Oath of office of the President of the United States

President Ronald Reagan being administered the oath of office by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on January 21, 1985.

The oath of office of the President of the United States is an oath or affirmation required by the United States Constitution before the President begins the execution of the office. The wording is specified in Article Two, Section One, Clause Eight:

I, <name>, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The administrator of the oath

While the Constitution does not mandate that anyone in specific should administer the oath, the oath is typically administered by the Chief Justice, but sometimes by another federal or state judge (George Washington was first sworn in by Robert Livingston, the chancellor of the State of New York in 1789, while Calvin Coolidge was first sworn in by his father, a Justice of the Peace and a Vermont notary public in 1923). By convention, incoming Presidents raise their right hand and place the left on a Bible or other book while taking the oath of office.

William R. King is the only executive official sworn into office on foreign soil. By special act of Congress, he was allowed to take his oath of the office of the Vice President on March 24, 1853 in Cuba, where he had gone because of his poor health.^[1] He died 25 days later.

From 1789 through 2009, the swearing-in has been administered by 15 Chief Justices, one Associate Justice, three federal judges, two New York state judges, and one notary public. To date the only person to swear in a president who was not a judge was John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., Calvin Coolidge's father, a notary whose home the then-Vice President was visiting in 1923 when he learned of the death of President Warren G. Harding.

Sarah T. Hughes is the only woman to administer the oath of office. She was a U.S. District Court judge who swore Lyndon B. Johnson into office on Air Force One after John F. Kennedy's assassination.

The option of taking an oath or an affirmation

Franklin Pierce was the only president known to use the word affirm rather than swear. Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible when taking the oath in 1901. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, and Richard Nixon swore the oath on two Bibles. John Quincy Adams swore on a book of law.^[2] Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on a Roman Catholic missal on Air Force One. Washington kissed the Bible afterwards,^[3] and subsequent presidents followed suit, up to Harry Truman,^[4] but Dwight D. Eisenhower broke that tradition by saying his own prayer instead of kissing the Bible.^[5]

Forms of administering the oath

There have been two forms of administering, and taking, the oath of office.

The first, now in disuse, is where the administrator articulates the constitutional oath in the form of a question, and modifying the wording from the first to the second person, as in, "Do you George Washington solemnly swear...", requesting an affirmation. At that point a response of "I do" or "I swear" completes the oath.^{[citation needed]}

It is believed that this was the common procedure at least until the early 20th century. In 1881, the New York Times article covering the swearing in of Chester A. Arthur, reported that he responded to the question of accepting the oath with the words, "I will, so help me God."^[6] In 1929, Time magazine reported that the Chief Justice began the oath uttering, "You, Herbert Hoover, do you solemnly swear...",^[7] Hoover replied with a simple "I do".

In the second, and current form, the administrator articulates the oath in the affirmative, and in the first person, so that the President takes the oath by repeating it verbatim.^{[citation needed]}

Many times the President-elect's name is added after the "I"; for example, "I, George Washington, do..." Lyndon B. Johnson did not add his name when swearing his first oath of office after Kennedy's death; there is evidence that in all other inaugurations since Franklin D. Roosevelt's first, the name of the president was added to the oath.^{[citation needed]}

Oath mishaps

President Barack Obama being administered the oath of office by Chief Justice John Roberts for the second time, on January 21, 2009.

• In 1909, when President William Howard Taft was sworn in, Chief Justice Melville Fuller misquoted the oath, but the error was not publicized at the time. The mistake was similar to the one Taft himself would make twenty years later when swearing in President Hoover. Recalling the incident, Taft wrote, "When I was sworn in as President by Chief Justice Fuller, he made a similar slip," and added, "but in those days when there was no radio, it was observed only in the Senate chamber where I took the oath."^[7]
• In 1929, Taft, later the Chief Justice, garbled the oath when he swore in President Herbert Hoover using the words "preserve, maintain, and defend the Constitution", instead of "preserve, protect, and defend". The error was picked up by schoolgirl Helen Terwilliger on the radio. Taft eventually acknowledged his error, but did not think it was important, and Hoover did not retake the oath. In Taft's view, his departure from the text did not invalidate the oath.^[7][8][9]
• In 1941, Charles Elmore Cropley, the Supreme Court clerk who held the Bible for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third inauguration dropped the Bible after the oath was given. Photos detailing the mishap filled a full page of Life magazine the next week.^{[citation needed]}
• In 1945, President Harry S. Truman's bare initial caused an unusual slip when he first became president and took the oath. At a meeting in the Cabinet Room, Chief Justice Harlan Stone began reading the oath by saying "I, Harry Shippe Truman...", Truman responded: "I, Harry S. Truman,..."^[10]
• In 1965, Chief Justice Earl Warren prompted Lyndon Johnson to say, "the Office of the Presidency of the United States".^[11]
• In 2009, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, while administering the oath to Barack Obama, incorrectly recited part of the oath. Roberts prompted, "That I will execute the Office of President to the United States faithfully." Obama stopped at "execute," and waited for Roberts to correct himself. Roberts, after a false start, then followed Obama's "execute" with "faithfully", which results in "execute faithfully", which is also incorrect. Obama then repeated Roberts' initial, incorrect prompt, with the word "faithfully" after "United States".^[12][13] The oath was re-administered the next day by Roberts at the White House.^[14][15]

