Franklin D. Roosevelt on United States
← Back to Franklin D. Roosevelt ProfileSpeaking to the DAR in 1938, FDR subtly challenged their nativism by reminding them of their shared immigrant and revolutionary ancestry, a sentiment often simplified to "my fellow immigrants."
“Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
“We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions, bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion.”
“Faith in America, faith in our tradition of personal responsibility, faith in our institutions, faith in ourselves demands that we recognize the new terms of the old social contract. We shall fulfill them, as we fulfilled the obligation of the apparent Utopia which Jefferson imagined for us in 1776, and which Jefferson, Roosevelt and Wilson sought to bring to realization. We must do so, lest a rising tide of misery engendered by our common failure, engulf us all. But failure is not an American habit; and in the strength of great hope we must all shoulder our common load.”