March 4, 1925: The Inauguration of Calvin Coolidge

March 4, 1925, 100 years ago: Calvin Coolidge, who became the 30th President of the United States upon the death of Warren Harding in 1923, and won a full term of his own in 1924, is sworn in as President. Charles G. Dawes, a former U.S. Ambassador to Britain, is sworn in as Vice President.

A 52-year-old native of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, and Governor of Massachusetts when he was elected Vice President in 1920, he is sworn in on the West Front of the Capitol Building, by the Chief Justice, himself a former President, William Howard Taft.

This was the 1st time that a former President swore in an incoming President. In spite of this, Taft goofed on the Oath of Office: Instead of asking Coolidge to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," it came out, "protect, preserve and defend." Four years later, for Herbert Hoover, Taft goofed again, making it "preserve, and maintain, and defend…"

His reputation as "Silent Cal" led to a story that two women at a White House party made a bet, and one walked up to Coolidge and said, "I made a bet with my friend that I could get you to say at least three words to me," and Coolidge said, "You lose." Belying this reputation, this speech was, and remains, the 6th-longest Inaugural Address of any President. His Inaugural Address is the 1st to be broadcast on radio. Unfortunately, no sound recording of the Address survives.

The Address is not especially memorable. He closes by saying, "America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God."

The theme of his 1924 election campaign was "Keep Cool with Coolidge"; alternately, "Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge." The scandals of the late President Harding were forgotten: Coolidge was a model of propriety. And the country enjoyed "Coolidge Prosperity," and enjoyed an isolationist foreign policy: There were no international entanglements during his time in office.

On vacation in the Summer of 1927, he told the press, "I do not choose to run for President in 1928." Maybe he saw the writing on the wall, that an economic crash was coming. Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce under Harding and Coolidge, was elected, and was left holding the bag for the Crash of 1929. Coolidge escaped blame for the Great Depression.

He died on January 5, 1933, 2 months before his 2nd full term, had he sought it and won it, would have ended. He remains the modern model for a boring President: When told he had died, theater critic Dorothy Parker said, "How can you tell?"

March 4, 1825: The Inauguration of John Quincy Adams

March 4, 1825, 200 years ago: John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, the 2nd President of the United States, is Inaugurated as the 6th President of the United States, in the House of Representatives Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building.

John C. Calhoun, the outgoing U.S. Secretary of War, is sworn in as Vice President.

Certainly, Adams was qualified for the office. He had been a U.S Senator from Massachusetts; U.S. Minister to the Netherlands, Prussia (Germany), Russia and Britain; and Secretary of State under the previous President, James Monroe.

But he becomes President under controversial circumstances, having not won the popular vote or the initial Electoral Vote, and having been elected by the U.S. House of Representatives thanks to a competitor, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, throwing Adams his support, in what appears to have been a quid pro quo, as Adams appointed Clay to be Secretary of State -- at the time, tantamount to being named heir presumptive as President -- allowing him to win over the man who led in both the popular and the Electoral Vote, General Andrew Jackson.

Sworn in by Chief Justice John Marshall, he is the only President to swear the Oath of Office with his hand on a book other than a Bible, using a book of laws. And, as the 1st President who could not be counted among the "Founding Fathers," he changed the fashion of the ceremony: Instead of long hair tied in a queue, he had his hair cut short; and instead of the traditional knee breeches, he wore long trousers.

As Thomas Jefferson had, following the previous most contentious election, he tried a conciliatory tone in his Inaugural Address, saying, "The collisions of party spirit which originate in speculative opinions or in different views of administrative policy are in their nature transitory." He noted his status as the 1st minority-vote President by saying, "I am deeply conscious of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence."

His Presidency was a failure. The Democratic Party wanted nothing to do with him, and what had become the National Republican Party discovered that the natural contentious personality common to the Adams men was rather strong in him. He got very little done, and when his rematch with Andrew Jackson came in 1828, he was soundly defeated.

In 1830, he became the 1st former President to be elected to the House of Representatives. He served a District outside Boston, becoming the House's leading advocate for the abolition of slavery, until his death in 1848.

January 20, 1945: FDR's Last Inauguration

January 20, 1945, 80 years ago: For the 4th time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States. For the 1st time, an official Inauguration ceremony is held at the White House, instead of the Capitol Building.

The most important traditions were held. Outgoing Vice President Henry A. Wallace, as was then traditional, swore in his replacement, former Senator Harry S Truman of Missouri, who then gave a short speech. From 1949 onward, Vice Presidents have usually been sworn in by an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1973 onward, they have not given their own Inaugural Addresses.

Then, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Harlan Stone, asked FDR to repeat the Oath of Office, which he did, with a voice considerably weaker than just 4 years earlier: "I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me, God." And then, he delivered an Inaugural Address.

It would not be like his 1st, on March 4, 1933. The country's economy was then on the brink of absolute collapse. There was no need for him to ask Congress for "action, and action now!" There was no need for him to tell the American people, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!" Thanks to his leadership and the actions of Congress, the American economy was now as strong as ever.

It would not be like his 2nd, on January 20, 1937. He had addressed the need for further work to alleviate the Depression, saying, "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." Additional "New Deal" programs had lowered that percentage.

