Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 at his parents'
estate in Hyde Park, New York. His parents were members
of the New York aristocracy. His father, James, was a country
gentleman who made money in railroads and coal. His mother,
Sara, was a strong-willed
woman who adored her only child and remained a central figure
in his life until her death in 1941. His father died in
1900. FDR’s childhood in Hyde Park instilled in him a love
of the Hudson Valley, farming and rural people. His lifelong
interest in forestry helped shape some of the policies and
programs of the New Deal, particularly the Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC).
After being educated at home by private tutors, FDR entered
Groton, an elite private school in Massachusetts, in 1896.
Endicott Peabody, the
head of the school, became an important influence in FDR’s
life instilling in him a strong sense of civic responsibility.
One of the most significant events while he was at Groton
was a talk given by his distant cousin, Theodore
Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired and went on to
emulate in his political career. FDR was neither an
outstanding
student nor athlete, but he entered enthusiastically into
life at Groton and did well enough to go on to Harvard
in
1900. At Harvard he put much of his energy into his social
life and extracurricular activities. His greatest accomplishment
was to become president of the Harvard Crimson,
the campus newspaper. FDR was a handsome, charming, fun-loving
young man to whom women were strongly attracted. In 1902,
he began to take notice of Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore’s
niece and FDR’s distant cousin, whom he had seen occasionally
during his childhood but who was now a tall, willowy,
intelligent
young woman. They fell in love and, after a year’s delay
granted to his resistant mother, were married in New York
City on St. Patrick’s Day, 1905. Her father being dead,
President Theodore Roosevelt gave his niece away.
Despite the later difficulties in their marriage, FDR had
chosen well and ER and FDR remained committed partners
throughout their lives.
After their honeymoon in Europe, FDR and ER moved into
one half of a double townhouse given to them as a wedding
present. Sara occupied the other half, which opened into
theirs. FDR resumed his studies at Columbia University Law
School, which he had begun in the fall of 1904. He never
completed the courses needed to receive an LL.B. degree,
but passed the bar examination at the end of three years
and began a law practice in New York City. In 1910, FDR
won a seat in the New York State Senate. It would be the
only election in which he carried the Republican stronghold
of Dutchess County where his Hyde Park home was located.
As a freshman senator, he led a challenge to the Tammany
bosses who sought to elect one of their own to the United
States Senate (senators from New York were at that time
elected by the state legislature). Although the uprising
failed in the end, FDR won wide renown for his efforts.
He introduced legislation to protect farmers that successfully
passed and headed the Senate Forest, Fish and Game Committee
where he began to emerge as a leader in conservation.
After the election of Woodrow
Wilson in 1912, FDR accepted an appointment as assistant
secretary of the navy, a post he held for the next seven
years. A lover and student of the sea and ships from his
childhood on, FDR vigorously argued within the administration
for a better prepared navy and for a more militant stance
in crises than Wilson was willing to take. When the United
States finally entered World War
I in 1917, FDR worked to ensure that the navy had a
vital role to play in the war. In the making of peace at
the end of the war, FDR absorbed President Wilson’s internationalist
ideals, as well as the lessons of Wilson’s failure to bring
the United States into the League
of Nations. His experience during this period helped
produce the combination of idealism and realism that he
later brought to the creation of the United
Nations.
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s first child, Anna,
was born in 1906. Five sons followed (one of whom died in
infancy), the last of whom was born in 1916. The large family
spent vacations in Hyde Park and part of each summer on
the island of Campobello
on the Canadian coast just north of Maine. In the fall of
1918, ER discovered that FDR was having a love affair with
Lucy Mercer, a beautiful young
woman who served as ER’s social secretary. ER offered FDR
a divorce, but partly because divorce was considered a disgrace
in their social circle and partly because it would have
badly damaged his political career, FDR decided to stay
married and agreed never to see Lucy again. The incident
profoundly altered their relationship and was a major factor
in ER’s search for friendship and fulfillment in social
and political activism independent of FDR.
In 1920, FDR was nominated as the Democratic candidate
for vice-president on a ticket with James Cox of Ohio. Although
they did not win, FDR’s spirited campaigning won him a following
in the Democratic party and laid the groundwork for his
future success. He returned to his law practice with a promising
political future ahead of him, but in August of 1921 at
the age of 39, he came down with polio while vacationing
at his beloved Campobello. Paralyzed from the waist down,
he set about trying to recover the use of his legs with
characteristic energy, optimism, ingenuity, and determination.
