First Inaugural Address
Sworn in at the bottom of the Great Depression, Roosevelt tells Americans that fear is the real enemy, blames the bankers, and promises action, even emergency power if Congress stalls.
📖 Read the full text on this pageEvery paragraph numbered, so you can cite itOn March 4, 1933, the country Franklin D. Roosevelt took over was in its fourth year of the Great Depression, with savings gone, farms failing and millions out of work. His inaugural address had to do two things at once: calm a frightened nation and prepare it for bold, fast government action. The line about fear comes in the second paragraph, and the rest of the speech explains what should replace it. Watch the military language build until Roosevelt says he may ask for power as great as a president would have in a war. This page prints the address as he actually spoke it, which differs from the prepared text that many printed versions give: the opening sentence, ‘This is a day of national consecration’, was added in delivery.
The claim
The nation’s crisis is not a failure of resources but of leadership and values, caused chiefly by reckless financiers. If Americans put aside fear and accept disciplined, united action under strong leadership, the country can recover, and Roosevelt will seek emergency power if normal methods fail.
The rhetorical situation who, to whom, when, and why
The Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Roosevelt delivered the address outdoors at his inauguration, and it was carried by radio across the country.
March 4, 1933
The low point of the Great Depression, days after banks in many states had closed or limited withdrawals.
What First Inaugural Address says
Roosevelt greets President Hoover, the Chief Justice and his friends, then calls the day one of national consecration. He promises to speak the truth frankly, says the nation will endure, revive and prosper, and declares that the only thing to fear is fear itself, a terror that stops people from acting. He asks for the support Americans have given frank leadership before. He then names the damage: shrunken values, higher taxes, frozen trade, farmers without markets, lost savings and a host of unemployed citizens. Yet the distress, he says, comes from no failure of substance, since nature still offers plenty. The failure belongs to the rulers of the exchange of goods, whose stubbornness and incompetence have brought them down. Using the image of money changers driven from a temple, he says the nation can now restore older truths and value work and achievement above profit. He calls for honesty in banking, business and public office, and for action now. The first task is to put people to work, partly by direct government hiring on projects that use natural resources. He lists other ways to help: raising farm prices, stopping foreclosures, cutting the cost of government, unifying relief and planning transportation and utilities. He asks for strict supervision of banking, an end to speculation with other people’s money and a sound currency, and says he will send detailed measures to a special session of Congress. Recovery at home comes before world trade, and abroad the nation will be a good neighbor. Americans must move like a trained and loyal army, and he takes command of it. The Constitution can meet the crisis, he says, but if Congress does not act and the emergency remains, he will ask for broad executive power, as great as he would have if a foreign enemy invaded. He closes by saying the people have asked for direct, vigorous action, accepts the task, and asks God’s blessing.
The line of reasoning how the argument moves
- Opens with candor and courageParagraphs 1 and 2 promise the whole truth and then name fear itself as the thing to fear. Calming the audience comes first because a frightened nation cannot hear a plan.
- Names the damage, then limits itParagraphs 3 and 4 list the hardships plainly, but paragraph 3 insists they concern only material things. Admitting the damage earns trust; limiting it keeps hope alive.
- Places the blameParagraphs 5 to 9 argue that the country has plenty and that the fault lies with the ‘money changers’ and their values. Finding a cause outside the people lets Roosevelt call for moral renewal without scolding his listeners.
- Lays out the lines of attackParagraphs 10 to 15 turn from diagnosis to a program: jobs, farm prices, relief, banking supervision and a sound currency, with home recovery put ahead of world trade. The shift from blame to plan answers the demand for ‘action now’ in paragraph 9.
- Asks for disciplineParagraphs 16 to 18 move from the good neighbor abroad to a ‘trained and loyal army’ at home, and Roosevelt assumes its leadership. The metaphor prepares the audience for the power he is about to discuss.
