Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt Roosevelt in 1944 Order: 32nd President Term of Office: March 4, 1933 - April 12, 1945 Followed: Herbert Hoover Succeeded by: Harry S. Truman Date of Birth Monday, January 30, 1882 Place of Birth: Hyde Park, New York Date of Death: Thursday, April 12, 1945 Place of Death: Warm Springs, Georgia First Lady: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Profession: lawyer Political Party: Democrat Vice President: John N. Garner (1933-1941) Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945) Harry S. Truman (1945)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1945), often referred to as FDR, was the 32nd (1933-1945) President of the United States. He was elected to an unprecedented four terms of office - the only U.S. president elected more than twice, and part of the reason the United States Constitution was amended to limit presidents to 2½ terms (10 years). His main contributions were the instituting of major economic and social assistance programs in response to the Great Depression, leading the country through a successful involvement in World War II, and the formation of the United Nations.

Biography

He was born on January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York, and died on April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving the famous Unfinished Portrait. He suffered from polio at the age of 39, which left him with severe difficulty in moving his legs. He often used a wheelchair, but took efforts to hide this disability throughout his life. In fact, there are only two known photographs of Roosevelt in his wheelchair. When a statue of Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair was commissioned in Washington, DC in 2001, some criticized this as unnecessary political correctness.

From the age of one, through until 1936, Roosevelt spent his summers at Campobello Island, New Brunswick but because of his worsening polio, in later years he had to spend much of his time in Warm Springs, whose namesake warm springs provided him and others relief from their symptoms, and where he built the Little White House, now a Georgia state historic site. [1] He also created the town's Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, which continues to help others with disabilities to this day. [2]

He graduated from Ivy League Harvard University in 1904, and from Ivy League Columbia Law School with a J.D. in 1908 before taking a job with a prestigious Wall Street firm. On St. Patrick's Day, 1905, he married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, a distant cousin, who was the favorite niece of Theodore Roosevelt, his fifth cousin. They would have six children:

1. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt May 3, 1906 - December 1, 1975
2. James Roosevelt, December 23, 1907 - August 13, 1991
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., March 18, 1909 - November 1, 1909
4. Elliott Roosevelt, September 23, 1910 - October 27, 1990
5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., August 17, 1914 - August 17, 1988
6. John Aspinwall Roosevelt, March 13, 1916 - April 27, 1981

Government Positions include: Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913-1920; Governor of New York, 1929-1933. Roosevelt's Presidential campaign in 1932 saw the New York governor committing himself to battling the Great Depression, promoting a platform with "Three R's - relief, recovery and reform." He coined the term "New Deal" when he stated: "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." On February 15, 1933 after his victory in the 1932 election, President-elect Roosevelt was nearly assassinated in Miami, Florida (the assassin did manage to kill Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak). In reference to the Great Depression, Roosevelt proclaimed "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" in his inauguration speech on (March 4, 1933). Roosevelt's first weeks in office were called The Hundred Days, as during the first part of his administration he authored and approved a flurry of Congressional acts to institute immediate change and keep the nation's economy from destabilizing. He insituted a four-day "banking holiday" two days after he took office: a four-day period in which all banks in the country closed, allowing the institutions a brief period to recover and reorganize. During this time of crisis Roosevelt addressed the nation for the first time as President on March 12, 1933 in the first of many "Fireside Chats."

Of the various reform programs initiated by the Roosevelt administration, the most far-reaching and influential was the institution of the Social Security system, a form of welfare that was meant to provide support for low-income and elderly citizens.

In 1935-1936, the Supreme Court, which was dominated by conservatives with a narrow view of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, the basis of much New Deal legislation, struck down eight of FDR's New Deal programs. In response Roosevelt submitted to Congress in February of 1937 a plan for "judicial reform," which proposed adding a justice for every justice over the age of 70 who refused to retire, up to a maximum of 15 total. This came to be known as his attempt to "pack" the Court. Though the plan failed in Congress, as a threat to the Court it may have had its desired effect. In a move cynically referred to as "the switch in time that saved nine," one of the conservative justices inexplicably shifted his vote in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, changing the ideological balance of the Court. It wasn't long before time allowed Roosevelt to further have his way on the bench, as vacancies allowed Roosevelt to eventually fill all nine seats with his appointments--the most of any presidency except George Washington's.

