President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is one of America’s most iconic political figures and beloved Presidents. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms. This would lead to the passing of the 22 Amendment restricting the number of terms that a President can serve to two. In this paper I will look at home the challenges of disability and the Depression helped him to understand and address the needs of the people.
Early Life
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30 1882 in Hyde Park New York. His parents, who both came from wealthy New York families were James Roosevelt, who was a prominent businessman, who had made money in the railroads and coal (EleanorLetters) and Sara Delano. He was the fifth cousin of future President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1896 at the age of 14, after being homeschooled by private tutors “Roosevelt entered Groton, an elite private school in Massachusetts” (Miller). While attending the school the dean Endicott Peabody became an important influence on FDR. (EleanorLetters) It was Peabody that gave Roosevelt a “strong sense of civic responsibility” (EleanorLetters). Roosevelt was also inspired by a talk given by Teddy Roosevelt at the school (EleanorLetters). After graduating Groton, Roosevelt entered Harvard in 1900.
At Harvard, he had a very active social life and put a lot of focus into his extracurricular activities, including becoming the President of the Harvard Crimson (EleanorLetters). In 1905 he married his distant cousin Eleanor Roosevelt on St. Patrick’s Day. They would have 5 children and despite the problems in their marriage caused by his affairs amongst other issues, they remained strong political allies. Eleanor herself would advocate for many reforms to benefit the downtrodden possibly leading or contributing to Roosevelt’s agenda. After returning from their European honeymoon, Franklin and Eleanor moved into a townhouse in New York. FDR then decided to go back to school at Columbia University Law School to complete his degree. After three years he passed the bar exam and opened up a practice in New York City (Miller). FDR won a Senate Seat in 1910, during his two-year tenure, he introduced laws to protect farmers and he headed the Senate Forest, Fish and Game Committee (EleanorLetters).
Roosevelt’s Personal Trial and “Triumph”
In 1912 FDR was appointed the assistant secretary of the Navy. During his seven years in this positions Roosevelt argued for a “better prepared Navy and a more militant stance in crises” After the first World War ended in 1918, FDR “absorbed both President Wilson’s internationalist policies and his failure” in regards to permitting the US to join the United Nations. In 1920 Roosevelt ran for Vice-President on the Democratic ticket alongside James Cox, although they lost the election FDR had gained a Democratic following (EleanorLetters). Suddenly in 1921 at the age of 39 he was stricken by Polio while vacationing at Campobello (Miller). Although, he was paralyzed from the waist down Roosevelt was determined to walk again. He proceeded to commit to a strict regimen of exercise and he aggressively sought new treatments (EleanorLetters). While he never able to fully recover from his paralysis, he would be able to walk short distances of about 100 feet with the aid of leg braces (Franklin Museum). In 1924 he began exercising in the 88 degree mineral springs at Warm Springs, Georgia (Miller). He discovered that while he was in the water, he gained some muscle strength and feeling in his legs. By 1927 he had bought the hotel resort and created the Warm Springs Foundation, a center for the rehabilitation and independent living of polio patients (Miller). Later his wife and First lady Eleanor Roosevelt would say the following about how President Roosevelt dealt with his disability" I know that he had real fear when he was first taken ill, but he learned to surmount it. After that I never heard him say he was afraid of anything." (Eleanor Roosevelt cited in Miller)
During the years between 1921 and 1924 when FDR was focusing on recovering the use of his legs, he had continued to correspond with Louis Howe a political operative who worked to maintain FDR’s profile in the Democratic party (Eleanor Letters). FDR gave a highly acclaimed speech at the Democratic convention in 1924 to nominate New York Governor Al Smith for president (FranklinMuseum) Howe and Eleanor Roosevelt would then go on to work together not only in regards to the Women’s Division of the Democratic Party, but in keeping FDR’s name alive in Democratic politics. Roosevelt won the position of Governor of New York in 1928. He quickly showed that he was a progressive politician by “handing out tax relief to farmers and advocating for cheap electric power” (EleanorLetters). After the stock market crashed in 1929 Roosevelt would spend the west of his time as Governor dealing with it. It was during this time that he became a “strong advocate of government intervention” (EleanorLetters), establishing the New Deal programs to help people to find jobs. In 1932 during the pinnacle of the Great Depression, Roosevelt was elected President. During the first months of his Presidency there were a record number of Factory closings, farm foreclosures, and bank failures increased, and unemployment soared (FranklinMuseum)
The Social Conditions Roosevelt’s Social Reforms Were Influenced by
Roosevelt’s strength as a President came from both his experience as a Governor during the Depression and from his continual perseverance over his disability. During his tenure in office Congress passed a number of landmark bills that permitted the federal government a more active role in the economy and in people’s lives (FranklinMuseum). Within the first hundred days of his taking office, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act, a bill which stabilized the nation’s ailing banks and reassured depositors (EleanorLetters). Congress also created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) (EleanorLetters). Most likely due to the advocacy of Eleanor, who worked tirelessly to improve the rights of women, minorities and the poor. Roosevelt appointed the first female Secretary of Labor in Frances Perkins. He would go on to appoint a number of white and black women to federal position (EleanorLetters) and in 1935 Congress would pass the Social Security Act (EleanorLetters).