Retaking the oath of office

Seven presidents have repeated their oath of office, for different reasons:

• Presidents Chester A. Arthur (1881)^[16][17] and Calvin Coolidge (1923)^[18] took their first oath in a private venue (their residences), in the middle of the night, immediately after being notified of the death of a predecessor (James A. Garfield and Warren G. Harding, respectively). They later retook the oath after returning to Washington. In the case of Coolidge, there was an additional doubt whether an oath administered by a public notary (Coolidge's father) was valid.^[19]
• Four presidents took a private oath when Inauguration Day fell on a Sunday, and then a second oath in a scheduled public ceremony on the next day (Monday): Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 (who actually took the private oath on March 3, a Saturday, one day before his term started), Woodrow Wilson in 1917, Dwight Eisenhower in 1957, and Ronald Reagan in 1985. Reagan's public oath was also moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda due to severe winter weather.^{[20][21][22][23]}
• On January 21, 2009, Chief Justice Roberts administered the presidential oath a second time to Barack Obama "out of an abundance of caution," according to the White House, because, when the oath was administered to President Obama the first time in the public inauguration ceremony, the word "faithfully" was misplaced. The second oath was administered in a simple, private ceremony in the Map Room of the White House.^{[15][24][25][26]} Obama's oath-retaking differed from all his predecessors' in that the private ceremony happened after the public one.

"So help me God"

Further information: So help me God#United States and Oath

It is uncertain how many Presidents used a Bible or added the words "So help me God" at the end of the oath, or in their acceptance of the oath, as neither is required by law; unlike many other federal oaths which do include the phrase "So help me God."^[27] There is currently debate as to whether or not George Washington, the first president, added the phrase to his acceptance of the oath. All contemporary sources fail to mention Washington as adding a religious codicil to his acceptance.^[28]

The historical debate over who first used "So help me God," is marred by ignoring the two forms of giving the oath. The first, now in disuse, is when the administrator articulates the constitutional oath in the form of a question, as in, "Do you George Washington solemnly swear...", requesting an affirmation. At that point a response of "I do" or "I swear" completes the oath. Without verbatim transcripts, the scant existing evidence shows this was the common procedure at least until the early 20th century. In 1881, the New York Times article covering the swearing in of Chester A. Arthur, reported that he responded to the question of accepting the oath with the words, "I will, so help me God".^[6] In 1929, Time magazine reported that the Chief Justice began the oath uttering, "You, Herbert Hoover, do you solemnly swear..."^[7] Hoover replied with a simple "I do".

A Federal law suit filed in the District of Columbia by Michael Newdow on December 30, 2008 contended the second, current form of administration, where both the Chief Justice and the President articulate the oath, appending "So Help Me God", to be a breach of the constitutional instructions. The suit distinguishes between the words spoken by the administrator, which must conform to the exact 35 words of the constitution, and the President, who has a right to add a personal prayer, such as "So Help Me God."^[29]

Chief Justice Roberts' reply was that his "prompting" for these four extra-constitutional words were to be recited "after" the oath of office, and not as a part of the oath as claimed in the suit.^[30]

The first Congress explicitly prescribed the phrase "So help me God" in oaths under the Judiciary Act of 1789 for all U.S. judges and officers other than the President. It was prescribed even earlier under the various first state constitutions^[31] as well as by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.^[32][33] Although the phrase is mandatory in these oaths, the said Act also allows for the option that the phrase be omitted by the officer, in which case it would be called an affirmation instead of an oath: "Which words, so help me God, shall be omitted in all cases where an affirmation is admitted instead of an oath."^[34] In contrast, the oath of the President is the only oath specified in the Constitution. It does not include the closing phrase "So help me God", and it also allows for the optional form of an affirmation which is not considered an oath. In practice, however, most Presidents, at least during the last century, have opted to take the oath (rather than an affirmation), to use a Bible to do so, and also to close the oath with the customary phrase.

