About Inaugural Addresses Kenneth Janda |
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Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides for an executive power in the Office of President. The Constitution does not require a formal ceremony to inaugurate a president, but it does prescribe an oath that must be taken by the president-elect: Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:-- "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Before a crowd at Federal Hall in Philadelphia on April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first president to take this oath. Afterward, Washington delivered a short speech, establishing the precedent for inaugural addresses. Soon, presidential inaugurations became ceremonial events, and the speech delivered by the incoming president was studied as a guide to the next administration. [A few presidents gave no inaugural addresses; see below.] The Constitution had originally specified March 4 as the date by which the president must be chosen, and that became the inauguration date. As more presidential electors were chosen by popular vote in the November election, the outgoing president became known as a "lame duck" in the four that months that separated the choice of a president from his inauguration. The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution (adopted in 1933) provided that henceforth Congress would convene on January 3 and the presidential term would begin on January 20. On January 20, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president nominated under the terms of the 20th Amendment. |
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According to Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Deeds Done in Words: Presidential Rhetoric and the Genres of Governance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), an Inaugural Address (pp. 14-15) seeks to
"Finally, each of these ends must be achieved through means appropriate to epideictic* address . . . " |
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Five presidents took office simply by taking the Constitutional oath, without an inauguration ceremony. The table below gives their names and the circumstances:
Go to the table of all Inaugural Addresses |