In this class, we trace the development and evolution of the office of the presidency and we look into particular the president s that have had the most impact on the shaping of the office. Not all president s get their own lecture, lincoln of course did, and the second one that has his own lecture is of course, Franklin Roosevelt who we will look at today. As i said earlier, i will be speaking on Franklin Roosevelt and his domestic presidency and challenges, initiatives, successes, and failures. I will turn it over to my dearest friend, neville thompson, who histhompson, who his guest lecturing in the class today and we are very honored to have him sharing his research with us so thank you very much for being here and we will turn over to you shortly. We will look today at the histories and election of Franklin Roosevelt. We begin looking at his early life, political career, and some of the challenges that he was forced to confront as president. This is our theme, as always, it will be posted online so keep this in mind as you are doing your reading. We move into Franklin Roosevelt, and who was he . He was born january 13 1882. He was born in a Country Estate and raised in affluent surroundings. He was paradoxically absolutely loved by the common people. He graduated from harvard, attended columbia law school, and, before graduating from loss will, he took the bar exam and passed. That was not uncommon in those days. He married his distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, who was one of his great heroes. Theodore roosevelts needs. That was in march of 1905. He was very influenced and impacted by his presidency of roosevelt and he admired him very much. He won the state senate seat for Dutchess County and, interestingly, no democrat had held that seat for over a quarter of a century. He worked on, and we look at this lens into his early political views and we see, during his first tenure as state senator, he worked on passing farm and labor bills and to develop social welfare programs. As i said, he married Eleanor Roosevelt in march of 1905. This became a very important, not only personal relationship, but i would also say, elliptical partnership. She was an important first lady. She transformed the expectation of what a first lady might contribute to the office, and to the white house. She was an active participant in politics, gave press conferences, wrote a newspaper column, and later, served in the u. N. She became known as an advocate and a leader of women and civil rights. They had five children together, and it was by all accounts, and happy marriage. That was until one day, Eleanor Roosevelt discovered, by accident, a package of love letters that her husband was having an affair with her secretary lucy mercer. She was promptly fired. Eleanor offered franklin a divorce, and he considered it, but the politician that he was, and with considerable pressure from his mother, he realized that divorce was not in his best interest. Though he promised to stop seeing her, the affair lasted four years. The evidence suggested that it became more infrequent. By all accounts, a very happy marriage early on, and i think they forged an important Political Partnership moving later. She was always active. You can see here, Eleanor Roosevelt giving a fireside chat. She was suggesting new possibilities to what a woman might be able to contribute not only to the administration, but to in answering the larger social issues of the day. Franklin roosevelt began his early career, after he passed the bar exam, he went to work for a wall street law firm. He wasnt very engaged with the matter at hand, and he soon set his sights on political office. After he was elected state senator, some of his early views about the role of government and its relationship and responsibl ity to the people began to emerge. He was on the heels of a progressive era, the greed the effect that competition had on the people, and he advocated for cooperation. He started to suggest, in this position, that the role of government was to protect the general welfare. He won reelection of his seat in 1912, but, instead, following in the footsteps of who he admired greatly, he accepted the post of assistant secretary of the navy in Woodrow Wilsons administration. With the africa world war i, he wanted to take a more active role for some kind of commission, but, instead, he worked for preparedness and naval expansion and work in the civilian sphere. He led civilian missions to inspect naval stations, primarily in the european theater of war. In 1920, he first came to prominence or first became known in the National Theater when he accepted the nomination for Vice President as james coxs running mate. Some historians suggest that it was a devastating loss for roosevelt, but this was an important time in his Political Development as it served to bring him national recognition. Many people are aware that roosevelt suffered a severe bout of polio at age 39. Polio mellitus, also known as infantile paralysis, caused by the polio virus, causes muscle weakness and paralysis. It is spread by direct contact or by a agent best buy a contaminated food or by a contaminated food. The cure was not invented until the later 1950s and 60s. Far earlier later than would have benefited roosevelt. Roosevelt contracted the virus, and this was one of the rare photographs that we actually have a roosevelt in a wheelchair. He always relied on crunches and heavy still braces. He pours a relationship with the media, that they would not photograph him and any sort of state that made them look global made them look vulnerable. For roosevelt, he was hiding this illness and navigating the disease, it proved as much a psychological difficulty as a physical one. He spent years and years developing techniques to diverge peoples attention for his inability to walk or stand unsupported. One of the funny quotes that roosevelt had, he loved to speak to the press and he would always say as the culmination