"I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations

In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file.

Go directly to the collection, "I Do Solemnly Swear...": Presidential Inaugurations, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

"I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations, reflects United States history in the first official actions of each president, and is an excellent resource for making chronological comparisons. The war of 1812 and the effect of the media on inaugurations can be studied through analysis of letters, speeches, illustrations, photographs, and other historical documents. Such primary sources also provide the opportunity to analyze the artistry and impact of Lincoln's speeches and to explore how presidents have dealt with controversy in their elections.

For more fun ways to use the collection, including online activities, see Inaugurations in the features section.

Chronological Thinking

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Delivering his Inaugural Address on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 20, 1941.

Each inaugural ceremony serves as a reflection of the era in which it was held. Franklin D. Roosevelt described the inauguration as a renewal of dedication to an ever-changing America in his 1941 inaugural address: In Washington's day the task of the people was to create and weld together a nation. In Lincoln's day the task of the people was to preserve that Nation from disruption from within. In this day the task of the people is to save that Nation and its institutions from disruption from without.

The collection presents inaugural addresses and images in chronological order in the collection’s Inauguration Index , providing a starting point for understanding the historical context of an inauguration. What was “the task of the people” when the following presidents were first inaugurated?

In addition, the images in this collection reflect the changes in the location of inaugurations. A search on capitol provides illustrations and photographs of the different buildings that housed Congress over the years, including New York City’s Federal Hall, the Capitol before it was burned by the British as shown in an 1814 illustration, and the new Capitol building at different stages of construction (for example, during James Buchanan’s 1857 inauguration). The search also retrieves evidence of the moving of the ceremony to the West Portico for Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration. The Special Presentation, "Presidential Oaths of Office," also lists other locations where presidents have taken the inaugural oath.

Front of Federal Hall, New York City, 1790.

• Why does the inaugural ceremony typically occur at the Capitol building?
• What does this location imply about the relationship between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government?
• What changes in the nation do the changes in the location of inaugurations reflect?
• Why has the event moved within and around the Capitol itself?

Historical Comprehension: The War of 1812

President James Madison, Between 1809 and 1817.

The threat of a war with Great Britain was brewing for the first part of the nineteenth century. In addition to disputes over U.S. independence and Canadian provinces, war between the British and the French, from 1792 to 1814, further strained the relations between Great Britain and the United States. The British navy attempted to block goods from entering France, and between 1803 and 1812 attacked over a thousand American ships and imprisoned many of the captured crews. James Madison discussed America’s neutrality at sea and the heightened tensions between the United States and Great Britain in his first inaugural address: “[I]t has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice, and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality."

After arriving at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his successor in a March 17, 1809 letter, expressing his concerns over a potential war with Europe: “If peace can be preserved, I hope I trust you will have a smooth administration. I know no government which would be so embarrassing in war as ours.”

• What does Madison mean by fulfilling “neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality”?
• What might have caused Madison to view the United States' position in the conflict in terms of earning the respect of Great Britain and France?
• Why might Jefferson have believed that the United States would be embarrassed in war? What does he mean by this?

In 1810, the United States imposed a trade ban with Great Britain, but British merchants refused to comply. The problems between the two nations grew over the next few years and on June 12, 1812, the U.S. declared war against Great Britain. James Madison discussed the reasons for the war during his 1813 inaugural address:

They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint to the United States . . . . To render the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve our country from the necessity of another resort to them. . . .

• Are Madison’s reasons for going to war justified?
• Why was it important to win this war with Great Britain?

Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Lincoln’s Inaugural Addresses

After the Civil War, many southerners defended secession using arguments about the Constitution and the founding fathers. They reminded America that at the time of its ratification, the Constitution was thought to be an experimental agreement from which any state could withdraw at any time; that the Constitution was only ratified because of the guarantee of states' rights in the Bill of Rights, which had since been abused; and that the Constitution was always a tenuous compromise between the very different North and South. These southerners spoke of the founding fathers as one-time rebels who, like the Confederates, had defended their homes against invaders and fought for the rights of independence and freedom.

In Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 inaugural address, the new Republican president stated:

Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, March 4, 1861.

I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper, ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever—it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.

Lincoln pledged that he had no intention of interfering with slavery in the southern states and closed his speech by placing the threat of war in the hands of his audience:

You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. . . . Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

How does Lincoln’s view of the Constitution and the Union differ from that of the Confederates? Is either viewpoint more accurate than the other? Is either correct? What arguments does Lincoln make to support his viewpoint? What arguments might Lincoln be responding to in his inaugural address? What does Lincoln mean by the “mystic chords of memory” that unite the Union? What is Lincoln referring to when he speaks of the “battlefield and patriot grave”? What is the purpose of this rhetoric? How does it compare to the Confederate view of the founding fathers? How does Lincoln propose to save the Union? To what extent might Lincoln’s speech and his attitude toward the Union throughout the war have influenced the way in which history was written, both about the Civil War and the meaning of the Constitution and the Union? How might Lincoln’s second inaugural address have influenced the way that we remember the Civil War?