In 1936 due to a strong first term that led to deals and improvements in “banking, unemployment, housing and work relief and pensions” (Miller) Roosevelt was elected to a second term, in a landslide victory. Roosevelt annoyed at the older members of Congress who were making it difficult to get his reforms passed (EleanorLetters) propose increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court. This idea did not go over very well with the populace or Congress as many of his critics said he was "packing the Court and undermining the separation of powers”, (FranklinMuseum). The bill would later be defeated (FranklinMuseum) The Depressing appeared to be rescinding in 1937 and Roosevelt moved to balance the budget by cutting government spending(Miller). Unfortunately, these cuts contributed to the resurgence in the Depression in the fall and winter of 1937-38 forcing Roosevelt to seek more money in order to fix the economy. The fix finally came during World War II, when a large number of people were put to work building materials for the war.
How President Roosevelt Changed History
Roosevelt went on to win a third Presidential term in 1940, inspired in part to his deep sympathy for the countries being taken over by Hitler’s forces along with Great Britain, who was standing alone against the Nazi’s and his deep dislike for Hitler and his policies. While Roosevelt would have preferred to enter into the War, the country’s isolationist policies, restrictive immigration Act and the Neutrality Act prevented him from being able to troops. While he was prevented from sending troops to assist the Allied Forces he had the nation’s defenses built up in order to prepare for what he felt was inevitable war, and he worked to generate sympathy for Great Britain, France and China. He proposed a Lend-Lease program in which the United States would provide military assistance to Great Britain in exchange for air and naval bases. (Franklin Museum). When Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan in 1941, Roosevelt used his knowledge and love of naval ships to help him form a strong relationship with the naval commanders, who in turn helped him in deciding the next course of action. His actions and decisiveness during the War would lead to America becoming a political, economic and superpower (FranklinMuseum)
After the attack on by the Japanese, the West Coast began to panic and assume that every person of Japanese descent was part of an attempt to invade the country. Roosevelt passed an executive order placing all Japanese people living on the West coast to be rounded up and placed in internment camps (Eleanor Letters). As the war continued and more information came to light about the Holocaust the country put pressure on the federal government to assist the refugees (FranklinMuseum), because of this Roosevelt passed an executive order creating the War Refugee Board which would aid in the rescuing of Jews and other refugees during the remainder of the war. (Franklin Museum)
Roosevelt outlined the “Four Freedoms “that he hoped that world would be able to cultivate: “freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear” in January of 1941 (Franklin Museum). He worked with Stalin, Churchill and a variety of other Allied leaders to plan and implement the United Nations, but he would not live to see it come into existence. He ran for and won a fourth term in 1944 hoping to see the war end. This would not be so as he died on April 12, 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage less than five months into his fourth term.
Works Cited
"Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)." The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt: Life in Brief-." Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Ed. William Leuchtenburg. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum." Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.
