United States presidential inauguration

===Inaugural address===
{{Listen|filename=The Inauguration of the 46th President of the United States-q5iCPKDp4V4.webm|title=Inaugural address of President Joe Biden.

|description=The inaugural address, in full, made by [[Joe Biden]] after being [[Oath of office of the president of the United States|sworn]] in as the [[List of presidents of the United States|46th]] president of the United States on January 20, 2021.|format=[[WebM]]}}
Newly sworn-in presidents usually give a [[speech]] referred to as an inaugural address. As with many inaugural customs, this one was started by George Washington in 1789. After taking his oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall, he proceeded to the Senate chamber where he read a speech before members of Congress and other dignitaries. Every president since Washington has delivered an inaugural address. While many of the early presidents read their addresses before taking the oath, current custom dictates that the chief justice administer the oath first, followed by the president's speech.<ref name="JCCOIC"/> [[William McKinley]] requested the change in 1897, so that he could reiterate the words of the oath at the close of his first inaugural address.

[[William Henry Harrison]] delivered the longest inaugural address, at 8,445 words, in 1841. John Adams' 1797 address, which totaled 2,308 words, contained the longest sentence, at 737 words. In 1793, Washington gave the shortest inaugural address on record, just 135 words.<ref name="JCCOIC">{{cite web |url=https://www.inaugural.senate.gov/days-events/inaugural-address/ |title=Inaugural Address |publisher=Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies |access-date=January 23, 2017}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

Most presidents use their inaugural address to present their vision of America and to set forth their goals for the nation. Some of the most eloquent and powerful speeches are still quoted today. In 1865, in the waning days of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], [[Abraham Lincoln]] stated, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." In 1933, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] avowed, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” And in 1961, [[John F. Kennedy]] declared, "And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country."<ref name="JCCOIC"/>

On the eight occasions where the new president succeeded to the office upon their predecessor's death intra-term, none gave an address, but each did address Congress soon thereafter.<ref name="eapi" /> When [[Gerald Ford]] became president in 1974, following the resignation of [[Richard Nixon]], he addressed the nation after taking the oath, but he characterized his speech as "Not an inaugural address, not a [[fireside chat]], not a campaign speech{{snd}}just a little straight talk among friends".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/speeches/740001.htm|title=Gerald R. Ford's Remarks on Taking the Oath of Office as President|publisher=Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum|access-date=November 18, 2008|archive-date=November 10, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081110192301/http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/740001.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> ({{Cws |title=Full text |link=Gerald Ford's assumption of the Presidency|nobullet=yes}})