 
 
 The Committee. 
 
 [ XXVI ]
 
 The Committee inserts, at this point in the report, the full account of the ceremony and reenact- 
 ment as printed in the Congressional Record, Thursday, March 9, 1961, pages A iGyg-A 1682. 
 
 The 100th Anniversary of the Inaugural 
 of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Extension of Remarks of Hon. Fred Schwengel, of Iowa, in the 
 House of Representatives, Thursday, March 9, 796/ 
 
 Mr. Schwengel. Mr. Speaker, on Satur- 
 day, March 4, 1961, it was the will of Con- 
 gress to commemorate the looth anniversary 
 of the first inaugural of President Abraham 
 Lincoln. An appropriate ceremony for this 
 occasion took place at 1 1 a.m. at the east front 
 of the Capitol. 
 
 I was privileged to have a role in this cere- 
 mony and was pleased that we were blessed 
 with good weather so that the some 20,000 
 who gathered there and those who saw and 
 heard the program on radio and television 
 could relive this great moment in history. 
 
 Those of you who shared in this rich expe- 
 rience can testify that what we heard and saw 
 on that day will be one of the highlights of 
 the Civil War Centennial observance, and 
 that it, too, will take its place as one of the 
 historic contributions to our heritage. 
 
 Unfortunately, many of the Members could 
 not be present and thousands of others had 
 to miss the event because of the travel distance 
 involved and because of other commitments. 
 It is appropriate, therefore, that we provide 
 
 for the entire program, just as it took place, 
 with the remarks of our beloved Speaker and 
 the address of the distinguished American 
 author, Carl Sandburg, be printed in the 
 Congressional Record so that it can be pre- 
 served for all time and made available to 
 others who may be interested to have a copy 
 of the program. 
 
 Under leave to extend my remarks, I 
 include this commemoration ceremony in its 
 entirety in the Appendix of the Record. The 
 program follows: 
 
 THE LINCOLN INAUGURAL COMMEMORATION 
 PROGRAM 
 
 (Music: the U.S. Marine Band; Lt. Col. 
 Albert F. Schoepper, U.S. Marine Corps, 
 conducting.) 
 
 Mr. Schwengel. I present the Reverend 
 Donald W. Mayberry of the St. John's Epis- 
 copal Church for the invocation. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Mayberry. Let us pray. 
 
 Oh, God, who moves among the centuries 
 as author, and through faith in whom do we, 
 
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 living as in the chapters therein, find out our 
 Hves become rich. We honor this day, Thy 
 servant Abraham Lincoln, who standing here 
 amidst a people torn and anguished did lift 
 his spirit above the false strength of malice to 
 Thy spirit, and his will beyond factions and 
 strive to Thy perfect will, and in Thee found 
 his way and his Nation's way, so may we with 
 his simplicity of heart find Thee in the com- 
 plexities of our day. In the self-giving of our- 
 selves to it. Thou has set out happiness. Give 
 us, we pray, the endurance to possess and to 
 distribute Thy peace and may the blessing of 
 God be amongst us and through us illumine 
 the lives of others. We ask it in God's name. 
 Amen. 
 
 Mr. ScHWENGEL. Mr. Speaker, my col- 
 leagues, distinguished guests, my fellow coun- 
 trymen, speaking for the Congress, whose 
 servant I am, I extend a cordial welcome to 
 each and all of you. 
 
 On a pillar to the entrance of the Archives 
 Building here in the District of Columbia are 
 inscribed these words: 
 
 "The heritage of the past is the seed that 
 brings forth the harvest of the future." 
 
 There is no place in our heritage from 
 which we can take more or better kernels of 
 wisdom and example to plant in the hearts of 
 people now with better prospects for good 
 results for the future than from the life and 
 experience of our most American — American 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 I am glad to meet and greet all of you here 
 and all of you in the radio and television 
 audience who will share in this moving, 
 meaningful, and momentous experience in 
 our national life, which took place here loo 
 years ago today. This experience, if properly 
 
 understood and commemorated, can do 
 much in our day to help us along our difficult 
 way as we prepare ourselves to contend with 
 the struggles of our day. 
 
 It is fitting and proper, as a part of this 
 experience, that we listen to an American 
 statesman and to an American sage, poet, and 
 historian whose respect and reputation has 
 no peer in America. 
 
 Now, and first, it is a great honor and 
 privilege for me to present a man who has 
 had, just as the man we honor with this pro- 
 gram, a tremendous influence for good in our 
 country. A man who has served his people 
 and his Nation extremely well, and longer as 
 Speaker than any other man ever elected to 
 the Congress. 
 
 All of America knows now that I speak of 
 our beloved Mr. Sam Rayburn, Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives, and now I yield 
 to this great American for such remarks as 
 he may care to make. 
 
 Speaker Sam Rayburn. 
 
 Sam Rayburn. Mr. Chairman, members 
 of the committee, distinguished guests and 
 fellow Americans, I am happy to join the 
 chairman in welcoming you today on Capi- 
 tol Hill. 
 
 There are few occasions upon which the 
 committees of the Senate and the House al- 
 low any sort of demonstration on this plaza. 
 We inaugurate our Presidents here, and 
 have for more than a century; but we meet 
 here today for a special reason, and that is, 
 to reenact the inauguration of one of the 
 greatest Americans in all our history and 
 one of the greatest men of all time. 
 
 Prejudice, hate, agitation brought about 
 the Civil War. I have always thought if it 
 
 [3]
 
 had not been for hotheads in the South and 
 the inane and insane agitators of the North 
 that Abraham Lincoln, by his justice, his 
 fairness, his great statesmanship, would 
 have prevented the Civil War which de- 
 stroyed the flower of our young manhood in 
 this country that at that time was so sorely 
 needed. 
 
 As a son of a Confederate soldier, who did 
 what he thought was right, I say for him 
 and for myself after that was over, he was 
 proud our great Union was preserved ; and 
 so, today I come upon this platform, with 
 many distinguished people and many out 
 in front of me, to say to you as I have said 
 when I presented him to the House of Rep- 
 resentatives a short while ago, that Carl 
 Sandburg had studied Lincoln more and 
 understood him better than any man who 
 has ever written about him since his pass- 
 ing. 
 
 The saddest thing that ever happened to 
 the border States and the Southland was 
 for an insane man to assassinate Lincoln. 
 Lincoln was strong enough in the hearts 
 and minds of the people in the North that 
 he could have prevented, and would have 
 prevented, some terrible things happening 
 in some parts of our beloved country. But 
 north, south, east, and west, we have for- 
 gotten that prejudice, we have forgotten 
 that hate, and today we are proud indeed, 
 and I am happy to welcome you on this great 
 occasion when we celebrate the inauguration 
 of that great statesman, that man with a 
 heart, that man with a heart of gold, and I 
 am glad and I am happy, I am honored, to 
 have the privilege of being a part of these 
 ceremonies. 
 
 Mr. ScHWENGEL. Thank you, Mr. Sam. 
 
 Our speaker is inseparably identified with 
 the Lincoln story and its telling. He has 
 devoted his life to it. He has lavished his 
 genius upon it. He has quickened it and 
 made it enduringly a part of ours. His 
 "Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and 
 the War Years," are acknowledged through- 
 out the world as constituting "a noble mon- 
 ument of American literature." It is with 
 grateful pride and eager expectancy that I 
 present the magnificent, the incomparable 
 Carl Sandburg. 
 
 Mr. Sandburg. Perhaps as an old reporter 
 I could offer the point of information that 
 Mr. Sam Rayburn and myself are agreed that 
 the crowd here today is nearly double that 
 of 100 years ago when there were 10,000 
 listening to Lincoln. 
 
