President Roosevelt started his presidency with the nation within the depths of the Nice Melancholy, the worst financial disaster in American histo
President Roosevelt started his presidency with the nation within the depths of the Nice Melancholy, the worst financial disaster in American historical past, as unemployment peaked at 25 p.c. Roosevelt had been swept to a landslide victory in opposition to the incumbent president, Herbert Hoover, and used that standard mandate to announce swift and decisive motion to handle the disaster.
Roosevelt additionally used the bully pulpit to criticize these he held liable for the failures within the financial system: large enterprise and the banks — “via their very own stubbornness and their very own incompetence” — and his predecessor within the Oval Workplace, of whom the speech was “implicit with criticism.”
But the president all through the tackle additionally provided hope to People who have been going through what seemed to be their darkest hour, offering one of the well-known maxims within the historical past of the American presidency.
This nice Nation will endure because it has endured, will revive and can prosper. So, initially, let me assert my agency perception that the one factor we now have to worry is worry itself — anonymous, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes wanted efforts to transform retreat into advance.
John F. Kennedy, 1961 — “Ask what you are able to do in your nation.”
John F. Kennedy’s marketing campaign for president was dominated by the problem of the Chilly Warfare. His inaugural tackle mirrored that overarching theme, whereas additionally relating the strengthening of world alliances and “a battle in opposition to the frequent enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, illness, and battle itself.”
Kennedy notably centered on the problem of poverty all through the speech, promising help to these “throughout the globe struggling to interrupt the bonds of mass distress,” even when it is probably not within the direct curiosity of the USA.
The tackle additionally produced Kennedy’s most memorable quote, calling upon People and the worldwide neighborhood to serve a typical good at a momentous level in historical past.
And so, my fellow People: Ask not what your nation can do for you — ask what you are able to do in your nation. My fellow residents of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, however what collectively we are able to do for the liberty of man.