FDR's last words: "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

David_Snowball

April 13 is Jefferson Day, so declared by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938. Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. He is, for all the painful ambiguities of his life and legacy, one of the three faces that every national politician dreams of seeing in the mirror in the morning. (Yes, I know, narcissists have a different dream.)

Roosevelt wrote his 1945 Jefferson Day speech on April 12, declared it done, sat for a portrait and settled in to lunch. Before he could eat, he suffered a stroke and collapsed. By day's end, a presidency that stretched 4423 days had also ended. His speech was never delivered, but is available to us.

As he wrote it, he could see that light at the end of the tunnel: "The once powerful, malignant Nazi state is crumbling" and the Japanese homeland was being pounded. His attention seemed to be turning to the future, to rallying Americans from the temptation to withdraw in exhaustion and disgust.

We must go on to do all in our power to conquer the doubts and the fears, the ignorance and the greed, which made this horror possible.

Thomas Jefferson, himself a distinguished scientist, once spoke of "the brotherly spirit of Science, which unites into one family all its votaries of whatever grade, and however widely dispersed throughout the different quarters of the globe."

Today, science has brought all the different quarters of the globe so close together that it is impossible to isolate them one from another.

Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together, in the same world, at peace.

Let me assure you that my hand is the steadier for the work that is to be done, that I move more firmly into the task, knowing that you—millions and millions of you—are joined with me in the resolve to make this work endure.

The work, my friends, is peace. More than an end of this war —an end to the beginnings of all wars. Yes, an end, forever, to this impractical, unrealistic settlement of the differences between governments by the mass killing of peoples.

Today, as we move against the terrible scourge of war—as we go forward toward the greatest contribution that any generation of human beings can make in this world- the contribution of lasting peace, I ask you to keep up your faith. I measure the sound, solid achievement that can be made at this time by the straight edge of your own confidence and your resolve. And to you, and to all Americans who dedicate themselves with us to the making of an abiding peace, I say:

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.

Some thoughts can't be fit in a tweet and yet, 75 years on, remain evergreen.

Cheers, dear friends.

David

Crash

Thank you, David.

Old_Joe

First time for that, David. Thanks.

sma3

Excellent post , sir. I think we forget, under the constant barrage of tweets from a much much less competent and humane successor, how many remarkable men this country has elected to the Oval Office. A visit to Hyde Park last summer brought it all home again.

May we soon see his like again in the President's chair

BenWP

Thanks for this, David. I must admit that Jefferson tripped me up with the term "votaries," sending me to an online dictionary. A "votary" is one who takes vows or who is an adherent of someone or something (in the event readers are curious). Reading Jefferson's biography led me to puzzle as to how he could learn Greek and Latin so well with little formal schooling. I know his French became so good that a former French lit professor of mine told me he had stumbled on letters in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris that Jefferson had written. He said the French was exemplary.

Old_Joe

Imagine how this country would have evolved if our first half-dozen presidents had been of the caliber of our current president.

Derf

&Old_Joe: YES, good thing Twitter wasn't around !! LOL
Derf

Crash

Yes, indeed! +1.