The Capitol Dome

marching bands, companies of firemen with horse-drawn steam engines, and a "beautiful Temple of Liberty" on which it was intended that a number of young ladies would ride "but owing to the threatening state of the weather . . . their places were supplied by boys." e procession also included a "fine model" of the USS Monitor, firing two cannons from its turret, and a wagon bearing a printing press that printed an inaugural poem (fig. 3) during the parade. e elaborate procession made its way past thousands of spectators lining the sidewalks and crowding the windows, balconies, and roofs of buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue. If only the weather had cooperated the procession might have been more festive. Days of rain had turned the streets into a river of mud. The Army Corps of Engineers found the mess too soft to lay down pontoons. Police tried to confine onlookers to the sidewalks, especially those who could not swim, but a steady stream of visitors crossed the avenue, some even dashing across "in the most reckless manner, but fortunately no one is believed to have been lost." 7 Security for the inaugural procession was a moot point since Lincoln was already at the Capitol signing legislation. He had gone to the Capitol unheralded and unnoticed earlier in the morning. As one reporter put it, the procession was "like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out." 8 Security might not have been needed to protect Lincoln during the procession, but it was a different matter altogether at the Capitol's East Front, where the inauguration ceremony would take place at noon on a platform built across the center steps. Misfiled photographs (figs. 4, 5, 6) discovered in the Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division less than ten years ago provide insight into the security precau- tions at the Capitol. 9 Taken just as the crowds assembled on that rainy morning, the photographs show line upon line of Union troops, with shouldered rifles, interspersed throughout the crowd. e spirit of the day may have been different, but the message was the same. Event organizers were well aware that numerous Confederate deserters, Southern sympathizers, and disgruntled Northern opponents of Lincoln's emancipa- tion policies would likely be among those in the crowd. One drunken Virginian who had threatened to kill Lincoln was arrested, although it is not clear where in Washington he was arrested. 10 Given all this, the presence of armed troops was a necessary and proper precaution. e composition of the Union troops at the Capitol made more than a security statement. Included in the array was a bat- talion of African American soldiers. eir presence acknowl- edged the role of United States Colored Troops in turning the tide of the Civil War. It also made a political statement about the finality of emancipation as a war goal. e composition of the crowd made the same statement. Reporters were struck by the numbers of African Americans dispersed throughout the crowd on the Capitol's East Front Grounds. The Times L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION THE CAPITOL DOME 13 Fig. 6. Lines of soldiers created a pathway for the presidential proces- sion to enter the East Front plaza. L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION Fig. 5. Union soldiers assembled in lines within the crowd.

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