The First Inauguration of Ronald Reagan

On January 20, 1981—an unseasonably balmy day in Washington, D.C.—Ronald Wilson Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president; he had triumphed in a landslide election against the incumbent, President Jimmy Carter, who sat exhausted, as his successor repeated the oath of office, administered by Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the Unites States; at two weeks away from his 70th birthday, Reagan would become the oldest person to occupy the White House.

It was the first presidential inauguration on the West Front of the Capitol; as he took the vow, Carter faced the American west from which he came. The fact that a much larger crowd could be accommodated was a bonus; the former actor was happy to have a bigger stage—and the precedent held; all future inaugurations (except for Reagan’s second in 1985—moved inside the Capitol because of severe weather—would be there.)

During the ceremony, 52 American hostages in Tehran were freed by the Iranian regime. They had languished in captivity for 444 days, and the timing of their release was a final swipe at President Carter. Their long ordeal—and the failure of an American military rescue attempt—nearly decimated Carter’s popularity—already at a low ebb because of the persistent economic malaise. During the campaign, Reagan had asked the American public a simple, but effective question: “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” In November, the electorate responded “no” decisively, and Reagan carried 44 states.

It had been a hard-fought and bitterly contested election. But during his inaugural address, in which he hailed the peaceful transfer of power, Reagan said to his predecessor:

Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition process, you have shown a watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our Republic.

Only 56, Carter would live until the age of 100—longer than any other president; his body would lie in state in the Capitol just days before the 44^th anniversary of that warm day in Washington.

For more information about Ronald Reagan, the Grateful American Book Prize recommends Peggy Noonan’s When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan.

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The Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation

January 1, 1863, was a cold and cloudy day in Washington. After months of delay and debate, –military setbacks, and frustrations–and doubt over the resolve of President Abraham Lincoln–this was the day that he would sign the final Emancipation Proclamation. This executive order would transform the war into one of liberation, declaring that slaves held in Confederate territory “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

But even at a time such as this, the ceremonial duties of the presidency had to be fulfilled. In keeping with a New Year’s Day tradition, a vast number of visitors would be welcomed to the White House to greet the president and first lady.

With so much on his mind, even the good-natured Lincoln must have contemplated the coming crowd with weary resignation. He had hardly slept the night before, after having spent time making final adjustments to the text of the Proclamation.

For nearly three hours, President Lincoln greeted dignitaries and the public until the doors were finally closed. Having done his ceremonial duty, Lincoln trudged up the stairs to his office. It is difficult to imagine what he must have felt, knowing that the most revolutionary instrument in the history of the presidency was awaiting his signature.

He picked up his pen just twenty months after the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter. One year and eight months of political maneuvering, battlefield victories and defeats, and the shedding of oceans of blood had brought him to this moment. It was time to sign his name and give his country what he would later call “a new birth of freedom.”

Yet something was wrong. His hand was shaking. The men around him must have wondered if Lincoln had doubts. But as he explained, the cause was something far simpler: he had been “shaking hands for hours, with several hundred people.” Massaging his right hand with his left, he looked around and said, “I never in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper…If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” And with that he signed his full name, and said quietly, “That will do.”

For more information about Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the Grateful American Book Prize recommends Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen Guelzo.

Michael F. Bishop, a writer and historian, is the former executive director of the International Churchill Society and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

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History Matters is a feature courtesy of the Grateful American Book Prize, an annual award for high quality, 7th to 9th grade-level books dealing with important moments in history.