RooseveltOnJanuary 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born. James Roosevelt, Franklin’s father, was a prosperous railroad official andlandowner (Lawson 25).
Hispredecessors, when they came from the Netherlands,were succes Roosevelt learned from private tutors, not going to school until theage of fourteen. He had already studied German, Latin and French by the time hehad started school(Freidel 6). Sailing, bird hunting and stamp collecting wereamong his hobbies. On his In 1896, at the age of fourteen his parents sent himaway to Groton, Massachusetts, to a private, boys only, boarding school.
He wasnot very popular among the students, but was respected by his peers and wasnever the object of pranks pulled by the ol From there, Roosevelt went on toenter Harvard in 1900. There too Roosevelt remained an average student, makingit through with a C average most of the time(Hacker 19). At Harvard, his socialactivities took preference over his academic pursuit and the In 1903 Rooseveltgraduated from Harvard and entered the Columbia Law School. He dropped out inhis third year after passing the New York bar examination(Hacker 24). Soonafter, Roosevelt started practicing law with a New York law firm. While still inlaw school, Roosevelt met Anna Eleanor Roosevelt a distant cousin, only a fewyears younger than him(Alsop 28).
They were married on St. Patrick’s day, March17th, 1905(Freidel 13). Hewas twenty-three and she was twenty-one. Her fathe A few years later in 1910,Roosevelt accepted the Democratic nomination for the New York StateSenate(Freidel 17). He won the elections, and in the following January heentered the Senate at the young age of twenty-eight(Freidel 18).
Later in 1912he ra In July of 1921, while vacationing at Campobello Island, he went sailingwith his children. One day, they saw, what appeared to be a forest fire, on anearby island they quickly sailed to shore to help put out the fire. It took acouple of hours and w was able to walk in the pool unaided. His disease,poliomyelitis, had affected him on land but in the water he was as quick asanyone.
In 1926 he bought Warm Springs for $200,000(Hacker 40). In 1927 hecontributed two-thirds of his wealth(Freidel 47) a His physical disabilitiesdidn’t hinder his climb of the political ladder. In 1928 Roosevelt ran forgovernor of New York and won the election with a large margin. One of his maingoals was that the state should own the electric companies and other util InOctober of 1929, when Roosevelt was still Governor, the stock market suddenlycollapsed. This caused nation-wide panic.
Grain and cotton prices droppedtremendously due to an overabundant supply, and many farmers were out of jobs. Rapidly, people w Roosevelt did not run for the presidency in 1928 because thatyear, most of the country was in favor of a Republican candidate for president. Four years later in 1932, a week before his fiftieth birthday, Rooseveltannounced his candidacy for president Through his campaign speeches he preachedof a ‘New Deal’ for the American people, one that would lift them out of thedepression. Now he was going to fulfill his promise.
Rooseveltdid not sit back and watch the country take itself out of a depression. Guestswould be permitted to reopen and those that could not, wouldn’t. Banks thatcouldn’t meet withdrawals requests would, together with federal aid, meet thewithdrawal demands(Lawson 48). Of the nineteen thousand banks, only abouttwenty-four hundred Like he said in campaign speeches, “If I were electedPresident, my first step would be to mobilize the country for war onunemployment”(Woolf). This is exactly what he started to do. Another mainbill passed in the hundred days was the Civilian Conserv He also signed into lawone of the most important laws that today helps back up our bank system.
Untilthat time there was no insurance to cover for banks that went bankrupt orcollapsed. The Banking Act of 1933 changed all of this. The government put a Healso accomplished many things, which greatly boosted the economy. He reduced the1934 federal budget by 13%.
Although he often spoke that the American Navy andMarines should be the best in the world, he was not hesitant in cutting the 1934defense bud On August 14, 1935 he signed into law the Social Security Act. Thisact offered protection to the needy and old through pensions and public aid, andpromoted unemployment insurance. He ran again for a second term in 1936 againstAlfred M. Landon of Kansas and beat him by well over eleven million of thepopular vote, and won 523 out of the total 531 electoral votes, the biggestlandslide since James Monroe defeated John Quincy Adams Again he ran for a thirdterm in 1940 against Henry A. Wallace. He beat his opponent 449 to 82 in theelectoral voting.
Heran for last time in 1944, and won again with an easy margin. On March 30, 1945,Roosevelt returned to Warm Springs to take a rest from the presidency. On April12 the only president in American history to serve more than two terms had died. He served his people more than twelve years and had now taken his final road.
BibliographyAlsop, Joseph, FDR, A Centenary Rememberance,The Viking Press, New York, 1982. Hacker, Jeffrey H. , Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin Watts,New York, 1983. Freidel, Frank, A Rendezvous With Destiny, Little,Brown and Company, Boston, 1990.
Lawson, Don, FDR’s New Deal, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1974. Woolf, S. J.
, Thomas Depicts the Socialist Utopia, New York Times Magazine,July 24, 1932, The New York Times Company.