The earliest known source indicating Washington added "So help me God" to his acceptance, not to the oath, is attributed to Washington Irving, aged six at the time of the inauguration, and first appears 65 years after the event.^[35]

The only contemporary account that repeats the oath in full, a report from the French consul, Comte de Moustier, states only the constitutional oath,^[36] without reference to Washington's adding "So Help Me God" to his acceptance.

Evidence is lacking to support the claim that Presidents between Washington and Abraham Lincoln used the phrase "So help me God." A contemporaneous newspaper account of Lincoln's 1865 inauguration states that Lincoln appended the phrase "So help me God" to the oath.^[37] This newspaper report is followed by another account, provided later in the same year after Lincoln's death (April 15, 1865), that Lincoln said "So help me God" during his oath.^[38] The evidence pertaining to the 1865 inauguration is much stronger than that pertaining to Lincoln's 1861 use of the phrase. Several sources claim that Lincoln said "So help me God" at his 1861 inauguration, yet these sources were not contemporaneous to the event.^[39][40] During the speech, Lincoln stated that his oath was "registered in Heaven",^[41] something some have taken as indicating he likely uttered the phrase "So help me God." Conversely, there was a claim made by A.M. Milligan (a Presbyterian minister who advocated for an official Christian U.S. government) that letters were sent to Abraham Lincoln asking him to swear to God during his inaugurations, and Lincoln allegedly wrote back saying that God's name was not in the Constitution, and he could not depart from the letter of that instrument.^[42][43]

Other than the president of the U.S., many politicians (including Jefferson Davis, sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in 1861) used the phrase "So help me God" when taking their oaths.^[44] Likewise, all federal judges and executive officers were required as early as 1789 by statute to include the phrase unless they affirmed, in which case the phrase must be omitted.^[45]

Given that nearly every President-elect since President Franklin D. Roosevelt has recited the codicil, it is likely that the majority of presidents-elect have uttered the phrase^[46] (as well as some vice presidents, while taking their oaths). However, as President Theodore Roosevelt chose to conclude his oath with the phrase "And thus I swear," it seems that this current of tradition was not overwhelmingly strong even as recently as the turn of the twentieth century. Only Franklin Pierce has chosen to affirm rather than swear.^[47] It is often asserted that Herbert Hoover also affirmed, because he was a Quaker, but newspaper reports before his inauguration state his intention to swear rather than affirm.^[48]

List of oath takings

The oath of office of the President of the United States has been taken on 72 occasions by 43 people.

