The Fifty-Seventh Presidential Inauguration on January 21, 2013 presented by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Swearing-In Ceremony for President Theodore Roosevelt

Thirtieth Inaugural Ceremonies, March 4, 1905

Program

Inaugural Address

‘ My fellow-citizens, no people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness.’

Read the address
(Words: 983)

Presidential Oath of Office

Administered to Theodore Roosevelt by the Honorable Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • Bible Used: Same Bible used when Roosevelt was sworn in as Governor of New York in 1898, open to James 1:22-23
  • Attire: Cutaway coat, striped trousers.

Vice Presidential Oath of Office

Administered to Charles Fairbanks.

Library of Congress

  • Location

    East Portico,
    U.S. Capitol
    Washington, DC

    Weather

    Sunny with strong northwest winds. Patches of snow remained on the ground from a snow fall the day before. Estimated noon temperature of 45°F.

  • Facts, Firsts & Precedents

    This was the first time telephone lines were installed at the U.S. Capitol for an Inauguration.

  • Inaugural Committee

Video

Library of Congress

The energetic Republican President had taken his first oath of office upon the death of President McKinley, who died of an assassin's gunshot wounds on September 14, 1901. Mr. Roosevelt had been President himself for three years at the election of 1904. The inaugural celebration was the largest and most diverse of any in memory—cowboys, Indians (including the Apache Chief Geronimo), coal miners, soldiers, and students were some of the groups represented. The oath of office was administered on the East Portico of the Capitol by Chief Justice Melville Fuller.