After the inauguration of his vice president, John Adams, Washington immediately deferred to the new president, insisting that Adams leave the room first. Woodrow Wilson's first. Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren, in 1837, were the first outgoing and incoming presidents to ride together to the ceremonies, according to a history compiled by the architect of the Capitol. Even the outgoing Truman and President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower, despite bad feelings between them, managed in 1953 to smile broadly for the cameras as they left the White House in an open car. Unity is often a stated theme of inaugurals, for they mark an attempt to turn the nation from the election's disagreements toward the promise of a new presidency.
Inaugurals play out on several stages.
There is the swearing-in ceremony, conducted before the American people outside the Capitol since James Monroe took his oath in 1817. There are public events from military flyovers begun during Truman's 1949 inaugural to the 1993 concert at the Lincoln Memorial that drew hundreds of thousands of spectators for Clinton's first inauguration. That concert, which featured baby boomer icons Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Diana Ross, was one sure sign that a generational change had come to the presidency. There is also the parade from the Capitol to the president's reviewing stand at the White House, which dates to Cleveland's reviewing of the troops. He emerged a hero from that conflict, which helped propel him into the White House.