December 4, 1839, he was nominated for the Presidency by
the national Whig convention at Harrisburg, Pa., and was elected on
November 10, 1840, receiving 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. Was
inaugurated March 4, 1841. Called Congress to meet in extra session on
May 31. He died on Sunday morning, April 4, 1841. His body was interred
in the Congressional Cemetery at Washington, but in June, 1841, it was
removed to North Bend and placed in a tomb overlooking the Ohio River.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Called from a retirement which I had supposed was to continue for the
residue of my life to fill the chief executive office of this great and
free nation, I appear before you, fellow-citizens, to take the oaths
which the Constitution prescribes as a necessary qualification for the
performance of its duties; and in obedience to a custom coeval with our
Government and what I believe to be your expectations I proceed to
present to you a summary of the principles which will govern me in the
discharge of the duties which I shall be called upon to perform.
It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that
celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the
conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after
obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges
and promises made in the former.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25