 Here 100 years ago to the day were 10,000 
 people who hung on the words of the speaker 
 of the day. Beyond this immediate audience 
 were 30 million people in 34 States who 
 wanted to know what he was saying. Over 
 in the countries of Europe were more millions 
 of people wondering whether the American 
 Union of States would hold together or be 
 shattered into fragments. During the 4 
 months since his election Lincoln had kept 
 silence on all such questions as, "What will 
 be your policy?" "How will you act on this 
 or that?" Six States had seceded from the 
 Union. Big screaming black letters in 
 Charleston, S.C., cried to the wide world. 
 "The Union is dissolved." Scores of news- 
 papers had asked in effect, "Mr. Lincoln, 
 since you know you can't coax the seceded 
 States back, will you go so far as to use force 
 and start a bloody civil war?" The General 
 
 [4]
 
 of the Army, Winfield Scott, liad arranged 
 for riflemen in squads to be hiding on the 
 roofs along Pennsylvania Avenue when the 
 Presidential carriage passed. His orders 
 were: "To watch the windows on the oppo- 
 site side and fire on them in case any attempt 
 should be made to fire on the Presidential 
 carriage." Alongside the carriage rode a 
 squadron of cavalry. In front of it marched 
 a company of West Point cadets along with 
 infantrymen and riflemen from the District 
 of Columbia. On sidewalks were people 
 who cheered and people with stony faces who 
 refused to cheer. 
 
 Out over the country from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific was the everyday question, "Will 
 there be a war?" The new man, about to 
 become the i6th President of the United 
 States who, in minutes, would take the oath 
 to be faithful to the Constitution, was draw- 
 ing to the close his inaugural address, saying, 
 "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow coun- 
 trymen, and not in mine, is the momentous 
 issue of civil war. The Government will not 
 assail you. You can have no conflict, without 
 being yourselves the aggressors. We are not 
 enemies, but friends. We must not be 
 enemies. Though passion may have strained 
 it must not break our bonds of affection." 
 
 In this he was speaking as a President, 
 majestic, kindly, understanding. However, 
 he knew well that as President he was also 
 Commander in Chief of the Army and the 
 Navy of the United States. He spoke, too, 
 somewhat like a man with an iron hand in a 
 thick velvet glove and almost like a solemn 
 oath he declared, "I hold, that in contempla- 
 tion of universal law, and of the Constitution, 
 the Union of these States is perpetual. Con- 
 
 tinue to execute all tiie express provisions of 
 our National Constitution, and the Union 
 will endure forever." 
 
 There came from him little gnarled nug- 
 gets of wisdom which in the lOO years since 
 he spoke them have been spoken and printed 
 thousands of times, "Suppose you go to war, 
 you cannot fight always; and when, after 
 much loss on both sides, and no gain on 
 either, you cease fighting, the identical old 
 questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again 
 upon you." 
 
 There were crimson shadows flowing from 
 some of his sentences. "This country, with 
 its institutions, belongs to the people who 
 inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary 
 of the existing government, they can exercise 
 their constitutional right of amending it, or 
 their revolutionary right to dismember, or 
 overthrow it." 
 
 Like an elderly counselor he asked, "Why 
 should there not be a patient confidence in 
 the ultimate justice of the people.? Is there 
 any better, or equal hope in the world .'' My 
 countrymen, one and all, think calmly and 
 well upon this whole subject. Nothing valu- 
 able can be lost by taking time. Intelligence, 
 patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance 
 on Him, who has never yet forsaken this 
 favored land, are still competent to adjust, 
 in the best way, all our present difficulty." 
 
 From a Capitol doorway, standing with 
 folded arms watching Lincoln and plainly 
 wanting to be seen watching him was Sena- 
 tor Louis T. Wigfall, of Texas, who in his 
 South Carolina years had killed a man in a 
 duel. Plainly wearing contempt, defiance 
 on his face, Wigfall was saying now in 
 pantomime what he had said in the Senate, 
 
 [5]
 
 that the old United States of America, the 
 Union, was a corpse and the question now 
 was how "to give it a decent burial." He 
 questioned the backbone of the President- 
 elect and in Senate speeches laughed some- 
 times, this Wigfall, as though the Four 
 Horsemen of the Apocalypse were a quartet 
 of fat merry clowns and war meant neither 
 cadavers nor ashes. 
 
 In contrast, Representative Tom Corwin, 
 of Lebanon, Ohio, spoke in the House a bit- 
 ter grief: 
 
 "Better for us that the fruitful earth should 
 be smitten and become dry dust; better that 
 the heavens for a time become brass, and 
 the ear of God deaf to our prayers; better 
 than famine, with her cold and skinny fin- 
 gers, lay hold upon the throats of our wives 
 and children, than that we should prove 
 faithless to our trust and all our bright 
 hopes die out in that night which knows 
 no coming dawn." 
 
 On January i6 of 1861 Corwin wrote to 
 Lincoln a letter for Lincoln's eye only. "I 
 have been for 30 days, in a Committee of 
 33." Members of Congress from nearly all 
 States south and north served on this com- 
 mittee, of which Corwin was chairman and 
 he gave to Lincoln this judgment: 
 
 "If the States are no more harmonious in 
 their feelings and opinions than these 35 
 representative men then, appaHng [sic] as 
 the idea is, we must dissolve and a long 
 and bloody civil war must follow. I cannot 
 comprehend the madness of the times. 
 Southern men are theoretically crazy. Ex- 
 treme northern men are practical fools. The 
 latter are really quite as mad as the former. 
 Treason is in the air around us everywhere. 
 
 It goes by the name of patriotism. Men in 
 Congress boldly avow it and the public 
 offices are full of acknowledged secessionists. 
 God alone I fear can help us. Four or five 
 States are gone, others are driving before 
 the gale. I have looked on this horrid pic- 
 ture till I have been able to gaze on it with 
 perfect calmness. I think if you live, you 
 may take the oath." 
 
 The last two sentences were addedly pro- 
 found coming from the best wit and story 
 teller in Washington. When Lincoln was a 
 Congressman in Washington he and Corwin 
 often had fun together with their stories. 
 Now Corwin felt himself a presence lingering 
 on a threshold preparing his farewell. 
 
 This i6th President of the United States 
 had a vision of his country being of service 
 in the world leadership. It is told in an ad- 
 dress in Illinois in 1858: "These representa- 
 tives in old Independence Hall, said to the 
 whole world of men: 'We hold these truths 
 to be self-evident: that all men are created 
 equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
 with certain unalienable rights; that among 
 these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
 piness.' This was their lofty, and wise, and 
 noble understanding of the justice of the 
 Creator to His creatures. Yes, gentlemen, 
 to all His creatures, to the whole great family 
 of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing 
 stamped with the divine image and likeness 
 was sent into the world to be trodden on, and 
 degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They 
 grasped not only the whole race of man then 
 living, but they reached forward and seized 
 upon the farthest posterity. They erected a 
 beacon to guide their children and their chil- 
 dren's children, and the countless myriads 
 
 [7 
 
 8SI57 O - 62 ■
 
 who should inhabit the earth in other ages. 
 Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the 
 tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and 
 so they estabHshed these great self-evident 
 truths, that when in the distant future some 
 man, some faction, some interest should set 
 up the doctrine that none but rich men or 
 none but white men, were entitled to life, 
 liberty, and die pursuit of happiness, their 
 posterity might look up again to the Declara- 
 tion of Independence and take courage to 
 renew the battle which their fathers began." 
 
 A preacher in Auburn, N.Y., having sagac- 
 ity and wisdom gave his listeners in the pews 
 these long thoughts about Lincoln, the 1864 
 candidate for President of the National Union 
 Party ticket: 
 
 "Such an epoch of perplexity, transition, 
 change, is not often witnessed. In every such 
 passage of a nation there ought to be a char- 
 acter like Samuel. Misunderstood and mis- 
 represented at the time; attacked from both 
 sides; charged with saying too much and say- 
 ing too little, he slowly, conscientiously and 
 honestly works out the mighty problem. He 
 was not a founder of a new state of things 
 like Moses; he was not a champion of the 
 existing order of things like Elijah. He stood 
 between the two; between the living and the 
 dead; between the past and the present; be- 
 tween the old and the new; with that sym- 
 pathy for each which at such a period is 
 the best hope for any permanent solution of 
 the questions which torment it. He has but 
 little praise from partisans, but is the careful 
 healer binding up the wounds of the age, in 
 spite of itself; the good surgeon knitting to- 
 gether the dislocated bones of the disjointed 
 times. The explanation of his every act is 
 
 this: He executes the will of the people. His 
 wisdom consists in carrying out the good 
 sense of the Nation. His growth in political 
 knowledge, his steady movement are but the 
 growth and movement of the national mind. 
 He stands before you a not perfect man and 
 yet more precious than fine gold." 
 
