It must not be supposed that Lincoln remained idle during these
four months of waiting. Besides completing his cabinet, and
receiving his many visitors, he devoted himself to writing his
inaugural address, withdrawing himself for some hours each day to
a quiet room over the store of his brother-in-law, where he could
think and write undisturbed. The newspaper correspondents who had
gathered at Springfield, though alert for every item of news, and
especially anxious for a sight of his inaugural address, seeing
him every day as usual, got not the slightest hint of what he was
doing.
Mr. Lincoln started on his journey to Washington on February 11,
1861 two days after Jefferson Davis had been elected President of
the Confederate States of America. He went on a special train,
accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln and their three children, his two
private secretaries, and about a dozen personal friends. Mr.
Seward had suggested that because of the unsettled condition of
public affairs it would be better for the President-elect to come
a week earlier; but Mr. Lincoln allowed himself only time
comfortably to fill the engagements he had made to visit the
State capitals and principal cities that lay on his way, to which
he had been invited by State and town officials, regardless of
party. The morning on which he left Springfield was dismal and
stormy, but fully a thousand of his friends and neighbors
assembled to bid him farewell.
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