In 1937, Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th, following adoption of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Prior to this, presidents had been sworn into office on March 4th.

Campaigning for re-election in 1940 against Wendell L. Willkie, Roosevelt said that he would not send American boys to fight in foreign wars. However, in 1941 the conflicting interests of Japan and the United States in Asia and the Pacific, especially in China, resulted in a breakdown of diplomatic relations to the point where war seemed inevitable (see entry for Hull note). Some have suggested Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and welcomed it as a way to get the U.S. into World War II. Others point out, that while U.S. code-breakers had broken Japanese codes in Washington, D.C. and knew something was about to happen, communication delays prevented the messages from getting to Pearl Harbor until 4 hours after the attack.

On May 18, 1942, Roosevelt wrote a private letter to William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of the Canada, in which he discusses that the USA and Canada agree on an unwritten plan aiming to disperse French-Canadians in order to assimilate them more quickly.

On January 14, 1943 Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office with his flight from Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II. The meeting was concluded on January 24.

In hindsight, perhaps the most controversial decision Roosevelt made was Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the internment in concentration camps of 110,000 Japanese nationals and American citizens of Japanese descent on the West Coast. Considered a major violation of civil liberties, it was even opposed at the time by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as well as Eleanor Roosevelt as well as many other groups. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Executive Order. Others have criticised him for failing to do anything to disrupt the Nazi operations in perpetrating the Holocaust despite having intelligence of the atrocity.

Some have said of all the American Presidents of the 20th century, that he was the most loved and most hated. He was so well known, he was referred to by his initials, FDR. Historians have often cited him as one of the three United States Presidents whose influence and leadership set a standard for greatness, along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Roosevelt was the first President to regularly address the American public through the medium of radio. He instituted a tradition of weekly radio speeches, which he called "fireside chats." These "chats" gave him the opportunity to take his opinions to the American people, and they often bolstered his popularity as he campaigned for various changes. During World War II the fireside chats were seen as important morale boosters for Americans at home.

One speech he is famous for delivering was his State of the Union Address in 1941. This speech is also known as the Four Freedoms Speech. His address to Congress and the nation on December 8, 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbor entered history with the phrase, "December Seventh, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy."

He was elected to an unprecedented fourth term on November 7, 1944, beating Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. However, during the painting of his portrait, he died of a brain hemorrhage on April 12, 1945 and was succeeded by his vice president Harry S. Truman. In 1951 the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, which limited all presidents from that point forward to two terms (this was previously just a custom that was established by George Washington and followed by every president up to Roosevelt).

Roosevelt's portrait appears on the U.S. dime.

Agencies founded during Roosevelt's Presidency

• Tennessee Valley Authority (1933)
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
• Public Works Administration (PWA)
• Works Progress Administration (WPA)
• Social Security Administration
• Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

Supreme Court appointments

• Hugo Black (AL) August 19, 1937 - September 17, 1971
• Stanley Forman Reed (KY) January 31, 1938 - February 25, 1957
• Felix Frankfurter (MA) January 30, 1939 - August 28, 1962
• William O. Douglas (CT) April 17, 1939 - November 12, 1975
• Frank Murphy (MI) February 5, 1940 - July 19, 1949
• Harlan Fiske Stone (Chief Justice, NY) July 3, 1941 - April 22, 1946
• James Francis Byrnes (SC) July 8, 1941 - October 3, 1942
• Robert H. Jackson (NY) July 11, 1941 - October 9, 1954
• Wiley Blount Rutledge (IA) February 15, 1943 - September 10, 1949

Related articles

• U.S. presidential election, 1920
• U.S. presidential election, 1932
• U.S. presidential election, 1936
• U.S. presidential election, 1940
• U.S. presidential election, 1944
• History of the United States (1918-1945)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York

External links

• First Inaugural Address
• Second Inaugural Address
• Third Inaugural Address
• Fourth Inaugural Address
• IPL POTUS -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Encyclopedia Americana: Franklin D. Roosevelt