Posted on 01/20/2009 9:02:25 AM PST by Dick Bachert
On the morning of Wednesday, March 4th , 1801, Thomas Jefferson emerged from the Conrad and McMunn boarding house at New Jersey Avenue and C Street, where he had been residing for several months. Demonstrating his desire for “republican simplicity,” Jefferson broke the precedent set by his predecessors Adams and George Washington, who had worn elegant suits and swords for their inaugurations and been driven to the ceremonies in liveried coaches. The tall, 57 year-old Virginian wore, the Alexandria Times reported, the clothes “of a plain citizen without any distinctive badge of office,” and walked the short distance to the unfinished Capitol, accompanied by Virginia militia officers, District of Columbia marshals, and a group of congressmen. Jefferson arrived to find the Senate Chamber “so crowded,” an observer noted, that “not another creature could enter … there was near a thousand persons within the walls.” Noticeably absent was Adams, who had left town in the middle of the night.
Jefferson was sworn in by Chief Justice John Marshall, his distant cousin and a staunch political foe. The crowd then fell silent as Jefferson began his address.
“Friends and Fellow-Citizens,” he began, almost in a whisper. “Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow citizens which is here assembled to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents.” Jefferson declared, however, that he would find “resources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties” in those “authorities provided by our Constitution.”
He said that the nation had “room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation” and that his administration would pursue “honest friendship with all nations and entangling alliances with none.” He affirmed that America’s future depended upon “the preservation of the Central Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad.” He called on the nation to be “united with one heart and one mind.”
“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle,” Jefferson maintained, and said Americans were, in truth, “brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”
Though few people actually heard Jefferson’s address, which one observer said was “delivered in so low a tone” as to be barely audible, the sentiments were not lost.
“I have this morning witnessed one of the most interesting scenes, a free people can ever witness,” Margaret Bayard Smith commented. “The change of administrations, which in every government and in every age have most generally been epochs of confusion, villainy and bloodshed, in this our happy country take place without any species of distraction, or disorder. This day one of the most amiable and worthy men [has] taken that seat to which he was called by the voice of his country.”
After the inauguration, Jefferson returned to Conrad and McMunn’s for dinner with his fellow boarders. (NOTE BY RAB: When he arrived, the story goes that there were no places at the table and none of his fellow boarders felt compelled to offer him a seat. As would the ordinary citizen he considered himself to be, Jefferson took a side chair and waited for a vacancy at the table. WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION OF RONALD REAGAN, CAN ANYONE IMAGINE ANY MODERN IMPERIOUS PRESIDENT ACTING IN SUCH A MANNER?)
The new leader of the nation he had helped create continued to live there until he moved into the new President’s House.
You can say that again. For speechifying, short, sweet and to-the-point is best remembered.
As an aside, I’ve know Jefferson always referred to the Executive Mansion as “President’s House.” When did it go to being referred to as “The White House?”
I have to say that it is inexcusable for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to flub the Presidential oath of office like John Roberts just did.
Wow, Barack just said “Data and Statistics”. Hoopee-doo that’s awe inspiring.
I tried watching the History channel on “The Presidents” last night.
To hear them tell it, the first four or five Presidents of our country were crusty reprobates. The show had nothing good to say about any of them. Click.
Gee, since I refuse to watch the thing (as a child my folks took us to the circus, so I don’t need to see another one!), I missed it.
Payback for Obama voting AGAINST his confirmation? Hehe.
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