- Claims the power to actParagraphs 19 to 26 praise the Constitution’s flexibility, warn that he may ask Congress for war-like executive power, and end with a pledge and a prayer. The boldest claim comes late, once trust and unity have been built.
The full text paragraphs numbered for citation
¶1President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends:
¶2This is a day of national consecration. And I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
¶3In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunk to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; and the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.
¶4More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
¶5And yet, our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
¶6True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They only know the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
¶7Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
¶8Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
¶9Recognition of that falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation is asking for action, and action now.
¶10Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.
¶11Hand in hand with that we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. Yes, the task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities that have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped by merely talking about it. We must act. We must act quickly.
¶12Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order: there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments. There must be an end to speculation with other people’s money; and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.
¶13These, my friends, are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress, in special session, detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the forty-eight States.
¶14Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.
¶15The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in and parts of the United States of America—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that recovery will endure.
¶16In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.
¶17If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we cannot merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress can be made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and our property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at the larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us, bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in times of armed strife.
¶18With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.
¶19Action in this image, action to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple, so practical, that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has ever seen. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.
¶20And, it is to be hoped that the normal balance of Executive and legislative authority may be wholly equal, wholly adequate, to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.
¶21I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken Nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.
¶22But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.
¶23For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.
¶24We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded, a permanent national life.
¶25We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift, I take it.
¶26In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.
Text: The address as delivered at the Capitol, March 4, 1933, from the American Presidency Project transcript made from film of the speech, checked against the FDR Library’s copies of the prepared text and against the recording.
Paragraph by paragraph what each part does
- 1
Paragraphs 1 to 2: A day of consecration
Roosevelt greets Hoover, the Chief Justice and his friends and calls the day one of national consecration. He promises to speak frankly, says the nation will endure and prosper, and states that the only thing to fear is fear itself. He asks for the support Americans have given frank leadership in past dark hours.
Why it mattersThe opening builds ethos through candor and replaces panic with a manageable enemy. Fear becomes the problem, which makes confidence something listeners can choose.
- 2
Paragraphs 3 to 4: The damage
Roosevelt says the nation’s difficulties concern only material things, then lists them: shrunken values, higher taxes, lost income, frozen trade, farmers without markets, vanished savings. Many citizens are unemployed and as many work for little return. Only a foolish optimist, he says, can deny the dark realities.
Why it mattersThe catalogue proves he is not hiding the truth. Calling the losses ‘only material’ shrinks them just enough to make recovery seem possible.
- 3
Paragraphs 5 to 9: The money changers
The country’s distress comes from no failure of substance: plenty is at the doorstep. The rulers of exchange failed through stubbornness and incompetence and have abdicated, and the money changers have fled the temple. Roosevelt calls for values nobler than profit, for honest banking and public office, and for action now.
Why it mattersBiblical allusion turns an economic collapse into a moral story with villains and a chance for renewal. The section ends by pivoting from ethics to action.
- 4
Paragraphs 10 to 15: The lines of attack
The greatest task is to put people to work, partly by direct government hiring treated like a war emergency. Roosevelt lists further steps, from farm prices and foreclosures to relief and utilities, and names safeguards for banking and currency. He will urge detailed measures on Congress in special session, and he puts recovery at home before world trade.
Why it mattersHere the speech becomes a program. The repeated ‘It can be helped’ and the blunt ‘We must act’ make the list sound urgent rather than technical.
- 5
Paragraphs 16 to 18: Neighbor and army
Abroad, the nation will follow the policy of the good neighbor who respects his obligations. At home, Americans must move as a trained and loyal army, ready to accept discipline for the larger good. Roosevelt assumes leadership of this great army of the people.
Why it mattersThe good neighbor reassures the world; the army metaphor asks Americans for the unity usually seen only in wartime and casts the president as their commander.