 As Lincoln spoke on that day which we 
 memorialize now a hundred years later he 
 knew death was in the air and so was birth. 
 What was dying men did not know. What 
 was being born no one could say for sure. 
 He knew well and deeply what he said 2 
 years later amid the smoke and blood of con- 
 flict: "The fiery trial through which we pass, 
 will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to 
 the latest generation." 
 
 He would have wanted us of the latest 
 generation today to remember how he stood 
 amid the terrific toils and turmoils he was 
 under compulsion to face. 
 
 Lincoln came out of the pioneer time 
 of America. He began his journey to the 
 White House in a one-room log cabin with 
 a floor of packed down dirt and one window 
 and one door. Perhaps we can say now that 
 there can be generations taking hold with 
 the loneliness and genius to struggle that 
 always dwelt in the hearts of pioneers, as 
 though the restless and venturing human 
 spirit shall perform again tomorrow with 
 exploits today declared visionary and im- 
 probable. Tomorrow belongs to the chil- 
 dren — yes. This means that they and their 
 children will take their own peculiar direc- 
 tions dictated by events not now known to 
 any well accepted prophets. The living 
 might plan and blue-print a world for the 
 unborn, who on becoming born and grown 
 
 [8]
 
 CROWD ASSEMBLES FOR LINCOLN INAUGURAL RE-ENACTMENT, EAST FRONT OF THE CAPITOL, 
 MARCH 4, I96I, BEFORE CEREMONIES BEGAN. 
 
 to man size would decide to forget the ar- 
 rangements made for them while they were 
 unborn. Starting in on their own they 
 might shape something else. With respect 
 and affectionate regard for the elders and 
 ancestors they might do what they do in 
 their time, acting under wills, theories and 
 compulsions unknown to the Founding 
 Fathers. 
 
 This has happened across history. More 
 than once this has precisely happened. To- 
 
 morrow belongs to the children. They will 
 mold that tomorrow with care and wisdom. 
 Or they will muddle and while muddling 
 some may look backward saying, "There 
 are plenty of precedents." 
 
 There are careless generations who drift, 
 dawdle, decay. Still others leave tall lantl- 
 marks of liberty, of discovery, invention, and 
 culture, setting targets of achievement at 
 which no succeeding generation can take a 
 horse laugh of derision and belittlement. 
 
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 LINCOLN FIRST INAUGURATION RE-ENACTMENT, AT CAPITOL, MARCH 4, I96I.
 
 What the young people want and dream 
 across the next loo years will shape history 
 more than any other motivation to be named. 
 
 Youth now living and youth as yet unborn 
 hokl the seeds and secrets of the folds to be 
 unfolded in the shapes to come. 
 
 None shall look back on this hour and say 
 we did not have hope and faith. 
 
 The mystery of justice between man and 
 man, nation and nation, shall take on new 
 phases. 
 
 Dreamers of deep sacred dreams, finders 
 and welders, sons and daughters of burning 
 quests, shall come. 
 
 In actions of courage and endurance 
 lighted with inner humility, lighted some- 
 times with a fine balance of motives as be- 
 tween freedom and discipline, they shall 
 clothe human dignity with wider meanings. 
 
 Youth when lighted and alive and given a 
 sporting chance is strong for struggle and 
 not afraid of any toils, punishments, dan- 
 gers, or deaths. What shall be the course 
 of society and civilization across the next 
 100 years ? For the answers, read, if you can, 
 the strange and baffling eyes of youth. 
 
 As the new President, loo years ago, slept 
 his first night in the White House, his in- 
 augural address had gone by telegraph to 
 St. Joseph, Mo., and Pony Express relays were 
 rushing West with it. They would be 7 days 
 and 17 hours reaching Sacramento, Calif., 
 with his plan for the east and west coasts, 
 the Great Lakes and the gulf, the Rio Grande 
 and the Penobscot to belong to one common 
 country. 
 
 It was a great day in American history, of 
 which we might say it was sunset and dawn, 
 moonrise and noon sun, dry leaves in an 
 
 autumn wind, and springtime blossoms, 
 dying time and birthing hour. It has been 
 a privilege to face this magnificent audience, 
 and I hope it has been worth your while. I 
 thank you. 
 
 Mr. ScHWENGEL. My friends, to try to com- 
 ment on a magnificent address like that is 
 impossible but it must be said, Mr. Sandburg, 
 that all of America and liberty-loving people 
 everywhere are grateful for this eloquent, 
 appropriate, meaningful, and moving experi- 
 ence that you have helped to create for us so 
 magnificently today. 
 
 My fellow countrymen, what we empha- 
 size today in this program is not the conflict, 
 but the tragedy, that at frightful cost enriched 
 and made clear the American tradition. The 
 phrase, "Conceived in liberty and dedicated 
 to the proposition that all men are created 
 equal," acquired a magnificent meaning dur- 
 ing and since the war for all of us and for 
 all time. With the result that our Nation 
 under God was unified and made strong 
 beyond any power again to separate and 
 divide. What has emerged now is the last 
 great hope of an imperiled mankind. The 
 fragment of history we show so humbly today 
 may furnish an insight into the tumult, the 
 bitterness, that in the end cleared the air for 
 the triumph forever of the American genius 
 for justice and freedom. 
 
 From our early revolutionary beginnings 
 and from this Lincoln heritage is forged our 
 country's leadership in a world of this hour, 
 a leadership that gives promise of freedom for 
 all mankind everywhere. 
 
 And now the reenactment of the Lincoln 
 inaugural in 1861: 
 
 [12]
 
 LINCOLN INAUGURAL REENACTMENT, 1 86 1 
 
 Narrator: Roger Mudd. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, President-elect of the 
 United States: John C. Collison. 
 
 Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the President- 
 elect: Mrs. Jane Gill. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois: 
 Ralph Becker. 
 
 Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the United 
 States: William Tredway. 
 
 Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the 
 United States: Clarence B. Gill, Jr. 
 
 James Buchanan, President of the United 
 States: Ray Moore. 
 
 Edward D. Baker, Senator from Oregon: 
 H. P. Newson. 
 
 Henry Watterson, journalist: Al Carwil. 
 
 James A. Pearce, Senator from Maryland: 
 Al Tyler. 
 
 Mr. MuDD. "Honored guests, ladies and 
 gentlemen, you are about to witness the reen- 
 actment of the opening act in the greatest 
 tragedy of American history — the War 
 Between the States. 
 
 "This platform and the scene about to be 
 played before you, constitute not a precise, 
 but a reasonable approximation of the prop- 
 erties and what happend in this very Capitol 
 plaza, here, on the steps of the east front of 
 the Capitol of the United States, just lOO years 
 ago to the very day. 
 
 "The platform, the small table which you 
 may see up front there, and the chairs taken 
 from the U.S. Senate are a nearly authentic 
 recovery of the scenic background on 
 March 4, 1861. 
 
 "But on that occasion, extensions were at- 
 tached to either side to hold the distinguished 
 guests. 
 
 "The guests remained standing through 
 out; the chairs were provided only for the 
 central group under the simple wooden can- 
 opy made of rough boards and painted an 
 oflwhite, as now, to match the Capitol 
 Building. 
 
 "The New York Herald reported that a 
 crowd of 30,000 gathered where you are now ; 
 and they saw the spreading structure of the 
 Capitol, with its unfinished dome surmount- 
 ed by gaunt derricks, braced with ropes of 
 steel. 
 
 "The model of the statute of Armed Free- 
 dom, destined for the dome's apex, stood back 
 there in the grass, among a litter of marble 
 blocks. 
 
 "Here is the Lincoln Presidential party — 
 about the way it happened 100 years ago — 
 beginning its slow and dignified walk to the 
 platform for the ceremony of inauguration. 
 
 "Shortly before this entrance, the Senate 
 was called to order and the oath of office was 
 administered to Hannibal Hamlin, the in- 
 coming Vice President, by the outgoing Vice 
 President, John C. Breckenridge. 
 
 "This, that you are now about to see — the 
 inauguration — is the main event. 
 
 "Of course, this is a condensed reenactment 
 of the hour, done almost in capsule form. 
 
 "Here is the President-Elect Abraham Lin- 
 coln, escorted by the President, James Buch- 
 anan, a former Minister to Russia and Senator 
 from Pennsylvania. 
 
 "Immediately behind them are Mrs. Mary 
 Todd Lincoln, flanked by Henry Watterson, 
 on your right, the famous Kentucky journal- 
 ist, and Senator Stephen Douglas, of Illinois. 
 