Date	President	Location	Administered by[a]
April 30, 1789	George Washington	Balcony of Federal Hall New York, New York	Robert Livingston Chancellor of New York
March 4, 1793	George Washington	Senate Chamber Congress Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	William Cushing Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
March 4, 1797	John Adams	House Chamber Congress Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Oliver Ellsworth
March 4, 1801	Thomas Jefferson	Senate Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1805	Thomas Jefferson	Senate Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1809	James Madison	House Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1813	James Madison	House Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1817	James Monroe	In front of Old Brick Capitol (1st & A Sts., N.E.) now site of the Supreme Court Building	John Marshall
March 5, 1821	James Monroe	House Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1825	John Quincy Adams	House Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1829	Andrew Jackson	East Portico, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1833	Andrew Jackson	House Chamber, United States Capitol	John Marshall
March 4, 1837	Martin Van Buren	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
March 4, 1841	William H. Harrison	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
April 6, 1841	John Tyler	Brown's Hotel 6th St. & Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C.	William Cranch Chief Judge, U.S. Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
March 4, 1845	James K. Polk	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
March 5, 1849	Zachary Taylor	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
July 10, 1850	Millard Fillmore	House Chamber, United States Capitol	William Cranch Chief Judge, U.S. Circuit Court of the District of Columbia
March 4, 1853	Franklin Pierce	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
March 4, 1857	James Buchanan	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
March 4, 1861	Abraham Lincoln	East Portico, United States Capitol	Roger B. Taney
March 4, 1865	Abraham Lincoln	East Portico, United States Capitol	Salmon P. Chase
April 15, 1865	Andrew Johnson	Kirkwood Hotel, 12th St. & Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.	Salmon P. Chase
March 4, 1869	Ulysses S. Grant	East Portico,United States	Salmon P. Chase
March 4, 1873	Ulysses S. Grant	East Portico, United States	Salmon P. Chase
March 3, 1877	Rutherford B. Hayes	Red Room, White House (privately)	Morrison R. Waite
March 5, 1877	Rutherford B. Hayes	East Portico, United States (publicly)	Morrison R. Waite
March 4, 1881	James A. Garfield	East Portico, United States	Morrison R. Waite
September 20, 1881	Chester A. Arthur	Residence 123 Lexington Avenue New York City (privately)	John R. Brady Judge, New York Supreme Court
September 22, 1881	Chester A. Arthur	Office of the Vice President U.S. Capitol (publicly)	Morrison R. Waite
March 4, 1885	Grover Cleveland	East Portico, United States Capitol	Morrison R. Waite
March 4, 1889	Benjamin Harrison	East Portico, United States Capitol	Melville W. Fuller
March 4, 1893	Grover Cleveland	East Portico, United States Capitol	Melville W. Fuller
March 4, 1897	William McKinley	In front of Original Senate Wing United States Capitol	Melville W. Fuller
March 4, 1901	William McKinley	East Portico, United States Capitol	Melville W. Fuller
September 14, 1901	Theodore Roosevelt	Ansley Wilcox House Buffalo, New York	John R. Hazel Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of New York
March 4, 1905	Theodore Roosevelt	East Portico, United States Capitol	Melville W. Fuller
March 4, 1909	William Howard Taft	Senate Chamber, United States Capitol	Melville W. Fuller
March 4, 1913	Woodrow Wilson	East Portico, United States Capitol	Edward D. White
March 4, 1917	Woodrow Wilson	President's Room, United States Capitol (privately)	Edward D. White
March 5, 1917	Woodrow Wilson	East Portico, United States Capitol (publicly)	Edward D. White
March 4, 1921	Warren G. Harding	East Portico, United States Capitol	Edward D. White
August 3, 1923	Calvin Coolidge	His father's residence Plymouth, Vermont	John C. Coolidge Notary Public (his father)
August 21, 1923	Calvin Coolidge	Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C.	Adolph A. Hoehling, Jr. Judge, District of Columbia Supreme Court [49]
March 4, 1925	Calvin Coolidge	East Portico, United States Capitol	William H. Taft
March 4, 1929	Herbert Hoover	East Portico, United States Capitol	William H. Taft
March 4, 1933	Franklin D. Roosevelt	East Portico, United States Capitol	Charles E. Hughes
January 20, 1937	Franklin D. Roosevelt	East Portico, United States Capitol	Charles E. Hughes
January 20, 1941	Franklin D. Roosevelt	East Portico, United States Capitol	Charles E. Hughes
January 20, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt	South Portico, White House	Harlan F. Stone
April 12, 1945	Harry S. Truman	Cabinet Room, White House	Harlan F. Stone
January 20, 1949	Harry S. Truman	East Portico, U.S. Capitol First oath to be televised[46]	Frederick M. Vinson
January 20, 1953	Dwight D. Eisenhower	East Portico, U.S. Capitol	Frederick M. Vinson
January 20, 1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower	East Room, White House (privately)	Earl Warren
January 21, 1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower	East Portico, U.S. Capitol (publicly)	Earl Warren
January 20, 1961	John F. Kennedy	East Portico, U.S. Capitol	Earl Warren
November 22, 1963	Lyndon B. Johnson	Conference room on SAM 26000 (Air Force One) (privately, but photographed and audio recorded)[50] Love Field, Dallas, Texas	Sarah T. Hughes Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
January 20, 1965	Lyndon B. Johnson	East Portico, U.S. Capitol	Earl Warren
January 20, 1969	Richard Nixon	East Portico, U.S. Capitol	Earl Warren
January 20, 1973	Richard Nixon	East Portico, U.S. Capitol	Warren E. Burger
August 9, 1974	Gerald Ford	East Room, White House	Warren E. Burger
January 20, 1977	Jimmy Carter	East Portico, U.S. Capitol	Warren E. Burger
January 20, 1981	Ronald Reagan	West Front, U.S. Capitol	Warren E. Burger
January 20, 1985	Ronald Reagan	North Entrance Hall White House (privately, but televised)	Warren E. Burger
January 21, 1985	Ronald Reagan	Rotunda, U.S. Capitol (publicly)	Warren E. Burger
January 20, 1989	George H. W. Bush	West Front, U.S. Capitol	William Rehnquist
January 20, 1993	Bill Clinton	West Front, U.S. Capitol	William Rehnquist
January 20, 1997	Bill Clinton	West Front, U.S. Capitol	William Rehnquist
January 20, 2001	George W. Bush	West Front, U.S. Capitol	William Rehnquist
January 20, 2005	George W. Bush	West Front, U.S. Capitol	William Rehnquist
January 20, 2009	Barack Obama[51]	West Front, U.S. Capitol	John G. Roberts, Jr.
January 21, 2009	Barack Obama [51]	Map Room, White House (privately, but photographed and audio recorded)	John G. Roberts, Jr.
ZZZDate	ZZZPresident	ZZZLocation	ZZZAdministered by[52]

