Sunday, June 23, 2013

Day 148, June 23

Presidential inagurations have changed much in the last 200 plus years.  George Washington was scheduded to be inaugurated into office in the middle of March of 1799, but he wasn't officially notified at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia that he had been elected as President of the United States until April 13 of that year.

After two days of preparation, George Washington and his party started the journey to New York City, the then capital of the nation.
The journey took more than two weeks to travel through Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.  At each stop, there was a gala parade for the newly elected president.  Thousands of veterans who had served with the President during the Revolutionary War greeted him.

President Washington made his triumphant entrace into New York City on a barge from the New Jersey shore.  With great ceremony, he was inaugurated and sworn in by Robert Livingston, Chancellor of the State of New York.  Washington was the only US President not sworn into office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

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