 "It was in the Illinois senatorial campaign 
 of 1858 that Mr. Lincoln had forced the Sen- 
 
 [13I
 
 RE-ENACTMENT CROWD. MASSES ON MARCH 4, I96I, WERE DOUBLE THAT C 
 WILLARD HOTEL LUNCHEON AFTER RE-ENACTMENT CEREMONIES DUPII 
 

 
 i 
 
 DRAMATIZING LINCOLN S INSPIRED HOLD ON THE IMAGINATION OF AMERICA. 
 FESTIVE SCENES IN LINCOLn's OWN DAY AFTER THE INAUGURAL EVENT. 

 
 ator to take a political position which wrecked 
 Douglas' chances for the White House. 
 
 "Directly behind Senator Douglas on the 
 left is Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the 
 United States, participating in his ninth inau- 
 gural; and Mr. Lincoln's great friend from 
 Oregon, Senator Edward D. Baker, who will 
 introduce the President-elect for his inaugural 
 address. 
 
 "And finally to the rear on your right. Vice 
 President Hamlin, and Senator James A. 
 Pearce, of Maryland, who is a member of the 
 inaugural committee on arrangements. 
 
 "That's the party. 
 
 "March 4 — 100 years ago — began as a 
 cloudy and raw day. But when Lincoln 
 stepped forward to speak, Washington was 
 beset by what one report called an unseason- 
 ably warm sunshine and the crowds were 
 afflicted by what the reporter of the New 
 York Herald called an overwhelming dust. 
 Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House 
 to Capitol Hill, had been scraped of its dirt 
 and debris just the day before and the city 
 had no street sprinkling system. 
 
 "All reports say Mr. Lincoln's voice was 
 'clear and distinct' and that it was 'heard by 
 thousands.' 
 
 "The crowds, too, participated actively and 
 noisily in the inaugural. 
 
 "Not far from this platform and on the 
 plaza grounds, one youngster fell out of a 
 tree. A little man with red whiskers ad- 
 dressed part of the crowd with oratorical 
 flourishes. 
 
 "Hecklers and well-meaning enthusiasts 
 took small liberties with the ceremonies. 
 
 "One newspaper reported that Mr. Lin- 
 
 coln was greeted by cheers as he approached 
 to deliver his inaugural. 
 
 " 'He then put down his manuscript,' said 
 another journal, 'claps his hands in his 
 pockets and pulls out a pair of steel-bowed 
 spectacles. This is a signal for merriment 
 in one portion of the crowd. A lusty, hawk- 
 eyed fellow cries out: "Take off them spec- 
 tacles, we want to see your eyes." "I didn't 
 know he wore glasses," remarked another, 
 "they ain't in the picture.' " 
 
 "Now, the principals in today's tableau 
 have ceased chatting with each other. Sen- 
 ator Baker is about to introduce the Presi- 
 dent-elect. 
 
 "You see Mr. Lincoln fumbling a little 
 with his hat and Senator Douglas gracefully 
 relieves him of it. This may or may not 
 have happened. In any event, sometime 
 later. Senator Douglas reportedly said: 
 'Well, if I can't be President, at least I can 
 hold the President's hat.' " 
 
 Senator Baker. "Fellow citizens, I intro- 
 duce to you, Abraham Lincoln, the Presi- 
 dent-elect of the United States of America." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln. "Fellow citizens of the 
 United States, in compliance with a custom 
 as old as the Government itself, I appear 
 before you to address you briefly, and to 
 take, in your presence, the oath prescribed 
 by the Constitution of the United States, 
 to be taken by the President 'before he en- 
 ters on the execution of his Office.' 
 
 "It is 72 years since the first inauguration 
 of a President under our National Consti- 
 tution. During that period 15 different and 
 greatly distinguished citizens, have, in suc- 
 cession, administered the executive branch 
 of the Government. They have conducted 
 
 [16]
 
 APPROACHING INAUGURAL RE-ENACTMENT PLATFORM. CARL SANDBURG WALKS BETWEEN 
 SPEAKER SAM RAYBURN AND CHAIRMAN FRED SCHWENGEL ; WILLIAM MILLER, ON LEFT. 
 
 ALMIGHTY FATHER . REV. DONALD MAYBERRY GIVES INVOCATION AT RE-ENACTMENT. L. TO R. 
 CHAIRMAN SCHWENGEL (LEFT), SPEAKER SAM RAYBURN, CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN.
 
 it through many perils; and, generally, with 
 great success. Yet, with all this scope for 
 precedent, I now enter upon the same task 
 for the brief constitutional term of 4 years, 
 under great and peculiar difficulty. A dis- 
 ruption of the Federal Union heretofore 
 only menaced, is now formidably attempted. 
 
 "I hold, that in contemplation of universal 
 law, and of the Constitution, the Union of 
 these States is perpetual. I therefore con- 
 sider that, in view of the Constitution and 
 the laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to the 
 extent of my ability, I shall take care as 
 the Constitution itself expressly enjoins 
 upon me, that the laws of the Union be faith- 
 fully executed in all the States. I trust 
 this will not be regarded as a menace, but 
 only as the declared purpose of the Union 
 that it will constitutionally defend, and 
 maintain itself. 
 
 "This country, with its institutions, be- 
 longs to the people who inhabit it. 
 
 "Why should there not be a patient con- 
 fidence in the ultimate justice of the people ? 
 Is there any better, or equal hope, in the 
 world.'* In our present differences, is either 
 party without faith of being in the right ? If 
 the Almighty Ruler of nations, with His 
 eternal truth and justice, be on your side of 
 the North, or on yours of the South, that 
 truth, and that justice, will surely prevail, by 
 the judgment of this great tribunal, the Amer- 
 ican people. 
 
 "By the frame of the Government under 
 which we live, this same people have wisely 
 given their public servants but little power for 
 mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, pro- 
 vided for the return of that little to their own 
 hands at very short intervals. 
 
 "While the people retain their virtue, and 
 vigilance, no administration, by any extreme 
 of wickedness or folly, can very seriously in- 
 jure the Government, in the short space of 4 
 years. 
 
 "My countrymen, one and all, think calmly 
 and well, upon this whole subject. Nothing 
 valuable can be lost by taking time. If it were 
 admitted that you who are dissatisfied, hold 
 the right side in the dispute, there still is no 
 single good reason for precipitate action. In- 
 telligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm 
 reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken 
 this favored land, are still competent to ad- 
 just, in the best way, all our present difficulty. 
 
 "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow coun- 
 trymen, and not in mine, is the momentous 
 issue of civil war. The Government will not 
 assail you. You can have no conflict, without 
 being yourselves the aggressors. You have no 
 oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Gov- 
 ernment, while I shall have the most solemn 
 one to 'preserve, protect, and defend' it. 
 
 "I am loth to close. We are not enemies, 
 but friends. We must not be enemies. 
 Though passion may have strained, it must 
 not break our bonds of affection. The mystic 
 chords of memory, stretching from every bat- 
 tlefield, and patriot grave, to every living 
 heart and hearthstone, all over this broad 
 land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 
 when again touched, as surely they will be, 
 by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 Mr. MuDD. "It is at this point that Mr. 
 Lincoln took the oath of office from 81-year- 
 old Chief Justice Taney. Contemporary re- 
 ports reveal that when the oath was given, all 
 stood up and took off their hats. The journal- 
 ists that day wrote that the new President 
 
 18]
 
 THE I96I LINCOLN TAKES OATH. THIS IS THE SCENE AS ACTOR JOHN C. COLLISON DUPLICATES 
 
 LINCOLN ACCEPTING OATH OF OFFICE. 
 
 EFFORT WAS DILIGENT TO MAKE I96I RE-ENACTMENT OF LINCOLN S FIRST INAUGURATION AS EXACTLY 
 
 AS POSSIBLE LIKE THE ORIGINAL.
 
 repeated the oath after the Chief Justice in 
 'firm but modest voice.' 
 
 (The oath of office) : 
 
 Chief Justice Taney. "Do you solemnly 
 swear to faithfully execute the Office of Presi- 
 dent of the United States?" 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. "I do solemnly swear 
 to faithfully execute the Office of the Presi- 
 dent of the United States.?" 
 
