Inaugurations: The Little Things that Changed History

Well January 20^th will be here tomorrow, and Obama’s second inaugural’s is set to go.   Yet somehow this week I didn't t feel the excitement that I felt four years ago when the first black president was sworn into office.   I don’t know why, but it all seemed so routine.

 I woke up this morning and knew I was wrong.   The inauguration IS special.  Set by traditions and the changing communications of our times, it’s our history, and  I know I’ve got to get revved up again, so I started going back to learn how unusual this day really was.

FDR, first to be sworn in on Jan., 1937

 Did you know that presidents used to be sworn into office during March?  That meant that the lame duck president did nothing much for four long months.  Congress finally changed the date to January 20^th, and Franklin Roosevelt was the first to be inaugurated on that day in January, 1937.                                           

Of course George Washington set many of the precedents practiced today.  Sworn into office in New York, he was the first to place his hand on the bible, first to use the phrase, “so help me God,” and also set the tradition of giving an inaugural address.

Washington's Inaugural

Thomas Jefferson was the first to take the oath in Washington D.C.  After his second inaugural, he rode on horseback from the Capitol to the White House, setting another example for the future.                          

On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated, and Lyndon Johnson was the first to be sworn into office on an airplane.  It was also the first time the oath was administered by a woman, U.S. District judge, Sarah T. Hughes.    In August, 1979, after Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford was the first president NEVER to have won a national election.

LBJ inaugurated on plane

And who gave the longest and shortest inaugural speech?  By far, the longest was William Henry Harrison’s in 1841.  Without the protection of a top hat or overcoat, Harrison spoke in a snowstorm for an interminable 90 minutes.  Shortly after he caught pneumonia and died a month later.    

And the shortest speech?   Washington spoke only 135 words during his second inaugural address.   

But did you know that women, too, struggled to be part of our inaugurations?

Wilson and wife Edith

It wasn’t until the late 1800's that William McKinley's wife was allowed to stand beside him as he took the oath of office, and it was another thirty years—thirty years!—during Woodrow Wilson’s second inaugural in 1917—that women were allowed to participate in the parade.                                                 

Our changing times also changed the president’s day.

In 1845, James Polk’s was the first inaugural to be covered by telegraph while James Buchanan’s in 1857 was the first to be photographed.

Calvin Coolidge (1925) was the first to be broadcast over national radio, and four years later Herbert Hoover’s was broadcast by a talking newsreel.  But Truman’s was the first to be televised in 1949. 

Coolidge (on left) first to be broadcast on radio

Clinton too made history when his second inaugural address in 1997 was the first to be broadcast over the internet.

So what about tomorrow’s  proceedings?   The video will not only beam all over the world but will touch the astronauts working in space.  Yes, we agree technology's an amazing feat, but how about the inaugurals themselves?  Despite tragedy and calamity, our traditions are solid and have demonstrated our country’s continuing stability.  How many other countries can even claim half of that?

Yes it’s exciting because it's an American creation.   Barack takes his final oath tomorrow, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.