Gov.-elect Rod Blagojevich might be nervous about delivering Monday’s inaugural address, but he can rest assured that he’ll outshine some predecessors just by finishing it.
Gov. Richard Yates was so drunk for his big moment in 1861 that the House clerk had to read his speech for him. Then there was the guy who squeaked out a few syllables, lost his voice and had to turn his script over to a substitute.
The inaugurations of 39 Illinois governors have witnessed speeches delayed by politics, speeches notable for their wild promises and speeches rendered absurd by subsequent events. Blagojevich will have the chance to make his own mark–be it stunning or laughable–when he gives his first address as governor of Illinois.
His goal, it seems, is to land somewhere between populist and ponderous. Rather than driving or taking the state jet to Springfield for the event, Blagojevich set the stage for his inaugural by boarding a train for the capital Saturday, stopping in small towns to greet supporters along the way. The whistle-stop trip was designed to be folksy and Trumanesque, meant to highlight Blagojevich’s ability for remembering names, faces and shaking every hand in sight.
In the meantime, aides were putting the final touches on a serious address they say will provide a map for navigating the state’s fiscal crisis and other challenges.
“Most important is to give people a broader sense of where Rod Blagojevich will want to take the state in the next four years,” said his spokesman, Doug Scofield. “You want to put things more in context as far as the long-term vision of the state.”
In this way, Blagojevich will echo messages of several past governors, who launched their administrations with speeches about tightening the purse strings. In the first inaugural address 184 years ago, Gov. Shadrach Bond informed his audience that the state treasury was nearly empty and its credit badly damaged.
Bond also set the stage for a social agenda of sorts, decrying the harshness of some criminal penalties at the time of his October 1818 inauguration. He opposed the use of whipping and confinement in the stock, and a speech transcript shows him remarking that “in many cases the punishment for crimes is unnecessarily severe”–a public statement possibly even bolder then than it would be now.
In more recent years, governors have used their speeches to set similar priorities for their administrations–and to apologize and promise.
At the second of his four inaugurals, in 1979, Gov. James Thompson told listeners he was sorry for failing to block a giant pay raise for himself and lawmakers. But he eventually pocketed the money anyway.
In 1973, one-term Gov. Dan Walker, a self-styled populist, offered a symbolic pledge when he insisted on giving his speech outside the Statehouse. In case the political hierarchy missed his implicit message of independence and distance from the legislature, Walker put it in plain English.
“To those who have grown rich on the public dollar, to those who have won secret grants and contracts, to those in government who put themselves first and the taxpayer second, to you I bring the first message from the people of Illinois,” Walker said. “The free ride is over.”
Of course, Walker later pleaded guilty to bank fraud, misapplication of funds and perjury. But the only thing that muted his message that day was the bitter January cold, which caused one lawmaker to collapse and be transported to a local hospital.
At least Walker got to give his speech on the big day. Others had to wait or turn the duty over to someone else.
A political squabble forced Gov. Edward Dunne, the only Chicago mayor to become governor, to wait three weeks to give his inaugural address in 1913. Local newspapers reported that days before the scheduled event a fight broke out in the Democratic caucus over who was to become House speaker.
Dunne held off on his speech until February, after the matter was resolved.
Gov. Thomas Ford had a stand-in deliver his speech for him. Known already for his small stature and squeaky voice, Ford lost his ability to speak partway through his 1842 inaugural address, according to the book “Mostly Good and Competent Men,” a history of Illinois’ 39 governors. Ford sank into the chair on which he had been standing and let another man finish.
Yates, supposedly a gifted orator, never even got started, the book reports.
He had to be led staggering down the aisle on the day of his address, then collapsed into a chair and listened while the clerk read the speech.
