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Oath of office of the President of the United States
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The oath or affirmation of office of the President of the United States was established in the United States Constitution and is mandatory for a President upon beginning a term of office. The wording is prescribed by the Constitution (Article II, Section 1, Clause 8), as follows:
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.
"So help me God"
It is uncertain how many Presidents used a Bible or added the words "So help me God" at the end of the oath, as neither is required by law; unlike many other federal oaths which do include the phrase "So help me God."[1] There is currently debate as to whether or not George Washington, the first president, added the phrase to his oath. The earliest known source indicating Washington did add "So help me God" is attributed to Washington Irving, aged six at the time of the inauguration, and first appears 60 years after the event.[2]
Evidence is lacking to support the claim that Presidents between Washington and Abraham Lincoln used the phrase "So help me God." A contemporaneous newspaper account of Lincoln's 1865 inauguration states that Lincoln appended the phrase "So help me God" to the oath.[3] This newspaper report is corroborated by another account, provided the same year (1865), that Lincoln said "So help me God" during his oath.[4] The evidence pertaining to the 1865 inauguration is much stronger than that pertaining to Lincoln's 1861 use of the phrase. Several sources claim that Lincoln said "So help me God" at his 1861 inauguration, yet these sources were not contemporaneous to the event.[5][6] Shortly after giving the speech, Lincoln stated that his oath was "registered in Heaven."[7], something some have taken as indicating he likely uttered the phrase "So help me God." Conversely, there was a claim made by A.M. Milligan (a radical Presbyterian minister who wanted the U.S. government to be officially Christian) that letters were sent to Abraham Lincoln asking him to swear to God during his inaugurations, and Lincoln allegedly wrote back saying that he could not do so.[8] [9]
Other than the president of the U.S., many politicians (including Jefferson Davis, sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in 1861) used the phrase "So help me God" when taking their oaths.[10] Likewise, all federal judges and executive officers were required as early as 1789 by statute to include the phrase.[11]
Since FDR, evidence exists to show that all recent presidents have added the phrase "So help me God."
Ancillary practices
The oath or affirmation is typically administered by the Chief Justice, but sometimes by another federal or state judge (George Washington was first sworn in by Robert Livingston, the chancellor of the State of New York in 1789, while Calvin Coolidge was first sworn in by his father, a Vermont notary public, in 1923). By convention, incoming Presidents raise their right hand and hold the other on a Bible or other book while taking the oath of office.
Franklin Pierce was the first president to use the word affirm rather than swear. Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible when taking the oath in 1901. Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, and Richard Nixon swore the oath on two Bibles. John Quincy Adams swore on a book of law.[12] Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on a Roman Catholic missal on Air Force One. Washington kissed the Bible afterwards, as some later Presidents did, but modern Presidents have not—except for Harry Truman, who bent and kissed the Bible upon taking the oath for the first time, on April 12, 1945, as well as at his second inauguration.[13] Many times the President-elect's name is added after the "I"; for example, "I, George Washington, do . . .". Lyndon B. Johnson did not add his name when swearing his first oath of office; there is evidence that in all other inaugurations since Franklin Roosevelt's first, the name of the president was added to the oath. William R. King is the only president or vice president sworn into office on foreign soil. By special act of Congress, he was allowed to take his oath on March 24, 1853, in Cuba, where he had gone because of his poor health.[14] He died 25 days later. Sarah T. Hughes is the only woman to administer the oath of office (she was a U.S. District Court judge who swore Lyndon Johnson into office on Air Force One after the Kennedy assassination).
Gallery
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Gerald Ford's inauguration after the resignation of Richard Nixon, 1974.
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References
- ^ http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00000453----000-"
- ^ Griswold, Rufus W [1855]. The Republican court, or, American society in the days of Washington. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 141-142.
- ^ Sacramento Daily Union, April 10, 1865.
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=ArRmzsMraH8C&printsec=titlepage#PPA6,M1
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=d6QfOnbV1zUC&printsec=titlepage#PPA91,M1
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=xidCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA136,M1
- ^ The Avalon Project : First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln
- ^ Foster, James Mitchell [1894]. Christ the King. Boston: James H. Earle, 277.
- ^ Foster, James Mitchell [1890]. Reformation Principles Stated and Applied. Chicago and New York: F.H Revell, 234-5.
- ^ Official State Bible of Alabama
- ^ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875
- ^ Kennon, Donald (2005). "Presidential Inaugurations Past and Present". Retrieved on 2006-12-06.
- ^ McCullough, David (1992). Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 347, p. 729. ISBN 0-671-86920-5.
- ^ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875
See also
External links
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