Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln


The second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States took place on Saturday, March 4, 1865, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 20th inauguration and marked the commencement of the second and final term of Abraham Lincoln as president and only term of Andrew Johnson as vice president. Lincoln was assassinated days into this term, and Johnson succeeded to the presidency. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase administered the presidential oath of office. This was the first inauguration to feature African Americans in the inaugural parade, and the first president in over 30 years to be inaugurated for a second term since the second inauguration of Andrew Jackson in 1833.

Media coverage

This was the first inauguration to be extensively photographed, and the pictures have since become iconic. One is widely thought to show John Wilkes Booth, who would later assassinate Lincoln.
Walt Whitman, arguably the American poet of the 19th century, reported on the inauguration for the Republican-aligned New York Times.

Inaugural address

While Lincoln did not believe his address was particularly well received at the time, it is now generally considered one of the finest speeches in American history. Historian Mark Noll has deemed it "among the handful of semisacred texts by which Americans conceive their place in the world."
Among those present for this speech was actor John Wilkes Booth, who, on April 14, 1865, just over a month after Lincoln's second inauguration, assassinated him.

Vice-presidential oath and inaugural address

Before the president was sworn in, Vice President-elect Andrew Johnson took his oath of office at the Senate Chamber. At the ceremony Johnson, who had been drinking to offset the pain of typhoid fever, gave a rambling address in the Senate chamber and appeared obviously intoxicated. There is no independent evidence of typhoid but Johnson did most definitely go out drinking the night before the ceremony and then drank several glasses of whiskey in Hannibal Hamlin's office the next morning. In the course of the ceremony Johnson asked to be reminded of the name of the Secretary of the Navy and theatrically kissed the Bible on which he was to swear the oath of office. Historian Eric Foner has labeled the inauguration "a disaster for Johnson" and his speech "an unfortunate prelude to Lincoln's memorable second inaugural address." At the time Johnson was ridiculed in the press as a "drunken clown," and Johnson's performance is remembered as a mortifying fiasco. Lincoln, for his part, "just looked terribly sad."