Franklin Roosevelt
Fifth Cousin of a First Class Temperament

Despite what you might read, the best approval rating of any US President - at least since the polls have been taken - is that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His average approval was 73 % and never dipped more than 7 % from that value.

These rankings, though, began in 1941. So by that time the Great Depression was over, and Franklin's top rating was 83 %. There were, of course, presidents who had momentary approval ratings higher than Franklin's best. But if you go by the overall poll numbers, no one has really done better than Franklin.

Franklin, we also have to admit, had good press. Not just that he had good stories written about him but the reporters liked him personally. And it's no coincidence that presidents who have gone out of their way to cultivate good feelings with the media are popular presidents. Nor is it coincidence that the popular presidents are also rated historically as great presidents - even if they really did a rotten a job.

But we don't want to belittle Franklin's undoubted courage and resilience. He had just finished serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson and had returned to private life when he was struck with polio. Unable to walk for the rest of his life, he usually got around in a wheelchair. He designed the wheelchair from an ordinary kitchen chair because he didn't like the idea of being wheeled around like an "invalid". Swimming also helped Franklin build up and strengthen in his torso and arms.

Despite his handicap, Franklin returned to politics and was elected governor of New York in 1928. The election of a handicapped candidate is a testament to both Franklin's fortitude and the open-mindedness of the voters.

And we must add a testament to what was a far less visual age. Photographs and particularly films were quite sparse compared to today. Life Magazine only started publication in 1938, and with no television available, public figures were seen only on newsreels. Even well into the 1960's, the panelists on What's My Line and To Tell the Truth did not always have to be blindfolded when some celebrities appeared. The celebrities with the unknown faces included Sir Edmund Hillary (who had scaled Mount Everest a few years before), Jacques Cousteau (even then world famous for his underwater explorations and invention of the aqualung), and Arnold Palmer (who had just won his first Masters Tournament). When Franklin was photographed, he was rarely in his wheelchair.

Franklin's election as governor was also the year that Calvin Coolidge choose not to run for president. That left Herbert Hoover holding the bag for the Great Depression. "Hoover Prosperity" became a snide remark for the times and Franklin was easily elected president in 1932. Refuting Herbert's policies that the Depression was a temporary problem that would soon be over, Franklin said it was the result of serious flaws in America's economic system. He began a number of programs famous for their initials and which were lumped together as "The New Deal".

OK. Did the New Deal help end the Depression? Well, we need to remember the story told by Vance Randolph in his iconic and masterful book Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales.

A farmer was having digestive problems which produced effects that were driving his family out of their home. His wife told him to go to the doctor.

The doctor asked if the gentleman could give him an example of the problem and as soon as the doctor stopped gagging he exclaimed:

"My God! Something must have crawled up inside you and died!"

"Do this right away!" he said. "Go home and eat a big dish of raw onions with ground garlic and wild ramps for dinner, and drink two pints of beer. Then before you go to bed eat a half pound of Limburger cheese."

"Do you reckon all that will cure me?" the farmer asked.

"No, I don't think it will cure you," the doctor admitted. "But it might help some."

And certainly the New Deal did help some.

The New Deal created government progrmas that provided jobs to people as varied as bricklayers to writers. And if nothing else the programs showed the government was making an effort. Some of those who lived through the Depression believed Franklin and his policies, whether truly effective or not, prevented a revolution.

In the end, though, the Great Depression extended from 1930 to about 1940 (1938 was almost as grim a year as 1934). It only really ended when the country began ramping up for World War II. It would be interesting and instructive if we had presidential approval ratings in those years, but we don't. On the other hand when Franklin was re-elected in 1936 - in the midst of the Depression, he was returned with 60 % of the vote. Certainly not a bad rating.

Franklin's popularity might have been helped a bit since the years of 1933 - 1945, when Franklin was president, were also the times when the press didn't delve deeply into a person's private life. True, Franklin had a few peccadilloes, but at the time family values were not much of a political issue. Of course, a candidate's private life became an issue only when the politicians made it so. When you trash your opponent because he doesn't live the life of Ozzie Nelson (whoever he was) you are in effect throwing down the gauntlet for others to dig up dirt on yourself. Today many reporters are happy to oblige.

Although Franklin went to the fancy private Groton School and then to Harvard and Columbia, he was only a so-so student. Some will grump that this just shows us how scions of wealthy and influential families get preferential treatment in educational institutions. Maybe Franklin's lackluster performance in school is what prompted Oliver Wendell Holmes to say Franklin had a second class intellect but a first class temperament.

