Inauguration Delay: Why Presidents Wait 2 Months to Start

The inauguration of George W. Bush on Jan. 20, 2005.

Credit score: White Home

Greater than two months after he was elected to be the 45th president of america, Donald Trump will likely be formally sworn in to workplace on Friday (Jan. 20). But when votes are forged in November, why does a lot time elapse between the election and the inauguration ceremony?

Whereas 10 weeks might look like a protracted wait, previous presidents needed to take care of a for much longer delay earlier than taking on the mantle, historic data present.

This week's 58th inauguration ceremony will likely be solely the 21st ceremony held in January. Previous to the 20th Modification to the U.S. Structure, adopted in 1933, each new president was anticipated to take workplace on March four. There have been exceptions, corresponding to if a vice chairman took the oath after the loss of life of a sitting president. [The 6 Strangest Presidential Elections in US History]

The Continental Congress (the nation's converning physique previous to the primary electios) initially set the primary Wednesday in March to be the date of the primary presidential inauguration, in 1789, which occurred to be March four, in line with Jim Bendat, writer of "Democracy's Huge Day: The Inauguration of Our President, 1789-2013" (iUniverse, 2011).

"Again within the early days of the nation, it took a very long time to journey, notably from the West Coast to Washington, D.C.," Bendat advised Reside Science of the necessity for each Congress members and presidential transition groups to relocate to the capital. "So that they wanted a protracted time frame between the election and swearing in of the president to get all the pieces so as."

Actually, that first inauguration, in 1789, didn't happen till April 30. Bendat stated Congress could not get sufficient of its members to point out up for the inauguration of George Washington, so the ceremony was pushed again to the tip of April.

Following Washington's inauguration, Congress determined to maintain March four because the date for all future ceremonies. In analysis for his ebook, Bendat stated, he discovered that a part of the reason for this selection of date (past the time wanted for the transition between presidencies) was that Congress' examine of future calendars revealed that this date was least prone to land on a Sunday. Probably the most spiritual of politicians wished to keep away from official enterprise on Sundays every time potential, Bendat stated.

Right this moment, if the inauguration date falls on a Sunday, there's a personal swearing in on Sunday and a public ceremony on Monday — as was the case 4 years in the past for Barack Obama's second inauguration.

By the 20th century, advances in know-how and transportation meant individuals may journey across the nation extra shortly, and there was no cause for the "lame-duck" interval between Election Day and the inauguration to be so lengthy. Additionally, in instances of nationwide turbulence, the lame-duck interval proved to be too lengthy a wait. 

This lengthy delay was notably troublesome in the course of the center of the Nice Melancholy, stated the College of Missouri-Kansas Metropolis Faculty of Legislation's "Exploring Constitutional Legislation." Throughout President Herbert Hoover's lame-duck interval in 1932, Hoover and then-President-elect Franklin Roosevelt barely communicated, leaving the nation ready on the federal government to take motion to curb financial devastation. In response, Congress proposed the 20th Modification.

"There was a debate on when to alter it, as a result of it was determined fairly universally that 4 months was too lengthy to attend," Bendat stated. "The Senate initially wished to alter it to Jan. 15, and the Home of Representatives steered Jan. 24, and Jan. 20 was reached as a compromise."

Due to this fact, the 20th Modification dictated that the president's time period would start at midday on Jan. 20.

Authentic article on Reside Science.

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