Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most influential speakers of his time. Through the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, guided America passed its greatest crisis. FDR’s domestic policies were significant in saving lives, securing American futures, and played a major role in establishing the United Nations. Roosevelt had some downfalls throughout his presidency but, he overcomes them and becomes greater. He left a legacy many have tried to compete with today.
Before Franklin was the 32nd president of the United States, he spent his early years near Hyde Park. Born to James and Sara Roosevelt in 1882, he attended Groton school and wasn’t very social with his peers. After graduating Groton, Roosevelt attended Harvard college and became the editor of Harvard student paper in the process. In search of a wife , he was rejected by the first few women of choice until he found Eleanor. They were in love and eventually married March 17, 1905, and overall had six children together. A few years later, in 1910, upstate Democrats asked him to run for office and he didn’t turn it down. This was when he started his path towards presidency.
As the president that was sworn at the height of the Great Depression, he knew something had to be done. In his first 100 days, Roosevelt signed the New Deal into law. From 1933 to 1938, the New Deal created 42 new agencies to create jobs, safeguard investments, and allow unionization. Some of these agencies included Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. “The New Deal and the Social Security Act helped millions of people and improved the economy that much so that it grew for 58% in eight years.” One of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s main accomplishments was becoming the longest serving president of the United States. As the longest serving president, Franklin D. Roosevelt did many things to improve the economy of the United States and the living standards of citizens while creating war strategies for World War II. He served four terms until his death April 12, 1945. It was after when the two term convention was made into law. While the U.S. economy was being hit by the Great Depression, Franklin ordered for banks to close for a few days until Congress could pass reform legislation. This is when the Emergency Banking Act was created and the Federal Reserve Banks gave more currency on good assets. Next, the stashed cash was in neighborhood banks were returned to the depositors in which the New York Stock Exchange recorded the last one-day percentage price increase.
Roosevelt failed to take the most obvious steps in stopping the worst genocide in history: the Holocaust. In the thirties, as Hitler began his anti-semitic policies, Franklin was silent. In 1940, as a ship hovered off the coast of Florida carrying about a thousand Jewish refugees seeking safety in the U.S. He was also silent when in 1942, news arrived that deaths of millions of Jews in Nazi concentration camps. Jewish leaders who wanted to meet with FDR for some kind of action to be taken, was turned down. Franklin’s inaction was capped when in 1944, he refused to order the bombing of the Auschwitz gas chambers and railroads leading there. Instead of doing what was right, he only listened to advice from his Assistant Secretary of War because it would divert resources for a war effort.
Previous his presidency, from the Dutchess County in upstate New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for the state senate. He was simply a good candidate because of his last name, his family’s wealth, and his seemingly endless natural energy. He had won the race by over a thousand votes. Even though Franklin was a Democrat, he defended the mainly ,Republican farmers, in his district. In 1912, he won re-election as state senate but, didn’t finish out his term. When Roosevelt was asked by Woodrow Wilson to serve as his assistant secretary of the Navy, he couldn’t refuse. Although, later on when he argued that the United States needed to improve its military capabilities, Wilson’s administration feared that the step would appear to violate America’s declared neutrality.
Under FDR, the American federal government assumed new and powerful roles in the nation’s economy, corporate life, in health, welfare, and well-being of the citizens. The New Deal was made to insure the economic, political and social benefits of American capitalism that were distributed more equally between the population. Franklin D. Roosevelt was an inspiring yet, a good president given his circumstances. Starting off his presidency during the Great Depression and World War II, he was elected because Americans believed that he could guide the nation through it better than the Republican opponent, President Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt created 42 new agencies due to unemployment and to safeguard investments. He also hoped that the war would bring more secure and peaceful post-war world. Franklin changed the shape of the White House; increasing the responsibilities of his office. Lastly, he also magnified the capacity of the presidency to meet the new responsibilities.