March 5th, 1849

It was a grey, cloudy Monday in Washington, but no rain fell and the banners snapped briskly in the wind. Church bells rang and bands played as a hundred mounted marshals escorted the twelfth president of the United States in an open carriage drawn by four bay horses to the Capitol to be sworn in. A stocky, muscular, weather-beaten man of sixty-four, dressed in his new black suit, he pulled his spectacles down onto his nose from their roost in his hair to read a short, non-committal speech. The oath was administered by Chief Justice Taney, the new ...

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