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Essay on Franklin D. Roosevelt Was Born In Hyde Park, New York On January 30, 1882. He Was
| Date: |
12-14-98 6:42am |
| Subject: |
History |
| Word Count: |
1622 |
| Page Count: |
6.49 |
Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on January 30, 1882. He was
the son of James Roosevelt and Sara Delano Roosevelt. His parents and private tutors
provided him with almost all his education. At a young age, he became interested in birds.
For his eleventh birthday, he asked his parents for a gun to began a collection of all the
birds that were native to Dutchess County. By the time he entered college, he had
collected and identified about 300 different kinds of birds. Today, his collection is still one
of the best collectios that was ever made of the Dutches County birds. He learned how to
stuff and mount a birds. Parts of his collection can be seen in the cabinet built for it in the
entrance hall of Springwood FDR's home in Hyde Park. Warren Delano, Franklin's
grandfather, was so impressed with the lad's knowledge of birds that in 1894 he gave him
a life membership in the American Museum of Natural History. Franklin spent hours there
looking at the exhibits and attending lectures. He became acquainted with some of the
curators and sent them specimens of Dutchess County birds which they lacked. FDR was a
birder all his life, even when his disability and the burdens of the Presidency prevented
active pursuit of the hobby. Once in 1942, however, he took part in an early morning bird
watching expedition with Hyde Park friends. President Roosevelt's boyhood home is a
popular related attraction at the Hyde Park historic site. The house, on a 188-acre estate,
contains an office which the President referred to as his Summer White House. From
this room he broadcast the last speech of his fourth campaign for the Presidency on
November 6, 1944. Famous guests at the house included King George VI of Great Britain
and Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill. The house contains abundant memorabilia from
all periods of the President's life. As his wife Eleanor remarked, He always felt that this
was his home, and he loved the house and the view, the woods, special trees.... He
attended Groton (1896-1900), a prestigious preparatory school in Massachusetts, and
received a B.A. degree in history from Harvard in only three years (1900-03). Roosevelt
next studied law at New York's Columbia University. When he passed the bar examination
in 1907, he left school without taking a degree. For the next three years he practiced law
with a prominent New York City law firm. He entered politics in 1910 and was elected to
the New York State Senate as a Democrat from his traditionally Republican home district.
In the meantime, in 1905, he had married a distant cousin, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, who
was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. The couple had six children, five of whom
survived infancy: Anna (1906), James (1907), Elliott (1910), Franklin, Jr. (1914) and John
(1916). Roosevelt was reelected to the State Senate in 1912, and supported Woodrow
Wilson's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. As a reward for his support,
Wilson appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913, a position he held until
1920. He was an energetic and efficient administrator, specializing in the business side of
naval administration. This experience prepared him for his future role as
Commander-in-Chief during World War II. Roosevelt's popularity and success in naval
affairs resulted in his being nominated for vice-president by the Democratic Party in 1920
on a ticket headed by James M. Cox of Ohio. However, popular sentiment against
Wilson's plan for U.S. participation in the League of Nations propelled Republican Warren
Harding into the presidency, and Roosevelt returned to private life. While vacationing at
Campobello Island, New Brunswick in the summer of 1921, Roosevelt contracted
poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis). Despite courageous efforts to overcome his crippling
illness, he never regained the use of his legs. In time, he established a foundation at Warm
Springs, Georgia to help other polio victims, and inspired, as well as directed, the March
of Dimes program that eventually funded an effective vaccine. With the encouragement
and help of his wife, Eleanor, and political confidant, Louis Howe, Roosevelt resumed his
political career. In 1924 he nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for
president at the Democratic National Convention, but Smith lost the nomination to John
W. Davis. In 1928 Smith became the Democratic candidate for president and arranged for
Roosevelt's nomination to succeed him as governor of New York. Smith lost the election
to Herbert Hoover; but Roosevelt was elected governor. Following his reelection as
governor in 1930, Roosevelt began to campaign for the presidency. While the economic
depression damaged Hoover and the Republicans, Roosevelt's bold efforts to combat it in
New York enhanced his reputation. In Chicago in 1932, Roosevelt won the nomination as
the Democratic Party candidate for president. He broke with tradition and flew to Chicago
to accept the nomination in person. He then campaigned energetically calling for
government intervention in the economy to provide relief, recovery and reform. His
activist approach and personal charm helped to defeat Hoover in November 1932 by seven
million votes. The Depression worsened in the months preceding Roosevelt's inauguration,
March 4, 1933. Factory closings, farm foreclosures, and bank failures increased, while
