Vice President Oath of Office (United States)

During a Presidential Inauguration, the Vice Presidential oath of office is administered first to the Vice President-Elect before the President-Elect at the same location as the president. The vice president, along with the president, begin their term at noon on January 20 every fourth year per the 20th Amendment.

Vice President Spiro Agnew being administered the oath of office by Everett Dirksen on January 20, 1969.

When the Vice Presidency was first created and for the century that followed, the Vice President would be sworn in a separate location from the President, typically in the United States Senate where he holds the office of President of the Senate. Up until the middle of the 20th Century, the Vice President-Elect nearly always would be sworn in by the highest-ranking officer of the US Senate which was the outgoing vice president or the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. Sometimes, although not always, a short address would be given by the new vice president to the Senate.

The oath of office has been administered most by the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate (last in 1925) for a total of 20 times. Others to give the oath of office include the outgoing Vice President (last in 1945) 12 times, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (last in 2013) 8 times, the Chief Justice of the United States (last in 2001) 6 times, US Senators that are not Pro Tempore of the Senate (last in 1969) 5 times, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (last in 2005) 4 times, a US judge twice, and a foreign consul once with one time being unrecorded.

Former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger has given the oath the most times with three.

Of the 59 times the Oath of Office has been administered, 47 times have been at some location in the United States Capitol. The White House has seen 3 oaths of office, and Congress Hall in Philadelphia twice. The following locations all had the oath administered once in that location: Federal Hall, Old Brick Capitol, Havana, Cuba, a private residency in New York, and the Number One Observatory Circle. Reflecting the relative lack of importance of the office in the early 1800s, there are two instances where the location of the Vice President's oath of office is unknown.

Due to Vice President elect William King's deteriorating health, a bill signed on March 3, 1853, the last day of the 32nd United States Congress, allowed for the oath to be administered to him as he rested in Cuba.

The current oath of office was passed by Congress in 1884. It is the same oath given to Members of Congress.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

The list above with an asterisk references the official legal oath of office for terms of office that began on Sunday instead of the public ceremonial swearing-in the following day.

References

• http://americanhistory.about.com/od/uspresidents/ss/inauguration_4.htm
• http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=001/llsj001.db&recNum=11&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj0011%29%29:%230010001&linkText=1
• http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=002/llsj002.db&recNum=1&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj0021%29%29:%230020002&linkText=1
• http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=003/llsj003.db&recNum=145&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj003205%29%29:%230030145&linkText=1
• Tyler - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj03169%29%29:
• Dallas - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj03663%29%29:
• Hamlin - 3/2/1861 http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj05267%29%29
• Tyler - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj03169%29%29:
• Dallas - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj03663%29%29:
• Fillmore - http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sj04071%29%29:
• http://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/vice-president-inaugurations
• http://web.archive.org/web/20140920162742/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Nelson_Rockefeller.htm

Vice Presidents of the United States
John Adams Thomas Jefferson Aaron Burr George Clinton Elbridge Gerry Daniel D. Tompkins John C. Calhoun Martin Van Buren Richard Mentor Johnson John Tyler George M. Dallas Millard Fillmore William R. King John C. Breckinridge Hannibal Hamlin Andrew Johnson Schuyler Colfax Henry Wilson William A. Wheeler Chester A. Arthur Thomas A. Hendricks Levi P. Morton Adlai Stevenson I Garret Hobart Theodore Roosevelt Charles W. Fairbanks James S. Sherman Thomas R. Marshall Calvin Coolidge Charles G. Dawes Charles Curtis John Nance Garner Henry A. Wallace Harry S. Truman Alben W. Barkley Richard Nixon Lyndon B. Johnson Hubert Humphrey Spiro Agnew Gerald Ford Nelson Rockefeller Walter Mondale George H. W. Bush Dan Quayle Al Gore Dick Cheney Joe Biden Mike Pence (elect)