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3. Celebrating Inaugurations
An array of wonderful contradictions and paradoxes, presidential inaugurals are one of the most American of all our public celebrations. Every four years we honor and celebrate the promise of our democratic traditions. Presidential inaugurals are part celebrations of democracy and part coronations. They are a call for national unity and an occasion for partisan gloating. Inaugurals are populist and elitist, public and private, exclusive and exclusive, commercial and civic. Most of all they reflect the hopes and aspirations we have for the American presidency and our democratic process. The nation's first presidential inauguration occurred on April 30, 1789, when George Washington took the oath of office at New York City's Federal Hall in front of a large crowd. Inaugural addresses have varied. At 8,445 words, William Henry Harrison's 1841 speech was the longest in history, although, with his death a month later, his administration was the shortest. By contrast, George Washington's second inaugural address in 1793 was the shortest on record, only 135 words. Lincoln's second inaugural speech ("With malice toward none, with charity for all . . ."); Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first ("The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."); and John F. Kennedy's ("Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.") rank among the most inspirational of inaugural addresses.
The current custom of having inaugural parades on Pennsylvania Avenue following presidential addresses began in 1889. Before then, parades started at the White House and escorted the president to the Capitol. Occasionally, presidents simply opened the doors of the White House to the public, as in 1829, when a horde of 20,000 callers forced Andrew Jackson to flee to a nearby hotel. Inaugural parades have included celebrities, bands, and floats of all types, while the tradition of inaugural balls has waxed and waned over the years. No official balls were held between 1913 and 1929 or during World War II, but they made a comeback after the war. Six balls were held for Richard Nixon's inauguration in 1969, and in 1981, for the first time, a ball was held overseas, honoring Ronald Reagan in Paris. From the solemnity of the swearing-in ceremony to the slinky, sequined gowns that grace the ballrooms, American presidential inaugurations are testaments to our faith in the permanence of the nation and in our system of government.
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