Well maybe, and if indeed he said it. The usual source of the quote is a story told by one of Oliver's former Supreme Court clerks, Thomas Corcoran. Thomas was present when Franklin, then newly elected as president, paid a visit to Oliver who was then 92 and retired.

After Franklin left, Oliver turned to Thomas and mentioned that it was Franklin's uncle, Theodore Roosevelt, who had appointed him to the high court. Then Oliver commented "A second class intellect, first class temperament".

The quote, then, is most likely a reference to Teddy, not Franklin. But people have still stuck that label on Franklin, and it's even appeared in the title of one of Franklin's biographies.

Although Oliver (reportedly) said that Teddy was Franklin's uncle, actually Teddy was Franklin's fifth cousin. They shared a common great-great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Roosevelt, and early New York politician. As Eleanor was the daughter of Teddy's brother, Elliott, that means she and Franklin were also fifth cousins, but once removed.

Although Teddy gave away the bride when Eleanor and Franklin got married in 1905, the two branches of the Roosevelt family didn't really get on that well - politically or personally. Alice - Teddy's hottie but rather catty daughter - didn't like Eleanor at all, sometimes imitating her cousin's noticeable malocclusion. By the time the 1930's rolled in, the Democrat and the Republican/Bull Moose Roosevelts were not on speaking terms.

Once Lowell Thomas arranged to have a Roosevelt imitator named Billy Van driven onto the field during one of the famous baseball games held at the Thomas home in Pawling, New York. Alice's brother, Teddy Roosevelt, Jr., was at bat when he saw someone who looked like Franklin - then president - being chauffeured onto the field. Ted, Jr., knew he couldn't simply ignore the current President whatever he personally felt. But then Lowell whispered the "President's" true identity. Teddy played along and jumped on the running board to shake "Franklin's" hand. The papers ran the photo showing the reconciliation of the two Roosevelt branches.

Lowell's ball games became a national institution. When Franklin was at Hyde Park he would traverse the 20 miles to Pawling and make sure to field a team against Lowell's. With so many newspapermen present the outcomes were inevitably reported on the front pages. Celebrities showed up including Jack Dempsey who still looked formidable but usually popped up or grounded out.

The games also provided humorous comment on the political times. Franklin had been trying to expand the Supreme Court from the nine justices although he assured everyone he wasn't just trying to "pack the court" to ensure his New Deal legislation would be ruled constitutional. Instead, he said his purpose was just to relieve the heavy burden for the nine old men on the court.

Lowell's team had been named the Debtors and Creditors. But Lowell, who always like tweaking noses, changed the name. His team showed up with new jerseys with the team logo: The Nine Old Men. Franklin, though, had gotten wind of the plan and had his own team show up with their new name embroidered on their uniforms: The Roosevelt Packers.

Although the President's physicians always assure everyone they will report the President's health, there is a great deal of suspicion that reporting the president's health and reporting it accurately are two different things. And although not revealed at the time, Franklin had health problems particularly in his last few years. He had severe iron deficiency but this was successfully treated with iron supplements. He also had attacks of cholescyctitis - which produced stomach pains so intense he was treated with codeine. Franklin once had a subcutaneous cyst removed from the back of his head and there is the possibility he had melanoma above his eye which was likewise removed surgically.

And, of course, he smoked.

That Franklin was hypertensive is well-known. A blood pressure of 210/110 was recorded and this was a time when medical treatment for high BP was limited. Naturally his ever present cigarettes didn't help. Franklin died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63, in Warm Springs, Georgia, while having his portrait painted.

The baseball games with Lowell, though, had ended long before. In the spring following Pearl Harbor Lowell received a short note in the mail:

Dear Lowell,

     I am afraid Hitler has ended our ball games for the duration.

As ever yours,

FDR

 

References and Reading

"Presidential Approval Rating", American Presidency Project, University of California - Santa Barbara

"Not So! Popular Myths About America's Past From Columbus to Clinton", Paul F. Boller Jr., Oxford University Press, USA (1995)

A First Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, 1905-1928, Geoffrey Ward, Random House, 2014.

Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth, Marc Peyser, and Timothy Dwyer, Nan A. Talese (Publisher), 2015

"What is a First Cousin, Twice Removed? Figuring Out Family Relationships", Geneology.com, http://www.genealogy.com/articles/research/16_cousn.html

Good Evening, Everybody: From Cripple Creek to Samarkand, Lowell Thomas, William Morrow and Company, (1976).

The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View, John Bumgarner, 1994.

"Medical History of American Presidents", http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/.

Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales, Vance Randolph, University of Illinois Press (1976).