 Chief Justice Taney. "And will you, to 
 the best of your ability, preserve, protect, 
 and defend the Constitution of the United 
 States?" 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. "And, I will, to the 
 best of my ability, preserve, protect, and de- 
 fend the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 Mr. MuDD. "The great drama of the inau- 
 guration is now ended. A nation is teetering 
 on the edge of the great abyss. The new 
 President, the new First Lady, the ex-Presi- 
 dent, the Chief Justice, the Senators, and a 
 great galaxy of notables — many of them not 
 to be seen in this tableau — are preparing to 
 depart in their horsedrawn carriages to the 
 festivities at Willard's Hotel downtown. 
 
 "The gaiety, the elegance, and the gran- 
 deur of the inauguration and its subsequent 
 events cannot be completely captured for this 
 reenactment. Nor, by the same token, is it 
 possible to reenact the tense and highly 
 charged atmosphere of impending doom, 
 which, in this hour, hung like a pall over the 
 Nation. 
 
 "But they were there. 
 
 "For this is the eve of disunion and tragedy. 
 
 "The inaugural party, then as now, 
 returned to Willard's Hotel for the luncheon. 
 The menu was mock turtle soup, special bris- 
 
 ket of corned beef with green cabbage, pars- 
 lied potato, and blackberry pie and demitasse. 
 
 "It is this same menu that will be served at 
 the reenactment today in the same place. 
 
 "Other words that this President has 
 spoken will be remembered more than the 
 words he spoke today. 
 
 "Yet the words he spoke today: 'We are 
 not enemies, but friends. We must not be 
 enemies' became, of course, the main theme 
 of his Presidential life. 
 
 "Like all his words, they will serve to lift 
 the moral tone of mankind through the ages." 
 
 Mr. ScHWENGEL. Ladics and gentlemen, 
 the committee, the Congress, are grateful to 
 all who have had a part in this program and 
 we thank all of you good people for coming. 
 We hope you feel it was a worthwhile effort. 
 And now I present the Reverend George M. 
 Docherty, pastor of the New York Avenue 
 Presbyterian Church, for the benediction. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Docherty. Let us pray. 
 
 O, God of the nations, the wounds of the 
 Nation have, indeed, been bound up and the 
 scars have healed and in unity will live one 
 nation, indivisible under God. In our day 
 and generation grant us such courage and 
 self-sacrifice as we do this day commemorate, 
 that we may labor until across the whole 
 world every child of the earth shall know a 
 full life, enjoy liberty, and seek that happiness 
 that is the blessing of all and the grace of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the 
 fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and 
 abide with each one of us and all God's 
 children everywhere, now and forevermore. 
 Am.en. 
 
 (Music: the U.S. Marine Band.) 
 
 [20]
 
 The Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade, William H. Press, Executive Vice President, presented 
 to the Committee on Arrangements, its otvn concise and complete summation of the events of the com- 
 memoration largely under its charge, from the conclusion of the exercises on the Capitol Plaza. This 
 report of the Committee follotvs verbatim. 
 
 Report— Lincoln Inauguration Centennial 
 
 March 4, 1961 
 
 AFTER THE recnactment of the Inaugural 
 _ Ceremonies at the Capitol, Abraham 
 Lincoln proceeded toward the Willard Hotel 
 in a carriage drawn by two smartly groomed 
 Army horses, loaned by Fort Myer. He was 
 followed by another carriage in which were 
 Mary Todd Lincoln and Senator Stephen 
 Douglas. They were escorted by the Sharps- 
 burg Rifle Guard in authentic Union Army 
 uniforms. Followed by the Joint Con- 
 gressional Committee in cars, the procession 
 was joined by the National Capital Park 
 Mounted Police at the intersection of Inde- 
 pendence and New Jersey Avenues and from 
 there proceeded down Pennsylvania Avenue. 
 
 Thousands of people lined the streets to 
 watch the small, but dignified, parade. Both 
 the Washington Post and the Evening Star 
 reported that the crowds numbered 20,000. 
 
 Upon arrival at the Willard Hotel, the 
 portrayers of the key figures in the Inaugural 
 Ceremony and the Sharpsburg Rifle Guard 
 with their wives and children in costumes of 
 the period proceeded to the ballroom for the 
 luncheon. The ballroom, decorated with 
 
 red, white, and blue bunting and flags, was 
 filled with a sellout crowd of 600 people. 
 
 The menu for the luncheon consisted of 
 mock turtle soup, special brisket of corned 
 beef with green cabbage, parsley potato, 
 blackberry pie and demitasse. This was the 
 menu that Lincoln himself requested at the 
 Willard Hotel 100 years before. 
 
 The head table guests included: 
 
 Mr. C. Wyatt Dickerson, Cochairman of 
 the Lincoln Inaugural Centennial Com- 
 mitttee; 
 
 The Reverend Donald W. Mayberry, D.D., 
 Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church ; 
 
 Mr. Harry McGill, Administrative Assist- 
 ant on the staff of the Clerk of the House; 
 
 Mr. William H. Press, Executive Vice 
 President of the Metropolitan Washington 
 Board of Trade ; 
 
 Maj. Gen. Charles K. Gailey, Command- 
 ing General of the Military District of 
 Washington ; 
 
 Mr. Ralph E. Becker, Chairman of the 
 Committee on Arrangements of the Lincoln 
 Inaugural Centennial; 
 
 [21]
 
 HERE IS THE I96I IDEA OF HOW LINCOLN AND HIS SON, TAD, MAY HAVE LOOKED WAVING TO THE 
 CROWD. CAST TAKEN FROM FELLOW COMMUNITY ACTORS.
 
 Brig. Gen. Fred J. Clarke, Engineer Com- 
 missioner of the District of Columbia ; 
 
 The Honorable Peter F. Mack, Congress- 
 man from the State of Illinois; 
 
 Mr. Paul J. Sedgwick, Chairman of the 
 D.C. Civil War Centennial Commission; 
 
 Mr. Carl Haverlin, President of Broadcast 
 Music, Inc., of New York; 
 
 Mr. Carl Sandburg; 
 
 The Honorable Fred Schwengel, Congress- 
 man from the State of Iowa, and Chairman of 
 the Joint Committee on Arrangements; 
 
 The Honorable Robert V. Fleming, Toast- 
 master at the luncheon, and Chairman of the 
 Board of Riggs National Bank; 
 
 The Honorable Vance Hartke, Senator 
 from the State of Indiana ; 
 
 The Honorable Robert E. McLaughlin, 
 President of the Board of Commissioners of 
 the District of Columbia; 
 
 The Honorable Winfield Denton, Con- 
 gressman from the State of Indiana ; 
 
 Mr. Earle Chesney, Cochairman of the 
 Lincoln Inaugural Centennial Committee; 
 
 John C. Collison, portrayer of Abraham 
 Lincoln ; 
 
 Mr, Henry Dudley, member of the D.C. 
 Civil War Centennial Commission; 
 
 Mrs. B. Y. Martin, member of the D.C. 
 Civil War Centennial Commission ; 
 
 Mr. Karl S. Betts, Executive Director of 
 the National Civil War Centennial Commis- 
 sion. Mr. Betts died on June lo, 1962; 
 
 Mr. John C. Pyles, President of the Metro- 
 politan Washington Board of Trade; and 
 
 The Reverend George M. Docherty, Min- 
 ister of the New York Avenue Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 Each of the luncheon guests received a 
 commemorative medal made especially for 
 the luncheon guests and Members of Con- 
 gress, and plate and reissues of contemporary 
 newspapers. The plate is centered by a draw- 
 ing of Thomas Nast's sketch of the Inaugural 
 
 MEDAL STRUCK FOR I96I COMMEMORATION SHOWS LINCOLN AND HAMLIN. 
 
 [23 
 
 88157 O - 62 ■
 
 Ceremony showing Abraham Lincoln being 
 sworn in by Chief Justice Taney. The bor- 
 der depicts various scenes of the Inauguration 
 and a beardless Lincoln and Hamlin as they 
 appeared during the election campaign. 
 
 The commemorative medal issued by the 
 Lincoln Inaugural Centennial Committee 
 and the D.C. Civil War Centennial Commis- 
 sion is a replica of an 1861 medal issued for 
 the Inauguration. This is the first medal 
 showing Lincoln with a beard and the first 
 medal with jugate busts of a President and a 
 Vice President. The reverse is blank. The 
 medal was suspended by a red, white, and 
 blue ribbon bearing the gold inscription: 
 "Lincoln Inaugural Centennial 1861-1961." 
 
