Even CNN Gets it Wrong, So Help Me God
Published January 16th, 2009CNN today posted a little inauguration “explainer” that talks about some of the traditions of our Presidential Inauguration. In it they post the text - as specified in the US Constitution - of the Presidential Oath. They mention that “So help me God” is NOT in the Constitution (big surprise) but that every President has added it, following in the footsteps of George Washington. Fun little fact - except that it’s probably 100% false.
Peter R. Henriques discusses the evidence (or lack thereof) for Washington adding those words in a recent HNN article. Some major points -
“The first clearly documented case of a President adding the words, “So help me God,” was recorded — when Chester A. Arthur took the oath in 1881.”
“Moreover, it would have been completely out of character for George Washington to have tampered with the constitutional text in this way. He presided over the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, and he took the Constitution produced there very seriously. He was, in many ways, a Constitutional literalist. Would such a man, during the very act of becoming the nation’s first President, alter an oath that had been decided upon and written into the nation’s fundamental charter? It is far more likely that his political philosophy, and not his religious beliefs, shaped his actions in this incident.”
“Taken together, the complete lack of contemporary evidence, George Washington’s political philosophy of strictly following the Constitution and the concurrent debate over the proper wording of oaths under the new Constitution make it virtually certain that George Washington did not add the words “So help me God” to his inaugural oath.”
Read the article for more. In fact - the “explainer” people at CNN should read it too.
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