It would not be like his 3rd, on January 20, 1941. The threat of America being dragged into World War II loomed overhead, and no one knew what the result would be. He called on Americans to face the threats of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: "There are men who believe that democracy, as a form of government and a frame of life, is limited or measured by a kind of mystical and artificial fate that, for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future, and that freedom is an ebbing tide. But we Americans know that this is not true."

On this 4th Inauguration Day for him, FDR had seen America enter that war, and make great progress in it. He knew that the war could be won in this new calendar year. He also knew his own health, as he approached his 63rd birthday, was precarious: His constant smoking had given him heart disease, and that and the pressures of the war had given him unacceptably high blood pressure. It was now a race as to whether he would see the end of the war, and begin to implement the plans he already had for after the victory, at home and abroad.

Due to his health, FDR asked that the ceremony be held on the South Portico of the White House, not at the Capitol; and that the traditional Inaugural Parade and Inaugural Balls be canceled. And guests were limited to wounded personnel who had returned from serving.

Due to these conditions, and those of the weather -- it was 36 degrees, and there was snow on the ground -- he kept the speech short. His 1st 3 Inaugural Addresses had been 1,880, 1,808 and 1,359 words, respectively, in no case particularly long. (The 3 previous Republican Presidents, even the famously taciturn Calvin Coolidge, had each spoken over 3,300 words.) This speech lasted just 559 words, the shortest ever except for George Washington's 135 words of 1793. It lasted just 6 minutes:

Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends: You will understand and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this Inauguration be simple, and its words brief.

We Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a period of supreme test. It is a test of our courage, of our resolve, of our wisdom, our essential democracy. If we meet that test, successfully and honorably, we shall perform a service of historic importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time.

As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen, in the presence of our God, I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail.

In the days and in the years that are to come, we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war. We can and we will achieve such a peace.

We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately, but we still shall strive. We may make mistakes, but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.

I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said, in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled: "Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights. Then, all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend."

Our Constitution of 1787 was not a perfect instrument. It is not perfect yet. But it provided a firm base upon which all manner of men, of all races and colors and creeds, could build our solid structure of democracy.

And so today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons, at a fearful cost, and we shall profit by them. We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.

We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that, "The only way to have a friend is to be one." We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from conviction.

The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.

So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly, to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men, to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.

Just 82 days later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was dead. Just 18 days after that, so was Adolf Hitler. Just 8 days after that, the Nazis surrendered. And 98 days after that, Japan surrendered. World War II was over.

To borrow an analogy that would later be used by Martin Luther King Jr.: FDR had been to the mountaintop, and had seen the Promised Land, knew he wouldn't get there with us, but also knew that we, as a people, would get there.

In 1947, Congress approved the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, limiting the President to 2 terms. In 1951, enough States ratified it to make it official.

Since 1945, every intentional Inauguration ceremony has been held at the Capitol. Unforeseen circumstances have required 2 Presidents to be sworn in during a predecessor's term: In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One; and in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal, and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in at the White House, indoors in the East Room.

On January 20, 2025, the Inauguration is being properly held at the Capitol -- although, due to cold weather, it is, like Ronald Reagan's 2nd Inauguration in 1985, being held inside, in the Rotunda.

Of course, the President taking the Oath has proven once before that he doesn't mean it. He is the kind of man Franklin Roosevelt would have opposed with everything he had. On March 15, 1941, he attended the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, and said, "They seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new, and it is not order."

Donald Trump, born 304 days after V-J Day, talks about wanting law and order. He despises the law, and what he offers is far from order.

FDR told us the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. DJT offers us nothing but fear. But, as FDR taught us, under very different circumstances, "This great nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper."

August 9, 1974: President Richard Nixon Resigns

August 9, 1974, 50 years ago today: Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States, due to the crimes he committed that fell under the umbrella term "Watergate."

We may never know for sure if Nixon authorized the break-in of the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate hotel and office complex on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. What we do know, thanks to the audiotaping system he had in the Oval Office at the White House, is that, on June 23, 6 days after the break-in, he told his White House Chief of Staff, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, to tell the FBI to back off on their investigation of the break-in.

That was obstruction of justice. On July 27, 1974, the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives approved an Article of Impeachment against Nixon, on the charge of obstruction of justice. On July 29, they approved another, on the charge of abuse of power. On July 30, they approved a third, for contempt of congress.

On August 5, in United States v. Nixon, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Nixon had to turn over all the tapes. This 8-0 vote included 3 of the 4 Justices that Nixon himself had appointed: Chief Justice Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun and Lewis Powell. Nixon had also appointed William Rehnquist, who recused himself, because he had worked in the U.S. Department of Justice for the 1st 3 years of the Nixon Administration.

And the tape of the June 23, 1972 order from Nixon to Haldeman was made public. It became known as "the Smoking Gun Tape." On August 7, Republican Congressional leaders visited Nixon at the White House, and told him they didn't have the votes to save from from being impeached by the House, or convicted in a trial by the Senate. He would be removed from office, unless he did it by himself, by resigning.

On August 8, at 9:01 PM Eastern Time, he addressed the nation in prime time, and spoke for 16 minutes, telling the nation what it was more than ready to hear:

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first.

