RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The next president starts his job with the same words that President Bush did, the same words spoken by every president.
FRANKLIN D: I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
HARRY S: I, Harry S Truman, do solemnly swear...
RICHARD M: I, Richard Milhous Nixon, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office...
RONALD REAGAN: The office of president of the United States.
ROOSEVELT: I will to the best of my ability...
TRUMAN: Preserve, protect, and defend...
NIXON: And defend the Constitution of the United States...
REAGAN: So help me God.
MONTAGNE: Ronald Reagan and other presidents took the oath that Barack Obama will soon repeat.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
This morning we'll find a deeper meaning in words that seem like a simple formality.
MARVIN PINKERT: If I went up to 12 people on the street and said, where would you find the instructions for the oath of office? I doubt that many of them would tell me it's actually written into the Constitution.
INSKEEP: This is the one thing that's really specific...
PINKERT: It's the only sentence in quotes in the entire Constitution.
INSKEEP: And you would understand why those exact words matter when you learn how they were edited. Marvin Pinkert shows us how, by leading us to documents in a glass display case.
PINKERT: So let's start with the first document, which is the first printed draft of the Constitution. At this point, the Constitutional Convention starts to meet in mid-May.
INSKEEP: 1787?
PINKERT: 1787. They've gone through all the big political issues about creating a House of Representatives in small states and big states, and how they're going to orient themselves in the separation of powers. But there are a lot of details missing. And so what you're looking at here is George Washington's working copy of this draft Constitution, and you can see that there's a piece of the oath of office - we've blown it up here.
INSKEEP: I, blank. Where's it go from there?
PINKERT: Solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. That's the whole oath at the time. You can see where Washington has written in very small print a change. George Mason and James Madison have proposed to make a change to the document that adds this phrase about defending the Constitution, so that in effect the president is taking an oath of subordination.
INSKEEP: To the law?
PINKERT: To the Constitution of the United States.
INSKEEP: Which is significant, I suppose, because in future generations presidents will have this dilemma. Do I do what I think is best for the country or do I follow the law, even if I don't think that's best for the country? Do I break the law? There are presidents constantly wrestling with that dilemma.
PINKERT: And I suspect that that's what leads to the next change in the document. What you're looking at here is from the last few days of the Constitutional Convention. There was a committee of revision and style that has made a few suggestions for changes. And among those changes is to cut out the word "judgment" and replace it with the word "abilities." So the president no longer is exercising his best judgment, but instead to the best of his abilities...
INSKEEP: Is following?
PINKERT: Is following the Constitution. The last set of changes will have to go where the final Constitution is.
INSKEEP: Which we can do down the hall at the National Archives. In a cavernous room, a kind of civic temple, we find the Constitution itself under glass. The ornate handwriting shows a few final tweaks, for example the phrase "and power is dropped."
PINKERT: I can't honestly tell you how those last changes took place, but this is the final step of getting the 37 words of the oath.
INSKEEP: Now that is not precisely what modern presidents have said, is it?
PINKERT: Modern presidents have generally added the phrase, so help me God. But that is not in the Constitution.
INSKEEP: Oh, is it not known where the so help me God began, which president might have picked it up along the way?
PINKERT: I don't know. There are people who will tell you it was said by Washington, and then there are people who say it wasn't said by Washington. Having no tape, I have no ability...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
PINKERT: To determine that.
INSKEEP: Well, thanks very much for sharing these documents with us.
PINKERT: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Of course, there will be tape next week. Marvin Pinkert is executive director of the National Archives Experience. And you can see one of those papers we talked about at npr.org.