Does anyone know why the Inauguration for President was ever changed from March to January?

Excellent question. I always wondered that myself, but was too lazy until now to actually investigate. The most thorough answer I found was from this site which I will reprint here because it is so thorough, yet concise (concerning the subject) and makes so much sense:

Inaugurations used to be held on March 4. This was the date used until 1934. As Garrett Epps points out in the January/February 2009 Atlantic Magazine:

“This long delay nearly destroyed the nation after the 1860 election. During the disastrous “secession winter,” Abraham Lincoln waited in Illinois while his feckless predecessor, James Buchanan, permitted secessionists to seize federal arsenals and forts. By March 1861, when Lincoln took office, the Civil War was nearly lost, though officially it had not even begun.

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt crushed the incumbent, Herbert Hoover, but had to wait four months to take office. During that period, Hoover attempted to force the president-elect to abandon his proposals for economic reform. Roosevelt refused to commit himself, but the resulting uncertainty led the financial system to the brink of collapse.”

Obviously the long interregnum was not working out. The Twentieth Amendment, passed in 1933, cut the waiting period nearly in half. As the website infoplease explains:

“The Twentieth Amendment, sometimes called the Lame Duck Amendment, was introduced to amend the Twelfth Amendment and shorten the time an outgoing President and member of Congress could be a “lame duck” -that is, a public official who continues to serve after an election and before a successor’s assumption of office. The Twentieth Amendment moved the President’s start date up to January 20 – two weeks after the Electoral College’s votes are certified by the president of the Senate.”

Assuming there is ever any question that must be resolved by a vote certification, this gives the winning candidate a short, but decent, time to prepare.

I am not saying this is correct, but it’s what I learned in grade school. It could have been just my teacher making it up or guessing. It’s either interesting as fact or as the misinformation.

Traveling in winter was difficult in the 1700s & 1800s, so they delayed until March.

I know that does not explain the later change. @Espiritus_Corvus‘s answer is good for that.

@Espiritus_Corvus That makes sense to me. After all the house is only in session 111 days out of the year. Why pay them as well to hang out a few more months, Doing nothing.Great answer. Thanks.

January’s usually a nasty, miserable month here. It would be nice to have the inauguration during springtime. But, a lame-duck official is never a good idea. Right now, the departing president keeps the job for about 2.5 months, which is long enough to wrap-up and pack one’s luggage.

The constitution does not mandate a particular date for the inauguration, nor the end of the terms of elected officials, and by extension, the beginning of new terms. Therefore, it was a subject of legislation. In early days of the republic, when agrarian society was most prominent, November of December was considered a good time for elections, as harvests and the autumn slaughter of livestock was finished, but severe winter weather had not set in. In 1845, the date for elections was set at the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This assures an election as early as possible in November, but never on November 1st, which is a religious holiday in many christian churches. Holding the inauguration on March 4th allowed time for the states to certify their election results in the days before electronic communications, and for the electors to assemble to certify the results. It’s a little more complicated than that, because if no president has been chosen, then the House chooses the President. This happened in 1824 when Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams both polled 89 electoral votes. The House chose Adams, largely out of spite against Jackson. They were a lame duck Congress, and Jackson had many enemies in that Congress. By and large, setting Inauguration day on March 4th was a concession to the seasons and poor roads.

In 1932, an amendment to the constitution was proposed, in large measure to propose a solution to the problem of a lame duck House possibly selecting the President. It was approved pretty rapidly, and became the 20th Amendment. It sets the date for the new session of Congress for January 3rd, and the presidential inauguration for January 20th. This eliminates the lame duck House problem. Previously, the new Congress was seated on March 4th also, assuring that a lame duck House would choose the President in a contested election, or in the case of the death of the winning candidate. The 20th amendment is known as the Lame Duck Amendment.

Here is the text of the amendment:

Amendment XX

Section 1.

The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3.

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4.

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5.

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission.

By the way, i was incorrect about the 1824 election. Jackson got the most electoral votes, but not a majority of the electoral votes. So the election was thrown into the House. There was only one viable political party then, the Democratic-Republicans, usually just called the Republicans. One of them was Henry Clay, who was the speaker of the House, but he came in fourth, and so could not be considered. He threw his weight behind Adams, and after the inauguration, Adams appointed him Secretary of State. It was quickly dubbed the Corrupt Bargain. Jackson went out and created the modern Democratic Party, and swept into power in 1828.

Because March wasn’t cold enough? They should move it indoors if that’s not the answer. ;-p