President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Speech

Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States on November 19, 1928; unfortunately, less than eight months later, the stock market crashed. Hoover mistakenly considered this crash as only a passing point for America. But it was only three years later when economic slowdown and over speculation brought America into an upcoming Great Depression. This was a devastating blow for Hoover, his administration, and the American people. President Hoover attempted many ways to fix the economy. He founded new government agencies and encouraged cooperation between government and business to try to stabilize prices as well as attempt to balance the budget. These relief attempts might have shown positive outcome in the early years of the depression, but as the economy worsened, calls for more government involvement increased.

Because of President McKinley’s death, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was put into office. Then, on March 4, 1905, Roosevelt delivered his Inaugural Address to disclose his ideas and goals to the American people as their leader. The audience of this speech were Roosevelt’s fellow citizens. He told the people to treat other countries with compassion and friendship because they became such a great nation. With his use of repetition, allusions, and his tone, Roosevelt was able to emphasize his point in making the country a powerful nation to bring tranquility throughout the world.

On March 4, 1865 Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address as president of the United States. The inaugural address came at the very end of the American Civil War, and just a month before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Prior to this address, the United States had been split into two different independent states, the Union and the Confederacy. Throughout Abraham Lincoln’s first term and the very beginning of his second, Lincoln had to deal with the secession of the eleven states that made up the Confederacy. Also during the war, Lincoln competed in the 1864 presidential election in which his leadership was challenged by George B. McClellan. This inaugural address was important at the time, and remains a relic of Abraham Lincoln’s powerful speaking ability.

FDR knew that he had to deal with unemployment in New Deal, and he enacted the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Social Security Act, and the Civilian Conservation Corporation. The Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) goal was to provide jobs for the unemployed, building hospitals, schools, parks, playgrounds, airports, and post offices. The WPA also gave jobs to actors, writers, artists and teachers. For example, artists could paint murals on public buildings. Overall, the WPA managed to build 120,000 public buildings, and paint ½ a million miles of road(Source

“The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration” (Edwin Louis Cole). Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” is a speech that highlights every point in Cole’s quote. He, Lincoln, talks about how the south manages to rebel, how their economy will be left in ruin, how they will repent and be forgiven by both God and the North, how the North and the South will reconcile, and finally he talks of how the nation will move on to restoration. Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” emphasizes the reconciliation of a torn apart nation by appealing to pathos, logos, and ethos and by using diction to appeal to the listener’s emotion.

Also, almost immediately after Roosevelt became President he closed all banks for four days. He then called a special session of Congress, together they created the Emergency Banking Relief Act. It set up a system so the banks could reopen or reorganize. Document 2 also says that Roosevelt communicated with the public over the radio, assuring Americans that their money would now be safe in banks. People began depositing their money again the next day after. There were also a few solutions for the people who didn't have jobs and money. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) gave federal money to state and local agencies. These agencies then distributed the money to the unemployed. Also, the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), a New Deal program that hired unemployed men to work on natural conservation projects. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) came into existence in 1935. The WPA put the people who didn't have jobs to work, by making clothes and building hospitals, schools, parks, playgrounds, and airports. In order to help farmers, the President asked Congress to pass the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). Under the AAA, the government paid farmers not to grow certain crops. These are some of

The primary source I have chosen is the “Second Inaugural Address” by Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865. Lincoln delivered his address as the Civil War was drawing to a conclusion and the final ends towards slavery. His address was to thousands of spectators, but was intended for a national and international audience. Some of the conspirators involved with Lincoln’s assassination such as John Wilkes Booth, George Atzerodt, and John Surratt were present in the crowd during the inauguration. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. Abraham most importantly led the Civil War into victory. He preserved the Union, abolished slavery, and strengthened the federal government, while also modernizing the economy.

During this time, “…FDR promised ‘a new deal for the American people’” (Polenberg, 8). FDR quickly realized that in order to win over the citizens of the United States and to fix the crisis they were in, he had to address the two main things that he saw every American wanted during this economical depression. Polenberg informs his readers that FDR saw that the two things every American wanted was “…Work; work with all the moral and spiritual values that go with work. And with work, a reasonable measure of security—security for themselves and for their wives and children” (p.8). Knowing that these were the two main aspects (at the time) that FDR had to place the majority of his attention on, he went to work immediately as “He feared that a resolution was likely if he failed, as Hoover had, to solve the nation’s problems” therefore he begun formation of the first New Deal reforms (Polenberg, 8). These reforms were “…designed not so much to promote reform as to proceed recovery,” (Polenberg, 9) therefore indicating that “…the Roosevelt administration intended to move the country in a dramatically new direction” (Polenberg, 9). Some of the programs that the New Deal initiated were: the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), the NRA (the National Recovery Administration), the AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act), the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the CWA (Civil Works Administration), and the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) just to name a few (Polenberg, 9-13). Each reform act was aimed at recovering a different but specific area of society. For example, the TVA worked to “…provide cheap electrical power… and… help prevent soil erosion and control floods” (Polenberg, 13) while the AAA “…served as the foundation of New Deal farm policy… balancing agricultural production and consumption so as to avoid surpluses and ensure that

