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associated with the Department of History of The George Washington University
Address to the 1940 Democratic Convention*
Eleanor Roosevelt
July 18, 1940
Delegates to the convention, visitors, friends: It is a great pleasure for me to be here and to have
an opportunity to say a word to you.
First of all, I think I want to say a word to our National Chairman, James A. Farley. For
many years I have worked under Jim Farley and with Jim Farley, and I think nobody could
appreciate more what he has done for the party, what he has given in work and loyalty. And I
want to give him here my thanks and devotion.
And now, I think that I should say to you that I cannot possibly bring you a message from
the President because he will give you his own message. But, as I am here, I want you to know
that no one could not be conscious of the confidence which you have expressed in him.
I know and you know that any man who is in an office of great responsibility today faces
a heavier responsibility, perhaps, than any man has ever faced before in this country. Therefore,
to be a candidate of either great political party is a very serious and solemn thing.
You cannot treat it as you would treat an ordinary nomination in an ordinary time. We
people in the United States have got to realize today that we face a grave and serious situation.
Therefore, this year the candidate who is the President of the United States cannot make a
campaign in the usual sense of the word. He must be on his job.
So each and every one of you who give him this responsibility, in giving it to him assume
for yourselves a very grave responsibility because you will make the campaign. You will have
to rise above considerations which are narrow and partisan.
You must know that this is the time when all good men and women give every bit of
service and strength to their country that they have to give. This is the time when it is the United
States that we fight for, the domestic policies that we have established as a party that we must
believe in, that we must carry forward, and in the world we have a position of great
responsibility.
We cannot tell from day to day what may come. This is no ordinary time. No time for
weighing anything except what we can do best for the country as a whole, and that responsibility
rests on each and every one of us as individuals.
No man who is a candidate or who is President can carry this situation alone. This is
only carried by a united people who love their country and who will live for it to the fullest of
their ability, with the highest ideals, with a determination that their party shall be absolutley
devoted to the good of the nation as a whole and to doing what this country can to bring the
world to a safer and happier condition.
* As reported in The New York Times,
July 19, 1940