The Daily Dispatch: March 16, 1861., [Electronic resource]

Lincoln's hat

‘ On approaching the platform where he was to take his oath and be inducted into the office of Chief Executive, Mr. Lincoln removed his hat and held it in his hand, as he took the seat assigned him. The article seemed to be a burden. He changed it awkwardly from one to another, and finally, despairing of finding for it any other easy position, deposited it upon the platform beside him. Senators and Judges crowded him, and to make room for them, he removed nearer to the front of the stage, carrying his tile with him. Again it was dandled uneasily, and, as Senator Baker approached to introduce him to the audience, he made a motion as if to replace the tile on the stage under the seat, when Douglas, who had been looking on quietly, and apparently with some apprehensions of a catastrophe to the hat, said, ‘"permit me, sir,"’ and gallantly took the vexatious article and held it during the entire reading of the Inaugural. ‘"Dug"’ must have reflected pretty seriously during that half hour, that instead of delivering an Inaugural address from that portico, he was holding the hat of the man who was doing it.

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