The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-02

IS !: !: =: !. J: !:
-$%%GcN HE public Inauguration
AMI of Theodore Roose-
IN III welt as twenty-sixth
t@NF sSSR% president of the Unit
Nv M ed States on Satur-
I04 ~M day, March 4, win be
I$A%S& observed with unusu-
al ceremony. An effort
win be made to relieve the celebration
of this interesting quadrennial public
event of some of it's perfunctoriness.
The circumstances of the present case
seem to justify the popular desire to
make the occasion somewhat. memora-
bic. Mr.. Roosevelt is the first president
who has served the major part of a
presidential term before his public in
auguratiOn. No other man elected vice
president and called upon to fill an un-
expected vacancy in the chief magis-
tracy has been chosen by the suffrages
of the American electorate to remain in
the White House for a subsequent four
years.
The induction into office of those who
have in any way come into legal au-
thority is a practice that is coincident
with the origin of earthly rule and rul-
ers. The popular idea that a man ele-
waited to a position of authority is not
started properly on his career of use
fulness until he has been inaugurated
has taken firm root in the minds of all
civilized peoples. This is probably due
not so much to the popular liking for
public festivities as it is to the desire
of the average man to take a hand in
the launching of a national career
Nowadays the presidential Inaugural
ton is an affair which concerns Wash
ington principally At first it was not
SO. At the induction of Thomas JEFF
ferson into public Office the entire ma
ton gave itself up to jollihcation. It
was the first Inauguration at the new
capital, and it was a comparatively
modest affair. Chroniclers differ as to
the details, some of them adhering rig
idly to the teaching Of the school histO-
ries of past generations From those
sources it would appear that there was
no public demonstration of any kind
The president elect, clad in his plainest
suit of black homespun, rode up to the
capitol on a sorry nag, dismounted lei
surely, tied his horse to the national
hitching post and entered the senate
chamber unattended and without cere-
mony. After he had delivered his adj
dress he took the necessary oath. and |
the simple business was over
Later and more pafnstaking research
has made probable a more dignihed,
although scarcely more ceremonious. !
beginning of Mr.. Jefferson's presiden- |
tial career. The great mans escort to
the capitol was only party of polit- |
zeal friends Mr.. Adams, the retiring
president, had not deemed it necessary |
to be present at the incoming of his
successor and had left town on the pre- /
ceding afternoon For some reason I'M |
known to the present age the vice pres
ident, Aaron Burr, had been sworn in
before Mr.. Jefferson reached the capt. |
toI. When the great Virginian entered
the hall Mr.. Burr rose and conducted
him to his vacant seat, and Chief JUS
tee Marshall. robed and bewigged, t
came in and took his position. The
new president repeated the oath and
delivered his inaugural. Afterward he
went to the White House, and a small
reception concluded the day. A salvo
of artillery announced the administra- |
ton of the oath, and that was about all !
that Washington contributed to the |
celebration.
There were many and excellent rea- |
sons for this moderation on the part of
the national capital and its inhabitants. /
1t was a struggling country village half
buried in mud, and its citizens were as
transient as they could manage. The |
election had been so close that con- /
gress had been arbiter- A feeling of
unrest and dissatisfaction prevailed, |
and Mr.. Adams adherents were in no I
mood for participation in the induction 1
of their political enemy. More than all, /
Mr.. Jefferson was a man of simple /
tastes, and the absence of public dem 1
onstration was precisely to his liking. /
That this was the case is proved by the /