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2nd Inaugural Address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
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Second Inaugural Address of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Wednesday, January 20, 1937
WHEN four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic,
single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here. We dedicated ourselves to
the fulfillment of a vision-to speed the time when there would be for all
the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness. We
of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient
faith those who had profaned it; to end by action, tireless and unafraid,
the stagnation and despair of that day. We did those first things first.
Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively we
recognized a deeper need-the need to find through government the instrument
of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems
of a complex civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without the
aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered. For, without that aid,
we had been unable to create those moral controls over the services of
science which are necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a
ruthless master of mankind. To do this we knew that we must find practical
controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men.
We of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic government has innate
capacity to protect its people against disasters once considered inevitable,
to solve problems once considered unsolvable. We would not admit that we
could not find a way to master economic epidemics just as, after centuries
of fatalistic suffering, we had found a way to master epidemics of disease.
We refused to leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by the
winds of chance and the hurricanes of disaster.
In this we Americans were discovering no wholly new truth; we were writing
a new chapter in our book of self-government.
This year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
Constitutional Convention which made us a nation. At that Convention our
forefathers found the way out of the chaos which followed the Revolutionary
War; they created a strong government with powers of united action
sufficient then and now to solve problems utterly beyond individual or local
solution. A century and a half ago they established the Federal Government
in order to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty
to the American people.
Today we invoke those same powers of government to achieve the same
objectives.
Four years of new experience have not belied our historic instinct. They
hold out the clear hope that government within communities, government
within the separate States, and government of the United States can do the
things the times require, without yielding its democracy. Our tasks in the
last four years did not force democracy to take a holiday.
Nearly all of us recognize that as intricacies of human relationships
increase, so power to govern them also must increase-power to stop evil;
power to do good. The essential democracy of our Nation and the safety of
our people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with
those whom the people can change or continue at stated intervals through an
honest and free system of elections. The Constitution of 1787 did not make
our democracy impotent.
In fact, in these last four years, we have made the exercise of all power
more democratic; for we have begun to bring private autocratic powers into
their proper subordination to the public's government. The legend that they
were invincible-above and beyond the processes of a democracy-has been
shattered. They have been challenged and beaten.
Our progress out of the depression is obvious. But that is not all that
you and I mean by the new order of things. Our pledge was not merely to do a
patchwork job with secondhand materials. By using the new materials of
social justice we have undertaken to erect on the old foundations a more
enduring structure for the better use of future generations.
In that purpose we have been helped by achievements of mind and spirit.
Old truths have been relearned; untruths have been unlearned. We have always
known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad
economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their
practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality
pays. We are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from
the ideal; and in so doing we are fashioning an instrument of unimagined
power for the establishment of a morally better world.
This new understanding undermines the old admiration of worldly success as
such. We are beginning to abandon our tolerance of the abuse of power by
those who betray for profit the elementary decencies of life.
In this process evil things formerly accepted will not be so easily
condoned. Hard-headedness will not so easily excuse hardheartedness. We are
moving toward an era of good feeling. But we realize that there can be no
era of good feeling save among men of good will.
For these reasons I am justified in believing that the greatest change we
have witnessed has been the change in the moral climate of America.
Among men of good will, science and democracy together offer an
ever-richer life and ever-larger satisfaction to the individual. With this
change in our moral climate and our rediscovered ability to improve our
economic order, we have set our feet upon the road of enduring progress.
Shall we pause now and turn our back upon the road that lies ahead? Shall
we call this the promised land? Or, shall we continue on our way? For "each
age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth."
Many voices are heard as we face a great decision. Comfort says, "Tarry a
while." Opportunism says, "This is a good spot." Timidity asks, "How
difficult is the road ahead?"
True, we have come far from the days of stagnation and despair. Vitality
has been preserved. Courage and confidence have been restored. Mental and
moral horizons have been extended
But our present gains were won under the pressure of more than ordinary
circumstances. Advance became imperative under the goad of fear and
suffering. The times were on the side of progress.
To hold to progress today, however, is more difficult. Dulled conscience,
irresponsibility, and ruthless self-interest already reappear. Such symptoms
of prosperity may become portents of disaster! Prosperity already tests the
persistence of our progressive purpose.
Let us ask again: Have we reached the goal of our vision of that fourth
day of March 1933? Have we found our happy valley?
I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth
of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty million people are at peace
among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the
nations. I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic
methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading
volume of human comforts hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living
can be raised far above the level of mere subsistence.
But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of
millions of its citizens-a substantial part of its whole population-who at
this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest
standards of today call the necessities of life.
I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall
of family disaster hangs over them day by day.
I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under
conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.
I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better
their lot and the lot of their children.
I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory
and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in
hope-because the Nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it,
proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen
the subject of his country's interest and concern; and we will never regard
any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test
of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who
have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
If I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, we will not
listen to Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity. We will carry on.
Overwhelmingly, we of the Republic are men and women of good will; men and
women who have more than warm hearts of dedication; men and women who have
cool heads and willing hands of practical purpose as well. They will insist
that every agency of popular government use effective instruments to carry
out their will.
Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the
whole people. It can make constant progress when it keeps abreast of all the
facts. It can obtain justified support and legitimate criticism when the
people receive true information of all that government does.
If I know aught of the will of our people, they will demand that these
conditions of effective government shall be created and maintained. They
will demand a nation uncorrupted by cancers of injustice and, therefore,
strong among the nations in its example of the will to peace.
Today we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a suddenly
changed civilization. In every land there are always at work forces that
drive men apart and forces that draw men together. In our personal ambitions
we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political
progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we all go down, as one people.
To maintain a democracy of effort requires a vast amount of patience in
dealing with differing methods, a vast amount of humility. But out of the
confusion of many voices rises an understanding of dominant public need.
Then political leadership can voice common ideals, and aid in their
realization.
In taking again the oath of office as President of the United States, I
assume the solemn obligation of leading the American people forward along
the road over which they have chosen to advance.
While this duty rests upon me I shall do my utmost to speak their purpose
and to do their will, seeking Divine guidance to help us each and every one
to give light to them that sit in darkness and to guide our feet into the
way of peace.
Visit Mr. Roosevelt's Website
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The U. S. Constitution
