presidential precedence...
presidential precedence...
It's nothing new for a president to snub his successor by not attending the newly-elected president's festivities. In fact, back in the day, there very well could have been an app called, Presidential Snubhub.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had been close friends for many years. They had worked in Europe as fellow diplomats and, of course, both worked side by side to help create the Declaration of Independence. But, as the two politicians' careers took different paths, they became rivals. On the day of Jefferson's inauguration, Adams was nowhere to be found. In fact, John Adams and his family had left the White House hours before Jefferson's swearing-in (sound familiar?) and headed for the family farm in Braintree, Massachusetts.
Ironically, history repeated itself 28 years later when Adams' son, John Quincy Adams boycotted the induction of his replacement, Andrew Jackson.
Martin Van Buren decided not to go to William Henry Harrison's inauguration in 1841 and it's probably a good thing as you will see below.
The fourth sitting president to snub his successor to the oval office was Andrew Johnson. Not only did he not appear at Ulysses S. Grant's big moment, but he held a last minute cabinet meeting while the proceedings were taking place.
HUH? What's up with that?
University of Virginia's Miller Center has compiled an extensive oral history of the American presidency. It's one of the most respected works of its kind in part because of the number of interviews with various administration officials. Even at that, there are many such officials which have long been deceased. The Center's Brian Balogh considers George Washington's inauguration as the most important one of all.
They were making up everything as they went along, Balogh said. Washington and others were very concerned about coming across as a king, he continued. Debates raged among his supporters as to what to do and he did his best to dress very plainly for the big day. But, he kind of blew it when he wore diamonds on his shoes.
In a side note, even though Washington owned 50,000 acres plus Mount Vernon, he was considered land poor. His first inauguration was in New York and he had to borrow the money to get there.
Stories of unusual occurrences during presidential launchings are common. The number of times events have unfolded that weren't part of the script are too numerous to list, but here are a few along with some lesser known, but documented nuggets.
Robert Frost touted John Kennedy for president back in 1959 mostly because of the then senator's stance on the arts. A year later, after his election victory, Kennedy became the first president-elect to ask a poet to read a poem during a presidential inauguration. It was seen as a perfect payback for Frost's early backing. Frost eagerly accepted the first-ever invitation and decided to write a poem exclusively for the youngest president ever chosen by the people. But, the reading didn't work out as planned.
In A Restless Spirit: The Story of Robert Frost, author Natalie Bober wrote, He had planned to read, The Gift Outright, but he decided to compose a new work for the president he called, Dedication.
Bober went on to say, Frost's eyesight was failing and combined with standing in the sun at the podium during the opening, he couldn't read a word of what he had written. The end result was a garbled and confusing recitation. Bober said the poet then abandoned his plan and recited a poem he had previously written and had memorized.
Frost's episode wasn't the only unplanned embarrassment for Kennedy that day.
When Cardinal Richard Cushing was delivering the invocation, the podium caught fire due to an electrical short in the power system.
As one Washington socialite described it, Ladies fainted, men were seen with bloody noses, and such a scene of confusion took place as is impossible to describe.
Two presidents escaped the wrath of PETA because fortunately for them, the organization hadn't been formed when their lapses of judgment took place.
Grant thought canaries would add a festive touch to his inaugural ball in 1869. Unfortunately, the 18th president, nor anyone else, failed to anticipate the cold temperatures on that day and all 100 canaries Grant had procured froze to death during the induction.
The Civil War hero's party suffered other blunders too. His first election celebration saw outright brawls. The people handling the coat-check area couldn't read the claim tickets, so as people waited longer and longer for their property, fights broke out and some guests just abandoned their jackets and hats and left.
Richard Nixon was concerned with the pomp of the presidency, says Katie McNally of the U of V's Miller Center. At his own inauguration, his team even went so far as to poison part of Washington's pigeon population so they wouldn't sully the parade route, she added.
Sound reasonable? It wasn't. The tactic backfired when people had to wade through dead pigeons along the street to follow the parade route.
Who in the world could talk for two hours, non-stop? Better yet, who would be on the other end? No less than a captive audience.
On March 4, 1841, William Henry Harrison set the record for the longest-ever commencement address when he spoke for over two hours. The speech topped 84 hundred words. A lot of talk for a short-lived presidency though because he died one month later.
Cuba was like an extension of Florida for celebrities and other famous and near-famous Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries. That's how it was in 1853.
Franklin Pierce's vice-president, William King, was sworn into office while he was recuperating from tuberculosis. At the time, King was in Cuba. Congress passed a special act to allow the ceremony to take place on foreign soil. King did return to the U.S., but he died a short time later leaving Pierce without a vice-president for almost all of his four year term. Pierce had no recourse as the 25th Amendment allowing a president to nominate a vice president didn't become law until 1967.
The day after James Madison became president, he was the guest of honor at history's first inaugural ball. Tickets were four dollars each. That was considered a princely sum in 1809.
VIP tickets to George W. Bush's 2005 inaugural ball ranged from $5,000 to $50,000. Those of us on the outside looking in thought that was considered a princely sum in 2005.
Jimmy Carter was obsessed with wanting to appear to be the president for the people. He was the first president to walk from the Capitol to the White House after his ceremony.
Bill Clinton included a reggae band and lawn-chair drill team (members practiced in lawn chairs) in his parade. He also included an Elvis impersonator on a float complete with the late singer's original band.
Clinton's second celebration in January of 1997 was the first ceremony to be streamed live on the web.
How is your memory? Which Jelly Belly was created for a president?
A moment happened during Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration that most certainly could never happen today. While the new president was looking down at the crowd, a cowboy named Montie Montana rode up to the platform the president and other dignitaries were standing on after the swearing-in and lassoed the president. Westerns were the top rated television shows in 1953 and the cowboy starred in several minor westerns of the day.
Having spent several decades in broadcasting, this writer appreciates the intricacies of speech and how easy it is to botch or flub a practiced line.
President Barack Obama famously flubbed his swearing-in because Supreme Court Justice John Roberts misread the Oath of Office and it was incorrectly repeated by Obama. To silence doubts that Obama's presidency might not be legal, the two men repeated the process the next day in the White House.
And, to add to President Kennedy's frustrations on his most important day, vice-president Lyndon Johnson misread his oath of office and had to repeat it.
Judging by the way former president Trump left office, he should probably have taken a page from George Washington's concerns about perception. Or, maybe he could have whistled Mac Davis' 1980 hit, It's Hard to be Humble. Or, at the very least, perhaps he might have read about another one of his predecessors, Woodrow Wilson, who had one of the all-time great exit lines by any president, anywhere.
At the conclusion of Warren G. Harding's swearing-in ceremony in 1921, Wilson shook hands with his successor and Mr. Harding's vice president, Calvin Coolidge. Wilson then turned to his wife Edith and said, Are you ready to scoot?
HUH? What's up with that?
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