Presidential Inaugural Address, Essay Example

Viewing History through the Lens of the Presidential Inaugural Address

The newly-elected President of the United States was assuming office in a time when the nation faced enormous challenges and difficulties. The American people had suffered through a period of international political strife that drew them into military conflicts halfway around the world. The economy was in a tailspin, and many voters believed the outgoing administration and the Republican had failed to do enough to counter the deepening recession. The incoming President questioned the motives and the actions of the financial sector, and of the leaders of industry, accusing them of helping themselves at the expense of average Americans. This new President assured the gathered audience and those listening around the country and around the world that that his policies would help all Americans, not just the rich and powerful. This inaugural address was a momentous occasion, and one that will be remembered in history books for generations to come. But it was not the address given by Barack Obama in 2009; it was the address given by Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 4, 1933.  President Roosevelt’s address serves as a concise window through which we can view history and understand the challenges it faced then and the challenges it faces now.

It is widely known that President Roosevelt took office during the worst economic crisis the United States had ever faced. It was also a period of change and transition both for the United States and much of the world. The First World War had ended fifteen years earlier, but the implications of the war remained. It was the beginning of the modern age, when advances in communication and travel were setting the stage for what we now know as “globalism.” The United States was in a weakened economic position, yet it was poised to become the most powerful nation on Earth. The central themes in Roosevelt’s speech were centered on appeals to the spirit of the American people and the notion that this spirit could and would lift the nation up out of the depths of the Great Depression. Moreover, Roosevelt did not hesitate to position himself as a strong leader, and one who could channel and direct that spirit towards his goals of bringing about a new age of economic prosperity.

One of the most famous and oft-repeated lines from Roosevelt’s first inaugural address is “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” With this statement, Roosevelt acknowledged the practical realties of the country’s political and economic circumstances while also telling his audience that he would lead them in overcoming them. As Roosevelt explains, the problems the country faced were, “thank God, only material things.” Roosevelt wasted no time in getting to the point where a discussion of the economic crisis was concerned; at the same time, he appealed to the spirit of the nation as a whole, and of individual Americans, to argue in favor of the notion that these “material things” were the real problem. Instead, Roosevelt argued, the real issue was the need to acknowledge that these were “common difficulties” that the country could overcome only if they worked together.

This populist appeal in Roosevelt’s inaugural address was, quite famously, matched with his outline of a policy approach that would not only define his presidency, but would define the Democrat party –for good and ill- into the 21^st century. Roosevelt was attempting to appeal to the collective spirit of the nation, but he also admitted, in very stark terms, that millions of Americans faced “the grim problem of existence.” In this address, Roosevelt described a political vision for the nation that both embraced the economic engine of capitalism and rejected the failings of unfettered capitalism to provide equal opportunities for all Americans. Roosevelt listed a series of specific economic issues and circumstances facing the country and the world: “values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.” The newly-elected president then insisted that the nation’s problems “come from no failure of substance.” The problem was not a lack of resources, argued Roosevelt; the problem was simply that the country’s economic system was failing to adequately allow all Americans to share in those resources.

This is the heart of Roosevelt’s political message. He asserted that happiness “lies in the joy of achievement,” and assured millions of suffering Americans that they were not to blame for their economic woes. Roosevelt’s domestic policy was built around the “New Deal” he proposed between the government and the American people; in this New Deal the government would take an active role in lifting the country out of the Great Depression, rather than simply wait for the engine of capitalism to drive such a recovery. Roosevelt announced that the government would involve itself in “national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character.” In addition to such actions, the government would also take an active role in overseeing and supervising the banking and financial sectors in order to curb abuses that undermined the nation’s economy.

It is impossible to avoid seeing the parallels between Roosevelt’s inaugural address and that of President Obama; both men took office during a time of economic turmoil and promised direct government action to help end the crises. It is also impossible to see the differences in the situations, as the current political climate is divided into partisan camps that have made it much more difficult for this President or any President to gain unanimity in public opinion. In Roosevelt’s first inaugural address we can see the birth of the powerful federal government of the 20^th century as well as the roots of the problems that such power would create. In a sense, Roosevelt’s presidency was unique; it was the both the first and the last time that a U.S. President would enjoy such consensus among the American people.

Works Cited

“Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address.” Nytimes.com, 2014. Web. 27 Mar 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-obama.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.

“Franklin D. Roosevelt: First Inaugural Address. U.S. Inaugural Addresses. 1989.” Bartleby.com, 2014. Web. 27 Mar 2014. <http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html>.