Evening star. [volume], March 04, 1929, Image 33

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Special Inaugural Section
Review of Past Pageants
TRIUMPHAL PAGEANT OF PROGRESS RECORDED BY INAUGURATIONS
« __ - - ' '
•
AMERICA’S RISE TO WORLD
LEADERSHIP IS PICTURED
Each Ceremony Has Been Symbolic of
Its Period—Gay in Peace, but Sad
and Somber During War.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
FOR 128 years the pageant of in
auguration ceremonies in Wash
ington stretches back through
the shadowy avenues of history.
Thirty-three Presidents have
come and gone since that Spring morn
ing in 1801 when a company of Alex
andria riflemen, veterans of the great
war with England, assembled in front
cf Thomas Jefferson's boarding house to
escort the red-headed philosopher across
a stump-filled clearing to a half-finished
Capitol on which the carpenters had
stopped work for the day.
Each inauguration, viewed in retro
spect, has been symbolic of its period.
Brass bands and gold lace have attend
ed periods of peace and plenty. Scant
ceremonial, women in black silk, and
drab uniforms have come with inaugu
rations in time of war and reaction from
war.
Or. the whole it has been a trium
phant. jubilant pageant marching
through history as the United States
hes advanced from a loosely knit fed
eration of sparsely settled colonies along
the Atlantic Coast, with their poverty
stricken farmers casting envious eyes
on the fieshpots of Europe, to a na
tion of 120.000,000 people, the envy of
all the world for its riches and power.
Each inaugural has been a chord in a
swelling diapason of God’s bounty.
Yet running through it all there is
a plaintive minor strain with its eternal
Teiterance of the ancient sorrow gnaw--
ing at the heart of humanity—that
flesh is dust and that the old orders
are changing even in the midst of their
mast triumphant expressions.
Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant,
Cleveland, Wilson —on down the old
Avenue sweeps the mighty pageant oi
our historv under the majestic shadow
of the Capitol dome. To what destina
tion who knows? Who doubts that it
will be one of a mightier glory than
the world can envision?
** * *
George Washington was short of cash
for the long overland journey from
Mount Vernon to New York to be
Inaugurated as first President of the
United States. , , .
He borrowed $3,000 from a friend in
Alexandria and started out by coach
on April 16, 1789, allowing himself two
weeks to reach his destination.
It was a triumphal progress all the
way. At Alexandria. Georgetown, Balti
more. Wilmington, Philadelphia, Tren
ton and Elizabeth he was dined and
wined by the leading citizens. Houses
were decked with wreaths and flags.
Little girls in white dresses strewed
flowers in his path. Veterans of Prince
ton and Brandywine pressed through
the crowds to shake his land.
For two weeks people had been pour
ing into New York. Every tavern and
boarding house was filled. morn
ing of April 30 was vibrant with artil
lery salvos and pealing church beUs.
Washington was escorted from his
lodgings on Cherry street to the Federal
Building by two militia companies, one
made up of the tallest young men to
the city and another of German
veterans.
He took the oath of office over a
Bible borrowed from a nearby Masonic
lodgeroom, for Chancellor Livingstone,
*ho had charge of the ceremonies, had
forgotten to provide one.
The multitude which blackened the
streets and housetops cheered ui he
appeared on a balcony over Broad
street, put his hand on his heart and
bowed low several times. He wys dressed
in a suit of dark brown cloth with
metal buttons on which eagles were
embossed. He wore a sword at his side.
His hair was dressed and powderea.
There were silver buckles on his shoes.
Washington read his inaugural ad
dress in the Senate chamber. Says a
commentator of the day: “The Presi
dent was extremely nervous. He
trembled continuously. He attempted a
couple of gestures, but they were awx
' That night Washington watched a
fireworks display, provided by private
subscription, from the windows of
Chancellor Livingstone’s house on
lower Broadway. He returned to Cherry
street orr foot because the crowds in
the streets were so dense a carriage
could not have made its way through
them.
** * *
At his second inauguration to Phila
delphia Washington rode to the Federal
Buildidng to a coach bearing the designs
of the four seasons and drawn by six
white horses. He was dressed in black
velvet with diamond knee buckles. Two
men with long white want* cleared a
passage for the coach through the
Thom as Jefferson attended the cere
mony in a blue coat and crimson vest.