1. ^ Unless otherwise indicated, individual named is the Chief Justice of the United States.

See also

• List of United States presidential inaugurations
• Presidential Succession Act
• United States presidential line of succession

References

1. ^ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875
2. ^ Kennon, Donald (2005). "Presidential Inaugurations Past and Present". http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/chronology/jqadams1825.cfm. Retrieved 2006-12-06. 
3. ^ Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies website: "Inauguration of President George Washington, 1789". Retrieved 2009-02-16.
4. ^ McCullough, David (1992). Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 347, p. 729. ISBN 0-671-86920-5. http://books.google.com/?id=1yziNhlcQ2wC&dq=harry+truman+kissed+bible&q=kissed.  Harry Truman is a notable example, as he bent and kissed the Bible upon taking the oath for the first time, on April 12, 1945, as well as at his second inauguration.
5. ^ "Inaugural fun facts - WTOL.com - Toledo's News Leader |". WTOL.com. http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=9591104. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "The New Administration; President Arthur Formally Inaugurated". The New York Times. September 23, 1881. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE1D9103CEE3ABC4B51DFBF66838A699FDE. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Time Magazine, Mar. 25, 1929]. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
8. ^ Agence France-Presse (2009-01-21). "Chief justice leads Obama to stumble presidential oath | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features". ABS-CBN News. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/world/01/21/09/chief-justice-leads-obama-stumble-presidential-oath. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
9. ^ "No Problems With Today's Oath at the Supreme Court - The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times". Legaltimes.typepad.com. 2009-01-21. http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/01/no-problems-with-todays-oath-at-the-supreme-court.html. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
10. ^ McCullough, p. 347
11. ^ "Lyndon B. Johnson Oath of Office, January 20, 1965". http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=g3HEglMipos&feature=related. Retrieved 2009-02-01. 
12. ^ Williams, Pete (January 20, 2009). "About That Oath Flub". MSNBC. http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/01/20/1751351.aspx. Retrieved January 21, 2009. 
13. ^ "Barack Obama Oath of Office (Wikimedia Commons transcript)". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama_Oath_of_Office.ogg. Retrieved 2009-01-31. 
14. ^ "Obama retakes oath of office after Roberts' mistake". CNN. January 21, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/21/obama.oath/index.html. Retrieved January 21, 2009. 
15. ^ ^{a b} Obama is sworn in for second time, BBC News . Retrieved 22 January 2009.
16. ^ Chester A. Arthur House
17. ^ Inauguration of Chester Arthur
18. ^ Calvin Coolidge
19. ^ Fuess, Claude M., Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont (1940), pgs. 310-315, ISBN 0-8371-9320-6.
20. ^ Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
21. ^ New York Times
22. ^ The Presidential Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
23. ^ Ronald Reagan: Second Inaugural Address
24. ^ CNN: Audio of Obama's do-over.
25. ^ "Obama retakes oath of office after Roberts' mistake". CNN. January 21, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/21/obama.oath/index.html. Retrieved January 21, 2009. 
26. ^ "Obama Takes His Oath of Office Again". Washington Post. January 21, 2009. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/01/21/obama_takes_his_oath_of_office.html?hpid=topnews. Retrieved January 21, 2009. 
27. ^ "United States Code: Title 28,453. Oaths of justices and judges | LII / Legal Information Institute". Law.cornell.edu. 2010-01-21. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/usc_sec_28_00000453----000-.html. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
28. ^ Peter R. Henriques, “So Help Me God”: A George Washington Myth that Should Be Discarded, hnn.us (1-12-2009).
29. ^ "Case 1:08-cv-02248-RBW Document 1" (PDF). www.restorethepledge.com. 2008-12-30. p. 25. http://www.restorethepledge.com/live/litigation/inaugural/docs/2008-12-30%20Original%20Complaint.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
