Five Best Inaugural Addresses of the 1800s

Many inaugural addresses of the 19th century are minefields of platitudes and patriotic bombast, and I wouldn't recommend that anyone read them all. But a few stand out for being nicely written. And one, Lincoln's second inaugural address, is a masterpiece of American literature.

Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of the president who gave the worst inaugural address in history, actually gave a pretty good speech decades later when he was sworn in. And when "Old Hickory" came to town he gave a brief speech that marked the beginning of a new era in America. And then there were two brilliant writers who also happened to be presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Read about the Five Best Inaugural Addresses of the 1800s, and get a sense of what new presidents wanted to tell the nation in times both dire and exhilarating.

Image: Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Alexander Gardner in early 1865/Library of Congress