On 20th January 2025 the inauguration of Donald Trump will take place as 47th President of the United States of America. Unusually the event will be taking place indoors. There have been 60 Inaugurations. Another Republican US President was Abraham Lincoln. The very learned Lincoln could recite the poetry of Robert Burns, his favourite bard. President Lincoln would have been very familiar with the words of one of Burns’ finest poems written in Scots ‘Sic A Parcel O’ Rogues’.
Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory
Fareweel ev’n to the Scottish name,
Sae famed in martial story
Now Sark rins over Solway sands
An Tweed rins to the ocean
To mark where England’s province stands –
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!
What force or guile could not subdue
Through many warlike ages
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling traitor’s wages
The English steel we could disdain
Secure in valour’s station
But English gold has been our bane –
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!
O would, or I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay
Wi Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour
I’ll mak this declaration
We’re bought and sold for English gold –
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!
Still suffering the ravages of a Civil War, President Lincoln’s 2nd inauguration took place on March 4 1865, outside, despite the very real worries for his personal security. Indeed just 41 days later he was to be assassinated. The speech he gave at his inauguration is engraved on the north interior wall of the Lincoln Memorial.
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