17TH INAUGURAL CEREMONIES
PRESIDENT
FRANKLIN
PIERCE
March 4, 1853
VICE PRESIDENT
WILLIAM
KING
March 4, 1901
ABOUT THE SWEARING-IN CEREMONIES
Franklin Pierce was sworn-in as the 14th President of the United States, and William King was sworn-in as the 13th Vice President of the United States.
Location:
East Portico, U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C.
Weather:
Light snow and wind with heavier snow during the Inaugural Address. Estimated noon temperature of 35°F.
FACTS, FIRSTS, & PRECEDENTS
Affirmed the oath of office rather than sworn; First president to recite his speech entirely from memory; Cancelled the Inaugural Ball; Pierce’s Vice President did not attend the Inaugural Ceremonies—he was very ill and had gone to Cuba to try to recover at the time of the Inauguration, and was sworn into office there on March 24, 1853. He died on April 18, 1853, one day after returning to his home in Alabama.
VICE PRESIDENTIAL OATH OF OFFICE
Administered to William King
(Served from March 24, 1853 to April 18, 1853. No Vice President was appointed after that.)
PRESIDENTIAL OATH OF OFFICE
Administered to Franklin Pierce
by the Honorable Roger B. Taney,
Chief Justice of the United States
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
“We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of the Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments.”
President Franklin Pierce