Lincoln and his cane?

[James]

Donna ....... the gold headed cane pictured in the photograph you referenced months ago is most likely the 1861 inaugural cane. The cane generally acknowledged as being the inaugural cane is housed in Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection at the Indiana State Museum, and while there is strong provenance tying it to Lincoln, there is virtually no proof that it made an appearance at the event in question.
It was given to Lincoln in 1857 by J.A. McClernand and later presented to reverend Smith, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Springfield by Mary after Lincoln's assassination. It was subsequently bequeathed by reverend Smith to John Bright, a British politician, abolitionist, and ardent admirer of Lincoln. The cane was placed in the Rochdale museum in England for public viewing until October of 1961, when it was removed by a Mr. Darbishire, a descendant of John Bright, and sold soon thereafter to an American collector.
Since there are no photographs of the actual cane that Lincoln carried to his first inauguration, we have to rely on contemporaneous accounts of the proceedings from eyewitnesses, and as you pointed out in the seed pearl jewelry thread, these accounts are sometimes mistakenly misrepresented or intentionally misrepresented, depending on one's motivation.
Some eyewitness accounts say the cane was placed ON the table to secure the paperwork containing Lincoln's inaugural speech, while other accounts state he placed the cane UNDER the table. William Herndon's "anonymous" eyewitness to the event claimed Lincoln shoved the cane into a corner of the railing for the duration of the speech.
Another of Lincoln's canes that he purportedly carried to Ford's theater the night of his assassination has recently come under intense scrutiny, as new and more conclusive research indicates he didn't carry a cane that particular evening.
As to the "veracity of the assertion" that the cane pictured in the photograph you mentioned is in fact the inaugural cane, I would tend to agree. Every other assertion pursuant to the daguerreotype has withstood severe scrutiny, regardless of the many 'opinions' to the contrary on this site and elsewhere.