30. ^ "Case 1:08-cv-02248-RBW Document 13-9" (PDF). www.restorethepledge.com. 2009-01-08. p. 25. http://www.restorethepledge.com/live/litigation/inaugural/docs/2009-01-08%20CJ's%20Counselor's%20Declaration.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-04. "Before the commencement of this lawsuit, the Chief Justice instructed me to ascertain from President-Elect Obama's representatives the President-Elect's wishes concerning the administration of the oath of office at the inauguration~including his wishes concerning the inclusion of the phrase "So help me God" after the conclusion of the constitutional oath" 
31. ^ http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/con1777.htm
32. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/intelligence/intelltech.html
33. ^ http://www.history.army.mil/html/faq/oaths.html
34. ^ Judiciary Act of 1789, Sec. 7. Retrieved 2009-01-24.
35. ^ Griswold, Rufus W (1855) [1854]. The Republican court, or, American society in the days of Washington. New York: D. Appleton and Company. pp. 141–142. http://books.google.com/?id=xhsLT1NgTbwC. 
36. ^ Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, Vol. 15, pages 404-405
37. ^ Sacramento Daily Union, April 10, 1865; page 8, column 6.
38. ^ Memorial record of the nation's ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1865. http://books.google.com/books?id=ArRmzsMraH8C&printsec=titlepage#PPA6,M1. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
39. ^ Recollections of President Lincoln ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2006-08-10. http://books.google.com/books?id=d6QfOnbV1zUC&printsec=titlepage#PPA91,M1. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
40. ^ Anecdotal Lincoln - Google Books. Books.google.com. 2007-10-11. http://books.google.com/books?id=xidCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA136,M1. Retrieved 2010-08-07. 
41. ^ The Avalon Project : First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln
42. ^ Foster, James Mitchell (1894) [1894]. Christ the King. Boston: James H. Earle. p. 277. http://books.google.com/?id=7gc3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA277&lpg=PA277.  In fact, Milligan did write to Lincoln, but his request was not that Lincoln add "so help me God" to the Oath, but rather that the name of Jesus Christ be added to the U.S. Constitution [1]
43. ^ Foster, James Mitchell (1890). Reformation Principles Stated and Applied. Chicago and New York: F.H Revell. pp. 234–5. http://www.openlibrary.org/details/reformationprinc00fostrich. 
44. ^ Official State Bible of Alabama
45. ^ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875
46. ^ ^{a b} "Inauguration of the President: Facts & Firsts". U.S. Senate. http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/factsandfirsts/. Retrieved December 13, 2008. 
47. ^ "President Franklin Pierce, 1853". Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080131060458/http://inaugural.senate.gov/history/chronology/fpierce1853.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-15. 
48. ^ "Hoover Plans to Swear on Bible, Taking Oath". Washington Post: p. 5. February 27, 1929. 
49. ^ The National Archives, Prologue Magazine Vol. 32 No. 4 (Winter 2000). Article "Abrupt Transition", by C.L. Arbelbide. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
50. ^ SAM 26000, this airplane's proper designation, is now at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. Officially, "Air Force One" is an air traffic control call sign for any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President, though it has informally been extended to the aircraft maintained for that purpose (including SAM 26000).
51. ^ ^{a b} The oath was retaken on January 21, 2009 due to a flaw in its recitation during the previous day's inaugural ceremonies. See: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/21/obama.oath/index.html
52. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named note_a; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text

External links

• Forrest Church, Ph.D., "Did George Washington Say 'So Help Me God'?"
• Peter R. Henriques, "'So Help Me God': A George Washington Myth that Should Be Discarded", History News Network, online, January 12, 2009
• Media related to United States presidential inaugurations at Wikimedia Commons
• Video on YouTube Video of inaugurations from Franklin D. Roosevelt - Barack H. Obama