unemployment soared. Roosevelt faced the greatest crisis in American history since the
Civil War. He undertook immediate actions to initiate his New Deal. To halt depositor
panics, he closed the banks temporarily. Then he worked with a special session of
Congress during the first 100 days to pass recovery legislation which set up alphabet
agencies such as AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration) to support farm prices
and the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to employ young men. Other agencies assisted
business and labor, insured bank deposits, regulated the stock market, subsidized home
and farm mortgage payments, and aided the unemployed. These measures revived
confidence in the economy. Banks reopened and direct relief saved millions from
starvation. But the New Deal measures also involved government directly in areas of
social and economic life as never before and resulted in greatly increased spending and
unbalanced budgets which led to criticisms of Roosevelt's programs. However, the
nation-at-large supported Roosevelt, electing additional Democrats to state legislatures
and governorships in the mid-term elections. Another flurry of New Deal legislation
followed in 1935 including the establishment of the Works Projects Administration (WPA)
which provided jobs not only for laborers but also artists, writers, musicians, and authors,
and the Social Security Act which provided unemployment compensation and a program
of old-age and survivors' benefits. Roosevelt easily defeated Alfred M. Landon in 1936
and went on to defeat by lesser margins, Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas E. Dewey
in 1944. He thus became the only American president to serve more than two terms. After
his overwhelming victory in 1936, Roosevelt took on the critics of the New Deal, namely,
the Supreme Court which had declared various legislation unconstitutional, and members
of his own party. In 1937 he proposed to add new justices to the Supreme Court, but
critics said he was packing the Court and undermining the separation of powers. His
proposal was defeated, but the Court began to decide in favor of New Deal legislation.
During the 1938 election he campaigned against many Democratic opponents, but this
backfired when most were reelected to Congress. These setbacks, coupled with the
recession that occurred mid-way through his second term, represented the low-point in
Roosevelt's presidential career. By 1939 Roosevelt was concentrating increasingly on
foreign affairs with the outbreak of war in Europe. New Deal reform legislation
diminished, and the ills of the Depression would not fully abate until the nation mobilized
for war. When Hitler attacked Poland in September 1939, Roosevelt stated that, although
the nation was neutral, he did not expect America to remain inactive in the face of Nazi
aggression. Accordingly, he tried to make American aid available to Britain, France, and
China and to obtain an amendment of the Neutrality Acts which rendered such assistance
difficult. He also took measures to build up the armed forces in the face of isolationist
opposition. With the fall of France in 1940, the American mood and Roosevelt's policy
changed dramatically. Congress enacted a draft for military service and Roosevelt signed a
lend-lease bill in March 1941 to enable the nation to furnish aid to nations at war with
Germany and Italy. America, though a neutral in the war and still at peace, was becoming
the arsenal of democracy, as its factories began producing as they had in the years
before the Depression. The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941,
followed four days later by Germany's and Italy's declarations of war against the United
States, brought the nation irrevocably into the war. Roosevelt became the
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a role he actively carried out. He worked with
and through his military advisers, overriding them when necessary, and took an active role
in choosing the principle field commanders and in making decisions regarding wartime
strategy. He moved to create a grand alliance against the Axis powers through The
Declaration of the United Nations, January 1, 1942, in which all nations fighting the Axis
agreed not to make a separate peace and pledged themselves to a peace-keeping
organization (now the United Nations) on victory. He gave priority to the western
European front and had General George Marshall, Chief of Staff, plan a holding operation
in the Pacific and organize an expeditionary force for an invasion of Europe. The United
States and its allies invaded North Africa in November 1942 and Sicily and Italy in 1943.
The D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches in France, June 6, 1944, were followed by
the allied invasion of Germany six months later. By April 1945 victory in Europe was
certain. The unending stress and strain of the war literally wore Roosevelt out. By early
1944 a full medical examination disclosed serious heart and circulatory problems; and
although his physicians placed him on a strict regime of diet and medication, the pressures
of war and domestic politics weighed heavily on him. During a vacation at Warm Springs,
Georgia, on April 12, 1945 he suffered a massive stroke and died two and one-half hours
later without regaining consciousness. He was 63 years old. His death came on the eve of
complete military victory in Europe and within months of victory over Japan in the Pacific.
President Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of his estate at Hyde Park, New York.
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