Lincoln's pomp and Parade.
The incoming Administration is to be inaugurated with a pomp in an inverse ratio from the justification of the circumstances which surround it. We note below some of the items in the programme.
At the suggestion of
Major General Scott, the
President has deputed
Col. Sumner and
Maj. Hunt, of the Army, to escort the new
President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army to
Washington.
(We learn that
Col. Sumner is a cousin of
Charles Sumner, and both he and
Major Hunt are Black Republicans.) This is altogether unprecedented, and were it at all appropriate that the
Executive should depute a committee for any such purpose, in obedience to the spirit of our Constitution, which proclaims the civil superior to the military power, civilians, and not military men, should have been selected for the duty.
But poor old
General Scott seems determined that there shall be no lack of ‘"fuss and feathers"’ on the approaching inauguration.
Macbeth said of his wife, that ‘"she should have died hereafter.’" For the sake of the
American hero's reputation, he should have died heretofore!
The papers have teemed with the note of preparation of a warlike character in
Washington for the defence of the public property from some apprehended attack, as well as to assist in the Inauguration of the
President, there being some vague ideas entertained, or professed to be entertained, of a purpose to obstruct that ceremony.
These flimsy pretexts are filling the
Federal city with soldiers, and the array on the day of the
National humiliation will be as grand and sonorous as martial display and martial sounds can make it. This is to give the event simply a warlike significance!
The day is to wind up with a grand ball, in which it is complacently said that there will be a dance of ‘"all-hands around,"’ i. e., of all the States.
If there be not a great many links of the grand chain absent, it will be because there are mercenary impostors present who have no right to represent them.
Though some may be found to glory in the shame and humiliation of their people, we can at least refer with pride to the seceded States.
There will be none from those States to honor the man whose elevation has brought humiliation and calamity on the nation.
