al address from the east steps of
the capitol, on the 4th day of March, 1861. I sat near him and
heard every word. Douglas stood conspicuous behind him and suggesting
many thoughts. I have witnessed many inaugurations, but never one
so impressive as this. The condition of the south already organized
for war, the presence of United States troops with general Scott
in command, the manifest preparation against threatened violence,
the sober and quiet attention to the address, all united to produce
a profound apprehension of evils yet to come. The eloquent peroration
of Mr. Lincoln cannot be too often repeated, and I insert it here:

"In _your_ hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 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 government, 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 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."

Salmon P. Chase, then Senator, was appointed Secretary of the
Treasury. I know with what doubt and reluctance he accepted this
office. On the 7th of March his resignation as Senator was
communicated to the Senate. In anticipation of it the legislature
of Ohio was canvassing for his successor. My name was mentioned
with many others. I was in doubt whether I ought to be a candidate,
or even to accept the position if tendered. I had been elected as
a Member of the next Congress and was quite certain of election as
speaker of the House of Representatives. The Republicans had a
decided majority in that body and a feeling was manifest that I
should have, without opposition, the position to which I had been
unjustly deprived by the previous House. This was to me a coveted
honor. I, therefore, did not follow the advice of my friends and
go to Columbus. A ballot was taken in the caucus of Republican
members of the general assembly, and I received a plurality but
not a majority, the votes being scattered among