The Great Depression was a severe economic panic that drastically impacted the quality of life in the 1930’s. The Depression left in its wake, widespread hunger, poverty and unemployment, as well as a worldwide economic crisis. President Hoover and Congress responded to the downturn with the ideas that individual initiative, voluntarism, and high tariffs, as well as adherence to the gold standard and smaller scale government programs would prove to be adequate in righting the economy. Hoover’s failure to abandon limited government out of fear that the American system would be disrupted (Document D) and his insensitivity to the depth of the crisis led to his increasing unpopularity as well as an increase in severity of the depression. Disheartened

Money markets slammed on October 1929 and this is what caused the Great Depression to happen. For a length of time the country was at the point where signs of troublesome were shown such as joblessness; which turned out to be a gigantic issue for the Americans as well as for different nations. “By 1933, unemployment was at twenty-five percent” (FDR). Never had the highs been higher and lows been lower for the economy. With cash going away individuals started to live in hardships with no real way to earn money. Hoover being president at the time, had great hopes for the economy of America, once this catastrophe hit he was not necessarily blamed for the troubles happening. The nation reacted to The Great Depression in many ways. People were let down by President Hoover which effected the economy, children began to impact society, and families fell apart. Some people turned to music, while others turned to violence.

Throughout the Great Depression people were getting tired and annoyed of President Hoover. For example, “Hoover was widely criticized for providing public funds to pay for food for farmers” (Hayes). Hoover was paying for the farmers but not for the civilians that were struggling, This is when he was criticized and people wanted a change in presidency. During the Great Depression, Hoover didn’t help the citizens at all and they blamed the Depression on him. This was how President Hoover got the people tired of him and annoyed of him. He didn’t help the citizens because he was afraid the United States would go into debt.

There were many Affects in The Great Depression, such as many women’s roles changed which had an impact because they would have to support a family. Another affect was Bankruptcy because people lost jobs and did do much during this time because everything was shut down and destroyed. People were not able to provide food for their family because their city was damaged during this time. The federal government had not faced such devastation during this time. “The Government should not support the people…. Federal Aid… weakens the sturdiness of our national character” Since this time was hurting so many people President Hoover tried to take a stand by implementing regulation to help the people during 1929. He would want people to feel secure under his role. President Hoover was a Republican and when the 1928 presidential campaign happened, he said “We are a nation of progressives; we

FDR wasted no time trying to deliver the country from the financial hole it had been dug into. In the first three months of his presidency, the majority of the New Deal was enacted and this period of productivity is now called the Hundred Days (“New Deal”). Roosevelt’s target industries and areas to improve include “industry, agriculture, finance, waterpower, labour, and housing” (“New Deal”). Agencies that fell under FDR’s New Deal include ones that worked to bring jobs to people like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps and organizations like the National Recovery Administration acted as overseers of companies that needed assistance (“New Deal”). This is just the beginning of FDR’s plan to juggle this

Americans, during the 1930s, clearly needed help. Too many were unemployed, struggling, starving, and/or homeless. One of the biggest legacies of the New Deal is that it combated unemployment with jobs in infrastructure. Many agencies and programs were set up to help increase America’s infrastructure and provide many needy people with jobs. One of those organizations was the Works Progress Administration. Incredibly, the WPA employed an average of 2.1 million people annually for a total of almost 8 million people. It had become largest New Deal program and required almost 11 billion dollars to fund it (Friedrich). The WPA was made with one goal in mind: to get people back to work so they can get money in their pockets to survive. The WPA built highways, airfields, public buildings, and did rural rehabilitation such as planting trees. In total, it had built around 110,000 public buildings, 600 airports, 500,000 miles of roads, and 100,000 bridges (“New Deal”). Like the WPA, the Civilian Conservation Corps, had been created to provide jobs, but it was mainly for younger Americans. This program had employed and put 3

In his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention on June 27, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt mentioned many challenges and concerns facing the United States during that time period. In his speech the President used short-hand phrases, brief references, and pejorative naming to make his larger, political and ideological points. FDR used terms like ‘economic royalists’, along with phrases like ‘new despotism wrapped in the robes of legal sanctions’, to identify the large corporations, investors and employers, who according to him are trying to influence policies and control the government for their own personal benefits. The President also uses phrases like ‘Necessitous men are not free men’, to reiterate his concerns and to point out how the working people of America are being deprived from their rights by these very same privileged employers. FDR compares 1936 to 1776, referring to the American Revolution and its significance in putting the power back in the hands of the average Americans, and how it is necessary to check the power of the corporations in order to protect the interests of the American people and restore the power back in the hands of the people.