 The official medal struck for the com- 
 memoration of the Centennial is the same, 
 but the reverse has the inscription, encircled 
 by palm leaves: "In Commemoration of the 
 Centennial of Abraham Lincoln as Presi- 
 dent." This medal was especially engraved 
 and struck in bronze, a limited number in 
 sterling silver and one in gold for presenta- 
 tion to the President of the United States 
 John F. Kennedy on September 6, 1961, and 
 another to the Chairman of the Joint Com- 
 mittee on Arrangements Fred Schwengel. 
 
 This medal was struck by Political Her- 
 itage, Inc. 
 
 This luncheon was made possible only by 
 the herculean efforts of many people and 
 organizations who managed in a very brief 
 space of a few weeks to re-create the rich 
 experience of so memorable an event that 
 those who attended were able to relive a great 
 moment in history. 
 
 Mr. Ralph E. Becker, Chairman of the 
 Committee on Arrangements, who served so 
 
 ably in so many capacities including the por- 
 trayal of Senator Stephen Douglas, did a tre- 
 mendous job in bringing authenticity and 
 significant meaning to this historical occasion 
 so that mementoes will be preserved for pos- 
 terity. Mr. Becker also furnished the draw- 
 ings for the design of the commemorative 
 plate from his collection of Political Amer- 
 icana at the Smithsonian Institution. 
 
 Capt. Earle Chesney, formerly of the 
 White House staff and Cochairman of the 
 Lincoln Inaugural Centennial Committee, 
 devoted much time in coordinating and 
 managing the great number of people who 
 participated in this event. Captain Chesney 
 daily followed through on many details. 
 
 Mr. William H. Press, as Executive Vice 
 President of the Metropolitan Washington 
 Board of Trade and business community 
 leader, provided his able staff who took care 
 of the numerous details in connection with 
 tickets, seating, bookkeeping, distribution of 
 the plates and medals, etc. 
 
 Maj. Gen. Charles K. Gailey, Commanding 
 General of the Military District of Washing- 
 ton, was on hand at all times to see that there 
 was unity and cooperation accorded by the 
 military units of the metropolitan area. The 
 Committee depended a great deal on General 
 Galley's wisdom and guidance in bringing 
 about this historical occasion. 
 
 Public knowledge and complete press 
 coverage were handled by Mr. William A. 
 Ring, who is the Public Relations Director 
 of the Metropolitan Washington Board of 
 Trade. 
 
 Mr. Henry Dudley of the D.C. Civil War 
 Centennial Commission provided valuable 
 assistance and cooperation from the Commis- 
 
 [24]
 
 LINCOLN COMMEMORATIVE PLATE: I86I-I96I. 
 
 sion and was in charge of the decorations one of the contributions of the Nation's Cap- 
 
 furnished by Lord & Taylor of New York. 
 
 ital to the National Civil War Centennial 
 
 Mr. Paul J. Sedgwick, Chairman of the commemoration. 
 D.C. Civil War Centennial Commission, Mr. Victor M. Birely of the Lincoln Group 
 
 arranged plans for the commemoration as of Washington served as a consultant to the 
 
 [25]
 
 THE I96I PARADE PROCEEDS DOWN PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE TO WILLARD INAUGURAL LUNCHEON. 
 
 Joint Committee and was of assistance in 
 connection with the participation of the Lin- 
 coln Group in the event. 
 
 Without Mr. John C. CoUison and his Fel- 
 low Community Theater Actors, the reenact- 
 ment would not have been possible. As 
 Abraham Lincoln, John CoUison recreated a 
 stirring and believable living image of this 
 great national figure. He devoted both time 
 and expense unselfishly to insure the authen- 
 ticity of this memorable occasion. The tab- 
 leaux presented at the luncheon followed the 
 historical drawing of Nast pictured in the 
 center of the commemorative plate. 
 
 Assisting these people was Miss Helen Vir- 
 ginia Meyer of New York who provided the 
 costumes for all those participating in the 
 reenactment. Miss Meyer even made many 
 of them up especially for the occasion and 
 brought them to Washington personally. 
 
 Chief Robert V. Murray and Deputy Chief 
 Howard Covell provided the cooperation of 
 the Metropolitan Police Department so that 
 the parade, though small, would carry with it 
 the dignity and seriousness of the occasion. 
 
 Mr. Robert A. Miller, head of Newspaper 
 Americana of New York, the organization 
 that contributed the reissues of the New York 
 
 26]
 
 THE I96I LINCOLN WAVES TO CROWDS AS THE REAL LINCOLN DID A CENTURY BEFORE. 
 
 Herald Tribune, distributed both at the Capi- 
 tol and the luncheon, made the trip to Wash- 
 ington with his staff members to insure 
 proper delivery. 
 
 Mr. Toke Nelson, Promotion Director of 
 Living History, Inc., was responsible for send- 
 ing of the 600 Harper's Weekly reprints from 
 Iowa which were distributed at the luncheon. 
 
 The commemorative plates were provided 
 by Authentic Distributors, Inc., which is 
 headed by Mr. Thomas Woroniecki of Massa- 
 pequa, Long Island. The medals were 
 provided by Political Heritage, Inc., for 
 Authentic Distributors. Mr. Charles Mc- 
 
 Sorley of Closter, N.J., is president of Political 
 Heritage. It may also be noted here that 
 the plates were jointly designed by Mr. J. F. 
 Reighart of Kettlespring Kilns, Alliance, 
 Ohio, and Mr. Ralph E. Becker, mentioned 
 above. 
 
 Mr. McSorley, Mr. Woroniecki, and Mr. 
 Reighart performed the almost impossible 
 task of producing and delivering these 
 souvernirs in the limited amount of time 
 available. The plates had to be carefully 
 packaged and sent by motor freight from 
 Ohio, while the medals were personally 
 delivered only i day early by Mr. McSorley. 
 
 [27]
 
 THE RE-ENACTMENT LINCOLN IN THE CARRIAGE THAT ONCE BELONGED TO PRESIDENT GRANT 
 
 Lord & Taylor of New York sent a repre- 
 sentative to Washington a full 2 weeks in 
 advance of the Centennial to make prepara- 
 tions for the extensive decorating of the 
 Willard Hotel ballroom without cost as a 
 contribution to the Commission. 
 
 Dr. Leonard Carmichael, Secretary of the 
 Smithsonian Institution, with his staff made 
 possible the use of the material and articles 
 needed for the design of the plates and 
 medals. 
 
 In this connection the Library of Congress 
 and the National Archives also provided ma- 
 terial and background needed to insure his- 
 
 torical significance and cooperated in every 
 appropriate way. 
 
 Of special note is Mr. Harry Megill, Ad- 
 ministrative Assistant on the staff of the Clerk 
 of the House. Mr. Megill was responsible 
 for the beautiful and informative programs 
 presented to each guest at the luncheon. 
 These are truly collectors' items and provided 
 special meaning to the activities. 
 
 Finally, the Committee was fortunate to 
 have on hand the U.S. Marine Band and 
 Orchestra for ceremonies at the Capitol and 
 at the luncheon. They rendered music that 
 was fitting and appropriate for the occasion. 
 
 [28]
 
 NOTHING QUITE CAUGHT THE IMAGINATION OF THE I96I CROWDS AS THIS CARRIAGE SCENE. 
 
 Also honored at the luncheon were those 
 firms having been in business in Washington 
 100 years or more. They are as follows: 
 
 D. Ballauf Manufacturing Co., Inc. 
 
 Wm. Ballantyne & Sons 
 
 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. 
 
 Joseph F. Birch's Sons 
 
 Brink's, Inc. 
 
 Butler-Flynn Paint Co., Inc. 
 
 Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. 
 
 A. Eberly's Sons 
 
 C. Engel's Sons, Inc. 
 
 The Evening Star Newspaper Co. 
 
