Franklin Delano Roosevelt A Man of the Century

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world wars. Both were Harvard graduates and, most significantly, both were members of the Century Association. On September 7, 1923, FDR as a new Centurion agreed to write a letter in support of the nomination of Minot Simons, the pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church, the church where FDR’s parents were married in 1880. But then, on December 15, 1923, Franklin Roosevelt writes the Board of the Century an abrupt and clearly painful letter. He feels obliged to resign. “I am doing this only because I am spending most of my time in the country at present and feel that I cannot avail myself of the privileges of the Association for some time to come.” FDR’s life had been transformed by debilitating illness. In August 1921, at the age of 39, Franklin Roosevelt had been stricken by infantile paralysis. It was an ordeal that many believe gave him the courage and character to become a great president but the path to recovery was a tortured one with many crises of despair and anguish. He suffered acute pain for many weeks. There was considerable question whether he would ever be able to sit up again. In 1923 he chartered a houseboat and spent weeks cruising in Florida, swimming in the warm water that relieved pain and gave him hope for his weakened legs. The expenses and the strain of the extended convalescence mounted. He was confident that he could learn to walk again. It became the focus of his life. His forays into public places were carefully planned. The magnificent deception had begun that kept his significant disability a personal, private matter. Two-thirds of his personal fortune went into establishing the Warm Springs Foundation in Georgia. He transformed it into a major treatment center for polio victims. He created an enterprise that is today one of the most successful rehabilitation centers in the country. In 1924, Governor Alfred E. Smith asked FDR to nominate him for president at the Democratic national convention in New York City. On the arm of his son FDR, with his legs firm in locked braces, holding a cane in his other hand, advanced slowly without crutches to the podium in Madison Square Garden. It was a moment that no one who saw it would ever forget. His palpable courage, his lyrical eloquence, his magnificent voice, 4
ought the delegates to their feet – and at that moment Franklin Roosevelt resumed a national political career. Seven years after his polio attack Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York. As Frank Freidel, one of the important Roosevelt biographers has written, Roosevelt had perfected so effective an illusion of his strength and wellbeing that most Americans never realized until after his death that he was, in fact, a paraplegic. On December 17, 1923, in response to FDR’s letter of resignation, the Secretary of the Century, A.D. Noyes, wrote him a personal note expressing the hope that he would reconsider his action. He obviously did reconsider because on June 5, 1924, with Elihu Root, Theodore Roosevelt’s Secretary of War and Secretary of State, presiding, the Board of Management passed the motion acceding to Franklin Roosevelt’s request “for transfer from the resident to the non-resident list…” And so the squire of Hyde Park, the farmer from Dutchess County, and, of course, the future Governor of the State of New York and President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt continued as a non-resident member of the Century Association. Before the Board of Management had acted, FDR had been asked to write a supporting letter for the candidacy of George Martin who had been nominated by Mr. Burlingham. In a reply, written from his houseboat in Florida on March 17, 1924, FDR indicated that he had resigned from the Club and therefore should not and could not write such a letter. Once he was secure in his status as a non-resident member, however, and especially when he became Governor of New York in 1929, FDR was frequently asked to write letters supporting proposed candidates. A gentleman named H. Morton Merriman, a neighbor of FDR’s on Campobello Island, was such a candidate. Archibald Douglas wrote FDR asking for the supporting letter saying that “I know that such a letter will go very far toward insuring Mr. Merriman’s election.” For unstated reasons Merriman’s name was held up by the Admissions Committee. Governor Roosevelt had written a letter in his support but it was a pro forma letter, still unconvincing as one reads it these many years later. Archibald Douglas asked him to write again for fear that Merriman would be passed over. Roosevelt did write a more extensive letter, leaving out his earlier point that Mr. Merriman was head of an important silk company, concentrating instead 5
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt A Man of the Century

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