FDR's First Inaugural Address: Questions
FDR's First Inaugural Address: Questions
- Like every American leader since 1776, Franklin Delano Roosevelt could not help but compare the plight of Great Depression Americans to that of the Founding Fathers. Is this a fair comparison? Why or why not?
- FDR's first inaugural address calls for bold action on an unprecedented scale: restart the entire banking industry, expand the number of employees on the government's payroll by embarking on enormous infrastructure projects, and pivot the nation's foreign relations policies. What would the response be in Congress today to such a crisis? How would it differ?
- Before the days of internet forums, people had to express their joys or frustrations by other means. Believe it or not, this meant actually writing letters. On the heels of his inaugural address, President Roosevelt received a great deal of letters. Tens of thousands, in fact. If you were compelled to write such a letter to the president, what might it say?
- Included at the end of Roosevelt's address is a promise/threat of enormous proportions. If Congress continued to do what they had spent the previous three years doing (which was nothing), the president would petition them for executive wartime powers. This would be an unprecedented and frankly alarming development. While past presidents had been given special powers before, most notably Lincoln, it had never occurred during times of peace. Imagine such powers had been asked for and received. How would the world be different? Do you think the country would have remained much the same as it is today?
- Many people dream of one day becoming president…though they probably hope the country is in better shape than it was in 1932. But pretend this is your inaugural ceremony. What are your plans? Do you agree with FDR's strategies? Why or why not?