FDR - Jean Edward Smith [189]
Roosevelt shook hands with Hughes, then pivoted to face the audience drawn up in front of the inaugural stand: 150,000 people spread over forty acres facing the Capitol. In the background, the howitzers of the 5th Field Artillery fired a twenty-one-gun salute. As the cannons boomed, the sun briefly broke through the clouds, and the new president was on cue. “This is a day of national consecration,” said FDR, invoking divine guidance as he would throughout the speech. The vast crowd stilled, sensing the destiny of the moment. Roosevelt’s voice was firm and reassuring, instilling confidence by tone and example. “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
Roosevelt spoke for fifteen minutes—brief as inaugural addresses go, but the words were memorable, exceeding even Lincoln’s magnificent second inaugural in their immediate impact. The most pressing problem was to put people to work, said FDR, and the government must take the lead. “We must act and act quickly.” After briefly laying out his program, Roosevelt said he would recommend to Congress “the measures that a stricken Nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.” Should Congress fail to act, “I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” For a nation desperate for leadership, Roosevelt had assumed the burden. He closed by asking God’s blessing: “May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.”84
Frances Perkins said the scene was like a revival meeting.85 Roosevelt understood the spiritual need of the people, the need for hope, not despair, and he provided it. FDR did not wear his religion on his sleeve. Neither did he believe he was the instrument of God’s will. His beliefs, while deeply held, were basically very simple.* And he never hesitated to share them with his audience.
The effect of the speech was electrifying, the praise all but unanimous. The dreary years of Hoover’s excuses passed into oblivion. No one doubted that a new era had begun. Myron C. Taylor, the chairman of United States Steel Corporation, said “I hasten to re-enlist to fight the depression to its end.” Frederic E. Williamson, president of the New York Central, liked the speech’s brevity and force: “I feel that its directness presages immediate and forceful action.” Francis H. Sisson, head of the American Bankers Association, said, “I regard the message as a very courageous and inspiring appeal to the American people for their cooperation and confidence.” Newspaper and congressional support was overwhelming. Raymond Moley boasted, “He’s taken the ship of state and turned it around.” Eleanor said simply, “It was very solemn and a little terrifying.”86
After a brief buffet luncheon at the White House, Roosevelt took his place on the reviewing stand, a replica of the portico of Andrew Jackson’s “Hermitage” in Nashville. For partisan Democrats, the fighting spirit of Old Hickory (not the intellectual reflections of Thomas Jefferson) was the lifeblood of the party, and no effort was spared to cast FDR in Jackson’s image. Roosevelt loved parades, and the inaugural procession of 1933—six miles in length, with forty marching bands and delegations