Evening Star Newspaper, March 5, 1933, Page 74

How Inaugurations Came Into the Open Forty Red Chairs, Center of Argument Beteween Henry Clay and Group of Scnators in 1817, Played Major Part in Ending Early Practice of Holding the Ceremonies Indoors. BY IR4 L. SMITH. HE gnost of an argument sbout 40 red chairs comes to the edge of the United States Capitol Plaza cnce in every four vears. There, just beycnd vast in- auguraticn scscmblages, it hovers over the mgh-forgotten place where a sirange controversy broke the od custom of holding the quadrennial ceremonies within doors. In cssence, the fact is that the President- elect. like the Vice President-elect. would now be taking the cath of office in the Senate’s chamber had not Henry Clay possessed scm@ very definitz ideas about things befitting to democracics. Viewed in this light, the wrangle into which that notable entered with a group of Senators in 1817 stands nowatimes as some- thing mcre than a mere bit of history. Be- cause of it, hundreds of thousands of persons have chtained opportunity to see men become Presidents. Mr. Clay. as Speaker of the House, was ap- proached by a committee from the Senate which was delegated to make arrangements for the first inauguration of James Monroe. Mov- ing with the stiff formality of the time, the Senators came to ask for autherity to use the chamb:r of the House for the ceremony. Ma ters progressed well enough at first. Speaker Ciay told his visitors he would have the chamber put in crder to serve the desired purpose. Holding fast to the letter of pre- vailing rules, however, he declared he did not feel authorized to surrender control of the hall, even for one day. - At that time the Senate chamber was fitted with “fine red chairs” upholstered in morocco Jeather. They made the furishings of the hall in which the House met seem almost homely by cont:ast. Mr. Clay had a rather deep feeling about those chairs. This feeling, which amounted to a conviction, was that the chairs were quite too elegan: fo- use in legislative halls of a Nation which had been fostered on a new continent far rcmoved from Europe's courtly displays. Recd morocco leather, he probably ruminated, was 2 fine match for the fripperies of a vis- count. And, in his eyes, carved mahogany was peimissible equipment for & hall where home- spun lcgisiators from virgin timberlands would never set foot. Smazli wonder, consequently, that the Sena- tors hit a touchy spet in the Clay make-up when they proposed to bring their ornate chairs into tiie chamber over which he exercised authority The Scnators’ pian met with a stoutly ex- pressed “no.” WENTY years passed before the epilogue to Mr. Clay's flat refusal was written into of- ficizl recards of the United States Government. By that time Mr. Clay had become Senator Clay 2nd was occupying a chair on the Senate flcor which was substantially as ornate as those upen which he earlier had looked with disfavor. D ccussing authority of the Senate to con- trc! arrargcments for Van Buren's inaugura- tion. Senator Clay revealed details of the dif- ficulty in which he had been a central figure. The Senite Committee of 1817, he stated, had “retired somewhat huffed” as a result of his refu al to permit them, “in appearance, to do away with the character of the House.” He tcki how the Senators had determined to hold the Mcnroz ceremony out of doors rather then to be forced to sit on ordinary chairs in the ¥iouse chember while the oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Marshall. - Orly once before, when George Washington first vas inducted into the Presidency at New York, had a Chief Executive been inaugurated in the open air. Hence all the other inaugura- ticns had becn witnessod only by such com- parztively small numbers of persons as man- aged to ercwd mto the chambers occupied by the Senate znd the House in those days. Frcm tho distance of several decades it seems mez-urably ctrange that anything but frown- irg wcather might have served to keep that era’s inaugurak from the view of the citizenry, The Nation's population had risen to more than 10,000,000 persons, and interest in govern- mental affairs certainly was not at a low ebb. Trar-poitation facilities, truly enough, were far from what they were to be in later ycars: this éondition was offset in some degree, however, by th: som~what inordinate fondness for cere- monials and paradings which then prevailed. In short, the tenor of the times and the temncrament of the people both appeared to have been out of gear with the policy of in- ducting men into the land's highest office be- fore :rmall and almost completely select au- diences. Always in the background, too, is th-ught of the precedent established by George Washing- ton when he chose to assume the presidency in view of all who might crowd into streets or climb upon roofs. HE custom of boxing inzauguration ce"emonies within four walls, a floor and a ceiling wa so0 well established, however, that even the de- structive Capitol fire in 1814, which kept Con- gress out of its regular quarters during five vears, did not serve to force the affairs into the open. Omnly Mr. Clay’s firm stand was capable of producing such a result, when cou- pled with a certain amount of obstinacy dis- played by those against whom that stand was taken. The fact remains though, that the first open-air inauguration in Washington came while the Capitol was still quite completely in ruins. It was not even held within the limits of the Capitol grounds. When Mr. Monroe was elected to take the reins of office from President Madison’s hands Congress was holding its sessions in a brick building at First and A streets northeast, which had been erected as a temporary Capitol in 1815 by Washington citizens, who