He began an ambitious regimen of exercise and searched out
new treatments. Although he increased his strength, particularly
in his upper body, he would never walk unaided again. In
1924, he discovered the restorative powers of the mineral
waters at Warm Springs, Georgia, and found that exercising
in the buoyant 88-degree waters there helped him recover
some sensation and muscle strength. Not content with trying
to heal himself alone, he bought the old resort hotel at
Warm Springs and in 1927 established the Warm Springs Foundation,
a pioneering center for the rehabilitation of polio patients
and for what is called today, “independent living.” He remained
devoted to this institution for the rest of his life, returning
almost every year to celebrate Thanksgiving with his fellow
“polios” and at other times to restore his body and spirit.
While FDR sought to recover the use of his legs, he remained
active, mainly through correspondence, in the Democratic
party. Louis Howe, the canny
political operative who attached himself to FDR when FDR
was a state senator, worked tirelessly to maintain FDR’s
profile in the party. In 1924, FDR appeared at the Democratic
convention on crutches to nominate New York Governor Al
Smith for president. Although Smith did not win the
nomination, FDR won acclaim for his speech. Howe also became
a valuable advisor to ER in her work in organizing the Women’s
Division of the Democratic party and ER’s growing power
and influence also helped keep FDR’s name alive. In 1928,
when Al Smith won the Democratic nomination for president,
he persuaded FDR to run for governor of New York. Although
Smith lost, FDR won. FDR established himself as a progressive
governor by bringing tax relief to farmers and advocating
cheap electric power. In September 1929, the stock market
crashed and FDR spent the rest of his four years as governor
dealing with the consequences. He moved slowly at first
but as the depression worsened, he became a strong advocate
of government intervention. He established relief programs
for people out of work, including a program that put 10,000
men to work in New York State’s forests and parks planting
trees, building roads and park buildings, and taking measures
to prevent erosion. This would become the model for the
CCC, one of the most successful New Deal programs.
In 1932, with the Great
Depression worsening and Herbert Hoover, the incumbent
president, unable to effect change or inspire hope, the
American people elected FDR president by a wide margin.
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, a joy in
exercising the wiles of a skillful politician, and an incandescent
optimism that lifted the spirits of the nation.
With a strong mandate, FDR moved quickly during the first
hundred days of his administration to address the problems
created by the Great Depression. Under his leadership,
Congress passed a series of landmark bills that created
a more active
role for the federal government in the economy and in people’s
lives. During the first hundred days of his administration,
Congress passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which
stabilized the nation’s ailing bank and reassured depositors,
created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA),
the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration (AAA), and the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA). Believing that work programs were better
than relief, FDR secured passage of legislation establishing
the CCC and the Civil Works Administration (replaced in
1935 by the Works Progress Administration or WPA). He
appointed
Frances Perkins as secretary
of labor, the first woman to become a cabinet member.
With
strong prodding from Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR appointed more
women to federal posts than any president before him and
made sure that black Americans were included in federal
job programs (although they remained, in most cases, segregated).
In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act, the most
important and enduring piece of New Deal legislation.
On March 12, 1933, shortly after his inauguration, FDR gave
the first of his famous “fireside chats.” In these informal, but carefully
prepared, radio talks, FDR explained his initiatives in the same language he
used in speaking with his rural Hyde Park neighbors. As a result, his listeners
felt that he was talking directly to them, understood their problems, and was
taking action to address their needs. FDR’s ability to connect personally with
ordinary people, to communicate his optimism, and project an image of vigorous
action was probably as important as all the New Deal legislation combined in
helping the nation weather the Great Depression.
Although the depression was far from over, New Deal legislation
during FDR’s first term in banking, housing, unemployment,
work relief, and old age pensions gave people hope and
a
sense of security they had not enjoyed before. In 1936,
FDR won reelection in a landslide even bigger than in 1932,
carrying every state except Maine and Vermont.
During his first administration, several key pieces of New
Deal Legislation, notably the NRA, had been struck down as unconstitutional by
the Supreme Court. Frustrated that the aging members of the Court were preventing
some of his programs from taking effect, and feeling that his 1936 victory gave
him an overwhelming mandate for change, FDR proposed expanding the number of
justices on the Court. Many Americans, however, saw the
"court packing” plan as an assault on one of
the nation’s sacred institutions. The plan immediately ran into stiff
opposition in Congress and was defeated, handing FDR the most embarrassing
political setback of his career.