- 6
Paragraphs 19 to 22: The Constitution and emergency power
Roosevelt praises the Constitution as simple and practical enough to meet extraordinary needs. He hopes the normal balance of executive and legislative power will be enough, but warns that the emergency may call for a temporary departure. If Congress fails to act, he will ask for broad executive power to wage a war against the emergency.
Why it mattersRoosevelt frames his boldest claim inside constitutional language, which reassures listeners while making clear he will not wait.
- 7
Paragraphs 23 to 26: The pledge and the blessing
Roosevelt promises courage and devotion in return for the trust placed in him. The nation will face hard days in national unity and a sense of duty. The people have not failed; they have asked for direct, vigorous action, and he accepts the task. He closes by asking God’s blessing.
Why it mattersThe ending turns authority into service: the people gave him a mandate, and he receives it as a gift. The prayer places the whole program under a shared dedication.
Rhetorical choices what the writer does, and why it works
Paradox
In paragraph 2 ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself’ sounds like a contradiction but makes a practical point: panic, such as a run on the banks, can deepen the collapse it fears. The triple ‘nameless, unreasoning, unjustified’ then strips fear of any claim to reason.
Allusion to Scripture
The ‘money changers’ who have fled ‘the temple’ in paragraphs 5 and 7 recall Jesus driving the money changers from the temple in the Gospels. Paragraph 6 echoes Proverbs (‘when there is no vision the people perish’), and paragraph 8 echoes the Gospel phrase about ministering rather than being ministered unto. For a largely churchgoing audience, the allusions turn an economic crisis into a moral one.
Extended metaphor of war
Roosevelt treats job creation like ‘the emergency of a war’ in paragraph 10, calls his program ‘lines of attack’ in paragraph 13, asks Americans to move ‘as a trained and loyal army’ in paragraph 17, and speaks of a ‘war against the emergency’ in paragraph 22. The metaphor asks for wartime unity and prepares listeners for wartime powers.
Anaphora
Paragraph 11 opens four sentences in a row with ‘It can be helped’, then turns: ‘it can never be helped by merely talking about it. We must act. We must act quickly.’ The repetition piles up remedies, and the short closing sentences answer talk with action.
Catalogue
Paragraph 3 lists the damage in a string of short clauses divided by semicolons: values, taxes, income, trade, industry, farms, savings. Naming the losses one by one shows the audience that the new president sees what they see.
Direct address
Roosevelt calls his listeners ‘my friends’ in paragraphs 1, 8 and 13. All three are spoken additions: the prepared text has no salutation and lacks the phrase in paragraphs 8 and 13. The phrase softens a speech full of blame and command into a conversation among equals.
People & audiences
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Speaker
The new president, who presents himself as a frank leader in paragraph 2 and as the commander of a ‘great army of our people’ in paragraph 18.
President Hoover and the Chief Justice
Addressed in paragraph 1
The outgoing president, Herbert Hoover, and the Chief Justice, who had just given the oath. Roosevelt greets them and then turns to ‘my friends’.
The American people
Wider audience
The crowd and the radio audience. Paragraph 25 says they ‘have not failed’ and have registered a mandate for ‘direct, vigorous action’.
The money changers
Opponents
The ‘rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods’ of paragraph 5, blamed for stubbornness and incompetence. Roosevelt never names a person or a bank.
Congress
Audience and partner
The ‘new Congress’ Roosevelt will ask to meet in special session in paragraph 13, and the body he warns in paragraph 22 that he will seek broad power if it fails to act.
Big ideas in First Inaugural Address
Fear and confidence
The speech treats fear as the enemy that paralyzes action (paragraph 2) and treats confidence as something that grows only from honesty (paragraph 9). Recovery depends on belief as well as policy.
Money and moral values
Roosevelt argues that the crisis came from worshiping profit. Paragraph 8 finds happiness in ‘the joy of achievement’ rather than possession of money, and paragraph 9 demands an end to callous conduct in banking.
