Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Term in Presidency
One of the largest differences in transition from Roosevelt’s first term to his second is his major loss of focus on legislation. Of course, the New Deal policies still ticked away in the background, though. Franklin passed the Housing Act of 1937, which provided subsidized housing to low-income families, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which created a standard minimum wage. These two social acts helped raise the standard of living for families living in poverty, and Franklin’s popularity in marginalized communities grew rapidly.
Instead of focusing heavily on legislation, Franklin placed his primary interests on the Supreme Court after the court unanimously ruled in 1935 that the National Recovery Act was unconstitutional. In 1937, he proposed a law that would allow him to appoint six new justices. He said he wanted a “persistent infusion of new blood.”[i] This plan would give the president a large amount of control over the court, so it was opposed heavily by Franklin’s own political party. Franklin pummeled through opposition and appointed seven out of the nine justices of the court by 1941, thereby altering the composition of the court. After this change, his policies flowed through the Supreme Court easily.[ii]
Additionally, the composition of Franklin’s support system altered, though not by his own choice. During his earlier years in presidency, Roosevelt had the backing of labor unions, but they split into the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, two distinct factions that feuded heavily. In their feuding, they had less time and attention to spend on promoting Roosevelt’s agenda. They were too worried about the other labor organizations. Annoyed, Franklin cast a “plague on both [their] houses.”[iii] The Labor Party became too disorganized to provide support for Roosevelt in the 1938 through 1946 elections.
In addition to these issues, Roosevelt found that he must deal with the conservative, southern Democrats in Congress, who opposed his leadership. Therefore, Franklin played a hand in the 1938 Democratic primaries and actively campaigned for people who supported the New Deal reforms. This plan did not go as expected. In the end, he defeated only one target.[iv] By the end of Congressional elections in 1938, Congress was full of conservatives, and many of them thought Franklin was “aiming at a dictatorship.”[v] Historian Chadberg noted: “Conservative Democrats held the balance of power between liberals and Republicans, and they used it to prevent completion of the structure of the Second New Deal.”[vi] In light of this idea, it is no wonder that Roosevelt felt his power was slipping.
In his early years in government, Franklin made a plan. He predicted during the 1932 campaign, “I’ll be in the White House for eight years. When those years are over, there’ll be a Progressive party. It may not be Democratic, but it will be Progressive.” For the most part, it seemed as if Roosevelt’s premonition had come true. His partners in leadership positions within the White House were not the expected, but progressivism was the normed pathway, nonetheless.
Not only was Franklin’s second term difficult in regard to his home country, but foreign policy was falling over the edge. On the cusp of war, the United States of America was watching the progress of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. To his cousin, Daisy Suckley, Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote: “The news from Germany is bad and though my official people all tell me there is no danger of actual war I always remember their saying the same things in July 1914.”[vii] Adolf Hitler’s German foreign policy had begun to arouse fears of a new world war in 1933, and the United States wanted desperately to remain separated from the issue, continuing the ideology behind isolationism. In 1937, Congress went as far as to pass the Neutrality Act, but Roosevelt found ways to assist China when they were invaded by Japan; he planned a program to build long-range submarines that would blockade Japan.[viii][ix] Again writing to his cousin, Roosevelt said: “Did you hear Hitler today, his shrieks, his histrionics, and the effect on the huge audience? They did not applaud—they made noises like animals.”[x] According to these words, Roosevelt was moved by Hitler’s tactics, not in a way that inspired but rather in a way that brought a queasy illness to his stomach.
During this same time, Franklin prepared his 1937 Quarantine Speech in which he proposed that the world should treat warmongering states and countries as threats to public health and, therefore, should be quarantined. Franklin was very devoted to his isolationist policies and confirmed that the United States would remain neutral if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, but in 1939 he allowed France to order American aircrafts on a cash-and-carry basis, therefore breaking that pact. When France fell, he ordered that the aircrafts be sold to Great Britain. The isolationist policy was beginning to waver.
Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, thus beginning World War II. At this point, Roosevelt saw fit to reject neutrality and began to determine ways in which he could provide relief to the French and British. He could no longer stand idly by and watch the world fall apart. Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in April 1940 with the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France soon following in May. These actions left Britain separated from the rest of western Europe. At this point, public opinion in America was shifty in regard to World War II, and Franklin planned to take advantage of the turmoil, doing all he could to provide aid for Britain.
The president began preparing a game strategy as for what would happen over the next few years. Roosevelt started by appointing interventionist Republican leaders Henry L. Stimson as Secretary of War and Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy. With these two men in leadership, the country began to build its military quickly and efficiently. Some people did not follow or agree with Roosevelt’s plans to instill an active part in the next Great War. American isolationists—both individuals such as Charles Lindberg and groups such as America First—referred to the president as an irresponsible warmonger and attacked his decisions in his capacity as the president of the United States. Still notorious for his fireside chats, Roosevelt told his listeners that the United States should be the “Arsenal of Democracy.”[xi] Soon after, he delivered his Four Freedoms speech, which clearly outlined his ideas of the American defense of basic rights. Listeners sat by their radios, taking in the news that Franklin handed them. They heard him detail World War II and America’s reaction; they heard him explain his decisions.
Franklin violated the Neutrality Acts on September 2, 1940 when he passed the Destroyers for Bases Agreement and handed over fifty World War I American destroyers—long-endurance Navy warships—to Britain. In this pact, the United States in return received military base rights in the British Caribbean Islands, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. Later, the United States and Britain would form the Lend-Lease agreement, signed in the United States as the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, which allowed for the United States to send aid to Britain without expectation of immediate payment. Unfortunately, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini responded by creating the Tripartite Pact with Japan, which allowed for a defensive military alliance among the three countries.[xii]
In the midst of the Second World War, Roosevelt was running for a third term as president, although the two-term presidency tradition had been an unwritten rule since 1796 when George Washington refused to run for a third term. Franklin sent a message to the Democratic National Convention, saying that he would run for president again only if he were drafted to do so. Of course, he was drafted to do so, by use of his own hand. Cleverly, he maintained support from the people who controlled the auditorium’s sound system; therefore, when everyone gathered together to discuss the upcoming election, the loudspeaker claimed, “We want Roosevelt … The world wants Roosevelt!” He was nominated 946 to 147.
In his 1940 campaign against Republican Wendell Willkie, Franklin D. Roosevelt focused on his experience in the White House, citing his ability to keep the United States from directly fighting in the war. Although this idea would later alter, of course, he won the popular and electoral vote.
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References
[i] Pusey, Merlo J. “FDR vs. The Supreme Court.” American Heritage Magazine. April 1958. https://web.archive.org/web/20060507103227/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1958/3/1958_3_24.shtml. Accessed 26 June 2017.
[ii] Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932 – 1840. 1963.
[iii] Pederson, William D. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt. 2011.
[iv] Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932 – 1840. 1963.
[v] Brogan, Hugh. The Penguin History of the United States of America. 2001.
[vi] Goldberg, Chad Alan. Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race, from the Freedmen’s Bureau to Workfare. 2007.
[vii] Berthon, Simon and Joanna Potts. Warlord: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. 2007.
[viii] Dallek, Robert. Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932 – 1945. 1995.
[ix] Millett, Allan Reed, and Williamson Murray. A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War. 2001.
[x] Berthon, Simon and Joanna Potts. Warlord: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. 2007.
[xi] Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Fireside Chats.” The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/fireside.php. Accessed 27 June 2017.
[xii] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.
