Transcript: Chapter 12

Narrator: When it was over, Roosevelt had won a smashing victory.

William Leuchtenburg, Historian: By midnight, the country already knew that Franklin Roosevelt was the winner and a very large winner. One man sent Herbert Hoover a wire, saying, "Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous."

President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt (archival): Let me thank you again and tell you that I hope to see you all very soon and bid you an affectionate good night.

Narrator: "I was happy for my husband," Eleanor later wrote. "I knew that it would make up for the blow that fate had dealt him when he was stricken with infantile paralysis. But for myself, I was deeply troubled. This meant the end of any personal life of my own. The turmoil in my heart and mind was rather great that night."

It would be four months before Roosevelt would take office, the worst months yet of the Depression. Five thousand banks closed. Each month, 20,000 farmers lost their land. The economy had collapsed. Americans everywhere waited for the president-elect to tell them what he was going to do, but Roosevelt gave no clues.

William Leuchtenburg: At one point, reporters asked him a question and he simply holds up his finger and goes, "Shh." He will not be drawn out.

Narrator: One month before the inauguration, Roosevelt went cruising in the Caribbean with his wealthy friends on Vincent Astor's yacht, the biggest and fastest ocean-going motor yacht ever built. During the campaign, he had promised what he called "a new deal for the forgotten man," but as yet he had said nothing about what that new deal might be.

Meanwhile, Eleanor was expected to give up her teaching and writing to become the nation's first lady.

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady (archival): To get together -- and you are here -- and forget that there is such a thing as a Depression for a time and forget all the troubles that weigh us down and simply sing is a grand thing to do.

Narrator: On March 2, 1993, with the Roosevelts on board, the Baltimore and Ohio train headed toward Washington. In two days, Franklin Roosevelt would become the 32nd president of the United States. Eleanor sat quietly by herself. She feared she was about to lose her hard-won independence. "I never wanted to be a president's wife," she said, "and I don't want it now."

The president-elect's mother Sarah was, as always, confident in her boy. "I am not in the least worried about Franklin," she told a friend.

In the last car, Franklin Roosevelt sat alone. "In all the years I knew him," his son James wrote, "there was only one time when Father worried about his ability. It was the night he was elected president. 'You know, Jimmy,' he said to me, 'all my life, I have been afraid of only one thing, fire. Tonight I think I'm afraid of something else.' 'Afraid of what, Father?' I asked. 'I'm afraid that I may not have the strength to do the job.'"

On March 4, 1933, a man who could not walk would begin to lead the crippled country.

President Franklin Roosevelt (archival): 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.

back to top