SOURCE: "Roosevelt's First Inaugural: A Study of Technique," in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 65, No. 2, April, 1979, pp. 137-49.

In the following essay, Ryan analyzes the rhetorical technique of Roosevelt's first inaugural address.

Historian David Potter's observation that, by historical hindsight, the critic might not perceive events as contemporaries comprehended them¹ is germane to a study of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address. Although Roosevelt had large majorities in the Congress, he could not know the "Hundred Days" legislation would pass without Congressional demurral or difficulty. To assume that FDR knew of his forthcoming legislative successes when he fashioned his first inaugural is mistaken, and such an assumption causes the critics to miss some valuable insights concerning FDR and his speech.

FDR's first inaugural is one of his best known and most important speeches. If for no other reason, it was a significant speech because FDR believed it...