My grandparents with Franklin, Jr. and baby John in Campobello in 1918.
Eleanor’s close friends had been delighted at the news and saw her as Franklin’s “running mate” in Washington, for they knew that as the wife of America’s vice president, Eleanor could contribute much that would benefit the country at large. Eleanor was happy that Franklin had achieved a role into which he could channel his passion for politics, but she was at a point in her life when she wished more for herself than to just be his wife. In an early interview given to the Eagle News during Franklin’s homecoming ceremonies at Poughkeepsie, she declared an active interest in the League of Nations:
I am particularly interested in the League of Nations issue and I am firmly in favor of it, though I think we should adopt it with the reservation that Congress shall vote on whether or not we shall enter a war. But the League of Nations is, I believe, the only way that we can prevent war. We fought for it, and we should adopt it. If we don’t adopt it, it will be useless. The U.S. must be part of the alliance.14
Her views, so distinctly stated, paid tribute to a woman who thought for herself and was no longer shy about sharing her viewpoints on topics that interested her. Slowly but surely, a new Eleanor was emerging from a long incubation, from the chrysalis she had inhabited most of her life, and people were beginning to take an active interest.
A Return to New York
That fall the family returned to New York, and Grandfather joined a new law firm, which became Emmett, Marvin, and Roosevelt. He also became vice president at the New York offices of Van Lear Black’s Fidelity and Deposit Company in Maryland, was a Harvard overseer, and headed the Navy Club and the New York Boy Scouts Council, keeping a schedule that was as busy as it would have been had he been elected. Suffering from his first political defeat and forced to return to the world of private business that he found so constraining, FDR had no intentions of abandoning his political ambitions; they were merely delayed temporarily.
Grandmère had likewise decided not to remain idle, and she enrolled at a business school where she learned typing and shorthand. She became active in the League of Women Voters, engaged dynamically with women legislators who promoted better working conditions for women, and campaigned for children’s rights and other issues that were of intense significance to her. In joining the LWV board, she educated herself in the legislative process, selected bills on which she wanted to be briefed more fully, and became close and lifelong friends with Esther Everett Lape, an important figure in the suffrage movement. For those many occasions that she now spent in Manhattan, she shared an apartment with Esther on East Eleventh Street that would soon become a “place of her own” away from her family duties and a refuge, from Springwood as well as from Franklin and Sara.
Esther’s friendship had a thoroughly positive effect on Eleanor; it helped her to learn how to approach public issues and how to debate and speak forthrightly, and it inspired her to do always serious, sustained work for the causes to which she was sympathetic. This was a crucial time in Grandmère’s life. For the first time since her Allenswood days she was forming lasting friendships, and immersed herself in political and labor activities and groups. It was also at this time that she began her political writing that would continue for the rest of her life, and much to her own surprise perhaps she was recognized as a political player in Democratic politics in her own right and with little to do with who her husband was. Before now, I think, she had seen herself merely as an extension of my grandfather’s political ambitions, but it was during this period that she realized that she too was possessed of the political intellect and leadership needed to embrace a path of her own.
So important was the period in Grandmère’s political education that when we began asking her political questions, even as teenagers, she was always keen to teach us and helped us to see politics from her acute perspective, but she never forced her views upon us. My cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt III remembers that his political awakening was guided by Grandmère in the subtlest way:
In my own case, what changed our relationship… from a rather distant, one-of-the-pack type of relationship to a more personal one was my own coming of age politically and becoming aware of certain things in the world (race relations, problems of race and poverty, international relations, and political issues in general…). As I began to open myself up to these things, first of all, I realized who my grandmother was in a very different way than I had understood before. So the occasions I had to get together with her I treated in a different way and I took advantage of them in a different way. And I think she responded also to that, noticing that I was interested in a lot of the same things she was interested in.
… once I developed these interests she was very supportive and would invite me to lunch in New York when she was having interesting people over…. But there was never any feeling that I was being pushed by her in these directions at all. If anything, [it was] the other way; I was just pulled by her and very much influenced by her example and her life, her accomplishments in those areas, and her obviously genuine way of responding to these kinds of problems in the world.15
My brother, Tony, also remembers Grandmère offering him her own unique perspective on being politically active:
I think perhaps I made the statement that I felt it was better to vote for the best individual. And she said, “Oh, no. You just can’t do that. Don’t you understand the importance if you’re going to make a meaningful contribution of becoming involved in one political party or the other, and then working within the framework of that party? Ultimately that’s the only way that you can be politically effective, and while you may not agree with the man who is running for the office with that party label at this moment, the only way that you can be effective in changing anything is to back him, vote for him. But get involved in the party process and change things that way. You can’t change things simply by casting a vote for an individual whom you might agree with. That’s just not effective.”16
The women who worked with Eleanor at the League saw the unveiling of an initially shy but earnest woman into someone who spoke and thought with great clarity, could be counted on for support, always offered strength to all her causes, advised wisely, and did her own work. The close bond between these professional women was something that Eleanor had craved for many years and in which she now reveled—she had found kindred spirits, a group of friends that valued her for who she was, inspired her, and mirrored back a positive image of herself. These were the women whose friendship played a big part in what she would later call “the intensive education of Eleanor Roosevelt.” With her newfound independence, Eleanor was becoming an advocate and activist, “thinking things out for myself.”
