Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 4.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[200]

V. Invitations are extended to the following persons and bodies, to wit: Members of the Cabinet, who will be seated on the right and left of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House; the Governor of Virginia and his staff, the Governors of any other of the confederate States who may be in Richmond, and Ex-Gov. Lowe, of Maryland; the Senate and House of Delegates of Virginia, with their respective officers; the Judges of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and of the Supreme Court of any other of the confederate States who may be in Richmond; the Judge of the confederate District Court at Richmond, and any other Judge of a confederate Court who may be in Richmond; the members of the late Provisional Congress, the officers of the Army and Navy of the confederate States who may be in Richmond; the Mayor and corporate authorities of the city of Richmond; the reverend clergy and Masonic and other benevolent societies, and the members of the Press.

VI. At half-past 12 o'clock the procession will move from the hall by the eastern door of the capitol to the statue of Washington, on the public square, by such route as the Chief-Marshal may direct, in the following order, to wit:

1. The Chief-Marshal.

2. The Band.

3. Six members of the Committee of Arrangements, including their respective Chairmen.

4. The President-elect, attended by the President of the Senate.

5. The Vice-President-elect, attended by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

6. The members of the Cabinet.

7. The officiating clergyman and the Judge of the confederate Court at Richmond.

8. The Senate of the confederate States, with its officers, in column of fours.

9. The House of Representatives, with its officers, in column of fours.

10. The Governors of Virginia and other States, and staff.

11. The members of the Senate and House of Delegates of Virginia and their officers.

12. The Judges of the Supreme Court of Virginia and other States, who may be in the city of Richmond.

13. The officers of the army and navy.

14. The reverend clergy.

15. The Mayor and corporate authorities of the city of Richmond.

16. The Masons and other benevolent societies.

17. Members of the press.

18. Citizens generally.

Seats will be provided by the Chief-Marshal for the Governors of States, the Judges, and, as far as practicable, for the other guests.

The invited guests are requested to present themselves at the door of the Hall in the order above indicated.

At the statue of Washington the President-elect, the Vice-President-elect, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the officiating clergyman, confederate Judge, Governors of States, Judges of the Supreme Courts of States, the Chief-Marshal and his aids, and six of the Committee of Arrangements, will take position on the platform. Prayer will then be offered by the Right Rev. Bishop Johns.

The Inaugural Address will then be delivered, [given below,] after which the oath will be administered to the President by the confederate Judge, in Richmond, the Hon. J. D. Halyburton, and the result will be announced by the President of the Senate.

The oath will then be administered to the Vice-President by the President of the Senate, who will also announce the result.

The several legislative bodies will then return to their respective halls, and the President and Vice-President will then be escorted to their respective homes by the Committee of Arrangements.

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The Inaugural address.

fellow-citizens: On this the birthday of the man most identified with the establishment of American Independence, and beneath the monument erected to commemorate his heroic virtues and those of his compatriots, we have assembled to usher into existence the permanent government of the confederate States. Through this instrumentality, under the favor of Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of our Revolutionary fathers. The day, the memory and the purpose seem fitly associated.

It is with mingled feelings of humility and pride that I appear to take, in the presence of the people and before high heaven, the oath prescribed as a qualification for the exalted station to which the unanimous voice of the people has called me. Deeply sensible of all that is implied by this manifestation of the people's confidence, I am yet more profoundly impressed by the vast responsibility of the office, and humbly feel my own unworthiness.

In return for their kindness I can only offer assurances of the gratitude with which it is received, and can but pledge a zealous devotion of every faculty to the service of these who have chosen me as their Chief Magistrate.

When a long course of class legislation, directed not to the general welfare, but to the aggrandizement of the Northern section of the Union, culminated in a warfare on the domestic institutions of the Southern States--when the dogmas of a sectional party, substituted for the provisions of the constitutional compact, threatened to destroy the sovereign rights of the States, six of those States, withdrawing from the Union, confederated together to exercise the right and perform the duty of instituting a government which would better secure the liberties for the preservation of which that Union was established.

Whatever of hope some may have entertained that a returning sense of justice would remove the danger with which our rights were threatened, and render it possible to preserve the Union