Franklin Delano Roosevelt - the Early Years

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is considered one of America’s greatest Presidents. He would serve as president for 12 years more then any other president. He would see the nation through the great depression with his New Deal. He would also get the Nation in to and almost out of World War II. He would be responsible for the creation of the United Nations. Roosevelt’s early years and first three terms as president would be some of the finest political work in the 20th century.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York on January 30, 1882. He was the only child to his parents James and Sara Ann Roosevelt. His parents were both wealthy, most of which came for family heritance. Franklin’s father was vice president of the Delaware and Hudson Railway. His mother would be the biggest influence on his early childhood with her strict rules and schedules.

Franklin’s parents would give him the best education. They would start by taking him on trips to Europe. Private tutors would teach him until he was fourteen. He would learn to speak German and French. At fourteen he would attend the boarding school Groton near Boston. In 1900 he graduated and went on to Harvard University. Wile at Harvard he majored in History and was secretary of the freshmen glee club. He also was editor for the school newspaper in 1903 the Harvard Crimson. He would graduate and go on to Columbia law school. Wile there he would pass the bar exam and end his education there. In 1808 he would work for a Wall Street firm as a clerk for the next three years.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt. The two knew each other from childhood but would start dating at Harvard. They got engaged in 1903 with large resistance from Franklin’s mother Sara Roosevelt who won’t to be his only women in his life. Despite Franklin’s mother the two got married on March 17,2006. The two were give a house by Sara Roosevelt. Sara furnished the house for them also. She would be a very frequent guest despite Eleanor. Franklin was a social man and Eleanor was shy and did not wont a social life. Eleanor stayed home a raised there six children. They are Anna Eleanor, James, Franklin Delano Jr. who died in infancy, Elliott, Franklin Delano Jr., and John. Two of them would be in the House of Representatives. Roosevelt would have brief affair with Lucy Mercer Eleanor’s social secretary. The marriage would survive but Eleanor would keep a separate house.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Democrat. He was a Democrat because his father was. He was nominated to run for New York State Senate in 1910. He ran from the district around Hyde Park in which Republicans had controlled for 50 years. With his name and money he would win. He was 29 years old when he entered the senate. He did this at a time when senators were chosen by the legislature. He opposed big city bosses and would try keeping them out of the senate. He would be up against Manhattan’s Tammany Hall machine the dominated group of democrats in the senate. This would make him popular among democrats.

In the 1912 presidential election Roosevelt supported the Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson would win. In 1914 Roosevelt lost the democratic nomination to the United States Senate James Gerard who was backed by the Tammany Hall machine. Roosevelt would go on to be the assistant secretary of the navy under the Wilson administration. He worked for Josephus Daniels the secretary of the navy who would teach about working with Congress. Roosevelt would create the United States Navy Reserves. In 1915 after Wilson sent in the Navy and Marines into Haiti Roosevelt would write most of their constitution. Roosevelt would be known as the go to guy in the Navy to get thing done. He was a supporter of the submarine during World War I. He would be in charge of constructing a mine bridge in the North Sea. He toured France and Britain in 1918 where he would meet Winston Churchill for the first time. After World War I Roosevelt would have to dismantle the Navy.

In the election of 1920 Governor James Cox of Ohio ran for President. Roosevelt ran with him as vice president. This was so that the ticket had running mates would be from different part of the country. Their platform was that the United States should be in the League of Nation. They were up against Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio and Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts. Harding and Coolidge easily defeated Cox and Roosevelt. In 1920 Roosevelt run the New York branch of the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland a surety bonding firm.

In August 1921 Roosevelt would be vacationing on Campobello Island, off New Brunswick Canada. He fell from a friend’s boat into cold water. It was three day after and Roosevelt had a fever and ached all over. The doctor thought it was a large cool but it would worsen to the point were