Roosevelt History Month, 1996

Proclamation 6928 of October 4, 1996

Roosevelt History Month, 1996

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The Roosevelt family has uniquely influenced the
direction and quality of life in America for the last
century. With two enormously successful Presidents,
Teddy and FDR, and a precedent-setting First Lady,
Eleanor, the Roosevelt family has left a lasting legacy
of exemplary leadership and public service to our
Nation.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt established our
country's first National Wildlife Refuge. Thanks to his
vision and determination, America today enjoys the
natural treasures preserved in the largest and most
varied conservation system in the world. From 1933 to
1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with the
support of his wife, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, guided the
United States through two of the gravest crises of the
20th century: the Great Depression and World War II.
Universally recognized as one of the greatest American
Presidents, FDR stands as a symbol of the greatness of
our Nation itself. Eleanor Roosevelt, his lifelong
companion and dearest friend, transformed the role of
the First Lady, traveling the country as an advocate
for the poor, the disenfranchised, and the
disadvantaged.

Together, their partnership redefined the modern First
Family, combining a broad concern for all Americans
with a strong sense of the dignity and history of the
Presidency. In a time of acute national anxiety, FDR
promised Americans ``a leadership of frankness and
vigor.'' He recognized that government had to be
responsive to the needs of its people and that the
Presidency is not merely an executive office but also a
position of moral leadership. President Roosevelt moved
Americans toward hope, through perseverance and faith
in themselves. He spoke directly to average Americans,
not only through his fireside chats on radio, but also
through his insistence on honesty and justice.

He fought for fairness in government, working to
establish Federal programs that met the needs of his
time: a welcome job for an idle but eager worker; a
government loan to help a family avoid foreclosure; and
a retirement income system that still serves working
Americans nearly 60 years later. These achievements
were steps on the road to FDR's dream of establishing a
government that would serve as a model for the world.

In Franklin Roosevelt's view, government should be the
perfect public system for fostering and protecting the
``Four Freedoms'' he enumerated when he addressed the
Congress in January 1941. Intended as a rallying cry
against the economic and military specters that had
swept the globe during the previous decade, this speech
recognized four essential freedoms: freedom of speech
and expression; freedom of every person to worship God
in his own way; freedom from want; and freedom from
fear. Roosevelt made it clear that he enumerated these
freedoms not as abstract ideals but as goals toward
which Americans--and caring people everywhere--could
direct their most strenuous public efforts.

Millions of people around the world remember with
gratitude his determined leadership as the successful
Commander in Chief of America's Armed Forces during
this century's most terrible war. It is difficult to
imagine any individual other than Franklin Roosevelt
who would have been able to oversee

the war effort--not only beating back the spreading
stain of totalitarianism by achieving decisive military
victories, but also adroitly maintaining unity among
our allies. As the world moved under a deepening shadow
of violence and terror, FDR displayed an unwavering
personal character and resolve that inspired faith
among the American people.

And even though FDR did not survive to witness the end
of the war he helped so much to win, he nonetheless
knew he had set our country's sights in the right
direction by dedicating his public career to a safer,
stronger America--citizens living and working together
in a community of fairness, harmony, and peace. As the
final words of his Four Freedoms speech expressed: ``To
that high concept there can be no end save victory.''

After her husband's death, Eleanor Roosevelt continued
the vigorous advocacy work she and FDR had begun in the
White House, serving on the United States Delegation to
the United Nations, acting as Chairperson of the Human
Rights Commission during the drafting of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the U.N. in
1948, working as a member of the National Advisory
Committee of the Peace Corps for President Kennedy, and
finally serving as Chair of President Kennedy's
Commission on the Status of Women. By the time of her
death in 1962, she had earned the unofficial title of
First Lady of the World, reaffirming the virtues to
which she and her husband had dedicated their lives.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim October 1996 as Roosevelt
History Month. I call upon government officials,
educators, labor leaders, employers, and the people of
the United States to observe this month with
appropriate programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
first.