Presidential Campaign: Promising the Leadership So Desperately Needed
Roosevelt's clear, confident articulation of his vision for America compelled people to look beyond the hopelessness they felt and renewed them with optimism. His courage inspired courage. Americans believed his promise of leadership.
"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."
-John Kenneth Galbraith, American diplomat
"Franklin Roosevelt’s nomination for President by the Democratic Convention in Chicago in July 1932 led to one of the most momentous campaigns in American political history."
-FDR Library and Museum
-FDR Library and Museum
Small print from image on left:
"We have had four years of false prophesies, broken promises and blundering statesmanship. Twelve years of reactionary policies have brought the nation to the worst crisis in its history: 11,000,000 idle laborers, 30,000,000 American people living on charity, 12,000 bank failures, thousands of idle factories, 600,000 home and farm foreclosures. Agriculture is prostrate and on the verge of bankruptcy. Surplus food stuffs are smothering the farmer while millions of human beings are underfed or starving. The President [Hoover] has proved his utter lack of capacity to restore the nation to economic health. The people have lost confidence in his leadership and will not be reassured by his baseless campaign forecasts of returning prosperity. The battle has not been won! The fundamental cause of our distress has not been remedied! Each day of delay adds to human misery and despair!" |
A New President
"[On November 8, 1932] . . . Americans elected Franklin Roosevelt by a margin of over seven million votes . . . For FDR, the election was a personal triumph and a resounding mandate for change."
-FDR Library and Museum
-FDR Library and Museum
"I cannot recall any time in my lifetime . . . anyone's entering office, whose election created such a sense of national exhilaration and who carried such hopes and expectations with him . . ." "He brought to the presidency the courage that had enabled him to overcome his disability, the experience that he had acquired in fighting the depression as governor, and an incandescent optimism that lifted the spirits of the nation." |
Inaugural Address: March 4, 1933
"Recovery measures work better when they raise confidence -- as Franklin D. Roosevelt understood... his inaugural address proclaiming he would fight the Great Depression with the same resolve he would muster against a foreign foe, was aimed at reassuring Americans."
-Christina Romer, The New York Times
-Christina Romer, The New York Times
FDR Inaugural Speech with famous quotes in bold | |
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". . . 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." |
(American Rhetoric, 1933)
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"The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it." |
Public Response to Roosevelt's Inaugural Address: