A Call for Wild Inaugurals

PETER: This is BackStory. I’m Peter Onuf, your 18th century guy.

ED: I’m Ed Ayers, your 19th century guy.

BRIAN: And I’m Brian Balogh, your 20th century guy. Today on the show, we’re looking at some of the more high stakes moments in presidential inauguration history.

PETER: As we do each week, we’ve been fielding your comments and questions on backstoryradio.org as well as on Facebook. One of those questions came from Sam, a history teacher in Richmond, Virginia. And we have Sam on the line with us now. Welcome to the show.

SAM: Hey, thanks for having me on. I’m a long time fan.

PETER: Oh, wonderful. Great to have you here. What do you have for us?

SAM: Well, I’m [INAUDIBLE]. A lot of presidents have used their inaugurations to sort of show their own take on political style, on political philosophy. You know, Jefferson walked instead of taking a carriage and Jackson had a gigantic party on the White House lawn, traumatized polite Washington society. Have other presidents used the occasion the same way?

PETER: Well, we’re going to plumb the depths here and come up with something. And the question is the performance at inauguration, what presidents do to make an impression, particularly in the media age. Now, Sam, you began with a couple of 19th century relics who figure prominently in history books, that’s Jefferson and Jackson. I think we’re going to get more exciting stuff in the later centuries. How about it, guys?

ED: You know, I’m going to be territorial, Peter.

PETER: All right.

ED: I don’t know what could be more exciting than Andrew Jackson’s inauguration in 1829.

PETER: Yeah, I guess that was pretty exciting, Ed.

ED: Well, you know, the whole election had been exciting. Here you’ve got this military chieftain, this tall, rawboned, Tennessean slave holder soldier elected by the Democratic Party that’s mobilizing everybody they can get to stumble to the polls.

BRIAN: As long as they were a man.

ED: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And people were so enamored of the idea of Andrew Jackson is a man of the people that 20,000 of them followed him back to the White House after his inaugural speech. And the people inside the White House were freaking out because it’s like, oh, we weren’t expecting 20,000 people.

And they start flooding into the people’s mansion. And they actually bring big bowls of punch outside to keep people from coming into the White House. But it’s too late. They come in. They’re standing on the chairs with their muddy boots. And big vats of orange punch are spilled on the White House carpets.

PETER: Well, in a way, that was the people’s performance. And that was a symbolically significant moment.

ED: Yeah, he didn’t want it, by the way. Sam had asked about if the presidents sort of shape these in their own image. Jackson was so miserable that he crawled out of a window and went and got a steak at a nearby restaurant. I kid you not. Now, Sam, did you say that you’re a history teacher?

SAM: Yes, I am.

ED: So you must have up your sleeve some good inaugural stories. And under the guise of actually stealing them from you, why don’t we ask you to tell us one that you would have used as an answer to this good question.

SAM: My other favorite one that’s more portentous than fun has to be Andrew Johnson getting his swearing in as the vice president while pretty much blind drunk.

ED: Yeah, you know–

BRIAN: Go ahead, defend him, Ed. Go ahead. Defend that Tennessee boy.

PETER: Well, he’s from Tennessee, you understand.

ED: It’s not just from Tennessee. I went to Andrew Johnson Elementary School. There’s only two in the country as far as I know and one’s in his home town and the other is 35 miles away from where I’m from. And I think he got a bum rap. I think he was ill. I think that he– you know, I don’t know. I’ll just let it go.

SAM: He maybe got a bum rap. It makes a good story though.

ED: It does. Let’s put it this way. Any way you look at it, he presented himself in a profoundly unflattering light that I do think undermined his own credibility later on. He was a brave man. And people, we forget, really admired him.

But on March 3rd of 1864, he attended a party in his honor and he drank a lot. And was hung over the next morning. So he actually asked the current vice president for some whiskey, the hair of the dog. And this current vice president– this is so hard to imagine today, isn’t it? He gives him a bottle.

And Johnson’s takes two stiff drinks and he says, I need all the strength for the occasion I can have. Then he goes into the Senate chamber and gives a rambling speech. Lincoln is sitting there. Congress is sitting there for the inauguration.

And he makes no sense whatsoever. And he actually just comes to a halt. He just quits. And then Lincoln gives his famous second inaugural address. It’s the same day, the same event. And Lincoln is watching this, watching his new vice president fail so abjectly and then has to stand up and give what’s considered to be the greatest inaugural address in American history.

PETER: Well, Sam, this has been a wonderful call. And thank you for inaugurating a great discussion.

SAM: Well, thank you guys. It’s been a real thrill.

BRIAN: Thanks a lot, Sam.

ED: Thanks, Sam.

BRIAN: Bye.