** * *
The House of Representatives to
Philadelphia was filled to its capacity
for the inauguration of John Adams.
This was the occasion of Washing
ton's farewell address. In weeping for
Washington the spectators forgot to
cheer for Adams. The second President
was hurt by the neglect
Many of those who witnessed his in
auguration were suspicious of him.
Stanch Republicans tought he was
favorable to monarchy. He was a Lni
tarian, and the good Philadelphia dea
cons of the day thought that nuant
he was an atheist. . , ,„ -
“A solemn scene it was indeed, he
wrote to his wife Abigail that evening,
‘and was made more affecting to me
bv the presence of the general, whose
countenance was as ser^ p a™ un ‘
clouded as the day Methought I
heard him say: ‘Aye, I am fa.rly out
and you are fairly in. See which one
of us' will be the happiest. All agreed
that, taken altogether% itwas the sub
limest thing ever exhibited m America.
** * *
On March 4. 1801, Thomas Jes-1
ferson walked across a muddy field full
of tree stumps from his boarding house ,
near the present site of the Congres- .
sional Library to the half finished Cap- j
itol to take the oath of office. j
He was escorted by a company of ;
riflemen from Alexandria in buff;
breeches and sky-blue claw-hammer j
coats with yellow facings and brass
buttons. . , .
A few days before he had given his
son-in-law. Jack Eppes, SI,OOO and sent
him to Charlottesville to buy a span
of horses and a great yellow chariot.
Eppes got stuck in the mud on his
way back to Washington. The philos
opher-President made the best of the
situation. Probably, he welcomed it.
He had sneered at the ceremonial
which attended the inaugurations of
Washington and Adams. They smelled
of royalty to the man to whom kings
were lice in the hair of nations.
Jefferson was not without personal
vanity. He liked to show an imposing,
figure in red and green silks with Jew- •
tied slics buckles. But tradition has
it that on the day of this first inaugu
ration in Washington he wore inten
tionally his old clothes —a blue coat
with brass buttons, blue pants and
coarse shoes tied with leather shoe
strings.
He didn’t want anybody to get him
mixed up with Louis XVI or George IV.
There seems, however, to be no basis
to the old tradition that he rode horse
back to the Capitol and tied his mount
with his own hands to a picket fence.
He didn’t have a horse, and if he had
had one there was no fence to tie it to.
** * *
Chief Justice Marshall that day ad
ministered the oath to Jefferson as
President and Aaron Burr as Vice
President.
The three men hated each other.
’Marshall,” said Jefferson, "had a
mind of gloomy malignity which could
njver forego the opportunity of satiat
ing iflfelf on a victim.”
Marshall liked to call attention to
Jefferson’s reputed atheism, and he had
insinuated that his personal morals,
were not at all what they should be.
The Chief Justice's only satisfaction
in administering the presidential oath
to Jefferson was that otherwise he
would have had to administer It to
Burr, whom he considered even worse.
Jefferson thought so, too.
The new President said something
worth quoting in his Inaugural address
that day. The words probably were
directed at both Burr and Marshall.
He said: “We are all Republicans,
we are all Federalists, if there be any
among us who wish to dissolve the
Union, or to change its Republican
form, let them stand undisturbed as
monuments to the safety with which
error of opinion may be tolerated when
reason is left free to combat it.”
He held open house at the White
House that afternoon.
Foster, the British Minister, wrote
to a friend in London: "When he
received, all who chose attended and
toward the close blacks and dirty boys
drank his wine and lolled upon his
couches before us all.”
When Jefferson took the oath of
office in 1801 the White House stood in
the center of a recent clearing in a half
drained marsh covered with alder
bushes. There were a few scattered
farm houses among tree stumps between
the Executive Mansion and the Capitol.
Eight years later Washington has be
come a small city. The plan of the
French engineer, L’Enfant, was taking
shape and axmen were chopping broad
avenues through the surrounding tor
rests.
James Madison was accompanied by
a military escort from ‘ fata home, the
present site of the Cosmos Club, to
the Capitol. Ten thousand people tried
to force their way. Into the chamber of
the House of Representatives. There
were charges of graft in the distribu
tion of tickets.
