ABSTRACT
The lowering skies and the chill March winds could throw no damper on the thousands of exuberant Democrats who crowded Washington to cheer and gawk at Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration. Eleanor Roosevelt noted soberly that the greatest inaugural applause was for her husband's guarded promise that, if Congress did not accept the challenge, he would act. Congress produced nothing but bickering; Roosevelt refused to intervene, except for a haphazard attempt to marshal votes for unemployment relief. The familiar prescription would be honored—balance, recognition of the faithful in the For Roosevelt Before Chicago Club, careful investigation to prevent future embarrassments—but there was more: this would be no back-shelf cabinet of prominent but useless characters. Louis McHenry Howe investigated personally the background and qualifications of Sumner Welles, whom Roosevelt intended for Assistant Secretary for Latin American Affairs, and smoothed Secretary Hull's ruffled feathers at not being consulted in the choice of his own assistants.
