"MARCH 4: A FORGOTTEN HUGE DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY"

INAUGURATION DAY: 1793-1933

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) George Washington was inaugurated for his second term on March 4, 1793.  34 more presidential inaugurations would be held on the 4th of March with the last coming for FDR's first inaugural in 1933.

The Constitution Center describes March 4th as "a forgotten huge day in American history."  According to the Center, the Confederation Congress chose March 4, 1789 as the date for the transfer of government under the new Constitution of the United States.  On that day, the 1st Congress met in New York City where James Madison of Virginia presented the Bill of Rights.

There were a few inauguration dates switched to March 5th when March 4th fell on a Sunday and, of course, some POTUS were sworn in on alternate dates due to the deaths of their predecessors.  The March 4th date was changed to January 20th with passage of the 20th Amendment in 1933.  The date of the start of the new Congress was also switched to January 3rd.

Following is a list of the inaugurations held on March 4th...

George Washington                 1793

John Adams                                 1797

Thomas Jefferson                      1801-1805

James Madison                           1809-1813

James Monroe                             1817-1821

John Q. Adams                            1825

Andrew Jackson                         1829-1833

Martin Van Buren                     1837

William H. Harrison                1841

James K. Polk                              1845

Zachary Taylor                          1849

Franklin Pierce                           1853

James Buchanan                        1857

Abraham Lincoln                       1861-1865

Ulysses S. Grant                          1869-1873

Rutherford B. Hayes                  1877

James A. Garfield                        1881

Grover Cleveland                         1885-1893

Benjamin Harrison                     1889

William McKinley                       1897-1901

Theodore Roosevelt                    1905

William H. Taft                            1909

Woodrow Wilson                         1913

Warren Harding                          1921

Calvin Coolidge                            1925

Herbert Hoover                            1929

Franklin D. Roosevelt                1933

SOURCE

"March 4:  A forgotten huge day in American history," Constitution Daily, March 4, 2013, www.constitutioncenter.org/

Grandstand Ticket to Inaugural Parade

for President Herbert Hoover

March 4, 1929

Presidential Inaugural Committee

by Centpacrr

commons.wikimedia.org

INAUGURATION DAY

MARCH 4, 1793 TO MARCH 4, 1933

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) From President George Washington's second Inaugural in 1793, March 4th has been Inauguration Day, with few exceptions, until President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first Inaugural in 1933.  The exceptions were when the date fell on a Sunday.  Those Inaugurals were held on Monday, March 5th.

The first Inauguration was held in New York City on April 30, 1789, and after passage of the 20th Amendment, the date was moved to January 20th.  The move was helpful to reduce the length of time between the election of a president and the Inauguration.

The last March 4th Inauguration was the first of four for Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR was sworn in 82 years ago today by Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes on the East Front of the United States Capitol.

Standing in the rain on a gloomy day in an equally gloomy economic period of our nation's history, Governor Roosevelt placed his hand on the family Dutch Bible published in 1686. 

FDR repeated the Oath of Office on the oldest Bible ever to be used in an inauguration.

FDR and Eleanor in Inaugural Parade

LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION 150 YEARS AGO TODAY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) A century and a half ago today, March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.

Weeks of rain left the streets of the Nation's Capital in mud and standing water, but the completed Capitol Dome above the President's head was a visible symbol that the United States had survived during the catastrophic Civil War.

President Lincoln concluded what many scholars deem as the best presidential inaugural address ever given with these words....

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Lincoln's Second Inauguration
March 4, 1865
Photo by Alexander Gardner
Library of Congress Image