“We are free to live and love and laugh. We face the future with confidence and courage. We are American.”
— Franklin Roosevelt, October 1940 Campaign Address
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on Monday, Jan. 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was the only child of James and Sara Roosevelt. His early education was provided by private tutors, followed by admission to Groton, Harvard and Columbia Law School. In the midst of a privileged life, his father taught him the virtues of public service, civic engagement and the moral obligation of caring for those in need.
While in college, he began dating Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin. Franklin and Eleanor were married in 1905. The bride was given away by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin and Theodore were also distant cousins. Franklin and Eleanor had six children, five of whom survived to adulthood.
Roosevelt became a popular force in the Democratic Party beginning with his election to the New York State Senate in 1910. He later served as the assistant secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson and was the unsuccessful 1920 candidate for vice president. In 1928, he was elected to the first of two terms as governor of New York, where he focused on issues and programs that became hallmarks of his presidency. His political ascendance gave ample indications of White House aspirations.
While vacationing in Canada in 1921, Roosevelt contracted poliomyelitis, which paralyzed him from the waist down for the rest of his life. During his rehabilitation, he visited Warm Springs, Georgia, known for its therapeutic mineral springs. He had a cottage built there and helped establish a treatment facility for polio patients.
On the promise of a “new deal,” Roosevelt won the presidential election of 1932. He secured 472 electoral votes to 59 for President Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt had to address a widespread crisis of confidence in the nation’s economy and the government’s ability to respond to it.
President Roosevelt began that process on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933. In his inaugural address, he called on the nation to move beyond fear and to take action with the legendary statement, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
From early March through mid-June, a period known as The Hundred Days, the president and the Congress began turning fear into action and leading the nation out of the Great Depression.
During that period, Roosevelt delivered the first of his more than 30 fireside chats. Through these radio talks, he entered the homes of millions of Americans with each broadcast. Speaking directly to the people throughout the depression and World War II, he provided hope, dispelled rumors and shared plans and initiatives in real time. Although physically paralyzed, Roosevelt used the radio to make himself accessible to an anxious nation.
Roosevelt’s New Deal era programs and initiatives brought about much-needed relief, crucial recovery and enduring reform. The legacy of that reform can be seen today in programs such as Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), National Labor Relations Board and Federal Housing Administration.
As the Great Depression lingered through the late 1930s, the clouds of war were gathering around the world. Early on, Roosevelt supported aid to Great Britain and other allies, while adhering to a policy of neutrality. That ended with the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Declaring it to be “a date which will live in infamy” before a joint session of Congress, Roosevelt and the United States entered World War II.
President Roosevelt’s economic mobilization turned the nation into the “arsenal of democracy.” Diplomatically, he helped form and maintain an essential alliance with Great Britain and the Soviet Union. In his Jan. 6, 1941, State of the Union Address, often referred to as his “Four Freedoms Speech,” Roosevelt identified what he believed to be the essential freedoms for a more peaceful post-war world: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Throughout World War II, his vision was a driving force in the formation of the United Nations.
The rigors of depression and war had exacted a toll on FDR, as he was widely known, but he ran for and won a fourth term. He was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1945. A month later, he attended the Yalta Conference to discuss the post-war world. Worn and weak when he returned, he went to Warm Springs, Georgia, for some much-needed rest. On April 12, while sitting for a portrait, he died of a massive stroke. Roosevelt was buried at his Hyde Park, New York, home on April 15, 1945.
His social and governmental contributions are significant and enduring. However, Roosevelt’s personal legacy may embody his greatest contributions to the American Dream.
In the face of depression and war, he held to a realistic yet unwavering optimism. When he faced polio at age 39, he did so with a resilience driven by personal resolve and commitment.
And based on early life lessons, Franklin Roosevelt demonstrated an empathic concern for those in need. As a result, he expanded the role of government, enhancing the constitutional mission to “… promote the general welfare … ” of the nation and its citizenry.