Your Vote
In a very short time we must all make a decision to whom will we give our vote for President of the United States of America. The only important thing to remember is you have the right and duty to cast your ballot for whom you wish to vote.
The office of the President of the United States of America after the election
and the procedure we follow to bring the individual elected comes together on one day. This is the day of the Inauguration. The president and vice president normally take the same oath but in this narrative I will only cover the Inauguration Oath taken by the President.
The date that was set for the Inauguration was normally the fourth day of March unless
it fell on a weekend or circumstances dictated a different date such as an untimely
death of the President. This was changed by the 20th Amendment to the Constitution under
President Frank D. Roosevelt in 1937 and since has been on January 20th following the election.
Who gives the oath is not set in law or the intention of the Constitution to name the office
or individual to administer the oath. The oath has in the past been administered by the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court except the following:
| Date
| President
| Administer of Oath
| Title
|
| April 30, 1789
| George Washington
| Robert Livingston
| Councillor of State of New York
|
| March 4, 1793
| George Washington
| William Cushing
| Associate Justice of Supreme Court
|
| April 6, 1841
| John Tyler
| William Cranch
| Chief Judge of U.S. Circuit Court
|
| July 10, 1850
| Millard Filmore
| William Cranch
| Chief Judge of U.S. Circuit Court
|
| September 20, 1881
| Chester A. Arthur
| John R. Brady
| Justice of the New York State Spreme Court
|
| September 4, 1901
| Theodore Roosevelt
| John R. Hazel
| U.S. District Judge for Western District of New York
|
| August 3, 1923
| Calvin Coolidge
| John C. Coolidge
| Notary Public, Father of the President
|
| November 22, 1963
| Lyndon B. Johnson
| Sarah T. Hughes
| U.S. District Judge, Northern district of Texas
|
The Oath given to the President of the United States of America is as follows:
"I, (the presidents name optional) swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
The administor will feed the words by asking the President to repeat after him. The President may even wish to add a bit to the end of the oath, such as "so help me God" and such things
as kissing the Bible.
George Washington added the words “so help me God” at the first inauguration, a practice followed by all his successors. He took the oath with his left hand on a Bible and his right hand raised toward heaven. Although the Constitution does not require that the oath be taken on a Bible, most other Presidents have done so. The Bible is always opened to a passage, and no two Presidents have chosen the same one.
As for U.S. presidents, in 1825 John Quincy Adams took the presidential oath using a law volume instead of a Bible, and in 1853 Franklin Pierce affirmed the oath rather than swearing it. Herbert Hoover, citing his Quaker beliefs, also affirmed his oath in 1929 but did use a Bible, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Theodore Roosevelt used no Bible in taking his first oath of office in 1901, but did use one in 1905.
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