Roosevelt, Franklin D.
1882-1945
President of USA during WWII
by Rit Nosotro( )
The future president was born on Jan. 30, 1882, at the family estate in Hyde
Park, N.Y. His father, James was a descendant of Nicholas Roosevelt, whose father
had emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam in the 1640's. Young Franklin had
a secure and idyllic childhood. His half-brother was an adult when Franklin
was born, and Franklin faced no rivals for the love of his parents, who kept
him in dresses and long curls until he was five, and in kilts and Little Lord
Fauntleroy suits for several years after that. Summers he went with his parents
to Europe and to the seaside in New England. Other times they would go to Campobello
Island off the coast of New Brunswick, where he developed a love for sailing.
Until he was 14 he received his schooling from governesses and private tutors.
He finished up the rest of his schooling at Groton School in Massachusetts,
which he attended between 1896 and 1900. He went to Harvard and thanks to his
excellent preparation at Groton, he was able to complete his course of study
for his B.A. in 1903, in only three years. During his fourth year he served
as editor of the Crimson, the college newspaper. While at Harvard, Franklin
fell in love with Anna Eleanor Roosevelt…his fifth cousin once removed.
Eleanor had had a trying childhood. Her mother, a beautiful socialite who gave
her little affection, died when Eleanor was eight. Her father Theodore Roosevelt's
brother, was spirited and charming. But he was unstable and alcoholic, and he
died when Eleanor was ten. Orphaned, she lived with her maternal grandmother
and entered her teens feeling rejected, ugly, and ill at ease in society. When
Franklin, a dashing Harvard man two years her senior, paid her attention, she
was flattered and receptive. On March 17, 1905, the two Roosevelt’s were
married. Her uncle Theodore Roosevelt , president of the United States, gave
her away. Within the next 11 years Eleanor delivered five children (a sixth
died in infancy); Anna, James , Elliott , Franklin D. Jr. , and John. Having
been born into wealth, the Roosevelts never lacked for money, and Eleanor and
Franklin moved easily among the upper classes in New York and Campobello.
Following the example of President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly admired,
Franklin entered public service through politics, but as a Democrat. He won
election to the New York Senate in 1910. President Wilson appointed him Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, and he was the Democratic nominee for Vice President
in 1920. Sadly though, in the summer of 1921, when he was 39, disaster hit,
he was stricken with polio. Demonstrating incredible courage, he fought to regain
the use of his legs, mostly through swimming. He was elected President in November
1932, to the first of four terms. By March there were 13,000,000 unemployed,
and almost every bank was closed. In his first "hundred days," he
proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business
and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing farms
and homes, and reform. By 1935 the Nation had achieved some measure of recovery,
but businessmen and bankers were turning more and more against Roosevelt's New
Deal program. They feared his experiments, were appalled because he had taken
the Nation off the gold standard and allowed deficits in the budget, and disliked
the concessions to labor. Roosevelt responded with a new program of reform:
Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public
utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed. In 1936 he
was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate,
he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating
key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle, but a revolution
in constitutional law took place. Thereafter the Government could legally regulate
the economy.
Roosevelt pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy.
He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out
of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened
or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in 1940, he began
to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed
organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war. Feeling
that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United
States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations,
in which, he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.
As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12,
1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