America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face, at home and abroad.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.

Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in this office.

The next day, at 9:00 AM Eastern, Nixon gave a tearful Farewell Address to his staff in the East Room of the White House. After it, the President and First Lady Pat Nixon were escorted to a waiting helicopter, Marine One, by Vice President Ford and his wife Betty. Mrs. Nixon got in. Mr. Nixon got to the top step, gave a wave to his staff, and did one more "V for Victory" salute before boarding.

At 11:35 AM, a letter arrived at the office of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, reading, in its entirety: "Dear Mr. Secretary: I hereby resign the office of President of the United States. Sincerely, Richard Nixon." As soon as Nixon received it, officially, Nixon was no longer in office, and Vice President Gerald Ford was now the President, regardless of whether there was an actual swearing-in.

At 12:05 PM, in the East Room, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was sworn in as the 38th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger. He told the nation, "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, and not of men. Here, the people rule."

Nixon had been nominated at 5 different Republican Conventions: In 1952 and 1956 for Vice President; and in 1960, 1968 and 1972 for President. After 1972, he could never attend another. It would take until 2004, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, for a speaker at a Republican Convention, to even mention him again, so toxic was his name considered to be, even in his own Party.

By 2004, of course, the Republicans had lurched so far to the right that, not only was it possible for Nixon's name to be both spoken aloud and cheered at a Republican Convention, but for people in the Republican Party to come to a consensus that Nixon did nothing wrong, except get caught.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much Republican competence, and too much crimefighting; and, at the same time, not enough of either of those things.

Nixon's Presidential Library was built adjacent to his birthplace in Yorba Linda, California, 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Yorba Linda also has a Richard M. Nixon Parkway and a Richard M. Nixon Elementary School.

Comedians David Frye and Rich Little became famous for their impersonations of Nixon, among other political figures. Frye leaned on the phrase, "Let me just say this," while Little preferred, "Let me make this perfectly clear." Dan Aykroyd played Nixon as a bitter former President on Saturday Night Live, although he refused to shave the mustache he had at the time.

Nixon frequently features in time-travel and alternate-history pieces. These include Robert Wisdom as an alternate-history 5th-term Nixon in 1985 in the superhero film Watchmen in 2009, Stuart Milligan on Doctor Who in 2011, John H. Tobin in Transformers: Dark of the Moon the same year, Mark Camacho in X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014, and Paul Ganus on DC's Legends of Tomorrow in 2019. Two films have been made about Nixon's 1970 meeting with Elvis Presley: He was played by Bob Gunton in Elvis Meets Nixon in 1997, and Kevin Spacey in Elvis & Nixon in 2016.

Among the other actors to play Nixon have been Rip Torn in Blind Ambition (based on the memoir of John Dean) in 1979, Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor in 1984, Lane Smith in The Final Days in 1989, Anthony Hopkins in Oliver Stone's film Nixon in 1995,  Dan Hedaya in the comedy Dick in 1999, Frank Langella reprising his Tony Award-winning Broadway role in Frost/Nixon in 2008, and John Cusack in The Butler in 2013.

Ford is the only President whose Presidential Library and Presidential Museum are in 2 different locations: The former is at his alma mater, the University of Michigan; while the latter is in his hometown, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has a statue in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, and a House of Representatives Office Building is named for him, due to his service as House Minority Leader.

Despite looking and sounding nothing like Ford, Chevy Chase played him on Saturday Night Live. He was also played by Dick Crockett in The Pink Panther Strikes Again in 1976, Josef Sommer in The Betty Ford Story in 1987, Larry Lindsay in Hot Shots! Part Deux in 1993, Drew Snyder in Dark Skies in 1997, Jeffrey Ventimilia in That '70s Show in 1998, Corbin Bernsen in The Commission in 2003, and Bill Camp in Vice (about Ford's former Chief of Staff, Dick Cheney) in 2018.

The State where he was born, Nebraska, and the State where he grew up, Michigan, both have a Gerald R. Ford Freeway, and Interstate 70 in Eagle County in Colorado is the Gerald Ford Memorial Highway. In 2017, the USS Gerald R. Ford, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-78, was launched, and is the largest warship ever built. So far, despite also having served in the Navy during World War II, Nixon doesn't have a ship named for him. Maybe he'll get a pirate ship.

August 2 & 3, 1923: The Death of Warren Harding -- and the Struggle to Inaugurate Calvin Coolidge

August 2, 1923, 100 years ago: Warren Gamaliel Harding, the 29th President of the United States, dies in office, halfway through the 3rd year of his term. He was 57 years old.

The former newspaper editor was a U.S. Senator from Ohio when he was elected President in a landslide in 1920. He was handsome, charming, and promised "a return to normalcy" after the turbulent Progressive Era, World War I, and its difficult aftermath. Actually, he never used the words "return to normalcy" in any speech. What he said was:

America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.

Things had considerably calmed down in America during his time in office, and he was still popular in the Summer of 1923. He even posed for a photo with the biggest star in baseball, the Yankees' Babe Ruth.