Eleanor Roosevelt was always sympathetic and supportive of women’s causes, but didn’t define herself as a feminist at the time: she enjoyed working and discussing issues with men, and even though she was developing her own interests, she remained a loyal supporter of Franklin’s work. Her growing strength was an unexpected gift for him; what he now had in Eleanor was a most astute and formidable partner.
Trial by Fire
For the first time since his run for election Franklin had decided he would spend most of the 1921 summer relaxing and enjoying his family at Campobello. Grandmère, the children, and the houseguests (which included Louis Howe and his wife) went ahead to the summer cottage, while Franklin attended a wedding. He made his way to the island retreat on a friend’s sailboat, and hitting bad weather he was forced to be at the wheel for many hours on end. He arrived at Campobello drawn and exhausted by the ordeal, and yet was so energetic over the next few days that his houseguests left for New York due to the overactive holiday schedule!
On August 10 the family was out sailing when they spotted a forest fire and went ashore to flail at the flames with pine boughs. Once they brought the fire under control, they took a dip in Lake Glen Severn to clean off the soot that had covered them in their firefighting efforts. Feeling ti
red and dull, Franklin took another dip in the icy waters of Passamaquoddy Bay and after returning home sat around in his wet swimming suit complaining of chills all evening. The next day he felt worse and ran a high temperature. Worried, Eleanor sent for a Dr. Bennett, whose diagnosis was that FDR suffered a mere cold.
On August 12, however, just two days after the swimming episode, paralysis had set in from the chest down. Eleanor turned into a devoted and loving nurse for Franklin, bathing him, massaging his legs, and attending to his every need. His temperature returned to normal over the next two weeks, but the paralysis seemed permanent. Through contacts of Louis Howe, Dr. Robert W. Lovett, a specialist in orthopedics, was contacted, and he immediately left New York for Campobello. His diagnosis was that Franklin had been infected with infantile paralysis—polio—and that there was little chance of him recovering the use of his legs. Eleanor, though deep in shock, acted swiftly and skillfully and continued to nurse Franklin and even became his secretary and scribe, helping with his work and correspondence. FDR refused to be tempered by this horrible turn of events. Although inside he felt a sense of defeat and depression, he remained determined—as he would for years to come—to prove Dr. Lovett’s dire prognosis wrong.
My grandparents in their later years, as many of us grandchildren will always remember them.
Finally, returning to New York, Franklin started treatment at the Presbyterian Hospital, believing that he would soon be able to start work again. But in the following weeks Franklin and Eleanor both came to grips with the painful reality that his recovery would be excruciatingly slow, and would need to be borne out of a supreme resilience and strict observance to a daily regime that would only yield results in very long time frames. This was Franklin’s “trial by fire,” a surrender to his infirmities and a rising to strength and adherence to his Spartan principles. Sara feverishly tried to persuade her son to abandon all political ambitions and settle down to a quiet life in the Hudson River Valley, a dream she had nurtured all her life. FDR, however, was determined not only to overcome this physical affliction but to lead a normal life and return to his true calling in politics. Eleanor, much to Sara’s disappointment, concurred completely with FDR’s desires, believing that his involvement would be the best tonic for his recovery, mentally and physically. Sara, once more fearing that whatever influence she had left over Franklin and the family was at risk, actively engaged Eleanor’s own children, and especially Anna, against their mother. Eleanor was unrelenting, and although the rebellion of her children and the constant attempts by Sara placed additional burdens upon an already trying situation, she persevered. Seemingly, Grandmère’s sole source of support came from Louis Howe, who seemed to understand better than anyone what she had already tolerated and what she was now sacrificing for her husband. Finally and for all time, Sara’s domination of Grandmère was at an end. “Franklin’s illness made me stand on my own two feet in regard to my husband’s life, my own life, and my children’s training,” Grandmère would later say, and, according to Joe Lash, “She and Franklin both emerged from the ordeal tempered, tested, and strengthened.”
Grandmère’s life became even more complex; she was nurturing an invalid, mothering five children, and still attending to most of her political and volunteer activities. She met these challenges with great courage and presence, becoming the very dependable friend and companion Franklin sought in his greatest hour of need. Had it not been for Eleanor and her stalwart attention to his physical and psychological requirements, Franklin might have remained a directionless invalid. Her strength made him strong. Her heart gave him courage.
