Description:

Roosevelt Franklin

Franklin Roosevelt Signed Typed letter with Prohibition Reference

 

Single page typed letter signed, 8" x 10.5," on State of New York, Executive Chamber, Albany letterhead. Dated "April 13, 1932," and signed by Franklin Roosevelt "Franklin Roosevelt," as Governor of New York. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, 9" x 4," and the newspaper clipping which was referred to in Roosevelt's letter.

 

An important typed letter with reference to the New World-Telegram clipping regarding Prohibition, one of Roosevelt's campaign platforms as he ran for President. His typed letter thanks Hevlyn Benson for sending him the clipping, which consists of an article written by Benson himself.  "Thank you very much for sending me clipping from New York World-Telegram, quoting letter you wrote to that publication …"

 

Benson quoted an editorial from "Meeting a Major Issue" (March 23), of "Any federal sumptuary legislation is at variance with the whole spirit of the Constitution, which is that of the widest possible degree of home rule."

 

Franklin Roosevelt addressed Prohibition as part of his Presidential campaign in 1932. Below is a partial transcript of his Campaign Address from August 27, 1932."

 

" … But the methods adopted since the World War with the purpose of achieving a greater temperance by the forcing of Prohibition have been accompanied in most parts of the country by complete and tragic failure. I need not point out to you that general encouragement of lawlessness has resulted; that corruption, hypocrisy, crime and disorder have emerged, and that instead of restricting, we have extended the spread of intemperance. This failure has come for this very good reason: we have depended too largely upon the power of governmental action instead of recognizing that the authority of the home and that of the churches in these matters is the fundamental force on which we must build. The recent recognition of this fact by the present Administration is an amazing piece of hindsight. There are others who have had foresight. A friend showed me recently an unpublished letter of Henry Clay, written a hundred years ago. In this letter Clay said that the movement for temperance "has done great good and will continue to do more" but "it will destroy itself whenever it resorts to coercion or mixes in the politics of the country ..."

 

With the country mired in the Great Depression by 1932, creating jobs and revenue by legalizing the liquor industry had an undeniable appeal. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for president that year on a platform calling for Prohibition’s repeal, and easily won victory over the incumbent President Herbert Hoover. FDR’s victory meant the end for Prohibition, and in February 1933 Congress adopted a resolution proposing a 21st Amendment to the Constitution that would repeal the 18th. The amendment was submitted to the states, and in December 1933 Utah provided the 36th and final necessary vote for ratification. Though a few states continued to prohibit alcohol after Prohibition’s end, all had abandoned the ban by 1966.


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