Jacob Fortes of San Diego, CA asks:

I am a 20 year old college student going into teaching. I am now doing my student teaching and I was asked this question....Was there a U.S President who was not inaugurated at 12:00 PM and what happened?

Richard Norton-Smith responds:

From time to time schedules have slipped and inaugural oaths have not been taken at precisely 12 noon.

Humorously, in 1929 the whole swearing-in was delayed by half an hour because Grace Coolidge and Lou Hoover got lost in the rabbit warren of rooms under the Capitol. Technically, I suppose, you could say the United States was without a president for 30 minutes. We survived.

Needless to say, there have been other occasions, especially the deaths of presidents, when inaugural ceremonies were dictated by the press of events. Perhaps the most dramatic of these came in August, 1923 - the lamplit inaugural, at 2:47 a.m. on a humid night in a Vermont farmhouse, when Calvin Coolidge was sworn into office by his father, a Vermont notary public. President Harding had died hours before of a heart attack. In that case, the United States was literally without a president for several hours.

Heather Cox of Amite, Louisiana asks:

Which president had the most money when he entered office, and who had the least? How does a president's personal wealth affect their policies?

Richard Norton-Smith responds:

It is generally believed that among the wealthiest of American presidents were John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. George Washington, otherwise a rich man by the standards of his time, was so land-poor that he had to borrow money in order to attend his 1787 inaugural in New York.

On the other extreme, Andrew Johnson, William McKinley, and Harry Truman have been among the least wealthy of our chief executives. McKinley, in fact, had to be bailed out by friends following substantial investment losses while governor of Ohio. One of those friends was Mark Hanna, the Cleveland industrialist turned political boss who managed McKinley's 1896 campaign against William Jennings Bryan.

As for a president's wealth affecting his policies, that's as speculative as it is open-ended. Needless to say, one could write a book, and many have, on the subject. Call me naïve, but I think it is generally true to say that few, if any, presidents have been influenced in their policies by their wealth or lack thereof.

Kevin Fine of East Meadow, NY asks:

When have president's broken with tradition, and why?

Richard Norton-Smith responds:

One way or another, most have broken with tradition. It all depends on how you define tradition.

Certainly the most historically memorable - Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Wilson, and so on - have each represented a break with the past, in both substance and style.

Jackson's first inauguration, for example, is famous for attracting thousands of newly enfranchised supporters, many of them westerners, to Washington, and into the White House where their enthusiastic presence forced the new president to seek escape by climbing out a window (while White House staff members placed tubs of punch on the lawn in an effort to deflect some of the boisterous crowd).

The Civil War forced Lincoln to break with tradition in numberless ways. Indeed, many constitutional scholars still maintain that some of his innovations were highly questionable in their legality (suspending the writ of habeas corpus comes to mind).

Franklin Roosevelt, the supreme pragmatist, proclaimed the need to break with tradition in March, 1933, a time of economic desperation and national despair. His New Deal brought about government intervention in the economy as never before, with a series of so-called alphabet agencies - the NRA, AAA, WPA, etc. - designed as a crash program to put the unemployed to work, and to lay a rudimentary safety net under millions of his countrymen.

Amanda Kato of Miami Florida asks:

Why did Vice President Cheney take a different oath than George Bush? Is there anything that prescribes the role of the Vice President.

Richard Norton-Smith responds:

Good question. Quite simply, the Constitution spells out the oath of office for a new president. It provides no such wording for his running mate.

As far as prescribing the role of the vice president, that really is something that has evolved over time, reflecting as much as anything else the temperament, personality, priorities, and the management style of various presidents.

Certainly the office has become more visible in recent years, beginning with Richard Nixon, who took advantage of television in the 1950s, as well as jet travel and Dwight Eisenhower's desire to remain above the political fray, to create a much more activist vice presidency.

In the years since, presidents have relied to a greater or lesser extent on their deputies. While vice presidents still spend an inordinate amount of time attending state funerals, they've also become major players in the administration, influencing policy and politics alike - Ronald Reagan entrusted George Bush with regulatory reform. When he succeeded to the presidency, Bush put Dan Quayle in charge of the space program. Al Gore played an even more important role as a general advisor to Bill Clinton, not to mention the head of the Clinton Administration's reinventing government initiative. And Dick Cheney has already broken new ground by helping to staff the second Bush Administration.

Was there a President who was not inaugurated at 12PM?

Which president had the most personal wealth when he entered the White House?

When have presidents broken with tradition?

Why did Vice President Cheney take a different Oath of Office?


Questions answered by Michael Beschloss:

What can Bush learn from John Quincy Adams, another president to follow in his father's footsteps?

How does this president compare to others who have started a new century?

How is Bush's situation similar to JFK?

Which president came to office under the most similar circumstances?

Library of Congress Inaugural History