President Lincoln Delivering his Second Inaugural Address on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865.

Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: Controversial Elections

In Benjamin Harrison’s 1889 inaugural address, the public oath of the president is defined as a mutual covenant between the person being sworn in and the public:

The officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws . . . nor the power of combinations shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them from a beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness.

President John Quincy Adams, ca. 1825.

When a president takes the oath of office under a cloud of controversy, the public may have difficulty taking part in this covenant. The House of Representatives awarded the presidency to John Quincy Adams in 1824 after no single candidate had enough electoral votes to win outright (including Andrew Jackson who earned fifteen more electoral votes than Adams). Adams addressed this conflict in his 1825 inaugural address: “Less possessed of your confidence in advance than any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence.” Who is Adams appealing to? How does Adams portray himself through this statement? Why does he frame his inauguration and presidency in terms of “indulgences”?

Although Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote (4,300,000 to 4,036,000) in the 1876 election, a Congressional Electoral Commission awarded Republican Rutherford Hayes the presidency after the validity of electoral votes in a few southern states was called into question. In his 1877 inaugural address, Hayes called for unity: The President . . . owes his election to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party . . . but he should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves the country best. The fact that two great political parties have in this way settled a dispute in regard to which good men differ as to the facts and the law no less than as to the proper course to be pursued . . . is an occasion for general rejoicing.

Rutherford B. Hayes Taking the Oath of Office, the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol, 1877.

A search on Hayes results in accounts of the inauguration such as a March 6, 1877 letter from John Cochrane to Carl Schurz and James Garfield’s March 5, 1877 diary entry detailing the transition of power from President Grant to Hayes. Garfield's diary notes, “There were many indications of relief and joy that no accident had occurred on the route for there were apprehensions of assassination.”

• How does Hayes attempt to disarm the tensions and animosity caused by his controversial election?
• Why does Hayes consider the settling of this dispute to be “an occasion for general rejoicing”?

During the 2000 presidential election, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but the winner of the electoral vote was not declared for weeks because the vote count in Florida was contested. Eventually, the Supreme Court ended the dispute, and George W. Bush won the electoral vote in Florida and thus the presidency. In his 2001 inaugural address, Bush thanked Gore “for a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace.” He later called for an end to political and personal differences: “Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.”

• How did Bush and Hayes each attempt to handle the controversy surrounding his election? Compare the tone of each speech and compare Bush’s pledge with Hayes’s discussion of political parties.
• Does the public view a president differently when an election is decided in opposition to the mandate of the popular vote?
• What measures can a president take to counteract any negative attitudes toward his presidency?
• Are Bush, Hayes, and Adams effective in addressing potential doubts and concerns?
• Should they have said or done more? Why or why not?
• Did their policies grow from the conciliatory statements made in their inaugural addresses?

Historical Research Capability

The Special Presentation, “Precedents and Notable Events” provides details about each inauguration and offers a starting point for investigating how changes in the media affected inaugurations. A search on newspaper provides a number of nineteenth-century accounts of different inaugurals starting with the 1845 Illustrated London News article, “Inauguration of the American President”, describing James Polk’s inauguration and including the account of how “Professor Morse brought out the Magnetic Telegraph to the platform . . . communicating results to Baltimore as fast as they transpired.”

Chief Justice John Marshall Administering the Oath of Office to Andrew Jackson, the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1829.

A review of the collection’s Subject Index provides an opportunity to observe the transition from paintings and illustrations to photographic prints when documenting these events. Early films of President McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt taking the oath of office are also available, as well as a number of images of the 1949 inaugural stand of Harry Truman (the first inauguration to be televised). Images such as the 1881 illustration, The Death of President Garfield, the painting, Calvin Coolidge Taking the Oath of Office, and the 1963 photograph Johnson Taking Oath in Air Force One provide an opportunity to compare the use of three different media in depictions related to the death of a president and the swearing in of a successor.

How did technological advances change the way that inaugurations were depicted? Did this change the way presidents are perceived by the American public? Did it change the public’s attitude toward inaugurations? Did it change the meaning of the inauguration, itself? If so, how? Another way to investigate the role of the media is to review images of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s four inaugurations in the Menu of Presidents. How is Roosevelt positioned in the photographs? Is it apparent that he had polio? Why would the media have refrained from showing Roosevelt’s use of a wheelchair? Would you expect the media to show such restraint today?

U.S. District Judge, Northern District of Texas, Administering the Oath of Office to Lyndon B. Johnson Aboard Air Force One, Love Field, Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963.