DOI: 10.3886/icpsr24303
title: United States Presidential Inaugural Addresses, 1789-2009
title: Archival Version

description: This collection includes the Inaugural Addresses of United States Presidents from George Washington in 1789 to Barack Obama in 2009. Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution provides for an executive power in the Office of President. The Constitution does not require a formal ceremony to inaugurate a president, but it does prescribe an oath that must be taken by the president-elect: "Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: 'I do solemnly 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.'" Before a crowd at Federal Hall in Philadelphia on April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first president to take this oath. Afterward, Washington delivered a short speech, establishing the precedent for inaugural addresses. Soon, presidential inaugurations became ceremonial events, and the speech delivered by the incoming president was studied as a guide to the next administration. (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, and Gerald Ford -- all one-term presidents sworn in at each predecessor's death or resignation -- gave no inaugural address.) The Constitution had originally specified March 4 as the date by which the president must be chosen, and that became the inauguration date. As more presidential electors were chosen by popular vote in the November election, the outgoing president became known as a "lame duck" in the four months that separated the choice of a president from his inauguration. The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution (adopted in 1933) provided that henceforth Congress would convene on January 3 and the presidential term would begin on January 20. On January 20, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president nominated under the terms of the 20th Amendment.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Washington, 1789 
 DS2: Washington, 1793 
 DS3: Adams, J., 1797 
 DS4: Jefferson, 1801 
 DS5: Jefferson, 1805 
 DS6: Madison, 1809 
 DS7: Madison, 1813 
 DS8: Monroe, 1817 
 DS9: Monroe, 1821 
 DS10: Adams, J.Q., 1825 
 DS11: Jackson, 1829 
 DS12: Jackson, 1833 
 DS13: VanBuren, 1837 
 DS14: Harrison, 1841 
 DS15: Polk, 1845 
 DS16: Taylor, 1849 
 DS17: Pierce, 1853 
 DS18: Buchanan, 1857 
 DS19: Lincoln, 1861 
 DS20: Lincoln, 1865 
 DS21: Grant, 1869 
 DS22: Grant, 1873 
 DS23: Hayes, 1877 
 DS24: Garfield, 1881 
 DS25: Cleveland, 1885 
 DS26: Harrison, 1889 
 DS27: Cleveland, 1893 
 DS28: McKinley, 1897 
 DS29: McKinley, 1901 
 DS30: Roosevelt, T.,1905 
 DS31: Taft, 1909 
 DS32: Wilson, 1913 
 DS33: Wilson, 1917 
 DS34: Harding, 1921 
 DS35: Coolidge, 1925 
 DS36: Hoover, 1929 
 DS37: Roosevelt, F.,1933 
 DS38: Roosevelt, F., 1937 
 DS39: Roosevelt, F., 1941 
 DS40: Roosevelt, F., 1945 
 DS41: Truman, 1949 
 DS42: Eisenhower, 1953 
 DS43: Eisenhower, 1957 
 DS44: Kennedy, 1961 
 DS45: Johnson, 1965 
 DS46: Nixon, 1969 
 DS47: Nixon, 1973 
 DS48: Carter, 1977 
 DS49: Reagan, 1981 
 DS50: Reagan, 1985 
 DS51: Bush, G.H.W., 1989 
 DS52: Clinton, 1993 
 DS53: Clinton, 1997 
 DS54: Bush, G.W., 2001 
 DS55: Bush, G.W., 2005 
 DS56: Obama, 2009