The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-03-04
CEREMONIAL TODAY
NOT USUAL BRAND
lnaugurations of the Past
Held With Less Pomp
Than That of Today.
National News Association


WASHINGTON, March 4-The
pomp and circumstance with which
President Woodrow Wilson was borne
into Office today was much at variance
with historical accounts of early in
iaugurations
Many of the early Presidents of the
Republic were opposed to spectacular
Iinaugurals, first voicing the plea for
simplicity which President Wilson
made the keynote of his requests re-
garding this Inauguration.
George Washington put himself on
record as an advocate of induction into
Office without pompt or ceremony, by
deprecating the demonstration made
in his honor at his Inauguration in
New York
Washington's second inauguration
, was held in Independence Hail. Phila-
delphia. There was then less display
than there was four years before,
when crowd of 10000 people cheer
ed him as he took the oath of Office
on the balcony of famous old house
at Broad and Wall streets, New York
City.
The first Inauguration ceremonies
ever held in Washington were those
of Thomas Jefferson, whose Inaugural
ton was the most simple ever held
here. On the morning of his Inaugural
ton day he walked, with a select
group of his closest adherents, to the
Capitol, where he took the oath of of
fee in the seclusion of the Senate
chamber.
When Madison was inaugurated in
1909 the demand for tickets of admis-
sion to the Senate chamber was so
pressing that the administering of the
oath was performed on the portico of
the old House of Representatives in
the sight of all the people, setting
precedent that has been more or less
strictly adhered to since.
James Monroe was borne into office
on the tide of prosperity currently
known as THE Era of Good Feeling"
1t was only natural that thousands of
people should congregate to witness
his induction into the high seat Of gov
eminent. Roads were better then than
in the earlier days. and 10000 persons
came to the capital city from all parts
of the country. 1t is recorded that the
crowd was SO great that although Mon
roe could be seen by all his words did
not carry to the limits of the congre-
cation.
The younger Adams returned to the
old style of being inaugurated in the
Senate Chamber, but the citizens were
so enraged at this course that a free
for-all fight with the cavalry guard
about the Capitol is said to have taken
place. The demand was that the
President should take the oath Sin the
sight of God and all the people"
When Andrew Jackson was elected
his western supporters f1ocked to
Washington in such numbers that the
city hotels and lodging houses had not
capacity to accommodate them. They
were hard-drinking. fighting frontiers
men, campsters rather than courtiers,
and they made Washington city sur
charged with life and boisterous &C.
'tivity which, it is recorded, broke
bounds and overfowed to the point of
disorder
1t then became patent that some
means of caring for and regulating the
comfort and conduct of Inauguration
visitors was expedient. From Jack
sons Inauguration on, therefore, COM
mittees of citizens arranged and pre-
pared for the reception of the influx Of
visitors on the Fourth of March.
Prior to that time there had been
little in the way of an Inauguration
procession. Military escorts were pro-
vided for the new Presidents, but little
else. At Jackson's Inauguration there
was good deal of street masking, and
an inaugural procession which re-
sembled circus parade. To eliminate
this farcial display five companies of
soldiers were ordered to march in the
Inauguration parade of President Van
Buren,.
The inaugural parades and crowds
grew larger with each succeeding in
augural year. There were eleven
companies of soldiery to grace James
K. Folks Inauguration and twenty
thousand stood on the Capitol Plaza
to hear Zachary Taylor's inaugural ad
dress, while fifty thousand applauded
that of Buchanan.
Inaugural balls had been irregular
affairs, therefore, and were given, in
many cases, privately. A temporary
frame building was erected in Judi
ciary Square for Buchanans inaugur-