Second Inaugural Address

Summary

Franklin Roosevelt took his second oath on 20 January 1937, the first inauguration held in January under the Twentieth Amendment, in a cold rain on the East Portico. He had just carried forty-six of forty-eight States. The speech looks back to March 1933, when the Republic stood "single-minded in anxiety," and asks whether the country has reached its goal. The first half is an argument about government. Americans had pledged to drive "from the temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it," and they had learned that democratic government could protect people against "economic epidemics" as medicine had learned to master epidemics of disease. Roosevelt ties the New Deal to the Constitution's 150th anniversary: the founders created powers "sufficient then and now" for problems beyond local solution. Power is safe, he argues, not when it is absent but when it rests with officials the people can remove at elections, and "private autocratic powers" must be brought into subordination to the public's government. The greatest change of the past four years, he says, has been in "the moral climate of America." The second half asks whether to stop. Personified Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity counsel rest. Roosevelt answers with a series of sentences beginning "I see": millions on meager incomes, millions in indecent housing, millions denied education, until the line "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." He paints the picture "in hope," because the nation, seeing the injustice, means to "paint it out." The measure of progress is "whether we provide enough for those who have too little." He closes by promising to seek "Divine guidance" to "give light to them that sit in darkness and to guide our feet into the way of peace," words from the canticle of Zechariah in Luke. Weeks later he proposed enlarging the Supreme Court, and the speech's claims about lodging power with the people became part of that fight.

Plot or Argument

• The pledges of 1933

  Roosevelt recalls the anxious inauguration of four years earlier and the pledge to drive the profaners from the temple and end stagnation.

• Government as instrument of united purpose

  He argues that democratic government can master economic disaster as medicine mastered disease, invokes the 150th anniversary of the Constitutional Convention, and insists power is safe when answerable to elections.

• A changed moral climate

  Heedless self-interest has proved bad economics; tolerance for abuse of power is ending; the greatest change has been moral.

• Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity

  Personified temptations urge the nation to halt; Roosevelt asks whether the goal of 1933 has been reached.

• One-third of a nation

  A catalogue introduced by "I see" describes continuing poverty, ending in the ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished third; the picture is offered in hope, and the term is dedicated to carrying on under divine guidance.

Lessons

• The test of progress

  Roosevelt proposes a single standard: progress is measured not by adding to the abundance of those who have much but by providing enough for those who have too little. The sentence makes the condition of the poorest the measure of national success.

  • What groups does Roosevelt describe in the "I see" catalogue?
  • Why does he insist he paints the picture "in hope" rather than despair?
  • Is the condition of the poorest the right test of a nation's progress? What other tests are there?

• Power answerable to the people

  Roosevelt argues that the safety of democracy depends "not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change." Critics of the New Deal, and soon of the Court plan, replied that constitutional limits exist precisely because elections alone do not restrain power. The lesson is a chance to state both sides fairly.

  • How does Roosevelt use the 1787 Convention to defend expanded federal action?
  • What are "private autocratic powers," and why does he want them subordinated to government?
  • Are elections a sufficient check on government power?

• Temptations of prosperity

  Roosevelt warns that "Dulled conscience, irresponsibility, and ruthless self-interest already reappear," and that prosperity tests reform more than crisis did. He personifies Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity as voices urging the nation to stop.

  • Why does Roosevelt think progress is harder to sustain in prosperity than in crisis?
  • What does each personified voice say, and what attitude does it represent?
  • Where else do you see good times weakening moral resolve, in a nation or a person?

Context

By 1937 the New Deal had created Social Security, the Works Progress Administration, and new labor protections, yet unemployment remained in the millions. The Supreme Court had invalidated major programs in 1935 and 1936. Roosevelt's victory over Alf Landon carried every State but Maine and Vermont.

Composition

Roosevelt delivered the address from the East Portico on 20 January 1937, the first January inauguration under the Twentieth Amendment. The text follows the Project Gutenberg #4938 transcription. The line "each age is a dream that is dying, or one that is coming to birth" quotes Arthur O'Shaughnessy's "Ode."