Action over talk
The word ‘action’ returns in paragraphs 9, 14, 19, 20 and 25, and paragraph 11 dismisses ‘merely talking’. The speech presents government action itself as the cure for despair.
Unity and discipline
Paragraph 17 asks Americans to be ‘willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline’ and to act with a unity usually seen only in war. Recovery is framed as a shared duty, not a private struggle.
Democracy under strain
Paragraphs 19 to 22 insist the Constitution can bend without breaking, yet admit that the emergency may require a ‘temporary departure’ from the normal balance of power. The speech asks listeners to trust both the system and the man.
Key images
The temple
In paragraph 7 the money changers have fled their ‘high seats in the temple of our civilization’. The temple stands for the nation’s shared values, which can now be cleansed and restored.
The army
The ‘trained and loyal army’ of paragraph 17 and the ‘great army of our people’ of paragraph 18 stand for a nation acting together under one command.
Repeated words and ideas
Action. From ‘action, and action now’ in paragraph 9 to ‘direct, vigorous action’ in paragraph 25, the word marks each turn of the argument and becomes the speech’s answer to fear.
Discipline. Paragraph 17 uses ‘discipline’ three times, paragraph 18 speaks of a ‘disciplined attack’, and paragraph 25 says the people ‘have asked for discipline and direction’. The repetition makes obedience sound like patriotism.
Tensions and counterarguments
Counterargument. The bankers’ answer to the crisis was to plead for ‘restored confidence’ (paragraph 6). Roosevelt replies in paragraph 9 that confidence ‘thrives only on honesty, on honor’, so it cannot be restored without reform.
Executive vs. Congress. Roosevelt hopes the normal balance of power will be enough (paragraph 20) but says he will seek broad executive power if Congress fails to act (paragraph 22). He presents the threat as duty, not ambition.
Key quotes
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
“Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.”
“Yes, the money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.”
“This Nation is asking for action, and action now.”
“Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.”
“broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”
The conclusion of First Inaugural Address, explained
The speech builds to its most striking claim in paragraph 22. If Congress fails to act and the emergency is still critical, Roosevelt will ask for ‘broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency’, as great as the power he would receive if the country were invaded. Everything before this point has prepared for it. Paragraph 10 compares the job crisis to a war, paragraph 13 calls the program ‘lines of attack’, and paragraphs 17 and 18 make the people an army with Roosevelt as its leader. By the time he mentions wartime power, the metaphor has done its work. He then softens the warning. Paragraph 23 turns power into service: ‘For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time.’ Paragraph 24 describes the hard days ahead in terms of unity, duty and ‘old and precious moral values’. Paragraph 25 makes the people the source of his authority. They ‘have not failed’, they have ‘registered a mandate’, and they have made him ‘the present instrument of their wishes’. The short sentence ‘In the spirit of the gift, I take it’ presents power as something received, not seized. The last paragraph asks God’s blessing on ‘this dedication of a Nation’, which echoes the ‘national consecration’ he announced in his first spoken sentence. The speech opens and closes on a sacred note, with a practical program and a claim to strong power in between.
Common misreadings
MythThe speech is mainly about fear.
ActuallyThe fear line comes in paragraph 2. Most of the address diagnoses the causes of the crisis (paragraphs 3 to 9) and sets out a program of action (paragraphs 10 to 22).
MythThe version in most books is exactly what Roosevelt said.
ActuallyMost printed versions give the prepared text. Roosevelt changed it as he spoke: he added the opening sentence ‘This is a day of national consecration’, added ‘my friends’ in several places, and said ‘We must act. We must act quickly.’ where the prepared text has ‘We must act and act quickly.’ This page prints the address as delivered.
MythRoosevelt blames ordinary Americans or says the country has run out of resources.
ActuallyParagraph 5 says the distress ‘comes from no failure of substance’ and that plenty is at the doorstep. He blames the ‘rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods’, and paragraph 25 says ‘The people of the United States have not failed.’
