Secretary Welles was not among those present at Johnson's taking of the oath of office as president, and it is not certain just how much he saw of Johnson that day, or whether he saw him at all. He tells of a Cabinet meeting, held at noon, and of Johnson's being invited to be present, and of his deporting himself admirably. But he later changed this entry, and changed it twice, and it is not certain just what his final impression was of Johnson's deportment that day:

I arranged with Speed, with whom I rode home, for a Cabinet meeting at twelve, meridian, at the room of the Secretary of the Treasury, in order that the Government should experience no detriment, and that prompt and necessary action might be taken to assist the new Chief Magistrate in preserving and promoting the public tranquility. We accordingly met at noon. Mr. Speed reported that the President had taken the oath, which was administered by the Chief Justice, and had expressed a desire that the affairs of the Government should proceed without interruption. Some discussion took place as to the propriety of an inaugural address, but the general impression was that it would be inexpedient. I was most decidedly of that opinion. President Johnson, who was invited to be present, deported himself admirably, and on the subject of an inaugural said that his acts would best disclose his policy. In all essentials it would, he said, be the same as that of the late President.*

Gideon Welles remained in the Cabinet, and became a strong partisan of Johnson. After the inauguration of Grant, Welles wrote in his Diary, March 17, 1869:

I this evening parted with President Johnson and his family, who leave in the morning for Tennessee. No better persons have ever occupied the Executive Mansion, and I part with them, socially and personally, with sincere regret. Of measures he was a good judge, but not always of men.

Just what he would have said in 1869 about Johnson's inaugu*Diary of Gideon Welles, vol. ii, p. 289.

ration either as vice-president or as president we may not know, but his diary was still in his own possession, and he left his record of the vice-presidential inaugural as it had previously stood, and what he finally intended to leave of record concerning Johnson's induction into the presidency must be judged from his hesitation and erasures.

The account of the inaugural of President Johnson given in his Life, by John Savage, says that the ceremony took place in the private parlor of the vice-president, in the Kirkwood, and names those present as Chief Justice Chase, Secretary McCulloch, Attorney General Speed, Francis P. Blair, Sr., Montgomery Blair, Senators Foot, of Vermont, Yates, of Illinois, Ramsey, of Minnesota, Stewart, of Nevada, Hale, of New Hampshire, and General Farnsworth, of Illinois, twelve persons, including President Johnson. Only two members of the Cabinet appear to have been present.

Apparently, therefore, Andrew Johnson, who had not been present at any time during the period between the assassination and death of Lincoln, was notified by two members of the Cabinet and the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and these and eight other men, including Senator Stewart were by the largest possible count the only ones present when the oath of office was administered. We have as yet no adequate and impartial Life of Andrew Johnson. The present author will not trench upon the ground which belongs to some future biographer by attempting to decide whether Andrew Johnson was drunk or sober on the occasion of either of his inaugurals.

While rumors which the country heard of Johnson's condition at the time of his inauguration brought sorrow and shame to many, there were others, and a far larger number, who felt that, with all his faults, Johnson was the safer man to have at the helm to deal with the rebellious South. Honorable George W. Julian says:

I spent most of the afternoon in a political caucus, held for the purpose of considering the necessity for a new Cabinet and a line.

of policy less conciliatory than that of Mr. Lincoln; and while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling was nearly universal that the accession of Johnson would prove a godsend to the country.*

By the murder of Lincoln, the South lost its best and most generous friend.

John Wilkes Booth was recognized by habitual theater-goers present at the assassination, and a pursuit was immediately instituted. He immediately fled from Washington, his broken leg giving him great pain and impeding his progress. He was compelled to stop and have his leg set, and then proceeded upon his hopeless attempt at escape.

He was surrounded in a barn where he had taken refuge, and resisting arrest was shot against orders by Boston Corbett, a fanatical member of the military detachment that pursued him.†

No doubt existed at the time and no reasonable doubt exists now, that the assassination of Lincoln was the result of a conspiracy. At the time it was believed that high officials of the Confederate Government, including Jefferson Davis, had guilty knowledge of the plot. This charge was not sustained by the evidence. A number of persons were arrested as those who were believed to have participated in the conspiracy. These were tried before a military commission composed of nine officers, with Judge Joseph Holt as advocate general, Judge John A. Bingham, as special advocate general, Henry L. Burnett as special assistant, and General John F. Hartranft as provost marshal. The trial began in the old arsenal in Washington on May tenth, the day of the capture of Jefferson Davis, and continued until June thirtieth. Lewis Payne, D. C. Herold, George B. Atzerot and

*Political Recollections, p. 255.

I am aware of the various accounts of Booth's alleged escape and his suicide many years after the war, and have seen and inspected the enbalmed body that is alleged to have been his; but these stories are unfounded.

The Commission was composed of Generals David Hunter, Lew Wallace, August V. Kantz, A. P. Hour, R. S. Foster, J. A. Elkin, T. N. Harris, Colonels C. II. Thompkins and D. R. Clendenin.