photo credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project

The transition from the previous president of the United States to the next president is certainly an important time. Every four years, the country comes together and those who are capable of voting give their input into deciding the man or woman that will occupy the seat of the presidency for the next four years. While the road leading up to the selection of the next president is filled with campaigns, clever slogans, television ads, news commentary, and plenty of water-cooler politics, the end result is the same and we are left with the person that will hopefully take the United States in the right direction.

In order to commemorate this passage of power from one president to the next, it is customary to hold a presidential inauguration in which the incoming president is sworn in as the president of the United States, taking the oath of office in front of the rest of the country. Throughout the history of our country, the presidential inauguration has evolved into an enormous ceremony involving plenty of pomp and circumstance. Regardless of what goes on during the day of the inauguration, though, the focal point of the entire day is the moment in which the president-elect takes the oath of office, the symbolic and official moment in which the presidency has been transferred.

The first president of the United States of America was George Washington and his inauguration ceremony was held on April 30, 1789 in New York City. Inauguration Day itself was originally scheduled for March 4 in order to give electors from every state about four months to cast their ballots. A harsh winter had made travel very difficult, necessitating plenty of time so that all of the votes could be rightfully counted. Even more time was required for the news of Washington’s victory to reach Washington himself, forcing him to travel to New York City in order to take the oath of office. As George Washington made his way to the inaugural ceremony, a congressional committee decided what Washington’s title would actually be. The committee finally decided on “President of the United States,” the title that we still use today to describe the highest post in the governmental chain of authority.

Certain customs that are still practiced in modern inauguration ceremonies have their root in the very first inaugural ceremony, such as the Inaugural Address that follows the swearing-in of the president-elect. George Washington prepared a special speech for the inaugural ceremony, and since then, each president has opted to deliver the Inaugural Address that sets the tone for their presidency. Ceremonial gun salutes and church bells rang throughout the city, traditions that are still observed in modern inaugural ceremonies. The president-elect George Washington added the phrase “So help me God,” to the end of the constitutional oath:

I do solemnly swear 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.

Since then, every president-elect has opted to include the phrase at the end of the oath. The second presidential inauguration started the tradition of having a Supreme Court Justice preside over the inaugural ceremonies. William Cushing, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, administered the oath of office during the presidential inauguration for George Washington’s second term, a practice that continues to this day.

Thomas Jefferson was the first President to actually be sworn into office in the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. All but a handful of the inaugural ceremonies throughout American history have been held at Washington D.C., which was chosen as the capital of the United States during Jefferson’s time. Jefferson’s first inauguration was a simple event that involved walking to the Capitol, taking the oath of office, and returning to his boardinghouse for dinner, but his second inaugural ceremony involved riding to the White House on horseback after the swearing-in, surrounded by music and an impromptu procession that would eventually evolve into the Inaugural Parade.

Today, the Inaugural Parade is an iconic institution of the presidential inauguration that winds down from the Capitol to the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue. Another element of the Inaugural Parade involves the presidential reviewing of the troops, a tradition that replaced the Inaugural Open House, the time in which crowds of well-wishers could come into the White House and greet the president. Eventually, the time grew so unruly and out-of-hand that Grover Cleveland decided to change the tradition into something safer.

An important aspect of the evolution of the presidential inauguration is the advent of technology. George Washington’s first inaugural address was only heard by the members of Congress that gathered to hear the president-elect speak. Eventually, the president-elect’s inaugural address would be printed in newspapers, a tradition that started with James Madison’s presidential inauguration, and James Polk’s oath of office would be transcribed by Samuel Morse through his telegraph machine. In 1857, James Buchanan’s inaugural ceremony was photographed and citizens across the country were able to share in the events through the pictures that were taken, a revolutionary idea at the time.

William McKinley’s inauguration would be the first presidential inauguration to be captured on movie cameras, providing a new way for citizens across the country to experience the monumental event. Calvin Coolidge was the first president to have his oath of office and inaugural address broadcast over the radio, and finally, the Harry Truman 1949 inauguration would be the first presidential inauguration to be televised. Certainly, the impact of technology on the proceedings of the presidential inauguration is deep, making a more lavish and impressive ceremony feasible due to the larger proportion of the citizenry that would be able to share in the experience.

Other aspects of the ceremony include group prayers, musical pieces, and poetry readings, depending on the wishes of the incoming president. Another event that takes place due to the presidential inauguration is a special luncheon hosted by Congress to which the president-elect and the vice president-elect are invited, making it one of the only times that the president, the vice president, and Congress are assembled. Inaugural celebrations usually last for about ten days, from five days before the inauguration to the five days after the inauguration. Certain parts of the country, mostly around Washington D.C., enjoy a federal holiday during Inauguration Day which allows federal employees a day off, the primary reason being to avoid traffic congestion that would normally occur without a day off.

On January 20, 2009, President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden will become the President and the Vice-President of the United States, respectively, after President-Elect Obama takes the oath of office. The day will fall on the third Tuesday of January. During the inaugural ceremony, President-Elect Obama will lead the Inaugural Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, be sworn in as the next president of the United States, partake in a luncheon with Congress, perform a presidential review of the troops, and partake in a slew of traditional activities that make the presidential inauguration the monumental, iconic experience that it has become in the last two centuries. Thanks to technological advances, the entire ceremony will be widely viewable by the American public as a new political era begins.