Franklin Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered this address on March 4, 1933.

« such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective.

We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, becauseit makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good.

This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation witha unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife. With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems. Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors.

Our Constitution is so simple and practicalthat it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form.

That is why our constitutional systemhas proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced.

It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreignwars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations. It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us.

But it may be thatan unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure. I 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 suchother measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption. But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clearcourse 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 againstthe emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe. For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time.

I can do no less. We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with theclean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike.

We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life. We 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 wantdirect, 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 thegift I take it. In 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. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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