Legend has it that Ruth, whose many alliterative nicknames could have included the Imperator of Informality, once asked the President of the United States, "Hot as hell, ain't it, Prez?" It's not clear whether the President in question was Harding, who might have appreciated it, or his successor, Calvin Coolidge, who certainly would not have.

So he was still popular in the Summer of 1923, when the Teapot Dome scandal broke out. Unlike such later scandals as Richard Nixon's Watergate, Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra, Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and the many scandals of George W. Bush and Donald Trump, this one was, and remains, a bit complicated.

Teapot Dome was an oil reserve in Wyoming, one of three set aside for the use of the U.S. Navy in the event of a national emergency. In May 1921, Harding signed an executive order transferring control of the reserves from the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Interior. Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby agreed to this, and Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall now had control.

In July 1921, California-based oilman Edward Doheny offered Fall a bribe of $100,000 -- about $1.7 million in today's money -- for permission to drill at Teapot Dome. The weird part is, after Harding was gone, Fall was convicted of accepting this bribe in 1929 -- the 1st Cabinet member ever to go to prison for actions in office -- but Doheny was acquitted of offering it in 1930.

Teapot Rock, above Teapot Dome

The scandal had begun to break, and Harding's bid for re-election was less than a year and a half away. He called his Secretary of Commerce into his office. He asked the Secretary, if he were President, and knew of a scandal in his Administration, what would he do? The Secretary said he would come completely clean. The Secretary's name was Herbert Hoover, and he would eventually become President. He didn't have a scandal like Teapot Dome in his Administration. He should have been no more unlucky than that.

Harding did not come clean. Instead, he ran away. No, he didn't resign. He went on what he called a "Voyage of Understanding," a train trip all over the continent. He became the 1st sitting President to visit Canada, and then the 1st to visit Alaska, which would still be a Territory until gaining Statehood in 1959.

On his way back south, he visited Seattle, and gave a speech at the University of Washington on July 27. That night, he called his doctor, Charles E. Sawyer, complaining of abdominal pain. Sawyer diagnosed an "acute gastrointestinal attack," and that's what the press was told. Somehow, it got out that Harding had eaten some tainted crabmeat in Alaska.

On July 29, Harding arrived in San Francisco, and checked into the Palace Hotel, and had a relapse. It wouldn't be publicly revealed until after his death, but, like his immediate predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, Harding was already a sick man when he became President, with a few years of heart problems, which were flaring up again. His wife, Florence, known as "The Duchess," was with him, and she wasn't very healthy, either, with a chronic kidney condition.

At 7:30 PM Pacific Time, in their room at the Palace, Florence was reading a flattering article about him, published by The Saturday Evening Post: "A Calm Review of a Calm Man." She paused, and he said, "That's good. Go on, read some more." She did, for a few seconds, until she noticed him twisting and gasping for air. She called the doctors, but it was too late: He was dead. 

Mrs. Harding did not permit an autopsy for her husband. A rumor got around that she had poisoned him -- possibly to protect him from the rising scandal; or possibly out of revenge for something the public didn't know at the time, his voracious womanizing, including an affair that resulted in the only child he would ever have.

That wouldn't be known for a few years. At first, the country was deeply saddened by the death of a popular President. But before the Harding Tomb could be completed in 1929, it had all come out, and he became regarded as one of the worst Presidents the country had ever had: As scandalous as Richard Nixon, as dumb as George W. Bush, and as horny as Bill Clinton.

Whatever Mrs. Harding knew, she took to the grave, on November 21, 1924, less than a year and a half after her husband, and just after he would have had to face the voters again.

*

Harding died at 10:30 PM Eastern Time. Now, a new President of the United States must be sworn in. It becomes the most difficult Inauguration in the office's history. Not because of any external threat, real or imagined. And not because of any resistance to the peaceful transfer of power. But because of simple logistics, and the technology of the time.

The Secret Service had to find the Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, former Governor of Massachusetts. Like Harding, he was escaping the Summer heat of Washington, D.C., staying at his family's homestead in Plymouth, Vermont, where he had been born on July 4, 1872. (This makes him, to this day, the only person born on the nation's birthday to become President.)

This was 1923, and less than half of all American homes had telephones. And the Coolidge Homestead did not have a telephone. But it shouldn't have been that hard to send a telegram. Well, they couldn't reach the Coolidge Homestead by telegram, either.

So, Secret Service Agents had to drive up from Boston, and knock on the front door of the Coolidge Homestead in the middle of the night. The unwitting new President's father, John Coolidge, a former Vermont State Senator, a notary public, and a justice of the peace, answered the door. The Agents discovered that this rural home -- 150 miles northwest of Boston, 100 miles northeast of Albany, and 100 miles southeast of Vermont's largest city, Burlington -- didn't even have electricity. The ceremony had to be conducted by candlelight.

At 2:47 AM Eastern Time -- meaning that, less than 100 years ago, there was a time when the nation didn't have a working President for over 4 hours -- Calvin Coolidge was administered the Oath of Office by his father, becoming the 30th President of the United States. 

Artist's depiction of the Inauguration. There was no photographer present.

When John was asked by a reporter a few days later how he knew he could swear his son in, he said, "I didn't know that I couldn't." The legal basis for him being the person to swear the President in is a bit vague: He wasn't actually a judge, and every other person who has ever sworn a President in has been, at the very least, a judge.

