FDR - Jean Edward Smith [5]
Sixty years after his death, it is high time Roosevelt be revisited. The Great Depression, the New Deal, the Second World War are fading memories. The extent to which the United States was threatened is scarcely remembered. The national sacrifice is forgotten. All the more reason to recall that cheerful man who could not walk, who could not stand unassisted, yet who remained serenely confident as he calmly guided the nation into a prosperous, peaceful future.
JEAN EDWARD SMITH
Huntington, West Virginia
* A close parallel to Sara’s role vis-à-vis Franklin is that of her contemporary Mrs. Arthur MacArthur and her son Douglas. Military scholars are well aware that when Douglas was a cadet at West Point, Mrs. MacArthur took an apartment nearby to be with him. Less well known is that for two years during FDR’s time at Harvard, Sara took an apartment in Boston to be near him.
* FDR’s will, dated November 12, 1941, provided that his papers, personal property (paintings, china, furniture, silver), and the house at Hyde Park be given to the United States government. The balance of his estate (investments, land, inheritance from Sara) was to be placed in trust, one half of the income to be paid to Eleanor, the other half to Missy, with the children and grandchildren enjoying remainder interests. Missy died in July 1944 and did not benefit from the president’s bequest, but the will was never amended. When it was probated and made public in June 1945, the press reported the financial details minutely but chose not to mention the provision pertaining to Missy. Last Will and Testament of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park; The New York Times, June 7, 1945; United States News, October 4, 1946.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
PREFACE
ONE | HERITAGE
TWO | MY SON FRANKLIN
THREE | KEEPING THE NAME IN THE FAMILY
FOUR | ALBANY
FIVE | AWAKENING
SIX | ANCHORS AWEIGH
SEVEN | WAR
EIGHT | LUCY
NINE | THE CAMPAIGN OF 1920
TEN | POLIO
ELEVEN | GOVERNOR
TWELVE | ALBANY REDUX
THIRTEEN | NOMINATION
FOURTEEN | NOTHING TO FEAR
FIFTEEN | ONE HUNDRED DAYS
SIXTEEN | NEW DEAL ASCENDANT
SEVENTEEN | HUBRIS
EIGHTEEN | LOW TIDE
NINETEEN | ON THE BRINK
TWENTY | STAB IN THE BACK
TWENTY-ONE | FOUR MORE YEARS
TWENTY-TWO | ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY
TWENTY-THREE | DAY OF INFAMY
TWENTY-FOUR | COMMANDER IN CHIEF
TWENTY-FIVE | D-DAY
TWENTY-SIX | LAST POST
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
About the Author
ONE
HERITAGE
Some thought the Roosevelts were entitled to coats of arms. Others thought they were two steps ahead of the bailiffs from an island in the Zuider Zee.
—ALICE ROOSEVELT LONGWORTH
THE ROOSEVELTS WERE an old but relatively inconspicuous New York family. Their wealth derived from Manhattan real estate, the West Indian sugar trade, and thrifty investment. The men in the family married well: indeed, much of the Roosevelt inheritance descended on the maternal side. Yet for six generations the family had produced no one of significant stature. Suddenly, in the seventh generation, this “dynasty of the mediocre” (in the words of the New York Herald Tribune) erupted with not one but two of the most remarkable men in American history.1
The common ancestor of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt—“our very common ancestor,” as TR phrased it—was Claes van Rosenvelt, an obscure Dutchman who landed in New Amsterdam in the 1650s.2 His only son, Nicholas, was a prosperous miller. He in turn fathered two sons: Johannes, the progenitor of the Long Island branch of the family that produced Theodore; and Jacobus, founder of the Hudson River strain from which Franklin descended. Johannes’s heirs were merchants and traders. The descendants of Jacobus—James in English—remained closer to the soil, farming initially in upper Manhattan, then living the life of gentleman farmers along