WASHINGTON, D.C. — While people in the Ohio Valley awoke to the sound of rain and the threat of rising rivers, the nation’s attention was focused on the U.S. Capitol, where the 32nd president would take the oath of office for the second time.
It was Inauguration Day.
At 10 a.m. President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, along with family and cabinet members, left the White House to attend a special church service. The president wanted to begin the day’s activities in the same way as his first inauguration on March 4, 1933.
The group made the short trip across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Episcopal Church on H Street, where FDR was a vestryman. The private service ended with a prayer from Reverend Endicott Peabody, headmaster of Groton School, where the president completed his secondary education.
It was an abysmal day that would dump rain and sleet on inauguration festivities.
The weather was surely a disappointment for the “throngs gathering from all parts of the country” that had “rapidly [swelled] the population of Washington to twice its normal size,” as The New York Times reported.
They came from nearly every state, aboard special trains and buses and driving long distances in automobiles to reach the Capitol. Booked weeks earlier, lodgings in and around the city were full and railroad yards were packed with Pullman cars serving as accommodations for well-to-do travelers.
The president was undeterred by the forecast, announcing the open-air ceremony would go ahead as planned, except in the case of a “hurricane or blizzard.”
He returned to the White House and met with members of Congress and Vice President John Garner, a Texan known as “Cactus Jack.” At 11:35 a.m. he departed for the Capitol.
The Supreme Court justices slipped into their robes and traveled the short distance from the new court building to the inaugural stand, arriving a short time before the president. Members of the House and Senate also trickled onto the platform from their chambers inside the Capitol Building.
The Ceremony
The ceremony began close to noon as a driving rain and numbing wind pummeled Capitol Plaza.
A crowd of 40,000 people huddled under umbrellas. They wore raincoats and slickers, some coated with ice. They had walked through mud and splashed through flooded streets to claim their spot in the plaza and witness history. Still, the northeasterly storm had dampened the turnout. It was one of the smallest inaugurals in the nation’s history.
Shortly after Vice President Garner took the oath from Senator Joseph Robinson of Arkansas, President Roosevelt rose to his feet to take the oath from Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
Including Hughes, seven of the nine justices were present. Justices Brandeis and Stone were absent: Brandeis owing to his advanced age and the nasty weather; Stone because of a lengthy illness.
While the justices were well-bundled for the rain and cold, FDR wore his coat open at the collar. His head was bare. Referring to the tens of thousands who braved the elements on this day, the president said, “If they can take it, I can.”
Throughout the country and around the world, people were listening in their living rooms or wherever they could hear the radio broadcast, including on ships at sea. Despite the smaller-than-expected gathering at the Capitol, it was the largest audience to hear an inauguration, thanks to the technology of radio. There was keen interest in the day’s activities, especially the president’s inaugural address. Radio companies were flooded with requests for international broadcasts.
The president placed his left hand on the Dutch Bible of Klaus Nicholas Roosevelt, his first American ancestor. A cellulite cover protected the family heirloom from the dripping rain. His hand rested on the same spot in the family Bible as it did on the occasion of his first inauguration: First Corinthians, Chapter 13, which in the King James Version ends, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
FDR raised his right hand and repeated the 35-word oath. Nearby the presidential flag slowly traveled up the mast. The dark robe of the chief justice was blotted with rain drops. Streams of breath floated by in the cold air. As the president spoke, his head jerked up and down, as if jolted by the gravity of the solemn oath he swore.
It was 12:29 p.m.
The president smiled and shook hands with Chief Justice Evans. He had four more years to continue to lead the nation out of the Great Depression. It would begin with his second inaugural address.
Read or listen to the introduction to The 1937 Flood Journal or access the archives for the full chronology and anything you’ve missed.
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I love how vividly you paint the inauguration!