“Let Us Move Forward with Strong and Active Faith”: Remembering President Franklin Roosevelt

It was a warm spring day in April of 2014. I was alone, preparing for the next day’s big event by setting-up rows of chairs in front of a small one-story white house. That little white house is one of the most visited historic sites in the state of Georgia, and it is known simply as…the Little White House. Perhaps Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the then governor of New York, had a premonition when he built the home in 1932 that he would soon be elected president of the United States and occupy THE White House. This was the same man who made the declaration as a young lawyer in New York City, before even entering politics, that he would someday hold the most powerful office in the world. Even when polio struck him at the age of 39 and took the use of his legs, it did not steal his grit and unbounded determination, something his distant cousin and hero Theodore Roosevelt also had.

Franklin Roosevelt holding his “campaign hat” while sitting on the porch of his new home in Warm Springs, the Little White House, October 1932. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

The next day’s event was the annual commemorative ceremony marking 69 years since President Roosevelt died there at the Little White House. The date was April 12, 1945, and just like this day in 2014, it was a pleasant spring day filled with the congenial sounds of birds chirping and the smell of Georgia pines filled the air.

One of the last photos taken of Franklin Roosevelt, just a few days before his death. It was at this table where he would collapse on April 12, 1945 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He would die just two hours later at the Little White House. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

As I went about the simple task of lining-up chairs, all I could think about was the history that occurred at this house, located in such a quaint and simple southern town. Even the next day, when I, a teenager who aspired to be a historian, was surrounded by prominent names and authors, my mind would continuously wander off to the history of the place and the man who put it on the map. I thought of that ebullient personality who drove-up to the front of this very house with his specially-made Ford Phaeton, holding that ever-present cigarette holder between his teeth and sporting that signature grin of his.

The front of the Little White House, April 11, 2014. Source: Holley Snaith

This year, 2020, marks 75 years since the death of the man who has been heralded one of our greatest presidents. His name does not need to be spoken; all you need to know are those three initials: FDR. He led the United States through the two greatest crises of the Twentieth Century: The Great Depression and World War II. As fate would have it, he came at the right time; America was thirsty for his leadership.

As I write this article, we are in the midst of a war. But this one does not entail the use of artillery or airplanes. COVID-19 has devastated so many lives in so many countries, and we are all asking: When will it end? How many deaths will there be? Will we be able to get back to normal in the near future? As a historian, I do not look favorably upon hypothetical questions, but it is during times like this that I ask: What would FDR say to a nation who is looking to their leader for words with the perfect blend of optimism and realism?

President Franklin Roosevelt addressing Congress, and the nation, the day after Pearl Harbor, December 8, 1941. Source: CBS News

After the president’s death, his widow boarded the train carrying her husband’s casket that traveled from Warm Springs to Washington. Ironically, the train left the station on Friday the 13th, a date FDR always dreaded and tried to avoid scheduling any travel plans on. As his funeral cortege slowly made its way down the streets of Washington, all that could be heard was silence, mixed with occasional soft sobs from the crowd. One man who could not control his tears was asked by the individual next to him if he knew the president. The man softly responded with his head bowed, “No, but he knew me.” To a nation in mourning, it seemed the world had stopped turning.

A woman cries as Franklin Roosevelt’s funeral train passes through the rural South, April 1945. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

From the day FDR took the oath of office and became the first president to communicate through the airwaves with the American people on a regular basis, he was the nation’s friend. His photograph hung in living rooms across the nation, the only portrait above him being that of Christ. Talking with my own family members who lived through his presidency, they shared with me what they felt they lost when FDR died; a politician who spoke to them in their simple language, a fellow man who understood them, and a leader who lifted them in times of turmoil.

President Roosevelt delivering one of his famous fireside chats that broadcasted on NBC Radio, mid 1930s. Source: Getty Images

In a time where fear has swept over our world due to this pandemic, I find inspiration in his words, and do see us uniting stronger than before and moving forward with a strong and active faith. Sometimes we forget how much we humans have in common. This is simply because we all have our own lives, careers, and families. But now that we are living through one the greatest crises of this century, we realize that we are more alike than different, a virus such as this does not see race, religion, or economic status.

Franklin Roosevelt started the country’s first polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs in 1927. Here he and Eleanor are pictured talking to some of the young patients at the Georgia Hall in 1938. FDR, and sometimes Eleanor, would journey down to Warm Springs to spend Thanksgiving with the patients. Source: The Roosevelt Doctor

FDR was a man who was strong in his faith in God, but he also had faith in mankind, in science, and in nature. It is during times such as this, just as after Pearl Harbor and September 11th, that this strong and active faith, whatever that may mean to you, is imperative to tomorrow’s progress and the healing that will come from this awful time.

So we come back to that question: What would FDR say to a troubled nation during this uncertain time? Of course I have opinions on what FDR would say or do if he were here, but it is not my job to put those thoughts here.

Instead, I will leave you with his own words, perhaps some of the more precious and poignant words he wrote. This excerpt comes from his undelivered Jefferson Day Address that was to be given on April 14th:

“Today as we move against the terrible scourge of war — as we go forward toward the greatest contribution that any generation of human beings can make in this world — the contribution of lasting peace — I ask you to keep up your faith. I measure the sound, solid achievement that can be made at this time by the straight edge of your own confidence and your resolve. And to you, and to all Americans who dedicate themselves with us to the making of an abiding peace, I say;

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”

This is the last photograph of Franklin Roosevelt taken, on April 11, 1945, just one day before his death. It was taken in the living room of the Little White House by photographer Nicholas Robbins for Madame Elizabeth Shoumatoff’s “Unfinished Portrait” of the president. Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum