The Demonrats sat out the Lincoln Inaugural because he was talking about finally ending slavery. And that made them as mad as the Portland Catatonics.  And - the media was just as complicit then as they are now -- consider this from an OpEd in Chicago after the Gettysburg address:  "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States." Chicago Sun Times 11/20/1863 commenting on the Gettysburg Address