 Firemen's Insurance Co. of Washington, 
 D.C. 
 H. W. Fisher & Sons, Inc. 
 FrankHn & Co., Opticians 
 Gait & Brother, Inc. 
 Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc. 
 Frank Geier's Sons Co. 
 Z. D. Gilman 
 Harvey Restaurant 
 Jacobs Transfer Co., Inc. 
 Lansburgh's 
 
 J. William Lee's Sons Co. 
 Marlow Coal Co. 
 Melvern-Fussell Ice Cream Co. 
 
 [29]
 
 Mutual Benefit Insurance Co. of Newark, 
 N.J. 
 
 National Bank of Washington 
 
 Oriental Building Association 
 
 Riggs National Bank 
 
 Sealtest Foods Division of National Dairy 
 Products Corp. 
 
 J. H. Small & Sons 
 
 Thomas Somerville Co. 
 
 Tophams, Inc. 
 
 W. H. Turton & Sons 
 
 Washington Gas Light Co. 
 
 West Bros. Brick Co. 
 
 Western Union Telegraph Co. 
 
 Willard Hotel 
 
 As illustrated in the above, a great number 
 of people gave both time and expense in the 
 organization and management of the Lincoln 
 Inauguration Centennial. Men, many of 
 whom are well known both locally and na- 
 tionally, and others who worked and traveled 
 from other cities in order to make this event 
 possible, were able to do the tremendous job 
 of re-creating one of the most important 
 
 events of the past. These people provided in- 
 valuable assistance and cooperated without 
 thought for themselves in the giving of their 
 time and aid to make the Lincoln Inaugural 
 Centennial observance a most memorable and 
 meaningful historical occasion. 
 
 The luncheon was self-sustaining. 
 
 This completes the verbatim report of the 
 Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade. 
 
 The Committee on Arrangements is again 
 pleased to make its acknowledgments for 
 extremely valuable services to members of 
 the District of Columbia Civil War Cen- 
 tennial Commission, whose work was sig- 
 nificant and outstanding, and who include: 
 Henry A. Dudley, Elden Billings, Adm. E. M. 
 Eller, Mrs. B. Y. Martin, Col. J. Gay Sea- 
 bourne, Hon. Sigurd Anderson, William H. 
 Press, Henry Brylawski, Col. West Hamilton, 
 Judge Alexander Holtzoff, Roger Robb, and 
 Chairman Sedgwick. Lyle Kendall man- 
 aged problems of transportation and was the 
 Marshal of the Sharpsburg Rifles and of the 
 Parade under Col. J. Gay Seabourne.
 
 The following editoyial from The Washington Post on the day of the reenactment, Saturday, March 4, 
 i()6i, is reproduced here because of its pertinence, its information, its perspective after a hundred years, 
 and its superb comment on Lincoln's ti'ords in the inaugural: 
 
 Centennial 
 
 THERE HAD BEEN nothing rcsembUng a 
 blizzard in those early days of March, 
 1861; yet as far as we can make out nearly 
 as much effort was spent in tamping and 
 smoothing out the dirt roadway of Pennsyl- 
 vania Avenue between the White House and 
 the still uncompleted Capitol as was expended 
 last January in getting rid of the snow. The 
 inaugural weather was about normal for 
 this time of year, which is to say damp and 
 rather windy with alternating cloudiness and 
 sunshine; but the precise number of persons 
 who caught influenza or even something 
 worse while waiting for the ceremonies has 
 escaped recording. 
 
 Our town, as is usual on such occasion, 
 was swarming with visitors, many of whom 
 had been sleeping in the railroad depot or in 
 hallways or wherever else they could find 
 shelter from the cold. A good many of 
 them were ardent partisans of the new Presi- 
 dent who had followed him from the Mid- 
 west. Some were fanatical secessionists 
 prepared to make trouble if the opportunity 
 offered; but most of those who formed the 
 crowds along the Avenue and in the eastern 
 grounds beside the Capitol were permanent 
 residents, whose attitude even in that day of 
 
 high passion might be described as interested 
 but unenthusiastic. 
 
 Still, for some days the town had been 
 seething with rumors about plotted assassina- 
 tions, abductions and what not, and many, 
 including General Scott, took them quite seri- 
 ously. Indeed, Mr. Lincoln himself had 
 slipped into town almost surreptitiously on 
 Washington's Birthday, after having changed 
 his eastward itinerary when he was met at 
 Harrisburg by Allan Pinkerton with a story 
 of how a mob in Baltimore, putatively led by 
 a barber named Ferrandini, was preparing to 
 murder him. 
 
 The Inaugural, however, passed without 
 any incident more untoward than a few jeers. 
 General Scott was prevailed upon to keep his 
 regulars out of sight of the main procession, 
 though he had them moving along parallel 
 routes so as to be ready in case of trouble, and 
 the job of guarding the President was left 
 ostensibly to the District militia. 
 
 How many of those at the Capitol actually 
 heard the Inaugural Address delivered by the 
 new President in his somewhat shrill accent 
 and highly nasal twang there is no way of 
 knowing. It was not, except for the pre- 
 oration, one of Mr. Lincoln's more eloquent 
 
 [31]
 
 utterances. For the most part it was merely 
 a restatement of the principles on which he 
 made his campaign for election; but — at the 
 insistence, it is said, of Mr. Seward — it con- 
 cluded with a magnificent plea for peace 
 and reconciliation between the angry and 
 embattled sections. 
 
 We are not enemies but friends . . . 
 Though passion may have strained, it 
 must not break the bonds of our affec- 
 tion. The mystic chords of memory, 
 
 stretching from every battlefield and 
 patriot grave to every living heart and 
 hearthstone, will yet swell the chorus of 
 Union, when again touched, as surely 
 they will be, by the better angels of our 
 nature. 
 
 There, we submit, is an example of political 
 rhetoric unsurpassed in any language or by 
 any passage from Demosthenes or Cicero or 
 Mirabeau or Burke or Webster. After a hun- 
 dred years the nobility and emotional power 
 of the phrasing seem all the greater. 
 
 "Without the assistance of that Divine 
 Being ... I cannot succeed. With that 
 assistance I cannot fail. . . ." 
 
 "I take the official oath today, with no men- 
 tal reservations, and with no purpose to con- 
 strue the Constitution or laws, by any hyper- 
 critical rules. . . ." 
 
 "I hold, that in contemplation of universal 
 law, and of the Constitution, the Union of 
 these States is perpetual. . . ." 
 
 "It is safe to say that no government proper, 
 ever had a provision in its organic law for its 
 own termination. . . ." 
 
 "Before entering upon so grave a matter as 
 the destruction of our national fabric, with all 
 its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would 
 
 it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we 
 do it ? Will you hazard so desperate a step, 
 while there is any possibility that any portion 
 of the ills you fly from, have no real existence ? 
 Will you, while the certain ills you fly to, are 
 greater than all the real ones you fly from? 
 Will you risk the commission of so fearful a 
 mistake .'' . . ." 
 
 "Physically speaking, we cannot separate. 
 We cannot remove our respective sections 
 from each other, nor build an impassable wall 
 between them." 
 
 "A husband and wife may be divorced, and 
 go out of the presence, and beyond the reach 
 of each other; but the different parts of our 
 country cannot do this." 
 
 "Though passion may have strained, it 
 must not break our bonds of affection." 
 
 [32]
 
 Here, from the files of the Library of Congress {Call No.: FigS.Wj^) is a set of the actual arrangements 
 as made in 1861 for the original Lincoln Inaugural by the Inaugural Committee of that crucial year. 
 It follows verbatim : 
 
 Arrangements for the Lincoln Inaugural 
 
 TITLE: Arrangements for the Inauguration 
 of the President of the United 
 States, on the Fourth of March, 1861. 
 
 AUTHOR: Washington, D.C., Inaugural 
 Committee, 1861. 
 
 Library of Congress Call No.: F198.W35, 
 
 PP- 1-3 
 SUBJECT: LINCOLN Washington, D.C. 
 Inaugural Committee, 1861. 
 
 The doors of the Senate Chamber will be 
 opened at 11 o'clock a.m. for the admission of 
 Senators, and others who, by the arrange- 
 ment of the Committee, are entitled to 
 admission, as follows: 
 
 Ex-Presidents and Vice-Presidents. 
 
 The Chief Justice and Associate Judges of 
 the Supreme Court. 
 
 The Diplomatic Corps, Heads of Depart- 
 ments, and Ex-Members of either branch of 
 Congress, and Members of Congress elect. 
 
 Officers of the Army and Navy who, by 
 name, have received the thanks of Congress. 
 