AP practice a rhetorical analysis prompt in the exam's style
Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, when the Great Depression had left millions unemployed and the banking system near collapse. Read the address carefully. Then write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Roosevelt makes to restore public confidence and win support for strong government action.
What a strong response notices
- The paradox of fearing ‘fear itself’ in paragraph 2, which turns panic into a problem listeners can control.
- The catalogue of hardships in paragraph 3, framed as ‘only material things’, which admits the damage without surrendering hope.
- The biblical ‘money changers’ and ‘temple’ of paragraphs 5 to 7, which place blame on financiers and cast recovery as moral renewal.
- The anaphora of ‘It can be helped’ in paragraph 11 and the short sentences ‘We must act. We must act quickly.’
- The war metaphor from paragraph 10 to paragraph 22, which prepares the audience to accept a request for emergency executive power.
Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Language free-response guide for how answers are scored.
Test yourself
1. According to paragraph 2, what is the only thing Americans have to fear?
Paragraph 2 says ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself’, a terror that paralyzes needed efforts.
2. What does Roosevelt say the nation’s distress does NOT come from?
Paragraph 5 says ‘our distress comes from no failure of substance’; plenty is at the doorstep.
3. Whom does Roosevelt call the ‘money changers’?
Paragraphs 5 to 7 blame the ‘rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods’ and call their practices those of ‘unscrupulous money changers’.
4. What does paragraph 10 name as the greatest primary task?
‘Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.’ Paragraph 14 places world trade second to recovery at home.
5. What will Roosevelt ask for if Congress fails to act and the emergency continues?
Paragraph 22 says he will ask Congress for ‘broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency’.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
In 1933 America was in the Great Depression. Banks were failing and millions of people had no jobs. On the day he became president, Franklin Roosevelt told people that being afraid would only make things worse. He said the country still had plenty of food and resources, and that greedy bankers had caused the mess. He promised to get people working and to put rules on banks. He said Americans should work together like an army. If Congress did not help quickly, he said, he would ask for extra power to fight the crisis.
Compare & connect
Pearl Harbor Address
Roosevelt’s other famous speech, eight years later. In 1933 he uses war as a metaphor for fighting the Depression; in 1941 he asks Congress to recognize a real war.
John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address
Another inaugural that asks citizens for sacrifice and shared effort. Kennedy looks mostly outward to the world, while Roosevelt puts ‘first things first’ and turns inward to recovery at home.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
An inaugural delivered in a national crisis that also leans on Scripture and moral judgment. Lincoln treats the crisis as God’s judgment on the nation; Roosevelt blames the money changers and says the people have not failed.
Discussion and essay prompts:
💬 Discussion questions
- What does the only thing we have to fear is fear itself mean
- What is the main purpose of FDR’s first inaugural address
- Who are the money changers in FDR’s first inaugural address
- How does First Inaugural Address explore the theme of fear and confidence?
- How does First Inaugural Address explore the theme of money and moral values?
- What is the central conflict in First Inaugural Address, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Franklin D. Roosevelt develops the theme of fear and confidence in First Inaugural Address. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of the temple in First Inaugural Address. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Franklin D. Roosevelt use paradox to shape the reader’s experience of First Inaugural Address?
- Some readers assume that the speech is mainly about fear. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What does the only thing we have to fear is fear itself mean
- What is the main purpose of FDR’s first inaugural address
- Who are the money changers in FDR’s first inaugural address
- What rhetorical devices does Roosevelt use in his first inaugural address
- What did FDR promise to do in his first inaugural address
- How is the delivered version of FDR’s first inaugural different from the printed text
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The full text and quotations follow the address as Roosevelt delivered it at the Capitol on March 4, 1933, from the American Presidency Project’s transcript made from film of the speech, checked against the audio recording; printed versions, including the collected Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, give the prepared text instead. As a work of the United States government, the address is in the public domain.