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Chapter 9 Franklin Roosevelt and the Depression
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reat challenges test the metal of leaders and provide the opportunities for eminence. Along with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is commonly considered one of the three greatest American presidents. He successfully led his countrymen through the Depression, and World War II. This chapter tells us something about the man who rose to the challenge of his times, and how he confronted the crisis he inherited from President Hoover. Franklin Delano Roosevelt At 52 years of age his father was twice as old as his mother. Raised as an only child, young Franklin grew up in the lap of luxury on the family estate of Hyde Park overlooking the Hudson River, in New York State. Following a custom common to her social class, Franklin’s mother Sarah kept him in a dress until he reached the age of five, and had him home-schooled by tutors till he was fourteen. Finally allowed to attend school, Franklin was sent to an elite private institution in Groton, Massachusetts where he earned mediocre grades but was instilled with an upper-class sense of obligation to those less fortunate than himself. His classmates called him “feather duster”, but by the time he got to Harvard he had learned the necessary social graces and academic skills to be elected editor to the Crimson, Harvard’s prestigious school newspaper. After graduating with a gentlemanly “C” average, Franklin attended Columbia’s law school, but took and passed the bar exam without finishing the coursework. By the age of 21 he met and became engaged to a distant cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of the President with the same name, who gave the bride away three years later. Never very interested in practicing law, Franklin used his considerable charm, connections and family money to get himself elected to the New York Senate at the age of 29. The next year he supported Woodrow Wilson’s bid for the presidency, and was rewarded by an appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a position once held by Uncle Teddy. During the years he spent on this job in Washington, D.C. Franklin earned a reputation as an accomplished administrator, learned a good deal about politics, and forged many valuable political friendships. He also became an ardent supporter of Wilson’s programs, including the League of Nations. Roosevelt’s outstanding characteristics were recognized in his nomination in 1920 by the Democratic Party to run for the office of vice President alongside presidential candidate James Cox of Ohio. Though the Cox/Roosevelt ticket was soundly defeated, Roosevelt’s political skills were widely recognized and he remained a major figure in the Democratic Party. The next year Roosevelt was struck by two disasters. His affair with his wife’s secretary was discovered by Eleanor, casting a serious rift in their marriage. Furthermore, a long and arduous sail at his family’s estate, Campabello caused Franklin to contract polio and nearly ended his life. But Roosevelt’s courage and determination, as well as Eleanor’s devoted care, restored his health sufficiently and he was able to resumed his political career. Though never able to walk again without the support of leg braces and confinement to a wheel One of the few pictures Roosevelt allowed taken chair, Roosevelt was at the Democratic National Convention in 1924, of himself in a nominating his friend and political ally, New York Governor, Al Smith to run for President. Smith was defeated in this bid in 1924, but with Roosevelt’s support won the nomination in four years later. Though Smith, the first major Catholic Thomas Ladenburg, copyright, 1974, 1998, 2001, 2007
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