What is the history of presidential transitions in the United States

Fortunately for the United States, presidential transitions have generally been smooth and mostly without trouble. However, in a few cases some of the transitions were awkward or even hostile to an extent. The history of transitions have also sometimes set precedent followed to this day.

Early Presidential Transitions

The first presidential transition between George Washington and John Adams in 1797 was not only peaceful but relatively easy given the two men had a generally strong respect for the other. On his first day in post, George Washington reportedly allowed Adams to enter before him to symbolize that a new president was now in charge. The first real challenge for the country's presidential transition, however, occurred in 1801, when John Adams lost to Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 election and the latter took power. Adams and Jefferson had been former friends and they had disagreed bitterly over a variety of national and international issues. The transfer of power signaled that the country would go in a different direction as the Democratic-Republican Party party took power. The issue of being allies with France, for instance, was just one issue dividing the two men. The election took place from October 31st-December 4th, reflecting the slow process of election and the needed time until March of the following year to complete the transition. Early in the morning of March 4, 1801, after the bitter election that was ultimately decided by the House of Representatives, John Adams took an early morning stagecoach and left Washington to go live back in Quincy, Massachusetts. He had skipped the inauguration and did not personally greet the incoming president at the White House. However, by leaving without any major effort to stop Jefferson despite the bitter feud between the two and difficult election, it demonstrated for the first time that two rival parties could transition to power without conflict. This, historians have argued, did help establish an important precedent for peaceful political transitions.

There were other difficult transitions in US history, particularly the 1861 transition to the Lincoln presidency. As Lincoln was taking power, southern states had already declared their succession and James Buchanan had effectively refused to do anything direct on the issue without Congress. The inaction by Buchanan, and failure of Congress to pass anything other than appeasement measures, led to Lincoln taking power with the country literally falling apart. Lincoln, nevertheless, wanted to show unity on Inauguration Day, taking a carriage ride with Buchanan after he took his oath of office. Buchanan went on to write one of the first presidential memories to justify his actions, while Lincoln quickly moved to refuse any compromise with southern states, leading to the Civil War.