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Library of Congress Photo
President-elect Wilson and President Taft at the White House, before Wilson's inauguration, March 4, 1913.
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Published: January 11, 2009
Q. When did inauguration balls for the president begin? -- L.B.
A. Parties to honor the new president have been held since the first president, George Washington. The tradition of an inaugural ball began in 1809, for President James Madison.
With a few exceptions, there has been an inaugural ball for every president. In modern times, there have been as many as 14 balls.
In some inaugural years, presidents have asked that the ball, or other inaugural activities, be canceled. In 1913, President-elect Woodrow Wilson asked that there not be a ball, because the inauguration was a solemn occasion.
That doesn't mean that Wilson's inauguration was without its lighter moments.
A story about a photo session is described by Ike Hoover, a White House usher, in his book Forty-Two Years in the White House.
President William Taft and President-elect Wilson posed on the south porch of the White House before the inauguration. Even as far back as 1913, posing was an expected ritual for presidents, with hordes of camera "operators," as they were called.
"A very large number of pictures were made and the antics of the operators in their haste was really amusing,'' Hoover wrote. "The two men were asked to toe a line that had been made on the porch by face powder taken from a vanity box of one of the operators who was a female of the interesting type. They were asked to shake hands which was readily granted, to face each other which was done by both without a flinch, asked to look this way and that and finally asked to look away from the cameras and operators entirely that a side view might be taken.… The two men had moved mechanically in response to all the former requests but to this last request, coming as it did from the lady member of the party, Mr. Wilson turned toward her instead of looking away and remarked that they would much prefer to look toward the lady. This brought a broad smile from all present and the picture taking episode ended with good feeling all around."
Q. Who administers the oath of office to the president? Who decides what he says? -- J.T.
A. The oath of office is administered by the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The words of the president's oath of office are prescribed in the U.S. Constitution.
The president's oath is "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
The words of the president's oath were carefully considered by the members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
"The oath originally proposed was much shorter, requiring the president-elect to swear only to ‘faithfully execute the office of President of the United States,'" the National Archives Web site says. "James Madison, a delegate to the convention from Virginia, believed that the chief executive should be bound by oath to support the articles of the Union -- the very document the convention was struggling to create. Along with George Mason, another Virginia delegate, Madison proposed that the president also be made to swear to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'"
At his inauguration, George Washington added "So help me, God."
The oath taken by the vice president was established by a congressional act in 1792. The first version was little more than "support and defend." In 1884, the oath was lengthened to the one used today, which is: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."
■ E-mail: AskSAM@wsjournal.com.
■ Online: www.journalnow.com/asksam
■ Write: Ask SAM, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102.
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