January 8, 2024

When Donald Trump assumes office on January 20 as the 47^th President of the United States, he will mark the solemn occasion with an inaugural address which, while not required by the Constitution, represents a rich tradition initiated by George Washington, one that affords the president a platform to  chart a new direction for the nation and  announce his plans, policies, and programs. President Trump will stand at the podium in a time of deep division and great challenge, somewhat akin to the circumstances that confronted Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln when they assumed the reins of the executive branch.

Jefferson, in his first inaugural address in 1801, and Lincoln, in each of his messages—1861 and 1865—delivered masterful speeches, likely the greatest in our nation’s history, in which they urged their countrymen to embrace civility, magnanimity, reconciliation and, above all, national unity. On the eve of President Trump’s second inaugural address, Americans wonder whether he will follow the path of Jefferson and Lincoln, or whether he will dwell on differences, rehash grievances, and embark on a campaign of retribution.

Jefferson, the leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, survived a heated election, the “Revolution of 1800,” and was keenly aware of the sharp divisions in America, as demonstrated by the fact that his victory over the incumbent John Adams, the last of the Federalists to hold office, required the House of Representatives to toll through 36 ballots after neither candidate succeeded in winning a majority of the Electoral College vote. Jefferson sought to unite the country and famously declared: “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.” He reminded listeners in the crowded Senate chamber that “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle,” a reflection of the founders’ understanding that most political disagreements are not about the ends of government, but rather the means to the ends. Americans, after all, were united in republican principles, allegiance to the Constitution, and commitment to liberty and tolerance. He asked his fellow citizens to “fly to the standard of the law” and to defend freedom of speech so that “error of opinion may be moderated where reason is left free to combat it.”

In 1861, Lincoln’s inaugural appeal to the South to remain in the Union, as southern states were seceding, was conciliatory, a desperate attempt to avoid a civil war. Filled with anxiety about the future of the United States, Lincoln stated, in words that resonate in our time, as we contemplate divisions between Blue States and Red States: “We can not remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them.” His eloquent plea to southerners endures: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection” which, he reminded the country “will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

The most remarkable fact about the election of 1864, the historian Harold Hymn observed, “is that it occurred.” Lincoln, after the election, emphasized the fundamental lesson of republicanism: “We cannot have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.” The rebellion had tested the proposition, as Lincoln had said at Gettysburg, whether a nation committed to republican principles could endure.

Lincoln’s second inaugural address was a political masterpiece, suffused with themes of reconciliation and unity, as he sought to heal the wounds of the Civil War. His majestic phrase, “With malice toward none and charity for all,” punctuated the extension of a noble, generous, and conciliatory hand to the South in a manner integral to reconstruction and the healing of the deep wounds inflicted on the republic.

Words matter. Leadership matters. Jefferson and Lincoln, two of America’s greatest presidents, sought unity in a time of deep division. Their enduring addresses remind us of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s insight that oratory “will make the reputation of a man.” Will President Trump follow their path, re- shape his reputation and urge unity over division and retribution? Inaugurations confer legitimacy and celebrate the peaceful democratic transfer of power. History seeks from President Trump words to match the occasion.

-David Adler