Don't Know Much About History - K. C. Davis

On June 21 Kenneth C. Davis released an updated version of his book, Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition - 2011. I examined an online version to see how Davis would implement a much needed update to the section from his 2003 edition in which he described the basics for George Washington's first inaugural ceremony. You can turn to the section, Who elected George Washington the first President?, and read a paragraph on page 131 which tells about the presidential oath of office, and there encounter, "Custom, not constitutional directive, dictates that the president-elect place his left hand on a Bible and keep his right hand slightly raised for the duration of the oath." -- and here comes the curveball --"When George Washington took the oath in 1789, he ad libbed a bit and added the words, 'So help me God" at the end of the oath. Since then, every president has customarily said the same words."

The "So help me God" tagline fails credibility, because we now know better. Recent scholarship shows that there's is no known contemporaneous account that substantiates George Washington swearing to anything other than what is prescribed by the Constitution. On top of that, unless Ken Davis is clairvoyant, the "ad libbed" part can't be taken seriously. (Other commentators have parroted, "Washington spontaneously added 'So help me God.'") Furthermore, the "every president" assertion is pure hokum, and Davis should have known that. (See Don't Know Much About Anything, 2007, Answer No, 5, page 272.)

Being the stickler for facts that I am, I expressed my concerns, and sent an e-mail to the publisher. This got no response. After I spotted a similar yarn in another Davis book, America's Hidden History (2009) I tried again. See page 232:

On April 30, 1789, George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, the temporary capital. He took the oath of office on a Masonic Bible, ad-libbing the words "So help me God," which the oath of office as specified in the Constitution does not require.

This time I received a response:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Davis"
To: "Ray Soller"
Sent: January 20, 2011 8:14 PM
Subject: Message from the Website

Ron Chernow also addresses this question in his new book on Washington and my book will be edited to reflect this changed view.

Ken Davis

So, if we move on to this new 2011 "Revised, updated and expanded edition of the classic bestseller" and look at the same page 131, this is how the author's "changed view" checks out:

Custom, not constitutional directive, dictates that the president-elect place his left hand on a Bible and keep his right hand slightly raised for the duration of the oath. When George Washington took the oath in 1789, he ad libbed a bit and added the words, "so help me God" at the end of his oath, according to legend. This report is disputed. [my italics] Since then, every president has customarily said the same words.

After reading this edited paragraph, I had to wonder, "What was that?" I mean, it comes across as being unreasonably garbled. Instead, I propose that something like the following, which is less confusing, much more accurate, and even fits into the same allocated space, be substituted:

Custom, not constitutional directive, advises that the president-elect place his left hand on a Bible and raise his right hand during the presidential oath. It is often told, despite there being no proof, that in 1789 when George Washington took his oath, he added "so help me God." Even so, modern-day presidents include these words and believe they are following Washington's example.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think the author of the book, Don't Know Much About History, needs to examine the facts:

1) Starting with the colonial era, the "custom" of swearing on a Bible did not, generally speaking, carry on without dissent. It was seen as an obligation dictated and strictly enforced by officials delegated by both the British Crown and the Church of England. By April 30, 1789, New York State statute had already mandated that the bible-oath, as carried forward from the colonial era, be administered in the usual and customary mode.

2) While most presidential inaugurations have included a Bible, all indications are that after the federal government left New York City and when an appointed federal judge was available to administer Washington's oath for his second term, there is no sign of a Bible being used. With the exception of Andrew Jackson, there's no mention of a Bible being used until James Polk's inauguration on Mar 4, 1845. In addition, both Calvin Coolidge's 1923, and Theodore Roosevelt's 1901 swearing-in ceremony are two other examples, where a Bible-oath did not occur.

3) There is no known contemporaneous account for our nation's first inauguration that suggests George Washington pronounced anything other than what is spelled out by the United States Constitution.

4) The published notion that Washington added the words, "So help me God," to his oath made its debut in 1854. One can dispute whether it was Rufus W. Griswold or Washington Irving who first promoted this claim, but the mistaken proposition that George Washington began an identifiable custom of adding a religious tagline to the presidential oath doesn't surface for another century.

5) Most presidents are not known as having added "So help me God" to their oath of office. The ritualized practice of adding these four words to the presidential oath did not begin until FDR's 1933 inauguration. Four years later, the vice-president and president both for the first time shared the same inaugural stage. Then in 1937, 1941, and again in 1945 FDR continued to add "So help me God," but now in the afterglow of the vice president's standard federal oath. As might be expected, Truman, Eisenhower, and JFK did the same, thereby setting a pattern that was magically imagined as tracing back to George Washington.

Newsflash: I just received this e-mail message from Kenneth C. Davis:

We can discuss the [presidential] Oath of Office issue again soon. But I thought you might be interested in this piece [Why U.S. is not a Christian nation] appearing on cnn.com today [July 4, 2011 9:10 a.m. EDT]