By 1937, the depression had eased somewhat and FDR sought
to balance the budget by cutting government spending. But
in the fall and winter of 1937-38, conditions worsened again,
partly because of these cuts, and FDR had to seek additional
funds to meet the crisis. The depression didn’t actually
end until the beginning of World
War II when the defense economy put the unemployed who
were not called to military service back to work.
No president had ever run for a third term, but in 1940
FDR did so, feeling that with Poland, France, and the
Low
Countries overrun by Hitler’s forces and Great Britain
standing alone that he was still needed. FDR and Hitler
had come
to power in the same year and FDR opposed Hitler from the
beginning. Although his hands were tied by the deep isolationism
of most Americans, the Neutrality Act, and restrictive
immigration laws, FDR worked cautiously to build up the
nation’s defenses,
to generate sympathy for Great Britain (e.g. by hosting
a visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to the United
States in 1939), and to prepare the nation for the eventuality
of war. After his reelection in November 1940, he pressed
these initiatives harder. Under the Lend-Lease program
he proposed, the United States provided military assistance
to Great Britain in exchange for air and naval bases. America,
he said in December 1940, must be the “arsenal of democracy.”
The United States finally entered the war when Japan attacked
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. FDR’s eloquence, confidence,
love of action, and ability to communicate with ordinary
people made him one of the great leaders of a nation at
war. His abiding interest in naval ships and strategy and
experience as assistant secretary of the navy helped him
form a close working relationship with his military commanders.
In December 1942, with many on the West Coast panicky about
possible Japanese subversion or invasion, FDR signed an
executive order authorizing the internment of Japanese living
on the West Coast, many of whom were American citizens.
As the war progressed and news of the Holocaust became more
and more disturbing, pressure grew to address the urgent
needs of refugees. In January 1944, FDR issued an executive
order establishing the War Refugee Board, which aided in
the rescuing of Jews and other refugees during the remainder
of the war.
Characteristically, FDR began to envision the postwar
world even before the United States entered the war. In
January
1941 he outlined the “Four Freedoms” on which he hoped
that world would be founded: freedom of speech and expression,
freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from
fear. In August 1941, he met Winston Churchill for the
first
time off the coast of Newfoundland and they drew up the
Atlantic Charter, a set of democratic principles that,
symbolically
at least, allied the two nations in the same struggle.
Toward the end of the war, FDR worked with Churchill,
Stalin, and
other Allied leaders to plan the United Nations organization.
Although he did not live to see its charter adopted, its
creation was one of his enduring achievements
In 1944, the tide turned, but the war not won. FDR ran
again and won a fourth term. Unknown to the public and apparently
not fully recognized by himself, he was already seriously
ill but he was determined to see the war through to its
conclusion. After his return from Yalta, the last of the
wartime conferences with Allied leaders that he attended,
he grew worse and on April 12, 1945 died of a cerebral hemorrhage
while trying to recover his strength at the Little
White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. He was buried
in Hyde Park.
From the early 1920s on, FDR and ER managed a complex relationship
with each other. Although their circles of friends overlapped,
they rarely relaxed together. FDR and ER each found emotional
sustenance in other people, not in each other. FDR found
affection, humor, and fellowship in his friendships with
Louis Howe, Harry Hopkins,
Edwin “Pa” Watson (his military aide and appointments secretary),
Missy LeHand (his devoted personal secretary), Margaret
“Daisy” Suckley (a distant cousin), and, during World
War II, with the exiled Princess Martha of Norway and
in his daughter Anna, who moved into the White House in
1943. FDR and ER continued, however, to have great respect
and affection for each other. Without it they could not
have created one of the greatest political partnerships
in history. ER’s strong support among blacks, women, and
youth and her skill at political organizing helped draw
support to FDR. Her first-hand knowledge of conditions and
government programs, which she gathered on her frequent
travels, helped her shape some of the policies of the Roosevelt
administration. Although her independent stance on some
issues may have been a liability to FDR, it also meant that
blacks, women and youth felt that someone with power and
influence understood their problems and was fighting their
fight within the administration.
Sources:
Freidel, Frank. Franklin
D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny.
Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1990, passim.
Graham, Otis L., Jr., and Meghan Robinson Wander. Franklin
D. Roosevelt, His Life and Times. New York: Da Capo
Press, 1985, passim.
Leuchtenberg, William E. The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and
His Legacy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995, passim.