The next day, the outgoing president, Ulysses S. Grant, invited Hayes to the White House and secretly swore him without the nation knowing, and prevented the last attempt by Tilden or the Democrats to reverse the result. to protect against any possible protection. violence by aggrieved Southerners. The inauguration was later repeated for the public, who did not know that Hayes had already taken the oath.
[1945[1945
After winning an unprecedented fourth term, Franklin D. Roosevelt opted for a slimmed-down inauguration, taking into account the sacrifices of a country fighting a world war abroad and enduring austerity measures at home – reflecting its own weak strength with less than three months. to live.
Instead of being sworn in at the Capitol, Roosevelt, his hands trembling and his voice weak, took the oath on the South Portic of the White House in front of a relatively small crowd. The ceremony lasted only 15 minutes. There was no entrance parade, no gala ball, just a relatively perfect lunch. “Dog catchers have taken office with more splendor and position,” the president’s secret service chief remarked.
1969
Richard M. Nixon took the oath for the first time amid a very different foreign war, one without the popular support at home. Activists protesting against the conflict in Vietnam rallied at several key points along the route of the parade while troops stood guard in uniform.
The protesters directed Nixon’s passing limousine, throwing stones, sticks, bottles, cans, fireworks, smoke bombs, forks, spoons, tomatoes, mist, burning miniature American flags and a paint-filled Christmas decoration. “Two, four, six, eight – organize to crush the state,” they chanted. At one point, protesters threw a ball of tin foil that was mistaken for a possible bomb, and the Nixon driver suddenly rushed to avoid it, causing the president’s passengers a shock.
Nixon, who sometimes got up in the open car, was unharmed and noticed little of the disruption in public as he continued the rest of a festive day. But police arrested 81 people, and it was a sour start for a turbulent term of office.