is grounded in principles and not on any single personality" (Johnson 1967, p. 173). And he was very convincing, receiving 472 electoral votes and winning the Presidency in a landslide.Franklin Delano Roosevelt entered off ice on March 4, 1933. He was the last President to be inaugurated in March. Going into this job, Roosevelt knew that there were many immediate problems that had to be handled, like the banking crisis. On March 6th, just two days after becoming President, Roosevelt declared a "bank holiday," which meant that all banks would shut down until the Department of Treasury could look over every bank's books and make sure they were all on a stable basis. By doing this, Roosevelt ended the bank crisis and restored confidence in many Americans.Moving right on to the next problem, on March 9th, Roosevelt, with congressional approval, began to pass recovery and reform laws. Congress approved almost all the important bills with large majority rules. The session of Congress passing laws in known as the "Hundred Days." On March 12th, Roosevelt began to give his famous "fireside chats" over the radio, explaining the new laws that are being passed and how they will benefit the nation in the future. Walking into a Presidency while the nation is in the midst of a depression is an extremely difficult job. But Roosevelt was prepared to make immediate changes and succeeded in handling the nation's problems, while also gaining respect from the people.Roosevelt described his reform program, the New Deal, as a "use of authority of government as an organized form of self-help for all classes and groups and sections of our country" (Sullivan 1970, p. 87). There were many different parts to the program, all of them working towards relief for the cities and states. The Civil Works Administration was started in 1933, which supplied funds that went towards public projects such as building roads, repairing old schools, cleaning public pa...
