[3][4] After the ceremony, President Johnson gave an impromptu inaugural address, which began with him begging the cabinet to remain with him and then attacking the Confederate States of America with such venom, that one witness remarked "It would have been better had he been struck dumb.

According to this rumours, when he was finally awake he had puffy eyes and his hair was caked with mud from the street, and a barber and doctor were summoned to clean him up for the 10 a.m. ceremony, which most accounts agree went smoothly.

"[7] Ramsey, Stewart, and Yates were members of the United States Senate at the time of Andrew Johnson's 1868 impeachment; all three voted to convict.

[8] According to James G. Blaine, the swearing of the oath was attended by "all the members of the Cabinet except" Secretary of State Seward (who had been gravely wounded by the conspirators against Lincoln's government), meaning that Gideon Welles, John Palmer Usher, and William Dennison Jr. would also have been present.

He was griefstricken like the rest, and he seemed to be oppressed by the suddenness of the call upon him to become President of the great nation which had been deprived by an assassin of its tried and honored chief; but he was, nevertheless, calm and self-possessed.

He requested the members of the Cabinet to remain with him after the Chief Justice and the other witnesses of the ceremony had retired, and he expressed to each and all of us his desire that we should stand by him in his difficult and responsible position.

This desire was expressed in the language of entreaty, and he appeared to be relieved when he was assured that while we felt it to be our duty to him to place our resignations in his hands, he should have the benefit of such services as we could render until he saw fit to dispense with them.

Our conference with him was short, but when we left him, the unfavorable impression which had been made upon us by the reports of his unfortunate speech when he took the Vice-President's chair had under gone a considerable change.

My past public life, which has been long and laborious, has been founded as I, in good conscience believe, upon a great principle of right, which lies at the basis of all things.

I must be permitted to say, if I understand the feelings of my own heart, I have long labored to ameliorate and alleviate the condition of the great mass of the American people.

I feel in making this request that it will be heartily responded to by you and all other patriots and lovers of the rights and interests of a free people.According to James G. Blaine, this statement was poorly received.

"[a] Stewart claimed that Johnson had been in a "half-drunken stupor" since he arrived in Washington, D.C. in "January or February" 1865 and continued drinking following the debacle at the Capitol, and made at least one speech to a "great crowd of street hoodlums and darkies congregated...about the City Hall steps.

He was intoxicated...It was quite common for Johnson to make these open-air speeches; and as he delivered them whenever he had been drinking, naturally he became the most persistent orator in the capital.

Johnson merely received delegations at the Treasury Building, seemed to mention the name Lincoln very seldom, and assured people he would punish treason.