Eleanor Roosevelt Speeches

Delegates to the convention, visitors, friends, it is a great pleasure for me to be here and to have an opportunity to speak to you. First of all, I think I want to say a word to our National Chairman, James A. Farley. [cheering] 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 works and loyalty, and I want to give him here my thanks and devotion.

And now, [applause] I think that I should say to you that I am conscious that I cannot possibly bring you a message from the president because he will give you his own message [applause]. But, as I am here, I want you to know that no one could not be conscious of the confidence, which you have [00:02:15] expressed in him. I know and you know that any man who is in an office of great responsibility faces a heavier [00:02:17] 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 a very solemn thing. [00:02:40] You cannot treat it as an ordinary nomination, in an ordinary time. We people in the United States have got to realize today that we face now a grave, a 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, 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 [00:02:42] Good men and women give every bit of service and strength to their country that they have to give. This is a 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 best do for the country as a whole. And that rests, that responsibility 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 the determination that their party shall be absolutely devoted [00:04:29] 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.