Most have been the Chief Justice of the United States. This includes Salmon Chase, swearing in Andrew Johnson after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865; Harlan Stone, swearing in Harry Truman after the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945; and Warren Burger, swearing in Gerald Ford after the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. The others:

* April 30, 1789, George Washington, Federal Hall, New York: Robert Livingston, Chancellor of New York. In other words, the State's Chief Justice. There wasn't yet a Chief Justice of the country, because there wasn't yet a Supreme Court, because the Justices of that Court hadn't yet been appointed by the President, because there wasn't yet a President.

* April 6, 1841, John Tyler, Indian Queen Hotel, Washington: William Cranch, Chief Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of the District of Columbia.

* July 10, 1850, Millard Fillmore, House of Representatives Chamber, U.S. Capitol, Washington: Cranch again.

* September 20, 1881, Chester Arthur, his apartment, New York: John R. Brady, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

* September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, Ansley Wilcox House, Buffalo, New York: John R. Hazel, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

* November 22, 1963, Lyndon Johnson, aboard Air Force One, Love Field, Dallas: Sarah T. Hughes, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She remains the only woman to administer the Oath of Office to an incoming President.

Thus sworn in by his father, President Calvin Coolidge went back to bed, helping to feed the legend that he slept too much while he was President. The next morning, Coolidge was driven to Rutland, Vermont, where he took a train to Boston, and then another to Washington, where, just to be on the safe side, he was sworn in again, by a federal Judge, Adolph A. Hoehling Jr.

Calvin Coolidge ran for a term of his own in 1924, and, untainted by the Teapot Dome scandal that had engulfed Harding, won easily. On March 4, 1925, at the Capitol, he got a proper Inauguration, sworn in by the Chief Justice, himself a former President, William Howard Taft.

Would Harding have been re-elected, given the booming economy, even with Teapot Dome and the subsequent scandal in the U.S. Department of Justice, which sent his Attorney General and former campaign manager, Harry Daugherty, to prison? Maybe, because the Democrats were badly divided.

But since Coolidge wasn't involved in the scandals at all, he cruised to an easy victory, as the nation decided to follow the Republican slogan, "Keep Cool and Keep Coolidge."

John Coolidge died in 1926. Calvin Coolidge did not run for a 2nd full term in 1928, and left office on March 4, 1929, with the Inauguration of Herbert Hoover. He died on January 5, 1933. His Presidency had so little drama, and Coolidge himself had so little personality, that, when the writer Dorothy Parker was informed that he had died, she said, "How can you tell?"

March 4, 1933: The New Deal Begins

March 4, 1933, 90 years ago: A new President is inaugurated, and it begins a new era in American history.

A few of our transfers of power have been fraught with worry:

* March 4, 1797: The 1st transfer of power, from George Washington to John Adams. It turned out not to be anything to worry about, but that was far from certain at the time, since no one, not even the brilliant and highly talented Adams, had Washington's gravitas.

* March 4, 1801: The 1st transfer of power from one party to another, from Adams, a member of the Federalist Party, to Thomas Jefferson, founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, whose members called themselves "Republicans," but would eventually evolve into the Democratic Party. 

Once closely linked in the fight for independence, now estranged and bitter enemies, Adams had appointed what became known as "midnight judges" at the end of his Administration, with the intent of holding Jefferson back from perceived extreme measures. But Jefferson's 2 terms in office turned out to be comparatively peaceful. The friendship would later be restored.

* March 4, 1861: With the threat of civil war becoming very real, James Buchanan handed the Presidency over to Abraham Lincoln. Threats against Lincoln's life had already been made, and he practically had to sneak into Washington. He tried a conciliatory Inaugural Address. It didn't work.

* March 5, 1877: The disputed election that put Rutherford B. Hayes in as the next President, despite Samuel J. Tilden having received the most popular votes and, it appeared at first, the necessary Electoral votes, infuriated people to the point where another civil war seemed possible: The cry from the Democrats was "Tilden or blood!" And it wasn't officially settled until March 2. To complicate matters further, the usual Inauguration Day, March 4, fell on a Sunday: The official ceremony at the Capitol was set for the following day.

To simplify things, the outgoing President, Ulysses S. Grant, suggested that Hayes take the Oath of Office in the White House on March 3, taking effect at noon on March 4, so that he would already be the President on March 5, so that the Inaugural ceremonies would essentially be going through the motions for public display. There was no violence.

* January 20, 1981: The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1933, had moved Inauguration Day up, largely because of the events of 1932-33. President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and President-elect Ronald Reagan, a Republican who had overwhelmingly defeated him in a bitter election, were not friendly with each other. But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that Carter was finally close to getting 52 hostages released by Iran, but the Iranian government decided to keep them in custody until after noon, U.S. Eastern Time, to deny Carter a full victory. Their plane ended up clearing Iranian airspace at 12:35 PM Eastern. While Carter went to meet them at the U.S. Air Force base in Weisbaden, West Germany, it was Reagan who welcomed them to the White House, making it look like he was taking credit for it. He did nothing to make their release happen.

