Professor explores history of presidential inaugurations
by Chris Taylor, editor in chief

    Washington’s inauguration was the most important of all presidential inaugurations, an author and historian told a NE Campus audience last week.

    “Washington’s is the most important because that is the one that started it all,” he said.

    Dr. Paul Boller Jr., TCU professor emeritus, explained the beginnings of the inauguration ceremonies and described some of the presidential inaugurations that he researched for his current book, Presidential Inaugurations.

    “History becomes a part of your life,” he said.

Boller said his first historical book concerned U.S. presidents.

    “In my first book, I wrote about what each president was like. Not their administration, but what they were like as a person,” he said.

    The book also contained presidential anecdotes. For his second book, Boller wrote about presidential campaigns. Boller’s third book covered the lives of the presidents’ wives.

    Boller said that while coming up with an idea for his latest book, he realized there was an aspect of American presidents that had not received much attention in recent years.

    “I learned that there had not been any books about presidential inaugurations in almost 30 years,” he said.

    Presidential Inaugurations was released in May and deals mainly with the customs of inaugurations.

    “I wanted to make an updated book on one of our important traditions,” he said.

    Boller stated that the Constitution contains nothing about inaugurations except the oath of the office of president.
    “Everything that goes into an inauguration is improvised,” he said.

    Americans were very happy about their new government and wanted to celebrate this occasion. This is how inaugurations started, Boller said.

    “Here was a little country trying something totally different from anything else in the world,” he said.

    Boller explained that Americans wanted a ceremony, but not a coronation like the kings and queens in Europe.

    “Washington’s inauguration was different. Here was a general who won victory, but did not try to seize power for himself. Washington was uncomfortable with the idea of being a leader,” he said

    Boller said that after Washington took his Presidential Oath, he said, “so help me God,” and then kissed the Bible.

    Boller also explained that every president except one has taken the oath of office with a hand on the Bible.

    “John Quincy Adams was the only president not to take his oath on the Bible. Instead, Adams took his oath on a book of U.S. laws.

    “Adams did this, not because he was anti-religious, but because he felt that he was being sworn into a secular office,” he said.

    Boller explained that Washington set most of the precedents for presidential inaugurations. Some of the traditions set by Washington were the swearing on the Bible, the ride to the Capitol Building and the inaugural address.

    Boller said that Washington’s second address was the shortest ever given while William Henry Harrison gave the longest at two and a half hours.

    “Harrison wanted to prove that at age 68 he was still very tough. So, he gave his long speech in extremely cold weather not wearing a coat or hat. He caught a cold and then died a month later,” he said.

    Boller told the crowd James Madison was the first president to have an inaugural ball in 1809 and LBJ was the first president to dance at the ball in 1965.

    Grant was responsible for the first inaugural parade, Boller said.

    Boller told the audience only a few inaugural speeches are worth reading today.

    “I’ve read all of them, and I think I deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor because some of the speeches are real snoozers,” he said.

    From upstate New York, Boller was educated at Yale and served in the Navy during World War II. Boller has written many books, including three Book-of-the-Month Club selections.