Presidential Swearing-In Ceremony

Part 2 of 6

Four years later, on March 4, 1793, Washington's second Inauguration happened in Philadelphia, where the government had taken up temporary residence while a permanent capital was being built along the Potomac. The President took his oath in the small Senate chamber on the second floor of Congress Hall, a Georgian-style structure just west of Independence Hall. In contrast to his elaborate first Inauguration, this ceremony was a simple affair. Amidst a room crammed with dignitaries, Washington gave the shortest Inaugural address on record—just 135 words—and repeated the oath of office, administered by Supreme Court Justice William Cushing.

By March of 1801, the seat of the U.S. government had moved to Washington, D.C. The streets were muddy, almost impassable, and overgrown with bushes. Crude arrangements for the workers charged with constructing buildings for the federal government scarred the landscape. At the time, the Capitol Building comprised just one wing, which housed the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court, all under one roof. On March 4, 1801, President-elect Thomas Jefferson walked with few attendants and little fanfare to the Capitol Building from his nearby lodgings at a boarding house to become the first President to be inaugurated in the nation’s new capital city. Upon entering the Senate chamber, now the Old Supreme Court Chamber, Jefferson immediately took the oath of office administered by Chief Justice John Marshall and addressed the audience gathered in the Senate chamber. After his Inaugural address he finished his day with a meal at the boarding house. But for a few occasions, the Inauguration ceremonies for all future Presidents and Vice Presidents would take place in the City of Washington.