* January 20, 1993: Despite a bitter campaign, President George H.W. Bush, Republican, and President-elect Bill Clinton, Democratic, had made peace with each other in the transition. But there was a situation involving Iraq on the last day of Bush's term. Bush suggested that his national security team remain in charge for a few hours more, and Clinton agreed. Bush signed an Executive Order extending their terms by 4 hours. The situation was settled, and Clinton's team began their terms.

* January 20, 2001: Bush's son, George W. Bush, had emerged victorious over Clinton's Vice President, Al Gore, under dubious circumstances. There were protestors at the Capitol for the Inauguration, but there was no violence.

* January 20, 2017: Again under dubious circumstances, a Republican who did not win the popular vote took the office. This time, it was Donald Trump, the most underqualified incoming President ever, and the most psychologically unfit. Violence was feared. There was none.

* January 20, 2021: Joe Biden had beaten Trump, but after the attack on the Capitol while the Electoral Votes were being certified on January 6, people were afraid that another attack would be launched. This time, there was enough of a deterrent force on hand that the would-be second-time insurrectors did the smart thing, and stayed away.

If anything, the events of March 4, 1933 were fraught with even more worry than 2021 -- or even 1861.

*

For it was the depth of the Great Depression. Within 8 months of taking office as President on March 4, 1929, Herbert Hoover saw the stock market crash on his watch. He wasn't responsible for it. And it would be unfair to say he did nothing about it. A fairer statement would be that he didn't do enough things, and that he didn't take the things he did do, which did help a little, far enough.

So, in the 1932 election, he lost in a massive landslide to the Governor of New York, a Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The interregnum between the election on November 8 and the Inauguration on March 4 was interminable, as a bitter Hoover, like Trump with Biden 88 years later, shared nothing with FDR and his team. Essentially, Hoover sabotaged his own best chance at leaving office on a high note.

As a result, things got worse. Banks were failing all over the country. People were terrified. The American economy was on the brink of complete collapse, more so than it had been during the "panics" of 1791, 1819, 1837, 1857, 1869, 1873, 1893 and 1907, even more so than during the Crash of 1929. And, as it turned out, more than during the Crash of 1987, the economic free-fall of 2008, and the drop during Spring 2020's coronavirus crisis.

Inauguration Day fell on a Saturday, and this may have been for the best, as the banks would have been closed anyway.

Roosevelt was sworn in, and made the most important Inaugural Address in the history of the office. It wasn't just the conditions that were the problem, it was the fear of the problem that he wanted to address, the fear that was making things worse. On that subject, it is fair to say that Hoover did nothing. Roosevelt addressed this right off the bat:

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends: I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that, on my induction into the Presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself: Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. 

Despite a light rain falling on Washington for most of the day, the Inaugural crowd may have been the biggest in history to that point, and a great cheer went up.

Roosevelt promised "action, and action now!" He acted on it. Over the weekend, he set in motion the policies that embodied what he called, during the campaign, "a new deal for the American people." His New Deal measures included keeping the banks closed for a week, so they could straighten out their own situations. When they reopened on March 12, they were secure, and the nation's recovery began.

It would be long and slow, but FDR's New Deal measures helped millions of people get by. Had he only served 2 terms, and someone else had led the nation through World War II, FDR would still be remembered as one of the nation's greatest and most important Presidents. His leadership during World War II would put him up there with Washington and Lincoln as 1 of the 3 greatest Presidents.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as President of the United States just 33 days after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and the Nazi regime began. No one knew it at the time, but FDR and Hitler were on a collision course. A little more than 12 years later, both would be dead -- but one of them would be victorious. And for most of those 12 years, it wasn't clear which one that would be.

There have been, essentially, 4 eras of American history:

* The Colonial era, beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 (note that I'm not saying that he "discovered America"), and lasting until the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

* The Revolutionary era, from the Declaration until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

* The next era, whatever name you want to give it, lasting from the end of the Civil War until the start of the New Deal in 1933.

* And the era that began with the New Deal. If you want to say that, sometime since 1933, that 4th era ended and a 5th era has begun, I don't know what your line of demarcation would be. Neither the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, nor the Inauguration of Reagan in 1981, nor that of Clinton in 1993, nor the 9/11 attacks of 2001, nor the arrival of Trump in 2017, nor the leaving of Trump in 2021 carries the same amount of historical weight, nor is likely to. 

Scores On This Historic Day: March 4, 1933, The New Deal Begins

March 4, 1933: A new President is inaugurated, and it begins a new era in American history.

A few of our transfers of power have been fraught with worry:

* March 4, 1797: The 1st transfer of power, from George Washington to John Adams. It turned out not to be anything to worry about, but that was far from certain at the time, since no one, not even the brilliant and highly talented Adams, had Washington's gravitas.

* March 4, 1801: The 1st transfer of power from one party to another, from Adams, a member of the Federalist Party, to Thomas Jefferson, founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, whose members called themselves "Republicans," but would eventually evolve into the Democratic Party. 

Once closely linked in the fight for independence, now estranged and bitter enemies, Adam had appointed what became known as "midnight judges" at the end of his Administration, with the intent of holding Jefferson back from perceived extreme measures. But Jefferson's 2 terms in office turned out to be comparatively peaceful. The friendship would later be restored.

