Editorial:

The peaceful transition of power has endured through tough times and deep divisions.

Donald Trump’s inauguration will not be the first time the presidency has shifted from one party to another after a bruising and close election, with boycotts and vitriol lingering in the air. That distinction goes to the inauguration of President Thomas Jefferson, after the election of 1800 ended with an electoral tie, with his victory over incumbent President John Adams settled on the 36th ballot in the House of Representatives.

Jefferson rose to the occasion with humility and eloquence, reaching out to his erstwhile adversaries from an election that had brought the young nation to the brink of civil war. Adams, the defeated Federalist, did not attend.

“We have called by different names brethren of the same principle,” Republican Jefferson said in his call for national unity. “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

Jefferson’s inauguration was a milestone in the maturation of the republic and the establishment of the precedent for a peaceful transition of power that has endured through wars, depressions and political divisions every bit as intense as those of today.

“In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept is nothing less than a miracle,” President Ronald Reagan said at his 1981 inaugural.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, “miracle” is not a word that comes to mind for the vast majority of voters who opposed Trump for all the objections over his policies, his preparation and his temperament. Some will be tempted to turn away from the coverage, or join a protest of the inauguration. Fair enough. That’s no less part of the American tradition. Adams certainly did not cheer the end of a dozen years of Federalist rule; his flurry of late appointments became known as the “midnight judges.” He left Washington before sunrise on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1801.

So began the peaceful transitions of power that are an American hallmark. It’s something to celebrate.