January 20, 1945, 80 years ago: For the 4th time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States. For the 1st time, an official Inauguration ceremony is held at the White House, instead of the Capitol Building.
The most important traditions were held. Outgoing Vice President Henry A. Wallace, as was then traditional, swore in his replacement, former Senator Harry S Truman of Missouri, who then gave a short speech. From 1949 onward, Vice Presidents have usually been sworn in by an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1973 onward, they have not given their own Inaugural Addresses.
Then, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Harlan Stone, asked FDR to repeat the Oath of Office, which he did, with a voice considerably weaker than just 4 years earlier: "I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me, God." And then, he delivered an Inaugural Address.
It would not be like his 1st, on March 4, 1933. The country's economy was then on the brink of absolute collapse. There was no need for him to ask Congress for "action, and action now!" There was no need for him to tell the American people, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!" Thanks to his leadership and the actions of Congress, the American economy was now as strong as ever.
It would not be like his 2nd, on January 20, 1937. He had addressed the need for further work to alleviate the Depression, saying, "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." Additional "New Deal" programs had lowered that percentage.
It would not be like his 3rd, on January 20, 1941. The threat of America being dragged into World War II loomed overhead, and no one knew what the result would be. He called on Americans to face the threats of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: "There are men who believe that democracy, as a form of government and a frame of life, is limited or measured by a kind of mystical and artificial fate that, for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future, and that freedom is an ebbing tide. But we Americans know that this is not true."
On this 4th Inauguration Day for him, FDR had seen America enter that war, and make great progress in it. He knew that the war could be won in this new calendar year. He also knew his own health, as he approached his 63rd birthday, was precarious: His constant smoking had given him heart disease, and that and the pressures of the war had given him unacceptably high blood pressure. It was now a race as to whether he would see the end of the war, and begin to implement the plans he already had for after the victory, at home and abroad.
Due to his health, FDR asked that the ceremony be held on the South Portico of the White House, not at the Capitol; and that the traditional Inaugural Parade and Inaugural Balls be canceled. And guests were limited to wounded personnel who had returned from serving.
Due to these conditions, and those of the weather -- it was 36 degrees, and there was snow on the ground -- he kept the speech short. His 1st 3 Inaugural Addresses had been 1,880, 1,808 and 1,359 words, respectively, in no case particularly long. (The 3 previous Republican Presidents, even the famously taciturn Calvin Coolidge, had each spoken over 3,300 words.) This speech lasted just 559 words, the shortest ever except for George Washington's 135 words of 1793. It lasted just 6 minutes:
Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends: You will understand and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this Inauguration be simple, and its words brief.
We Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a period of supreme test. It is a test of our courage, of our resolve, of our wisdom, our essential democracy. If we meet that test, successfully and honorably, we shall perform a service of historic importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time.
As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen, in the presence of our God, I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail.
In the days and in the years that are to come, we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war. We can and we will achieve such a peace.
We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately, but we still shall strive. We may make mistakes, but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.
I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said, in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled: "Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights. Then, all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend."
Our Constitution of 1787 was not a perfect instrument. It is not perfect yet. But it provided a firm base upon which all manner of men, of all races and colors and creeds, could build our solid structure of democracy.
And so today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons, at a fearful cost, and we shall profit by them. We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.
We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that, "The only way to have a friend is to be one." We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from conviction.
The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.
So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly, to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men, to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.
Just 82 days later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was dead. Just 18 days after that, so was Adolf Hitler. Just 8 days after that, the Nazis surrendered. And 98 days after that, Japan surrendered. World War II was over.
To borrow an analogy that would later be used by Martin Luther King Jr.: FDR had been to the mountaintop, and had seen the Promised Land, knew he wouldn't get there with us, but also knew that we, as a people, would get there.
In 1947, Congress approved the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, limiting the President to 2 terms. In 1951, enough States ratified it to make it official.
Since 1945, every intentional Inauguration ceremony has been held at the Capitol. Unforeseen circumstances have required 2 Presidents to be sworn in during a predecessor's term: In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One; and in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal, and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in at the White House, indoors in the East Room.
On January 20, 2025, the Inauguration is being properly held at the Capitol -- although, due to cold weather, it is, like Ronald Reagan's 2nd Inauguration in 1985, being held inside, in the Rotunda.
Of course, the President taking the Oath has proven once before that he doesn't mean it. He is the kind of man Franklin Roosevelt would have opposed with everything he had. On March 15, 1941, he attended the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, and said, "They seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new, and it is not order."
Donald Trump, born 304 days after V-J Day, talks about wanting law and order. He despises the law, and what he offers is far from order.
FDR told us the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. DJT offers us nothing but fear. But, as FDR taught us, under very different circumstances, "This great nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper."
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