The 1936 Madison Square Garden speech was a speech given by U.S. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

on October 31, 1936, three days before that year's

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

. In the speech, Roosevelt pledged to continue the New Deal and criticized those who, in his view, were putting personal gain and politics over national economic recovery from the Great Depression. The speech was Roosevelt's last campaign speech before the election.

Synopsis

Roosevelt had to wait around 15 minutes for the enthusiastic crowd at Madison Square Garden to calm down before commencing his speech. Most of the speech outlined Roosevelt's economic policies. He reviewed some of the successes from his first term in the presidency, and explained how he saw critics and opponents of the New Deal as hampering economic recovery, especially to the detriment of working-class people. In expressing how strongly his administration would continue to promote New Deal policies, he paraphrased

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

, stating that "we have only just begun to fight." With

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

a few years away, Roosevelt expressed his desire for peace at home and abroad in the face of "war and rumor of war." Perhaps the most memorable line of the speech came when Roosevelt described forces which he labeled "the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism,

war profiteering A war profiteer is any person or organization that derives profit from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term typically carries strong negative connotations. General profiteering, making a profit criticized a ...

." He went on to claim that these forces were united against his candidacy; that "They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred."

Analysis

Roosevelt was able to state his goals so plainly because of his strong electoral position. His strong rhetoric, such as his suggestions that he would "master" the "forces" against him, worried some of his business supporters and the elements of the American business community that backed the Democratic Party and the New Deal. Nevertheless, Democrats held large majorities in both houses of Congress, and Roosevelt would go on to win the

held three days later, in one of the greatest blowout elections in American history. While some contemporary forecasts of the election predicted a much closer contest, most opinion polls pointed to victories in the popular vote and the Electoral College for Roosevelt. The speech has been called by some historical observers a moment when Roosevelt "abandoned the characteristic balance of his addresses and focused his feelings in a stinging attack."

Legacy

The Madison Square Garden speech is regarded as a powerful expression of

American liberalism Liberalism in the United States is a political and moral philosophy based on concepts of unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the separation of ch ...

. Historian Kenneth S. Davis called the speech "one of the great political speeches in American history." Political analysts have compared the straightforwardness of Roosevelt's rhetoric, such as the "I welcome their hatred" comment, with the relative timidity of later politicians, such as

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

; psychologist

Drew Westen Drew Westen is professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; the founder of Westen Strategies, LLC, a strategic messaging consulting firm to nonprofits and political organizations; and a writer ...

made such an argument in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Historians, however, have pointed out that Roosevelt delivered the speech in much more favorable political conditions than later politicians have had to face.

References

External links

Full text of the speech
from the American Presidency Project
Audio excerpt from the speechAudio of the entire speech
{{Authority control 1936 in American politics 1936 in New York City 1936 speeches Madison Square Garden Speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936 United States presidential election