Reception

The "one-third of a nation" phrase entered American political language and was used as the title of a 1938 Federal Theatre Project play. On 5 February 1937 Roosevelt proposed adding justices to the Supreme Court, a plan Congress rejected, and a sharp recession began later that year.

Comparisons

• First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear")

  In 1933 Roosevelt asks for emergency power against fear; in 1937 he defends power as permanent and measures what it has not yet done. Compare how the "money changers" of 1933 become the profaners of the temple recalled in 1937.

• Third Inaugural Address

  By 1941 the danger Roosevelt names is foreign tyranny rather than domestic poverty; trace how the language of national purpose shifts as war approaches.

• First Inaugural Address

  Wilson in 1913 also describes the human cost of industrial life and calls government to correct it; Roosevelt's catalogue of want is a more concrete version of Wilson's survey.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The recollection of March 1933 and the "temple of our ancient faith."
• The comparison between mastering "economic epidemics" and mastering epidemics of disease.
• The personified voices of Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity.
• The "I see" catalogue and the closing echo of Luke 1:79.

Key terms and names

Twentieth Amendment

The 1933 amendment that moved inauguration from March to 20 January; 1937 was the first January inauguration.

Private autocratic powers

Roosevelt's phrase for concentrated business interests he says must answer to public government.

Moral climate

The change in public attitudes toward self-interest and abuse of power that Roosevelt calls the greatest change of his first term.

Anaphora

Repetition of a phrase at the start of successive sentences, as in the repeated "I see."

Trustees for the whole people

Roosevelt's description of public officials who make government competent.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What anniversary does Roosevelt connect to the powers of the federal government?
2. Comprehension Name three groups in the "I see" catalogue besides the "one-third of a nation."
3. Interpretation Why does Roosevelt compare economic depression to epidemic disease?
4. Interpretation What is the function of the personified voices Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity?
5. Interpretation How does the closing quotation from Luke change the meaning of the President's promise?
6. Big Question Does seeing an injustice clearly oblige a government to act, or might other institutions be better placed to remedy it?
7. Big Question Is it safe to lodge growing power in government so long as the people can change officials at elections?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 25:35-36 (Scripture)

  Christ's judgment of those who fed the hungry and clothed the naked stands behind the catalogue of the ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished, though the speech never cites it.

• Basil the Great, Homily on "I Will Pull Down My Barns" (Church Fathers)

  Basil tells the rich that surplus held back belongs to the hungry; compare his appeal to personal conscience with Roosevelt's appeal to government action.

• Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno (1931) (Great Conversation)

  Written six years earlier, the encyclical condemns concentrated economic power yet insists on subsidiarity, giving students a contemporary test for Roosevelt's claim that government is the instrument of united purpose.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Roosevelt argues that democratic government, using powers the Constitution always granted, has begun to master economic disaster and change the nation's moral climate, but that prosperity must not halt reform while one-third of the nation lacks basic necessities, because progress is measured by provision for those who have too little.

Rhetorical device: Anaphora. "I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager... I see millions denied education... I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." The repeated opening builds to the speech's most famous line.

Debate: Resolved: That the federal government must remain an active instrument until basic security reaches the whole people.

Memory Work

one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished

four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Roosevelt uses the "I see" catalogue to argue against stopping reform, and evaluate whether the argument justifies expanded federal power.

Comparison with First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear"): Compare the "fear itself" inaugural of 1933 with the "one-third of a nation" inaugural of 1937: how has Roosevelt's account of the nation's main danger changed?

Medical Lens

Presidential inaugurals concern constitutional politics and national crisis; they have no medical content for this library's lens.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Copy out each sentence that begins "I see" and identify the need it names (income, housing, education, buying power); then explain why the catalogue ends on "one-third of a nation."

• Dialogue

  Give speaking parts to Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity, and write a short scene in which each tries to persuade a citizen in 1937 to stop reforming.

• Essay

  Evaluate Roosevelt's claim that democracy depends "not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change."

Further Reading

• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, Avalon Project / GPO

  Parallel official texts for classroom comparison.

• The Rhetorical Presidency, Jeffrey K. Tulis

  A study of how inaugural and other presidential speech reshaped the office.

• American Political Oratory, Survey histories of U.S. public address

  Place this inaugural among other civic speeches of its decade.