Ulysses Simpson Grant took the oath as eighteenth President of the United States on the central portico of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. He preceded this with his first inaugural address in which he promised to safeguard the security of all citizens without regard to local prejudice. Just prior to this, the retiring president pro tempore of the Senate, Benjamin Wade, had administered the oath on the Senate floor to the new Vice President, Schuyler Colfax of Indiana.(By John Osborne)