FDR's 2nd Inaugural Address
On January 20th 2012, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's second inauguration as President. The event, in the pouring rain of Washington DC ,marked a number of "firsts" in presidential history. Until 1937, Presidential inaugurations were held on March 4th of the year after the November general election. The long gap between election and inauguration was deemed necessary for the newly elected President to move from wherever they lived to Washington DC in the days before modern travel made the journey an easy matter. As travel grew faster and modern events more complex, it was no longer thought wise to leave the country essentially without leadership for four months. FDR was the first president to be inaugurated on the January 20th date, a change made by the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. This was also the first time that the Vice President was Inaugurated outdoors on the same platform with the President.
FDR's 2nd Inaugural address was closely watched to see his direction for the country. In a powerful speech, he explained that the government had tackled the immediate crisis the country faced in his first term of office but that there was much work to be done. As he put it: "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope-because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out." It was the beginning of a term which would see many challenges for President Roosevelt, not least the beginning of WWII in Europe, but he stated his goals for the American people clearly, " Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly changed civilization. In every land there are always at work forces that drive men apart and forces that draw men together. In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as one people."
Transcript of FDR's Second Inaugural Speech
