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The Twentieth Amendment moved inauguration to January 20th since 1933. At this time, the transition from Herbert Hoover to Franklin Roosevelt also appeared to be potentially volatile. Both had argued different methods for healing the mounting economic crisis that became the Great Depression during the campaign, with Roosevelt's New Deal policies winning out over Hoover's cooperative volunteerism. Within a day after the election, Hoover conceded and wrote: 'In the common purpose of all of us, I shall dedicate myself to every possible helpful effort' in reference to his planned assistance in the transition. However, soon after this statement, Hoover moved to try to get Roosevelt to change his mind about enacting New Deal measures, such as the public works plan. Roosevelt reacted by refusing to collaborate with the outgoing president, leading to tension between the two. By the time inauguration came around, the two rivals did decide to take the now customary carriage ride together. The lack of preparation and cooperation by Roosevelt and Hoover did possibly delay some relief measures that could have helped households, but nevertheless Hoover never really formally attempted to block Roosevelt from taking power or enacting his policies.
Although presidential transitions were sometimes tense, on the outside the transitions have been peaceful throughout US history with no incident of verified violence that was encouraged by any side. However, until 1963, there was no formal law that governed how a presidential transition would be handled. To help ensure a continuity of a peaceful and orderly transition, The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 was passed. The act enabled mechanisms for a formal transition, including for the incoming president to access branches of the government to ensure that the incoming president could have knowledge of key information prior to taking office. This act has continually been changed and amended to enable formal links of the government with the incoming president, including establishing the General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator to formally write an "ascertainment" letter that would declare a non-incumbent candidate to be an "apparent winner". This would formally release federal money to enable the transition for the incoming president.
==Recent History==
