TODAY IN HISTORY: January 20, 2018

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Inauguration

On January 20, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president sworn into office in January. It was his second of four inaugurations; the first had been held fours years earlier on March 4, 1933. Roosevelt’s first inauguration had been shadowed by the onset of the Great Depression—within a week of taking office, the new president had declared a federal bank holiday.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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.

Executive Oath of Office, The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription, Article II, Section 1, Clause 8. America’s Founding Documents. U. S. National Archives and Records Administration

Inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt. Theodor Horydczak, photographer, ca 1933-1945. Horydczak Collection. Prints & Photographs Division

Roosevelt’s second inaugural address was optimistic about the gains that had been made during his first administration, while acknowledging that much more was needed. In his speech he shared his vision of the nation’s potential and challenged Americans to continue in a united effort to address poverty.

Let us ask again: Have we reached the goal of our vision of that fourth day of March 1933? Have we found our happy valley? I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources…I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown…But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens…who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life…The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little…

Inaugural Address External, Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 20, 1937. The American Presidency Project.

The Constitution of the United States had established March 4 as Inauguration Day in order to allow enough time after Election Day for officials to gather election returns and for newly-elected candidates to travel to the capital. With modern advances in communication and transportation, the lengthy transition period proved unnecessary and legislators pressed for change. The date was moved to January 20 with the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933.

Inaugural celebrations have run the gamut from Andrew Jackson’s raucous White House reception in 1829, to FDR’s somber wartime affair in 1945, but a basic pattern of activities has been established over the years. Around noon, the president is sworn in at the Capitol by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. After taking the brief, 35-word oath of office, the new chief executive delivers an inaugural address, followed by a parade through the city, and an evening of gala festivities.

TR’s Inaugural Ceremony, 1905. United States: 1905. Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film. Motion Picture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division

Learn More

• The Library’s U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: “I Do Solemnly Swear…”: A Resource Guide provides a good starting point for research on presidential inaugurations. The Library’s Manuscript Division holds 23 collections of presidential papers and a wide variety of other items related to presidential inaugurations can be found throughout the Library’s collections, including film footage of Theodore Roosevelt and McKinley, photographs of Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge, and the manuscript of the very first inaugural address given by George Washington on April 30, 1789.
• Search on inauguration or president in Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885 to see the “Inauguration Grand March” dedicated to President Rutherford B. Hayes and Vice President William Wheeler, as well as songs dedicated to other presidents. Also, don’t miss the collection’s special presentation Music Published in America, 1870-1885, featuring campaign songs and other music for public occasions.
• For additional tips on finding presidential materials available throughout the Library’s Web site, see Presidents of the United States: Resource Guides.

Kennedy’s Inauguration

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy distinguished his inaugural ceremony with a poetry reading by fellow New Englander Robert Frost. Blinded by the sun’s glare on the snow-covered Capitol grounds, Frost found himself unable to read the poem he had prepared. Instead, he recited The Gift Outright from memory, his words moving many. Dedication, the poem Frost intended to read at the Kennedy inauguration, is featured in the online collection Words and Deeds in American History. The Gift Outright can be found in the Imagination section of the Library’s American Treasures exhibition.

Such as we were we gave ourselves outright

“The Gift Outright.” Robert Frost.

“Dedication.” Robert Frost’s presidential inaugural poem, January 20, 1961. Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Years. Manuscript Division

“The Gift Outright.” Poem recited by Robert Frost at the January 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Imagination Gallery B. American Treasures of the Library of Congress. Manuscript Division

Robert Frost [left] and Carl Sandburg in the Library’s Whittall Pavilion, Washington, DC, May 2, 1960. Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Inaugural Address External, John F. Kennedy, Friday, January 20, 1961. The American Presidency Project

Learn More

• U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: “I Do Solemnly Swear…:” A Resource Guide is a collection of items from each U.S. presidential inauguration, organized chronologically from George Washington’s 1789 inauguration onward. See, for example, vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, or see President Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower as they leave the White House for the latter’s 1953 inauguration.
• Learn more about the election of President Kennedy in The Presidential Election of 1960, from the Postwar United States, 1945-1968 section of the American Memory Timeline, a resource provided in the Teachers section of the Library’s website.
• View the reading copy of Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827.
• Search Today in History on the names of presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, James Polk, Grover Cleveland, James Monroe, Dwight Eisenhower and others to find out more about America’s presidential leaders. Read, for example, about George and Barbara Bush, the parents of George W. Bush.
• Five poets, including Robert Frost, have read or recited poems at U.S. presidential inaugurations. Learn more about inaugural poets and poetry on the Presidents as Poets Web guide. Read an appreciation of Richard Blanco’s inaugural poem “One Today”, read at Barack Obama’s second presidential inauguration, on the blog From the Catbird Seat: Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress.
• Read the Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United StatesExternal available through Bartleby.com: Great Books Online External.