WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DATE MAKES

Lincoln's first inauguration

On the 4th March 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States, It was on the same day that the U.S.Government Printing Office began operations.

He was the first Republican president, winning entirely on the strength of his support in the North; he was not on the ballot in ten states in the South, and won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, Douglas 1,376,957 votes, Breckinridge 849,781 votes, and Bell 588,789 votes. The electoral vote was decisive: Lincoln had 180 and his opponents added together had only 123. Turnout was 82.2%, with Lincoln winning the free Northern states.

The photograph of the first inauguration is from the collection of Benjamin Brown French 'Photographs'. Mr French was Commissioner of Public Buildings under Presidents Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He kept a diary throughout his time in Washington DC. He delivered an address at the dedication of the Statue of Abraham Lincoln in 1868. I am not sure if Mr French actually took the photograph, but I can find no other attribution as to who did.

You may recall an earlier blog entitled Remember the Maine (Tuesday 15 Feb 2011) a United States naval ship which exploded in Havana Harbour on the 15th February 1898. Coincidentally, on the 4th March 1960 an explosives-laden French freighter, La Coubre, exploded in Havana's harbor, killing at least 75 people. The munitions were intended for the Cuban Malitia. The Cuban's blamed the United Sates of Sabotage, and the U.S. Government blamed the cause of the explosion on careless handling of the munitions by Cuban dock workers. At a memorial service for the victims the following day, attended by various Cuban notables, Alberto Korda took a photograph entitled Guerillero Heroico.

I don't know if the photograph taken on 4th March 1861 was seen round the world or whether it ended up adorning the walls of every young student at Universities across the United States and Europe, but, as we know, the photograph taken 99 years and a day later certainly did, not to mention the T shirts.