DC bound…
I’m typing this as we drive down the highway, en route to the 57th Inauguration of the President of the United States. Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in just a short time ago by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The President will be sworn in a bit later.
Why today? Because today is the official Inauguration Day. Tomorrow’s public event at the Capitol Building will be for show only. From the official Inauguration website:
The 2013 Inauguration will be the seventh time the constitutionally-mandated Inauguration date has fallen on a Sunday. There is no precedent for a public swearing-in to be held on a Sunday so all seven times, the public ceremonies have occurred the following Monday. The Inauguration of President James Monroe in 1821 was the first time the constitutionally-mandated Inauguration date fell on Sunday. After consulting with the Supreme Court and other government leaders, the decision was made to hold the ceremonies on Monday since “courts and other public institutions were not open on Sunday.” The second time this occurred was in 1849 with President Zachary Taylor. In the case of Presidents Monroe and Taylor, no private swearing-in occurred on the Sunday. However, in 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes elected to have the oath administered privately in the White House Red Room on Saturday, March 3, with the public ceremonies occurring at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, March 5. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson was privately sworn-in in the President’s Room of the U.S. Capitol on Sunday, March 4, with the public ceremonies on Monday, March 5. In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office in the White House East Room on January 20, 1957 with the public ceremonies following on Monday, January 21. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan had the oath administered privately at the White House and then due to extremely cold temperatures the public ceremonies were moved indoors to the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
During this trip, in addition to attending the swearing-in ceremony, Anne will be taking lots of stock photos for the blog and, of course, we’ll have some photos from the event itself.
Trips like this are made possible, in part, by the generosity of our readers during our fundraising drives. Your donations allow us to pay for gas, equipment, meals and all of the other expenses that we incur along the way. In return, we give you a little taste of the inauguration experience.
Over the next couple of days, be sure to follow our twitter accounts @Eclectablog and @Anne_Savage for photos and some live-tweeting.
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