“With each inauguration we embrace this uniquely American ceremony, seeing in this extraordinary ritual a reflection of the nation itself. In times of peace or war, of prosperity or crisis, inaugurations strengthen the national resolve to meet each new challenge,” the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) said.
“We may consider it routine, but the inaugural ceremony remains a uniquely American expression of our constitutional system. The peaceful transition between presidential administrations signals that we are united as a people behind an enduring republic,” it said reflecting on the theme of this year’s inauguration.
In 1981, the inaugural ceremony struck President Ronald Reagan as being both commonplace and miraculous.
“The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are,” Reagan had said his inaugural speech.
“In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle,” he said.
At the end of the 18th century, it was widely believed that Republican form of government was best suited to small, homogeneous societies of America.
However, the United States rapidly grew in the 19th century in geography and population and our system of government demonstrated its remarkable ability not just to accommodate that diversity, but to draw strength from it, JCCIC said.
In his second inaugural address in 1805, President Thomas Jefferson commented on the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase.
“The larger our association,” he insisted, “the less will it be shaken by local passions”.
Jefferson’s faith in “association” across space would ultimately depend on knitting together the far-flung communities of the nation.
President James Monroe, in his 1817 inaugural address, envisioned a network of roads and canals that would cultivate national unity.
“By thus facilitating the intercourse between the states we shall shorten distances, and, by making each part more accessible to and dependent on the other, we shall bind the Union more closely together,” he had said..
PTI