acted to forestall pcssible removal of the seat of Gov- ernment to another city. The ground upon which that building stood now is a part of the site of the new Supreme Court Building. Despite the fact that the chamber of the House of Representatives in the temporary Capitol could not accommodate more than 500 persons, even with the utmost congestion, the Senators who met Mr. Clay's “no” had been fully determined Mr. Monroe was to be inau- gurated in that place. This determination was upheld, if not in- spired, by a communication Mr. Mcnroe ad- dressed to the President of the Senate just three days before he was to enter the presi- dency. In that communication he stated his intention to take the ocath of office in the House chamber. On the morning ¢f March 3, 1817, and be- fore Mr. Clay's aversion to red morocco leather had produced effect, the following outline of plans for the inauguration was published: ““The Senate will meet and will be organized in the Senate chamber at 11 o'clock and move to the House chamber in time to receive the President-clect at the appointed hour of 12. The Committee of Arrangement will receive the President-clect at the door of the cham- ber of the House and will conduct him to the chair. “Ladies will be accommodated with seats in The austerity that governed Henry Clay's wctiies wlen e refused Senators permission to bring their “fine red chairs” into the House chamber for the inauguration ceremonies of 1817 is revealed in this portrait of the statesman. the chamber to the utmost extent consistent with preceding arrangements. The end door of the gallery will be opened for the accom- modation of citisens generally.” This was a slight change from an earlier announcement, which was framed in the fol- lowing fashion: “Ladies of respectability, without discrimina- tion, will be received at the door and con- ducted to seats. As soon as the President is seated the doors will be thrown open and all persons will be admitted.” Then, on the moming of March 4, a few hours before the ceremonies were due to be- Clay's determination, was piaced before offi- cials and citizens, “The Committee of Arrangement,” it dis- creetly asserted, “have been induced to alter the form of the ceremony intended to have been observed at the inauguration, and the Presi- dent-elect will take the oath of office at 12 o'clock in a portico to be erected in front of the Congress Hall for that purpose. “The cause of the change of arrangement is principally assertable. we believe, to fears of the strength of the building in which Congress sits, but in a degree also is imputable to a difference between the two Houses, or their officers, in the mode of appropriation of the Vast throng of thousands of people listening to en inaugural address at the front steps of the United Siates Capitol. Representatives’ chamber to the purpose of this ceremony.” CURIOUS feature of the contemporary report of the day's proceedings is that it contains no mention of participation by men who were members of the House during the session concluded just before the inauguration, After telling about induction of the Vice Presi- dent in the Senate’s chamber, the account proceeds: “The ceremony having ended, the Senate ad- journed, and the President and Vice President, the judges of the Supreme Court, the Senate generally, etc., attended the new President to the portico temporarily erected for the occa- sion, where, in the presence of an immense oconcourse of officers of the Government, for- eign officers, strangers (ladies as well as gen- tlemen) and citizens, the President delivered Another observer wrote that “‘such a con- courst was never before seen in Washington™ and estimated the crowd comprised from 5.000 to 8,000 persons. As that assemblage watched the inaugura- tion, its back was turned to the Capitol, then undergoing restoration, and to the area form- ing the Capitol plaza, upon whizh throngs now gather quadrennially to witness induction ceremonzies. The central portion of the Capitol, upon the east portico o which inaugurations now are held, was not then in existence. Two separate buildings, now portions of the wings which stretch to the northward and the southward of the portion of the structure surmounted by the dome, then stood with no connection be- tween then. The wooden passage, by which they carlier had been linked, was destroyed by the fire. The ground between the inaugural crowd of 1817 and the two charred buildings was covered with “a congregation of rubbish and of new materials.” Despite the advantages which presented themselies and became very evident when the Monroc inauguration was held beneath the high, blue sky, the thought that similar ar- rangements might be made for future in- augurals did not seem to take root. The closest approach to such an idea in expressions of the public press was not made until almost a month later. If any one, after passage of four years and upon the advent of President Monroe's second inauguration, thought of repeating the outdoor ceremony, the weather promptly set aside such a thought. A great quantity of snow and rain fell during the night before inauguration day and the storm comtinued to be violent until almost the minute set for administration of the oath. This inauguration in 1821 was held in the chamber of the House in the rebuilt Capitol, with approximately 2,000 persons gaining ad- - mission. John Quincy Adams took the oath of office in the same place in 1825. It is now 104 years since the first inaugura- tion to take place on the east portico of the Capitol was held, the event occuring 12 years ~after the first Monroe inaugural. The fore- runner of inaugurations, as we now know them, found the plaza cleared of “rubbish and new Continued om Twenty-third Page