* March 4, 1861: With the threat of civil war becoming very real, James Buchanan handed the Presidency over to Abraham Lincoln. Threats against Lincoln's life had already been made, and he practically had to sneak into Washington. He tried a conciliatory Inaugural Address. It didn't work.

* March 5, 1877: The disputed election that put Rutherford B. Hayes in as the next President, despite Samuel J. Tilden having received the most popular votes and, it appeared at first, the necessary Electoral votes, infuriated people to the point where another civil war seemed possible: The cry from the Democrats was "Tilden or blood!" And it wasn't officially settled until March 2. To complicate matters further, the usual Inauguration Day, March 4, fell on a Sunday: The official ceremony at the Capitol was set for the following day.

To simplify things, the outgoing President Ulysses S. Grant, suggested that Hayes take the Oath of Office in the White House on March 3, taking effect at noon on March 4, so that he would already be the President on March 5, so that the Inaugural ceremonies would essentially be going through the motions for public display. There was no violence.

* January 20, 1981: The 20th Amendment had moved Inauguration Day up, largely because of the events of 1933. President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and President-elect Ronald Reagan, a Republican who had overwhelmingly defeated him in a bitter election, were not friendly with each other. But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that Carter was finally close to getting 52 hostages released by Iran, but the Iranian government decided to keep them in custody until after noon, U.S. Eastern Time, to deny Carter a full victory. Their plane ended up clearing Iranian airspace at 12;35 PM Eastern. While Carter went to meet them at the U.S. Air Force base in Weisbaden, West Germany, it was Reagan who welcomed them to the White House, making it look like he was taking credit for it. He did nothing to make their release happen.

* January 20, 1993: Despite a bitter campaign, President George H.W. Bush, Republican, and President-elect Bill Clinton, Democratic, had made peace with each other in the transition. But there was a situation involving Iraq on the last day of Bush's term. Bush suggested that his national security team remain in charge for a few hours more, and Clinton agreed. The situation was settled, and Clinton's team began their terms.

* January 20, 2001: Bush's son, George W. Bush, had emerged victorious over Clinton's Vice President, Al Gore, under dubious circumstances. There were protestors at the Capitol for the Inauguration, but there was no violence.

* January 20, 2017: Again under dubious circumstances, a Republican who did not win the popular vote took the office. This time, it was Donald Trump, the most underqualified incoming President ever, and the most psychologically unfit. Violence was feared. There was none.

* January 20, 2021: Joe Biden had beaten Trump, but after the attack on the Capitol while the Electoral Votes were being certified, people were afraid that another attack would be launched. This time, there was enough of a deterrent force on hand that the would-be second-time insurrectors did the smart thing, and stayed away.

If anything, the events of March 4, 1933 were fraught with even more worry than 2021 -- or even 1861.

*

For it was the depth of the Great Depression. Within 8 months of taking office as President on March 4, 1929, Herbert Hoover saw the stock market crash on his watch. He wasn't responsible for it. And it would be unfair to say he did nothing about it. A fairer statement would be that he didn't do enough things, and that he didn't take the things he did do, which did help a little, far enough.

So, in the 1932 election, he lost in a massive landslide to the Governor of New York, a Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The interregnum between the election on November 8 and the Inauguration on March 4 was interminable, as a bitter Hoover, like Trump with Biden 88 years later, shared nothing with FDR and his team. Essentially Hoover sabotaged his own best chance at leaving office on a high note.

As a result, things got worse. Banks were failing all over the country. People were terrified. The American economy was on the brink of complete collapse, more so than it had been during the "panics" of 1791, 1819, 1837, 1857, 1869, 1873, 1893 and 1907, even ore so than during the Crash of 1929. And, as it turned out, more than during the Crash of 1987, the economic free-fall of 2008, and the drop during last Spring's coronavirus crisis.

Inauguration Day fell on a Saturday, and this may have been for the best, as the banks would have been closed anyway.

Roosevelt is sworn in, and makes the most important Inaugural Address in the history of the office. It wasn't just the conditions that were the problem, is was the fear of the problem, that he wanted to address, the fear that was making things worse. On that subject, it is fair to say that Hoover did nothing. Roosevelt did something right off the bat:

My friends: I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that, on my induction into the Presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. 

Despite a light rain falling on Washington for most of the day, the Inaugural crowd may have been the biggest in history to that point, and a great cheer went up.

Roosevelt promised "action, and action now!" He acted on it. Over the weekend, he set in motion the policies that embodied what he called, during the campaign, "a new deal for the American people." His New Deal measures included keeping the banks closed for a week, so they could straighten out their own situations. When they reopened on March 12, they were secure, and the nation's recovery began.

It would be long and slow, but FDR's New Deal measures helped millions of people get by. Had he only served 2 terms, and someone else had led the nation through World War II, FDR would still be remembered as one of the nation's greatest and most important Presidents. His leadership during World War II would put him up there with Washington and Lincoln as 1 of the 3 greatest.

There have been, essentially, 4 eras of American history:

* The Colonial era, beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 (note that I'm not saying that he "discovered America"), and lasting until the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

* The Revolutionary era, from the Declaration until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

* The next era, whatever name you want to give it, lasting from the end of the Civil War until the start of the New Deal in 1933.