 Governors of States and Territories of the 
 Union, and Ex-Governors of States. Assist- 
 ant Secretaries of Departments, and the 
 Assistant Postmaster General; the Comptrol- 
 lers, Auditors, Register, and Solicitor of the 
 
 Treasury, Treasurer, Commissioners, Judges, 
 and 
 
 The Mayors of Washington and George- 
 town, and the reporters in the Senate. 
 
 All of whom will be admitted at the north 
 door of the Capitol. 
 
 The families of the Diplomatic Corps will 
 enter at the north door of the Capitol, and be 
 conducted to the diplomatic gallery. 
 
 Seats will be placed in front of the Secre- 
 tary's table for the PRESIDENTS of the 
 United States and the PRESIDENT elect; 
 and, on their left, for the Committee of 
 Arrangements. 
 
 The Chief Justice and Associate Justices 
 of the Supreme Court will have seats on the 
 right of the Chair. 
 
 The Diplomatic Corps will occupy seats 
 on the right of the Chair, next to the Supreme 
 Court. Heads of Departments on the left of 
 the Chair. 
 
 Officers of the Army and Navy who, by 
 name, have received the thanks of Congress; 
 Governors of States and Territories of the 
 Union, Ex-Governors of States, Assistant 
 Secretaries of Departments, and the Assistant 
 Postmaster General, Comptrollers, Auditors, 
 Register, and Solicitor of the Treasury, Treas- 
 
 [33]
 
 urer, Commissioners, Judges, and the Mayors 
 of Washington and Georgetown, will occupy 
 seats on the right and left of the main 
 entrance. 
 
 Members of Congress, and Members elect, 
 will enter the Senate Chamber by the main 
 entrance, and will occupy scats on the left of 
 the Chair. 
 
 The galleries will be reserved for the ladies, 
 who will enter the Capitol from the terrace, 
 by the principal western door of the central 
 building, and be conducted to the gallery of 
 the Senate. 
 
 The Rotunda, shall be closed, and the pas- 
 sages leading thereto kept clear. 
 
 The other doors and entrances to the Capi- 
 tol, except those to be open under this 
 arrangement, will be kept closed. 
 
 At II o'clock the PRESIDENT and the 
 PRESIDENT elect, accompanied by two 
 members of the Committee of Arrangements, 
 will proceed in a carriage to the north door of 
 the north wing of the Capitol, and entering 
 there will proceed to the PRESIDENT'S 
 room. 
 
 The VICE PRESIDENT elect will be 
 accompanied to the Capitol by a member of 
 the Committee of Arrangements, and con- 
 ducted into the VICE PRESIDENT'S room, 
 and afterwards into the Senate Chamber, 
 where the oath of office will be administered 
 by the VICE PRESIDENT. 
 
 The Diplomatic Corps and the Justices of 
 the Supreme Court will enter the Senate 
 Chamber a few minutes before the PRESI- 
 DENT elect. 
 
 The Senate will assemble at 12 o'clock. 
 
 The Senate being ready to receive them, the 
 PRESIDENT and the PRESIDENT elect 
 
 will be introduced by the Committee of 
 Arrangements to the seats prepared for them 
 in the Senate Chamber. 
 
 After a short pause, those assembled in the 
 Senate Chamber will proceed to the platform 
 on the central portico of the Capitol in the 
 following order: 
 
 The Marshal of the District of Columbia. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States. 
 
 The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate. 
 
 The Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 The PRESIDENT of the United States 
 and PRESIDENT elect. 
 
 The VICE PRESIDENT and the Secre- 
 tary 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, and other persons who have 
 been admitted into the Senate Chamber. 
 
 On reaching the front of the portico, the 
 PRESIDENT elect will take the seat pro- 
 vided for him on the front of the platform. 
 
 The PRESIDENT and the Committee of 
 Arrangements will occupy a position in the 
 rear of the PRESIDENT elect. 
 
 Next in the rear of these the Chief Justice 
 and the Associate Justices of the Supreme 
 Court will occupy the seats on the left, and 
 the VICE PRESIDENT, Secretary and Mem- 
 bers of the Senate, those on the right. 
 
 The Diplomatic Corps will occupy the 
 seats next in the rear of the Supreme Court. 
 Heads of Departments, Governors, and Ex- 
 Governors of States and Territories, and Ex- 
 Members of the Senate, Ex-Members, and 
 Members elect of the House of Represent- 
 
 [34]
 
 atives in the rear of the Members of the 
 Senate. 
 
 Such other persons as are included in the 
 preceding arrangements will occupy the 
 steps, and the residue of the portico. 
 
 All being in readiness, the oath of office 
 wil be administered to the PRESIDENT 
 elect by the Chief Justice; and on the con- 
 clusion of the PRESIDENT'S address, the 
 Members of the Senate, preceded by the 
 VICE PRESIDENT, Secretary, and Sergeant- 
 at-Arms, will return to the Senate Chamber, 
 and the PRESIDENT, accompanied by the 
 Committeee of Arangements, will proceed 
 to the PRESIDENT'S House. 
 
 The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, with 
 the Marshal of the District, are charged with 
 
 execution of these arrangements; and aided 
 by the police of the Capitol, will preserve 
 order. 
 
 All horses and carriages will be excluded 
 from the Capitol square. 
 
 Should the weather prove unfavorable, the 
 ceremony of the Inauguration will take place 
 in the Senate Chamber. L H iSCHiU 
 
 Solomon Foot, -'>' ^' """^y ^ .. 
 
 James A. Pearce, ~-f^\j^>^ •// ««. 
 
 Edward D. Baker, 
 
 Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 Here is a sketch of the podium itself and 
 the seating arrangements taken from the 
 1861 records. 
 
 W. dour Sciiaic 
 C'liamlicr. 
 
 L35J
 
 Epilogue 
 
 THE LINCOLN INAUGURAL COMMEMORATION 
 project from the birth of the idea down 
 to the last word in this report is regarded by 
 your Joint Committee on Arrangements as 
 a labor of love. It was decided, insofar as 
 talent permitted, not to print a merely 
 routine, mechanistic, and chronological 
 report. Rather the object was to obey fully 
 the implied injunctions of the Congress and 
 to produce a report that would have the 
 amplitude, integrity, and reverence, reflecting 
 throughout the powerful impact, inspira- 
 tionally and pictorially, of the ceremonies 
 March 4, 1961, that duplicated on the steps 
 of the East Front of the Capitol the first 
 Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. Thus the 
 aim of the report basically is to be accurate. 
 It seeks to avoid the dreary uniformity of a 
 tabulation of events without doing too much 
 violence to the needs and the format of an 
 acceptable government print. Yet it was felt 
 that a preponderant emphasis had to be given 
 to the commemoration itself and to its partici- 
 pants because the commemoration was the 
 light that zoomed into better view in 1961 
 the memorable day a century before that was 
 now being so devotedly recalled. 
 
 The letter size of the report, as distinguished 
 from document size, was deliberately pre- 
 ferred by the Joint Committee to make the 
 report more inviting to the pictorial contents, 
 allowing for the desired use of sketches and 
 
 photographs, not only of Lincoln's time but 
 especially of the event in 1961 that paid him 
 homage. The thanks of the Committee go, 
 among others, to the Prints and Photographs 
 Division of the Library of Congress for mate- 
 rials about the Lincoln Inauguration period, 
 included in these pages, and to the experts in 
 Typography and Design of the Government 
 Printing Office for their invaluable con- 
 tribution to this report. There was overall 
 the intent to create a report that might prove 
 useful perhaps a century hence to evoke a 
 truthful feeling of the atmosphere of the com- 
 memoration and to provide suggestions and 
 ideas, perhaps a model, for future com- 
 memorations, not only from the steps of the 
 Capitol but from places of vantage anywhere 
 in the country. 
 
 For here was the most positive testimony by 
 speech, by tableaux, by the distinction of the 
 personalities taking part, by the response of 
 the people and the communication media, 
 that there had been indeed since Lincoln's 
 day the fulfillment of the prophecy that 
 "this nation, under God, shall have a new 
 birth of freedom — and that government of 
 the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 The Committee. 
 
 Fred Schwengel of Iowa, Chairman. 
 
 [37] 
 
 U.S.GOUERNMEM PRINTING OFFICE. 1962 O 68157