From Lincoln to Obama, Presidents Converse of Harsh Realities in Inaugural Addresses

HomeUS Politics

From Lincoln to Obama, Presidents Converse of Harsh Realities in Inaugural Addresses

President Roosevelt started his presidency with the nation within the depths of the Nice Despair, the worst financial disaster in American historic


President Roosevelt started his presidency with the nation within the depths of the Nice Despair, 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 fashionable mandate to announce swift and decisive motion to deal with the disaster.

Roosevelt additionally used the bully pulpit to criticize these he held chargeable for the failures within the financial system: massive 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 handle additionally supplied hope to Individuals who had been dealing with 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, to start with, let me assert my agency perception that the one factor now we have to worry is worry itself — anonymous, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes wanted efforts to transform retreat into advance.

John F. Kennedy’s marketing campaign for president was dominated by the problem of the Chilly Conflict. His inaugural handle mirrored that overarching theme, whereas additionally concerning the strengthening of worldwide alliances and “a battle in opposition to the widespread enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, illness, and struggle itself.”

Kennedy notably targeted on the problem of poverty all through the speech, promising support to these “throughout the globe struggling to interrupt the bonds of mass distress,” even when it might not be within the direct curiosity of the USA.

The handle additionally produced Kennedy’s most memorable quote, calling upon Individuals and the worldwide neighborhood to serve a standard good at a momentous level in historical past.

And so, my fellow Individuals: Ask not what your nation can do for you — ask what you are able to do on your nation. My fellow residents of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, however what collectively we will do for the liberty of man.



www.nytimes.com