It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us.  But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require.  These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me.  I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—­broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time.  I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike.  We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy.  The people of the United States have not failed.  In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action.  They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership.  They have made me the present instrument of their wishes.  In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God.  May He protect each and every one of us.  May He guide me in the days to come.

***

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Second Inaugural Address
Wednesday, January 20, 1937

When four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here.  We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision—­to speed the time when there would be for all the people that security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness.  We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to end by action, tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and despair of that day.  We did those first things first.

Our covenant with ourselves did not stop there.  Instinctively we recognized a deeper need—­the need to find through government the instrument of our united purpose to solve for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex civilization.  Repeated attempts at their solution without the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered.  For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those moral controls over the services of science which are necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a ruthless master of mankind.  To do this we knew that we must find practical controls over blind economic forces and blindly selfish men.