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Welcome to U.S. history!
Franklin D. Roosevelt's
First Inaugural Address:
| 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. In
every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that
understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am
convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. |
| In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face
our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have
shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government
of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen
in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side;
farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of
families are gone. |
| More important, a host of unemployed citizens
face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return.
Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. |
| Yet our distress comes from no failure of
substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our
forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be
thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty
is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.
Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed,
through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure,
and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of
public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. |
| True they have tried, but their efforts have
been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have
proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce
our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading
tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of
self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish. |
| The money changers have fled from their high
seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient
truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values
more noble than mere monetary profit. |
| Happiness lies not in the mere possession of
money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and
moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent
profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true
destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men. |
| Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as
the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that
public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride
of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in
business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish
wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on
honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance;
without them it cannot live. |
| Restoration calls, however, not for changes in
ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now. |
| Our greatest primary task is to put people to
work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be
accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as
we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment,
accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural
resources. |
| Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize
the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national
scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best
fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of
agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can
be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure
of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State,
and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced.
It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered,
uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of
all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a
definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can
never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly. |
| Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of
work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must
be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end
to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but
sound currency. |
| There are the lines of attack. I shall presently
urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I
shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States. |
| Through this program of action we address
ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our
international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity
secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy
the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by
international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that
accomplishment. |
| The basic thought that guides these specific
means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first
consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United
States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the
American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is
the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure. |
| In the field of world policy I would dedicate
this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects
himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who
respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world
of neighbors. |
| If I read the temper of our people correctly, we
now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we
can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move
as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline,
because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We
are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline,
because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to
offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with
a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife. |
| With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly
the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our
common problems. |
| Action in this image and to this end is feasible
under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution
is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by
changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our
constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the
modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of
foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. |
| It is to be hoped that the normal balance of
executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task
before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may
call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure. |
| I am prepared under my constitutional duty to
recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may
require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its
experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to
speedy adoption. |
| But in the event that the Congress shall fail to
take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still
critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall
ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive
power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me
if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. |
| For the trust reposed in me I will return the
courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less. |
| We face the arduous days that lie before us in
the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and
precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance
of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent
national life. |
| We do not distrust the future of essential
democracy. 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. |
| In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the
blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to
come. |
Back
to Franklin D. Roosevelt
Executive Oath of Office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
United States Constitution, Article II,
Section 1, Clause 8
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1George Washington, 2John
Adamsl, 3Thomas Jefferson, 4James Madison, 5James
Monroe, 6John Quincy Adams, 7Andrew Jackson, 8Martin
Van Buren,9William H Harrison,10John Tyler,11James K
Polk, 12Zachary Taylor, 13Millard Fillmore,14Franklin
Pierce,15James Buchanan,16Abraham Lincoln, 17Andrew
Johnson, 18Ulysses S Grant,19Rutherford B Hayes, 20James A Garfield, 21Chester
A. Arthur, 22Grover
Cleveland,23Benjamin Harrison, 24Grover Cleveland, 25William
McKinley,26Theodore Roosevelt, 27William H. Taft,28Woodrow Wilson, 29Warren
G. Harding,30Calvin Coolidge,31Herbert Hoover,32Franklin
D Roosevelt,33Harry S.
Truman, 34Dwight D Eisenhower,35John F Kennedy, 36Lyndon
B Johnson, 37RichardN. Nixon, 38Gerald R Ford, 39James E
Carter,40Ronald
W. Reagan, 41George
HerbertW. Bush, 42Bill Clinton,
43George Walker Bush
last updated
02/19/07
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