The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1921-03-03
President Harding Will Be
Indugurated Without Pomp

was at hand. The last remnants of
the court of honor before the White
House erected for inauguration had
not disappeared before the nation
was af1ame with war business.
There have been other Inaugural
tions over which even a darker cloud
lowered. Andrew Jackson took office
in 1929 soon after the death of his
wife, which curtailed Inauguration
ceremonies, and five times vice presi- (
dents have been called to the presi-
dency through death Of the president,
three times by assassination. In each
case the vice president took, up his
duties without formal ceremony other
than private administration of oath
of office. Tyler, at his home IN Wash
ington, Fillmore at the capitol, john
son in the office of the president,
Arthur at his home in New York
City, and Roosevelt in Buffalo thus
took up the presidency. ..-s.
/ Curious tales, many now almost
legendary and some of them tinged
with bitterness of partisan feeling of
their day, have drifted down the
years from Inauguration periods long
gone by. Much has been written and
said of the Jefferson simplicity of
the third president, yet not all of it
appears to be well founded on fact.
| 1t has been often repeated that JEFF
ferson rode his horse to his Inaugural
ton, hitching the animal to fence
near the capitol while he went to take
the oath. Investigation by historians
| appears to have established, however,
that it was an incident eight years
later, when jefferson surrendered
office to Madison, from which this &C
count sprang. He did ride to see his
successor installed, leaving his horse
at hitching post meanwhile, then
] set off for his Virginia home at Mon
i ticello.
! 1t also appears that Jefferson had
planned a more elaborate Inaugural
ton ceremony than actually was held.
He was escorted into the City by a
troop of cavalry the day before TAX
ing lodgings at Conrad and Nc
LMonn's on New Jersey avenue two
hundred steps from the capitol where
he was to take the oath. A coach and
four was enroute from his home to
carry him to the steps of the capitol
next day, but failure of Jacky Eppes
to get through with it in time be-
cause of muddy roads, left Mr.. JEFF
ferson afoot and he walked with
friends from his lodging next day to
his Inauguration.
, Jefferson was not accompanied by
, his predecessor, John Adams. In pro-
test against this action of the house
in settling tie by election of Jeffer-
son, President Adams left the city al
daybreak, Inauguration day.
President Monroe was the first ex.
ecutive to take the oath of office or
the East portico of the capitol. A
controversy as to whether the senate
| or house chamber should witness the
proceedings was settled by this de-
! cision to beg the issue, and President
Harding, weather permitting, viii
take his oath in the same place
Otherwise, he will be conducted tt
the senate chamber for the house will
3 not be in session. -
: Aside from Jeffersons coach ant
: four which failed to arrice for his in
: auguration, several presidents hav
i used conveyances in riding to tn
IL To 10 RI fho
$ mony in a fou rhorse phaeton fash
y Toned from the, timbers of the oil
! frigate Constitution and with a pic
ture of the ship under full sail painte'
o on the panels. Altogether it woul'
K be very creditable turnout for Lon,
Acre." said one contemporary writer
: The phaeton was also used at Val
i Buren's Inauguration to succee,
e Jackson, though the same write
4 notes that during his incumbency
jackson drove much behind ga high
n stepping bony old iron-gray steed
r. attached to a sulky presented b,
: "some eccentric mechanic" which wa
: made entirely out of "rough-cu
h hickory with the bark on" and ha
/ "very much the look of Old Hickor
e himself"
General Harrison though he rod
n his horse to the capitol returned t
n the White House in coach present
Z ed to him by the "Whigs of Balti
ri more"
4 =