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showing the unfinished dome of the Capitol. 5. President Arthur taking the oath in his private residence. 6 Andrew Jackson taking the oath in the private parlor of the Kirkwood House. <• The
Buchanan inaugural parade passing up the Avenue. 8. Garfield’s inaugural. 9. Harrison’s inaugural. 10. McKinley taking the oath. 11. Roosevelt on his way from the Capitol. 12. Taft en route
to the Capitol. 13. Wilson making hi*' first inaugural address. 14. Coolidge taking his second oath. 15. Harding and Wilson eight years ago.
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LINCOLN REACHED CITY
PARTIALLY DISGUISED
Dangerous Trend of Feeling Over
Slavery Question Caused Many
Precautions to Be Taken.
After he had read his inaugural ad
j dress, wearing a black suit made from
the wool of American sheep as an
encouragement to home industry, nine
militia companies passed in review be
fore him.
The first inaugural ball was held that
night at Davis’ Hotel. Thomas Jeffer
son and the uniformed foreign ministers
danced with the charming Dolly Madi
son.
** * *
A large cavalcade of citizens on horse
back escorted James Monroe from the
Octagon House, his private residence, to
i the Capitol on March 4, 1817. He was
I received with military honors by the
Georgetown Rifles and two companies
of riflemen from Alexandria.
He took the oath of office on a plat
form on the east portico. The outdoor
ceremony, which has continued ever
since, was a compromise between the
House and Senate over the apportion
ment of seats, which had caused so
much scandal at Madison's inaugura
tion.
The White House, burned by the
British, had not been completely re
stored.
Monroe had to commute for a time
between his Government job in Wash
ington and his home, Oak Hall, in Lou
doun County, Va. He used to quit early
on Saturday and ride out on horseback,
returning early Monday.
His inauguration marked the dawn of
a time of peace, prosperity and progress.
Revolution, the red-headed firebrand
that had created the Republic and its
institutions, had come to a gray twilight
of plenty.
All over the world the children she
had nursed at her breast with the milk
of philosophy and idealism were dying.
The eagle of Austerlitz was dead of
cancer of the stomach in its rocky island
cage of St. Helena in the year of James
Monroe’s second inauguration. A few
months later a decomposed body was
burned in a driftwood bonfire on a
Mediterranean beach and the ashes of
Shelley buried in the Protestant ceme
tery at Rome at the foot of the column
of Caius Cestus. The tempest that was
Byron died away in the night at Misso
longhi. Jefferson was dying in the
clutches of his creditors in the blue
haze that gathered around the moun
tain top. at Monticello.
In the Autumn sunset of James
Monroe's administration conservatism
waxed fat amid her increasing riches.
, And the night winds were the sobs
| of revolution for her stricken children.
The day John Quincy Adams was
inaugurated, a secretary of the British
legation appeared on Pennsylvania
Avenue riding a velocipede which had
been sent him from London.
That same day a man in the crowd
watching the procession up the Avenue
dipped a splinter of wood tipped with
brimstone into a chemical preparation
which he carried in a little metal box.
The splinter sprang into flame and the
man lit his jnpe with it.
What was the world coming to? the
old folks asked, as they watched the
President-elect ride by escorted by a
cavalcade of District citizens led by
Daniel Carroll of Duddington.
The world was moving too fast for
them. The iron age was a new-born
infant that inauguration day.
John Quincy Adams saddled his horse
early on the morning of March 4, 1329,
and started on a long ride up the
Potomac.
He had moved out of the White
House the day before. He was afraid
of a scene if he came face to face with
the man who was to succeed him as
President that day.
It had been a “whispering campaign.”
Supporters of Adams had spread scan
dalous reports of the private life of
Andrew Jackson and his wife. Their
marriage had been somewhat irregular,
but for years they had been a devoted
couple. . '
The slanders reached the ears of
“Aunt Rachel” and they cut her to the
heart. She had ben reared on a rude
frontier. She had no culture or breed
ing. She liked to sit by the fireplace,
so they say, and smoke her pipe. Now
they were declaring that she was no fit
person to preside over the White House.
They w r ere urging her husband’s defeat
on her account.
The people rallied to Old Hickory.
When she heard that he had been
elected she bought herself a white satin
dress to wear at his inauguration. They
buried her in the same dress a few'
weeks later. She had caught the
measles and her resistance had been so
lowered by worry over the “whisper
ings” that she could not throw off the
infection. , .. .
