FDR - Jean Edward Smith [453]
80. Hoover was concerned about the fate of Walter H. Newton, a longtime Republican congressman from Minnesota who had resigned his House seat in 1929 to become the president’s administrative assistant. Newton had no outside source of income, and in his final days Hoover had nominated him to a federal judgeship but the Senate had blocked his confirmation. FDR happily agreed to take care of Newton and two weeks later appointed him to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: Launching the New Deal 200–201 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973). Also see ER, This I Remember 77, and Grace Tully, FDR: My Boss 68.
81. Ed Hill transcript, FDRL.
82. See the correspondence between Charles E. Cropley, clerk of the court, and FDR, February 20, 25, 1933, and Chief Justice Hughes’s reply of February 28, 1933. “I am glad to have the suggestion that you repeat the oath in full instead of saying simply ‘I do,’ ” wrote Hughes. “I think the repetition is the more dignified and appropriate course.” 3 Roosevelt Letters 102–105.
83. The text of the presidential oath, reproduced above, is found in Article II, section 1, of the Constitution.
84. Roosevelt, 2 Public Papers and Addresses 11–16.
85. Frances Perkins interview, Columbia Oral History Project, Columbia University.
86. Lorena Hickok, Eleanor Roosevelt: Reluctant First Lady 104–105 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980).
87. In the confusion following the inauguration FDR’s family Bible was misplaced, and there was some difficulty finding one for Justice Cardozo. Eventually Chief Usher Ike Hoover located one in the locker of Charles S. Baum, a White House policeman, and it was used to administer the cabinet oaths. The New York Times, March 5, 7, 1933. It required less than thirty minutes for the Senate to unanimously confirm all of Roosevelt’s appointees. No hearings were held.
88. Michael Teague, Mrs. L: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth 171, 161 (New York: Doubleday, 1981).
FIFTEEN | One Hundred Days
The epigraph is a remark FDR made at dinner in the White House, March 12, 1933, prior to sending his message to Congress requesting that the Volstead Act (48 Stat. 305) be amended to permit the sale of beer and light wine. Ernest K. Lindley, The Roosevelt Revolution 91 (New York: Viking, 1933).
1. Inaugural address, March 4, 1933. 2 Public Papers and Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt 12, Samuel I. Rosenman, ed. (New York: Random House, 1938).
2. Prior to adoption of the Twentieth (Lame Duck) Amendment in 1933, the new Congress did not convene until late in the year following its election (variably set by statute). The Twentieth Amendment set January 4 as the date for Congress to meet, but it was not yet in effect. The Senate, of course, is a continuing body and is always in session, which explains the confirmation of FDR’s cabinet appointees on March 4.
3. Frances Perkins interview, Columbia Oral History Project, Columbia University.
4. For the texts of Roosevelt’s proclamations declaring a bank holiday (No. 2039) and the recall of Congress (No. 2038), see 2 Public Papers and Addresses 24–26, 17.
5. Hiram Johnson to his sons, March 12, 1933, Johnson Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
6. John Gunther, Roosevelt in Retrospect 278 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950).
7. Address before the Governors’ Conference at the White House, March 6, 1933. 2 Public Papers and Addresses 18–21.
8. Pledge of Support to the President by the Governors’ Conference, March 6, 1933. Ibid. 21–24.
9. The caucus resolution gave Majority Leader Joseph Robinson authority to convene the caucus “for the purpose of considering any measure recommended by the President and that all Democratic senators shall be bound by vote of the majority of the conference.” The New York Times, March 7, 1933. The prior caucus rule had required a two-thirds vote. In the House of Representatives, it continued to require a two-thirds vote to bind the Democratic caucus.
10. In addition to Huey Long, Senators George McGill of Kansas and Edward