of his press conference, ok, i have to run now. He would take off. He would never sort of except the fact that he could never get up and walk. He would never sort of except the fact that he could never get up and walk. While accounts, this would be a debilitating illness for roosevelt, and one that was not part of consciousness. He did such a good job hiding it. You can see images here. We just never get a sense that he was reliant on any sort of device to move. From here, he moved forward and his mother worried that this debilitating illness was going to detract from his development in american politics. It did not. He persevered. He was able to continue on in his shaping as a politician and political figure. In 1928, he gained prominence in the Democratic Party as a twoterm governor of new york. Again, we see roosevelt in the. Maturing as a politician. His views on social reform crystallized. He was charismatic, energetic, and had a wonderful ability early on of being able to connect with the people. In his run as governor, he ran for protective labor legislation, projective this progressive government, and other things. In 1931, as the depression continue to worsen, he created the temporary Emergency Relief Administration which provided food and clothing and housing, and even jobs if possible. He advocated support for social issues over individual concern, and as the depression worsened, he called for Government Intervention in the economy at a time when that was largely unthinkable. That was to provide relief and economic recovery. Fdr, by 1932, had not only gained national prominence, he had caught the attention of the Democratic Party through his two terms as governor, and by 1932, he was a leading contender by democratic president ial nomination. Some suggested it was an unprecedented move, he traveled to the Democratic Convention in chicago to accept the nomination and, some historians suggested it was to prove that his physical limitations would never get in the way of his efficacy and ability to lead the country. He promised there, ask the convention, a new deal for the American People, one that would guarantee work and one that would guarantee security. 1932 elections was the beginning, the beginning of a new political era. Fdr was elected president for the majority of the national vote, and, it was as much a vote for roosevelt as it was against hoover. As you can see, it was a mandate. The Electoral College was overwhelmingly in favor of roosevelt. He carried 42 states. The congress, democrats had a mandate. They outnumbered republicans 60 to 35 in the senate. It was a firm desire of the American People to use government, as an agency of human welfare. Roosevelt took the oath of office march 4, 1933. In 32 states, on that today, in 32 states, every bank had been closed by a State Government hiatus. On the moment of the inauguration, the Stock Exchange closed his door, and the editor of nations business noted beer or during on panic, loss of everything, our fellow man, our institutions, private and government, worst of all, no big and ourselves or the future. Between 12 million and 15 million americans, about 25 of the workforce were unemployed. Millions of people had lost their life savings and many had lost their homes and lived in uncertain conditions. Many were even forced to stand in long lines for free super and bread and, 11,000 americans a blood of americas banks have failed. Panic and fear roosevelt s after hoover inabilitys to effectively manage the crisis or opera solution to the people, fdr and his approach was welcomed. Roosevelt responded to the crisis in his mandate with confidence and revolution. He suggested the republican partys talk down topdown policies would not allow for economic recovery. The country needed new initiative that would put their faith once more in the forgotten man of the economic pyramid. This was a war. He demanded that the nation mobilized to meet it. We see him emerging in washington to one of the largest inauguration crowds ever seen in history. And, to an atmosphere of fear of also hope that and also hope. He stood on the chilly platform, as you can see, with no hat and no overcoat, and recognized that the country was in turmoil, but promised, with a certain resoluteness, that he would be able to wage the war and handle the domestic crisis. This is a day of national constitution. And im certain, my fellow americans. [inaudible] the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. [inaudible] just to highlight, when we see roosevelt talk, even in the lecture there. Playing it again. When we see, even in that small clip, how enraptured people were with roosevelt, it was silent, and it was the same thing when his radio fireside chats could be heard. People would say, you can almost hear up and drop when roosevelt was speaking. From his inauguration on word, he promised stability, hope, and answers. As we could see, they werent always the right answers but they were solutions that took shape. One of the most interesting ways that roosevelt was able to constantly connect with the people, but also to be able to disseminate his a ideas about reform, and the ways he were able to promised stability and hope in the future, was through this carefully and very interesting and widely studied relationship with the press. It is one of the most interesting avenues in which to understand the presidency, and the reason and weight in which the presidency was able to connect with so many different people. He was fond of having his press rooms in the white house, his press conferences, and he used to love to refer to them as his school room. He often resorted to terms like seminar, or having a budget textbook. He would constantly use these opportunities to educate and to talk about, and to control the message. He could be very manipulative, calculating, and he was a masterful and skillful use of the press, was unprecedented. Well never see quite like it. In january of 1934, he invited 