Known to the public as "Old
Tippecanoe," the former general of the Indian campaigns delivered
an hour-and-forty-five-minute speech in a snowstorm. The oath of
office was administered on the East Portico of the Capitol by
Chief Justice Roger Taney. The 68-year-old President stood outside
for the entire proceeding, greeted crowds of well-wishers at the
White House later that day, and attended several celebrations that
evening. One month later he died of pneumonia.
***
Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for
the residue of my life to fill the chief executive office of this
great and free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to
take the oaths which the Constitution prescribes as a necessary
qualification for the performance of its duties; and in obedience
to a custom coeval with our Government and what I believe to be
your expectations I proceed to present to you a summary of the
principles which will govern me in the discharge of the duties
which I shall be called upon to perform.
It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that
celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable
in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before
and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter
case the pledges and promises made in the former.
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