" Some observers, particularly Southerners, were critical of this show of force. “I have seen today such a sight as I could never have believed possible at the capital of my country,” one Southern reporter wrote, “an inauguration of a President surrounded by armed soldiery, with loaded pieces and fixed bayonets.” Another observer reported that the procession “seemed more like escorting a prisoner to his doom than a President to his inauguration. "

― Brad Meltzer , The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President⁠—and Why It Failed