Collection
U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses
A chronological collection of American presidential inaugural addresses for classical Christian schools—from Washington's anxious piety in 1789 to Reagan's West Front charge in 1981—each with a student guide, verified quotes, and full public-domain text.
See also Great Poems & Speeches, Great Debates, Great Court Cases.
Texts follow Project Gutenberg #4938 or Avalon/GPO transcriptions of official addresses (U.S. government works). Speeches already in Great Poems & Speeches remain linked from both hubs. Second-term and later addresses not listed below can be added in a later pass. Not in this first tranche — William Henry Harrison's Inaugural (1841): The longest inaugural (~8,400 words); deferred so the first collection can emphasize shorter, more teachable addresses. Martin Van Buren's Inaugural (1837) and mid-century addresses (Polk, Taylor, Pierce, Buchanan): Deferred; Lincoln's first inaugural already carries the secession crisis for K-12. Later 19th-c. addresses (Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley): Deferred to keep the first tranche near thirty addresses. Taft, Harding, Hoover; Eisenhower's second; Nixon's second: Deferred; Coolidge, Truman, Eisenhower I, and Nixon I cover that arc for now. George H. W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama: Deferred; Reagan closes the day-one modern set. Texts remain in Project Gutenberg #4938 for a later pass. Some second terms (Monroe II, Jackson II, Grant II): Deferred when the first already teaches the president's main inaugural themes.
Founding and Early Republic (1789–1829)
George Washington's First Inaugural Address · 1789
Delivered 30 April 1789 at Federal Hall, New York: anxious piety and the claim that private virtue underwrites republican happiness.
George Washington's Second Inaugural Address · 1793
Delivered 4 March 1793 at Senate Chamber, Congress Hall, Philadelphia: extreme brevity—one of the shortest inaugurals—centered on the oath itself.
John Adams's Inaugural Address (John Adams) · 1797
Delivered 4 March 1797 at Congress Hall, Philadelphia: a long narrative of the Revolution, Confederation failure, and Constitution as the people's remedy.
Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address (Jefferson) · 1801
Thomas Jefferson delivered his First Inaugural Address on 4 March 1801 in the Senate chamber of the unfinished Capitol, the first presidential inauguration held in the new federal city of Washington.
Thomas Jefferson's Second Inaugural Address · 1805
Delivered 4 March 1805 at Senate chamber, U.S. Capitol: a report on peaceable acquisition, tax relief, and Indian policy under republican principles.
James Madison's First Inaugural Address · 1809
Delivered 4 March 1809 at House chamber, U.S. Capitol: sober inventory of foreign pressure on a prosperous republic that still prefers peace.
James Madison's Second Inaugural Address · 1813
Delivered 4 March 1813 at U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.: a wartime inaugural that frames impressment and maritime rights as stakes of national equality.
James Monroe's First Inaugural Address · 1817
Delivered 4 March 1817 at outdoor platform at the Capitol: long survey of union, defense, and domestic improvement in a mood of postwar confidence.
John Quincy Adams's Inaugural Address (John Quincy Adams) · 1825
Delivered 4 March 1825 at House chamber, U.S. Capitol: solemn reading of the Constitution as a precious inheritance across generations.
Andrew Jackson's First Inaugural Address · 1829
Delivered 4 March 1829 at East Portico of the Capitol: brief pledge of constitutional limits, state respect, and reform of federal offices.
Union, Civil War, and Reconstruction (1830–1877)
Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address · 1861
Delivered 4 March 1861 at East Portico of the Capitol: legal and fraternal plea against secession while denying any intent to touch slavery in the states.
Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address · 1865
Abraham Lincoln took the oath for his second term on 4 March 1865 on the East Portico of the Capitol, under a newly finished dome, before a crowd standing in mud after a morning of rain.
Ulysses S. Grant's First Inaugural Address · 1869
Delivered 4 March 1869 at East Portico of the Capitol: soldierly brevity: pay the debt, secure the results of the war, treat all citizens equally.
Industrial Age and Progressive Era (1878–1929)
Theodore Roosevelt's Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt) · 1905
Delivered 4 March 1905 at East Portico of the Capitol: links domestic self-government to duties abroad in a short Progressive-era charge.
Woodrow Wilson's First Inaugural Address · 1913
Delivered 4 March 1913 at East Portico of the Capitol: moral inventory of an altered America that must recover humane purposes.
Woodrow Wilson's Second Inaugural Address · 1917
Delivered 5 March 1917 at East Portico of the Capitol: defines America's stance as steadfast for peace yet ready to defend rights.
Calvin Coolidge's Inaugural Address (Calvin Coolidge) · 1925
Delivered 4 March 1925 at East Portico of the Capitol: defense of economy, ordered liberty, and America's restrained international role.
Depression and World War (1930–1945)
Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear") · 1933
Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated on Saturday, 4 March 1933, at the low point of the Great Depression.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Address · 1937
Delivered 20 January 1937 at East Portico of the Capitol: the famous one-third of a nation still ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Third Inaugural Address · 1941
Delivered 20 January 1941 at East Portico of the Capitol: triad: Washington created, Lincoln preserved, this generation must save the nation from outside disruption.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fourth Inaugural Address · 1945
Delivered 20 January 1945 at South Portico of the White House: deliberately brief wartime oath-speech seeking a just and durable peace.
Cold War and After (1946–)
Harry S. Truman's Inaugural Address (Harry S. Truman) · 1949
Delivered 20 January 1949 at East Portico of the Capitol: four-point program culminating in technical aid to developing peoples (Point Four).
Dwight D. Eisenhower's First Inaugural Address · 1953
Delivered 20 January 1953 at East Portico of the Capitol: opens with a public prayer before stating principles of peace through strength and justice.
Lyndon Baines Johnson's Inaugural Address (Lyndon Baines Johnson) · 1965
Delivered 20 January 1965 at East Portico of the Capitol: covenant language: the oath belongs to the people together; each generation must choose its destiny.
Richard Milhous Nixon's First Inaugural Address · 1969
Delivered 20 January 1969 at East Portico of the Capitol: voices of quiet Americans and a summons to lower voices after years of shouting.
Jimmy Carter's Inaugural Address (Jimmy Carter) · 1977
Delivered 20 January 1977 at East Portico of the Capitol: thanks Ford for healing the land; urges fresh faith in the old American dream.
Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address · 1981
Delivered 20 January 1981 at West Front of the Capitol: government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.
Ronald Reagan's Second Inaugural Address · 1985
Delivered 21 January 1985 at Rotunda of the Capitol: we the people as the active subject of American government, indoors on a bitter day.