The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book "7 Worst Constitutional Liars", which should be available for purchase in the next week or so.
Note: Sources added in italics, will be listed in the bibliography of the book once it is available in proper MLA style.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President of the United States during the Great Depression on March 4, 1933. (Arrow Book of Presidents by Sturgess F. Cary Scholastic Book Services, New York, 1976, p. 105) Early, during his rise, he defended the U.S. Constitution, well knowing the importance of the document to the American people. Even during his presidency, as he was usurping the U.S. Constitution, President Roosevelt claimed to be its defender.
During his first inaugural address, March 4, 1933,
Roosevelt said, “Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is
possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and
arrangement without loss of essential form.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural
Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers
of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York:
Random House, 1938), 11–16.
In a “Fireside Chat” on March 9, 1937, during which
he used the words “constitution,” “constitutional,” and “unconstitutional” 41
times, President Roosevelt remarked, “I hope that you have re-read the
Constitution of the United States in these past few weeks. Like the Bible, it
ought to be read again and again.” http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15381
It was clear, however, years prior, that Roosevelt
held a Hamiltonian view of the Constitution, defending the concept that it contains
implied powers. During an address as
Governor of New York, March 2, 1930, he said, “The United States Constitution
has proved itself the most marvelously elastic
compilation of rules of government ever written.” [emphasis added]
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/writings/fdr_address.htm
Roosevelt may have voiced his love for the U.S.
Constitution, but contrary to our founding principles, he believed that soft
socialism was what could pull the United States out of the economic difficulties
she was in. His legislative strategies
not only were socialist in nature, but were founded upon Marshall’s concept of
federal supremacy.
The 1932 Presidential Election represented a shift
in America’s political identity. While
Roosevelt avoided specifics, he made clear that his program for economic
recovery would make extensive use of the power of the federal government. He promised aid to farmers, public
development of electric power, a balanced budget, and government policing of
irresponsible private economic power. (https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1932)
Roosevelt won the election in an
electoral landslide, 472 to 59. Americans
also elected substantial Democrat Party majorities to both Houses of Congress.
Roosevelt had every tool he wanted for implementing
his policies, except for the court system – an apparent frustration of his in
1937, when in his March 9 “Fireside Chat,” he stated, “We must save the
Constitution from the [Supreme] Court and the Court from itself.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=15381
In 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to
increase the number of justices to fifteen so that he could get a court which
would be sympathetic to many of his New Deal programs. This was rejected, but a bill was passed
which allowed the Attorney General to appeal directly to the Supreme Court
whenever the constitutionality of an act of Congress was involved. The
Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution by W. Cleon
Skousen, Washington D.C. The National Center for Constitutional Studies p. 584
In 1933, Roosevelt’s Inauguration Address promised
prompt, decisive action, and he conveyed some of his own unshakable
self-confidence to millions of Americans listening on radios throughout the
land. “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and
prosper,” he asserted, adding, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5057
Act One in 1933 began with the National Industrial
Recovery Act, which was believed to represent the kind of reform the nation
needed. [Roosevelt’s wife,] Eleanor,
hoped the NRA codes would be charters of “fair play” among the various elements
in the industrial process…she helped the unions in their drive to organize…and
when the codes turned into agreements for administered prices and restricted
production she did her utmost to get consumer representation on the code authorities
and state recovery boards. Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph P. Lash, New York:
W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. (1971) p 383
The next program in 1933 was the Agricultural
Adjustment Act. It seemed senseless when
people were starving and in rags to pay farmers to plow under cotton and
slaughter piglets, which had been a federally-ordered practice in an effort to reduce farm
prices. In reference to the piglets, she
once told a farmer, “There are thousands of people in the country
starving. Why not give the meat away to
them?” Her position led to a scheme that
anticipated the food-stamp plan. P. 383-384
While on the surface the plans of President Roosevelt, and Eleanor’s
opinions of them, seemed to be a good thing, increasing federal authority over
the interior issues of the United States was contrary to Jefferson’s championed concept of laissez
faire. The policies of the Roosevelt administration seemed utopian and socialist,
because they were.
During the Autumn of 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt became
a fan of a book, Prohibiting Poverty,
by Prestonia Mann Martin, the granddaughter of Horace Mann. Horace Mann was an early reformer of
education, as well as a member of the United States House of Representatives
from 1848 to 1853.
(Cassara, Ernest.
“Reformer as Politician: Horace Mann and the Anti-Slavery Struggle in Congress,
1848-1853.'' Journal of American Studies 5 (December 1971): 247-64; Messerli,
Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972).
The Mann family went on to find itself among the
ranks of Fabians here in the States. http://progressingamerica.blogspot.com/2012/07/regarding-friendly-relationship-and.html
Prestonia Mann was a contributing editor of The American Fabian. (The American Fabian: Organ of Fabian
Socialism in the United States (Volume III, No. 11), published by The Fabian
Educational Company, New York, November 1897 magazine p.4) In an April 6th,
1945 obit in the Winter Park Topics, the following was pointed out:
Under the name of Prestonia Mann Martin she gained
international fame from her sociological thesis, "Prohibiting Poverty,"
which proposed a remedy for periodical depressions by a division of labor and a
distribution of the necessities of life under government regulation. Her
proposal brought comment and a large measure of approval from leaders of
thought all over the world. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt gave the book favorable
comment in her public statements.
http://progressingamerica.blogspot.com/2012/07/regarding-friendly-relationship-and.html
Roosevelt also supported the Democrat Party’s claim
that the United States is a democracy.
In a speech on January 6, 1941, he spoke of the United States as the “arsenal”
of democracy, and declared that American policy in the world crisis was
governed by the search for “four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech
and expression throughout the world, freedom of worship, freedom from want and
freedom from fear.” Great Issues in American History: From Reconstruction to the Present
Day, 1864-1969, Edited by Richard Hofstadter, New York, Random House Book; P.
384
During the speech he specifically remarked that “every
realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly
assailed in every part of the world.” Great Issues in American History: From
Reconstruction to the Present Day, 1864-1969, Edited by Richard Hofstadter, New
York, Random House Book; P. 394
In a “Message for American Education Week”, September
27, 1938, President Roosevelt said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who
express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is
education. It has been well said that no system of government gives so much to the individual or exacts so much as a
democracy. Upon our educational system must largely depend the perpetuity of
those institutions upon which our freedom and our security rest. To prepare each
citizen to choose wisely and to enable him to choose freely are paramount
functions of the schools in a democracy."
In the next part of the chapter I begin to discuss the Roosevelt administration's influence on America's institution of education.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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