* And the era that began with the New Deal. If you want to say that, sometime since 1933, that 4th era ended and a 5th era has begun, I don't know what your line of demarcation would be. Neither the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, nor the Inauguration of Reagan in 1981, nor that of Clinton in 1993, nor the 9/11 attacks of 2001, nor the arrival of Trump in 2017, nor the leaving of Trump in 2021 carries the same amount of historical weight, nor is likely to.

*

On this Saturday, March 4, 1933, baseball teams were starting Spring Training, the NFL was out of season, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet. There was only the NHL to provide games and scores. Even then, there were slim pickings:

* Only one American-based team was scheduled to play: The New York Americans lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum.

* And, in a game broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's most popular radio show, which would become, and remains, the CBC's most popular television show, Hockey Night In Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Maroons, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Ottawa Senators had last played on March 2, against each other at the Ottawa Auditorium, with the Wings winning 3-2. They would play each other again on March 5, at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, with the Wings winning 2-0.

* The Chicago Black Hawks had also last played on March 2, beating the Americans 3-2 at Chicago Stadium. They would next play on March 5, also at the Stadium, losing to the Maple Leafs 2-1.

* The Boston Bruins had last played on February 28, against the Senators at the Boston Garden. It ended in a 0-0 tie.

* The New York Rangers hadn't played since February 26, a 4-1 win over the Hawks in Chicago. Their next game would also be the Bruins' next game, on March 5, at what was then called the new, but would eventually be called the old, Madison Square Garden, and the Bruins won 2-1.

Also, Arsenal beat Liverpool, 1-0 at Highbury in North London.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as President of the United States just 33 days after Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and the Nazi regime began. But there were no games played on that day: Baseball and football were out of season, there was no NBA yet, and no NHL games were scheduled.

No one knew it at the time, but FDR and Hitler were on a collision course. A little more than 12 years later, both would be dead -- but one of them would be victorious. And for most of those 12 years, it wasn't clear which one that would be.

The Real "Real America"

Two days until Trump is sworn in by one judge, and sworn at by 200 million Americans.

You know how conservatives, and people in the hinterlands, are always saying that people in coastal areas like New York, D.C., Boston, San Francisco, Hollywood (they never say "Los Angeles" or "L.A.," always "Hollywood," as if studio heads haven't always been Republicans) -- and I'm including the Great Lakes, which have tides -- simply don't understand the interior of the country, which they call "the real America"?

Well, earlier today, I just read a comment by a Facebook Friend, who pointed out that the converse argument is, at the least, equally true: "The GOP spent 8 years so demonizing Mr. Obama, and terrifying these isolated miners and others with no real concept of the rest of the country so badly."

This is true. They assaulted people with propaganda, to the point where "the people" want Obamacare repealed, but they're terrified at the thought of losing the Affordable Care Act. It's the same thing.

They say, "Keep your government hands off my Social Security and my Medicare." When the Republicans they vote for have been trying to destroy them since 1935 and 1965, respectively.

They believe foreign aid is a huge part of the federal budget, when it's about 1/10th of 1 percent of that budget.

They believe "welfare" is a bigger part than it actually is.

They hate the Department of Energy, when it includes the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that prevents future disasters like the one that nearly happened at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979.

And, of course, just as the cities on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts are home not only to "the coastal elites," but are also home to white bigots, so, too, does "the Heartland" have a few people who seem like blue islands in a red sea.

One more thing: When the enemy they hate so much wanted to attack a place to symbolize America, they didn't go a "heartland" State like Kansas, or a "God-fearin'" Southern State like Alabama, or even anything in a "Purple State" like Ohio.

The enemy went after New York City.

And it wasn't the conservative Texas gool ol' boy that made them pay. It was a liberal Democrat, the man from Hawaii by way of Manhattan, Harvard, and the South Side of Chicago, who did that.

Every time the Republicans get into power, the push their conservative priorities, and mess things up. And the Democrats have to go in and fix it all, with liberal policies that actually work.

The Republicans have lied their way into power. As their favorite President of all time, Ronald Reagan, said in a very different context, "There you go again."

Now Batting, Number 44, Barack Obama

This afternoon, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States -- the 1st black person, the 1st nonwhite person, to hold the office.

The National Mall in Washington, D.C. was full. The National Park Service used overhead cameras to determine that there were 1.8 million people on hand, and that there was absolutely no more room for anyone else. It is an unbreakable record.

Was it mostly black people, proud to see one of their own, take the Oath of Office and become the nation's leader? Was it all liberals, glad to see one of their own after 8 years? Or was it just a lot of people eager to see the outgoing President, George W. Bush, a failed evangelical fanatic right-wing Republican, go away and never come back?

Obama takes just 4 months after the economy crashed on Bush's watch, and as a war that Bush started and never knew how to end -- at times, he seemed to not want it to end -- approached its 6th anniversary. He defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, because McCain had promised to ramp up the war that America wanted to end, and didn't seem to understand the struggles of those hurt by the crash and the ensuing recession.

Obama's Inaugural Address was decent, if not one of his more memorable speeches: "This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: Youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk, and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together."

Good luck, Mr. President. You'll need it. As will we all.