35 washington correspondents to his study to explain his budget message to them, and he said afterwards, it was like a football coach going to practice with his squad. He saw himself as this person that was going to be able to masterfully disseminate the message, and he did. The press absolutely loved him. It was one of the first times that press conferences were no longer scripted. They were informal, colloquial, and he had a very pleasant manner that resonated with members of the press corp. He posted more than 1000 press conferences, which was many more than any of his predecessors had thought about doing. The press was gleeful. In addition to his regular press conferences, used the radio, film, and he used these tools to his greatest advantage. That was to be able to reshape the politics of the. In the way that he wanted to. He had considerable charm, wrist of a charm, charisma, and all of these things work well together to control the relationship. We see at times, very turbulent relationships as we do with the press. He was able to masterfully handle the press, and he had a really great knack of disarming foes. It might be to send a reporter into the corner, call them by their first name, and he use different skills to be able to negotiate the press. Throughout the presidency, this became a very important relationship, but also, tool, for understanding roosevelts vision. In his very first action, it was a dizzying array of legislation that was passed. On march 5, he immediately issued in bank holiday proclamation. He followed that with the emergency banking bill. That remarkably was enacted in less than eight hours. Roosevelt, the next headline, was listed and it gave him such extraordinary powers. He demonstrated, that he was going to use the full power of the office, the full powers of the executive office to address the national emergency. He likened it to a war. On march 12, he had his very first fireside chat to promised the American People, your savings are secure. He connected with, reassured the people, and in doing so, through these fireside chats, he was able to lift the spirit of the country and forge the kind of link between government and people that we had never seen before. On monday morning, there were no runs on the bank when they reopened thats monday, and march 13, for the first time, since the bank had collapsed, he deposited withdrawals and currency was redeposited back in the bank. As he spoke in his fireside chats, you can see people listening. Listening and being comforted by the stability he promised. It was a dizzying array of legislation that was passed in these first hundred days first 100 days. We take a look at roosevelts views, what i call the shipping of the modern presidency, and i think how roosevelt thought was that a new sigkind of social contract between the people and the government. The administration emerged as the nations source of popular leadership. He talked about, in response to criticism, as he sort of started to move toward with his legislative agenda, people believed that the president was, with this plan, in acting some of the measures he proposed, was going to be an abuse of executive authority. We have seen this before. We have had a lecture on lincoln who was criticized with similarly extending too far the power of the executive office. Roosevelt responded, and i put it here and read the state had the possibility of relieving stress of the federal government has always had and continues to have a sponsor responsibility for the broader public welfare. The advent of the welfare statements transferring state meant transferring the private sector to the national government. In doing so, it created new responsibilities, not only for the president , but for the national government. He redefined traditional individualism. The government must regulate and sustain agency, they must help people navigate the uncertainties of the market. That was an unthinkable what his opponents would say, an unthinkable a trooijen into peoples lives. Roosevelt believed that to manage the Great Depression, he had to build the welfare state and that would only happen through a very strong executive office. We looked last week at woodrow wilson, and teddy roosevelt. He built upon an institutionalized the modern concept of president ial power that wilson and tr first inaugurated. Tr first inaugurated. The new deal, we can look at roosevelts second 100 days, the new deal, which did not have the same array of dizzying legislation, but the laws that were passed and legislation proposed had a Significant Impact on the shaping and development of the country. He explained in 1934, that to the development of a National Industrial society made it very difficult for people to achieve financial security. That was within the traditional bounds of family and neighborhood, that people had been used to. The complexities of the city, organized industry, required that the federal government help secure their welfare in a time of need. He illustrated the thinking and 1934 fireside chat, which he likened the situation to the remodeling of the old rickety white house. It is the combination of the old and the new benchmarks or delete peaceful progress, not only in buildings, but in Building Government itself. All that we do seeks to fulfill the historic tradition of the American People. When congress convened in 1935, roosevelt called for an unprecedented system of social welfare. Early deal programs were designed, not so much to reform but to stabilize and produce recovery. These ideas would move the country in a new direction. The new deal drew on many sources, a brain trust, as it had been described. Academic advisors, advice from cabinet members, Democratic Congressional leaders, and as a has story written a historian noted, its a rose from no mass of land and did not fit deeply into one ideological bond. It was very much roosevelts vision. In justifying what some saw as expanded use of president ial power, he drew on