 | |
|
Senate Etiquette: It Came Near to Making Roosevelt Miss President McKinley’s Inauguration
A Vice President seated in solitary grandeur in the senate chamber, while the ceremony of a Presidential inauguration to which he has been invited as an honored guest is going on outside surely presents a spectacle with an element of humor in it. Few persons know how near Theodore Roosevelt came to playing such a part on the 4th of March, 1901.
The senate sticklers so for minor details of etiquette that the most strenuous reformer would hardly venture to transgress its rules, and they require that a formal motion to adjourn shall be put before a day’s session can come to an end. After his inauguration as Vice President in the senate chamber Mr. Roosevelt took the gavel and, when the routine business was finished, directed the Sergeant at Arms, as usual, to proceed with the ceremony of inaugurating Mr. McKinley as President.
It was then in order for some senator to move an adjournment, but in the confusion nobody seemed to have his wits about him, and the whole assemblage, including the senators, quitted the chamber for the east portico, where the oath was to be administered and the address delivered. In a few minutes the Vice President found himself alone, with a fair prospect of remaining so until the day's performances were over, but it chanced that Senator Heitfeld missed his hat while passing through the corridor and came back to look for it.
Face to face with the Vice President, it occurred to the senator that something must be wrong, so with the utmost gravity he moved “that the senate do now adjourn.” Mr. Roosevelt, with equal solemnity, put the motion, declared it carried and proceeded in Mr. Heitfeld’s company to the place on the Presidential stand which had been reserved for him.- Francis E. Lempp in Century, 1903
🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.