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Excerpt from "Second Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Wednesday, January 20, 1937"

Reprinted from The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Volume Two, 1937
Published in 1941

"I see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a great wealth of natural resources. Its … people are at peace among themselves; they are making their country a good neighbor among the nations."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In his "Second Inaugural Address," delivered on January 20, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt reminded Americans how "a new chapter in our book of self-government" was written during his first term of office. Instead of leaving solutions for the economic crisis to the "winds of chance and the hurricanes of disaster," Roosevelt chose to put the federal government at the forefront of the war on the...