Andrew Jackson came to Washington
holding Adams largely responsible for
the death of his wife. He was in the
1 frame of mind to cane his predecessor,
i So John Quincy moved out to the se
clusion of the estate of his friend,
i Comdr. Porter, on Kalorama Heights.
** * *
The city was crowded with admirers
of Jackson, carrying hickory canes and
| wearing hickory leaves in their button
holes. But there were no arrangements
, for an inaugural parade.
; The single military organization in
; Washington, a light infantry company,
commanded by Col. Seaton of the Na
. tional Intelligencer, was Whig in sym
’ pathy and refused to march.
A little group of Revolutionary War
: officers organized themselves into an
’ escort for their old comrade and walked
: beside his open carriage under the
’ double row' of pcplars Thomas Jeffer
-1 son had planted on Pennsylvania
; avenue.
1 “I never saw such a crowd." wrote
, Daniel Webster. “Persons have come
1 500 miles to see Gen. Jackson and they
: really seem to think the country has
1 been rescued from some dreadfu'
1 danger.”
• i Jackson wore two pairs of steel
i rimmed spectacles—one for reading and
I the other for ordinary vision. The
first pair were over his forehead. The
glass glittered when the sun struck it.
Persons in the crowd whispered that
the glasses were silver plates placet
where his skull had been pierced b.
British bullets at New Orleans.
** * *
Jackson held open house for every
body after his return to the White
House.
There were tubs full of orange punch
in the east room. No guards were sta
tioned at the door. They pushed their
way in. black and white. Old Hickory
tried to shake hands with them all. He
was shoved into a corner by the half
drunken mob. Tubs of punch were
overturned on the floor. Glasses were
smashed. Men stood with muddy boots
on the plush-covered chairs and divans.
Hours later, when the crowd was
cleared out, Jackson and John C. Cal
houn had dinner in the White Houri
together on the beef of a prize ox.
** * *
Eight years later Old Hickory stiil
was the center of attention at the
inauguration.
The dapper little widow'er, Martin
Van Buren, was a secondary figure at
his own elevation to the presidency.
Jackson arose from a sick bed to ride
up the Avenue with him and take the
cheers of the crowd.
It was all his doings, after all.
The election of Van Buren was his
revenge for the death of Aunt Rachel.
The little Dutchman had become Presi
dent by championing the cause of
Peggy O’Neil, to whom Jackson had
transferred his chivalry.
** * *
The gallant old soldier was deep in
Greek.
Tecumseh’s plumed warriors, with
their battle cries and tomahawks, now
were only shadows out of a distant
past, their memories moving like phan
tom clouds through William Henry
Harrison's sunset reveries.
Around his house at North Bend,
Ind., stretched ploughed fields. There
were villages and school houses along
the trails where Tecumseh’s camp fires
had burned. Fallen Timbers, Tippe
canoe. the Thames—the conqueror of
the wilderness empire had passed over
these bridges of fire into a promised
land of roast wild turkey, hard cider and
Homer.
He was 68 in the Fall of 1840. when
he was elected President. Politicians in
search of a picturesque figure had
dragged him from his reveries.
The old man was a bit dazed by the
fortune that had befallen him. It was
a hard Winter in Indiana. While the
Northwest winds piled snowdrifts
around his study windows he composed
laboriously an 8,000-word inaugural ad
dress full of Greek and Latin quota
tions. The politicians edited it before
it was delivered and removed most of
the classical references.
In the dead of Winter, a few days
after the electoral vote was announced,
old Tippecanoe started for Washing
ton. Snow drifts all along the road
! impeded the progress of the stage. The
' boat wound its way slowly through
! broken ice on the Ohio River. He
received a great ovation Jn Baltimore.
It was a rainy day when he arrived
in the Capital. He was received at
City Hall by Mayor Seaton and the
municipal officials. A crowd gathered
outside to welcome him. The old man
stood bareheaded in the rain, his hat
in his hand, to shake hands with
them.
i There still were several weeks before
the inauguration. Harrison made a
pilgrimage back to his old home in
Charles County, Va. He had left the
Old Dominion during the Revolution
to fight with St. Clair at Fallen Tim
bers and the rest of his life had been
passed on the frontier.
* March 4, 1841 was a gala day in
» Washington in spite of a heavy rain.
, William Henry Harrison appealed to
- the public imagination. The greateat
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