They both emerged from this most terrible ordeal triumphant, and their bond as equal partners was now deeper than ever. Indeed, their futures were indelibly scripted and intertwined. What seems apparent is that Eleanor had survived her very own trial by fire and was now ready to become intensely active in public and political activity. She had prescribed for herself the role of “stand-in” for her husband whenever he was unavailable. She determined that his name and person would be at the political forefront, and she became an ever-present representative of his views within both the hierarchy and rank and file of the Democratic Party. Given that she had been politically engaged before, she no longer suppressed her political opinions, often engaging FDR in discussions of issues and perhaps influencing his own stands. Once more, it was the persistence of Louis Howe that gave her the encouragement necessary. Just what effect did this period of their lives have? I have no doubt whatsoever that both Eleanor and Franklin were spiritually transformed; he shedding the guise of the young, sheltered, self-serving aristocrat to don the mantle of a sensitive and thoughtful standard-bearer of the less fortunate, and she discarding the tentative for the more self-reliant and determined crusader against injustice.
It was at the 1924 Democratic National Convention that FDR decided it was time to display nationally that he had triumphed over his disability. And it was at this juncture that he determined that by his own example he would begin his long personal crusade to dispel the prevalent notion that a physical disability is a sign of personal weakness. He decided that once again he would place New York Governor Al Smith’s name in nomination for president, and he would do so by taking the long walk from his seat on the convention floor to the podium, assisted only by his eldest son, James, and his walking canes. His upbeat mood and this display of courage cemented the love and respect of every delegate in the hall, and although the convention itself was marred by infighting and hopeless deadlock (and eventual disaster in the general election), FDR emerged as the obvious “winner.”
Following this triumphant return to the national political spotlight but not yet ready for a campaign of his own, FDR returned to Wall Street and his position with the Fidelity and Deposit Company. Through the ensuing years of the Coolidge administration he worked hard at business, eventually starting a law practice with an aggressive young attorney, Basil O’Connor. For the first time he became excited about business, and the firm of Roosevelt & O’Connor thrived, becoming involved in many of the business and financial enterprises that were significant forces in the economy at that time, many very speculative. But no matter how involved he would seem to be in business, his ambition and love of politics was never far from center stage in his mind. Handling the political front for him was the indomitable Louis Howe, with an equally indomitable Eleanor serving as his ever-present and most effective surrogate. Together they kept FDR at the Democratic forefront and well ensconced as a party leader.
Part Four
It’s Up to the Women
You cannot take anything personally.
You cannot bear grudges.
You must finish the day’s work when the day’s work is done.
You cannot be discouraged too easily.
You have to take defeat over and over again, and pick up and go on.
Be sure of your facts.
Argue the other side with a friend until you have found the answer to every point which might be brought against you.
Women who are leaders must stand out. More and more they are going to do it, and more and more they should do it.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
GRANDMÈRE’S CHOICE OF A LIFE devoted to a political husband who now relied on her as his stand-in was perhaps the strongest construction in the intimate interlacing of her relationship with Franklin. From now on she would be catapulted into the public forum of politics. Even though she was doubtful of her ability at the beginning, she may have allayed those fears by telling herself that it was her duty to keep his name before the public, to provide a vital link to the party’s officials and public personalities, and to be effective in all Democratic organizations in which she became involved.
In part the capacity to overcome emotional and physical traumas was an intrinsic Roosevelt characteristic. Cousin Alice, in her interviews with Joe Lash, noted that Grandmère had a great capacity for self-discipline, and that her father, Elliott, had shown the
same quality at least in his youth, in transforming himself from physical frailty into a specimen of the strenuous life. My grandfather, of course, also had it, as he too transformed himself through the trials inflicted by his physical paralysis.
For Grandmère, self-discipline was something she had learned in childhood from her family; it kept her on a steady course toward greater and greater responsibility throughout her life:
To my grandmother social life was very important and in her code women must do their share in making life pleasant in the society in which she moved. If you felt sad, you certainly did not air your sadness in public. You were decorous even in showing any kind of emotion but your obligations to meet social commitments were somewhat like an actor in a play—the show goes on—and with my grandmother what you said you would do in a social way, you did. Therefore it was incumbent on you to see that you felt well. There was no sympathy for a headache, just a sense of irritation that whatever brought on a headache must be avoided since you had this obligation. This kind of code is very good discipline and… is always useful in later life.1
Grandmère’s self-discipline together with her yearning to be needed were the motivational forces that allowed her to overcome her insecurities and finally position herself into the foreground. My aunt Anna said that my grandparents and Louis Howe, once he had been accepted almost as another member of the family, worked as a team, plotting and strategizing as to what steps should be taken next in order to advance FDR’s political rise.
Mother by then had accepted Louis so it is very hard to know who launched the idea that he was to stay active. I always felt it was a team. Mother still looking for guidance (from Louis and FDR) it gave her the feeling that she could be useful. That was terribly important particularly for someone like Mother. Probably it was more Louis leading, but someone most anxious to be led.2
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