March 4, 1933

FDR's First Inaugural Address

March 4, 1933

FDR’s First Inaugural Address

This felt so right for today.

All emphasis mine.

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“This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain that my fellow-Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our nation impels.

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper.

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.”

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I know these words give me comfort today. And the courage to never retreat from our obligations to our great democracy and the American people.

Advance. Always advance. I love the fight in this man.

A man who willed himself to drag half his body across a stage wearing steel leg braces to deliver speeches after polio robbed him of his mobility.

Every day I will endeavor to be as courageous as Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Here’s the video:

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Some historic context — during the period between the election in November of 1932 and the inauguration in 1933, the economy collapsed even further into depression, with bank runs like you see depicted in It’s a Wonderful Life.

And when did Inauguration Day change from March to January? From the White House Historical Association:

The Twentieth Amendment, also known as the “lame duck” amendment, was proposed and authored by progressive Nebraska Senator George Norris in 1922. While communications and travel during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were more difficult, necessitating a nearly four-month gap between winning election and taking the Oath of Office, by the twentieth century much had improved in terms of travel and technology, allowing for an earlier Inauguration date. Norris also sought to tackle a larger problem. Previously, a president that lost reelection could govern during the lengthy lame duck session without having to be responsible to voters. Shortening this lame duck period was meant to strengthen democracy and avoid a future Constitutional crisis.

After introducing this legislation five times, Norris was finally successful on his sixth try in March 1932. The Amendment passed Congress and was ratified by the States in January 1933.

Today, presidents serve a four-year term, beginning on January 20 at noon, and ending four years from that date and time exactly.

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Tomorrow — and possibly for much of the week — I’ll treat you to more amazing prose from FDR’s first inaugural address.

It’s full of good stuff. Big surprise.

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