“FDR's New Bill of Rights”

“FDR’s New Bill of Rights”

Week 5 — Will Morrisey • William and Patricia LaMothe Professor in the U.S. Constitution

Thoroughly educated in Progressive principles, Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that the task of statesmanship is to redefine our rights “in the terms of a changing and growing social order.” While the Founders thought the truths they celebrated in the Declaration of Independence were self-evident and so also timeless and unchanging, FDR argued for a new self-evident economic truth. His proposed “Economic Bill of Rights” lays out the means by which our new economic rights are to be secured, thereby achieving social equality and social justice.

Lecture Summary

In his 1944 Annual Message to Congress, FDR famously declared that the American people had accepted a “second Bill of Rights” that provided a new basis of security and prosperity for all. The original Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the Constitution, ratified by the American people—had been formulated in order to establish additional constitutional protections for the unalienable natural rights enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. (For example, Congress may not establish a religion; or abridge freedom of speech or of the press.) By contrast, in FDR’s view, the Constitution should be used as an instrument of progress. For FDR, the old doctrine of freedom of contract now should be understood as liberty within a social organization—a corporation, for example—which requires the protection of law against the evils which menace the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the people. Such protections become necessary because economic security and independence are prerequisites for true individual freedom: “Necessitous men are not free men.” FDR designed his “second Bill of Rights” to establish social equality as a fact by providing for the economic security and independence of individuals. He maintained that individuals have a right to such things as a useful and remunerative job; a right to earn CONSTITUTION 201: THE PROGRESSIVE REJECTION OF THE FOUNDING AND THE RISE OF BUREAUCRATIC DESPOTISM

enough to afford food, clothing, and recreation; the right to trade in an atmosphere free from unfair competition and monopolies; the right to be free from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; and the right to a good education. FDR transformed the right to earn and keep property into the right to receive such goods from funds exacted from fellow citizens by the government. This transformation required a substantial increase in the powers and duties of a centralized administration, which transformation FDR argued was necessary in order to establish social equality, the centerpiece of social justice.

Key Passages from the Readings

Commonwealth Club Address • Franklin D. Roosevelt “Rulers were accorded power, and the people consented to that power on consideration that they be accorded certain rights. The task of statesmanship has always been the redefinition of these rights in terms of a changing and growing social order. New conditions impose new requirements upon Government and those who conduct government.” —The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, page 727 “Every man has a right to life; and this means that he has also a right to make a comfortable living.... Every man has a right to his own property; which means a right to be assured, to the fullest extent attainable, in the safety of his savings.” —The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, page 728

Democratic Convention Address • Franklin D. Roosevelt “An old English judge once said: “Necessitous men are not free men.” Liberty requires opportunity to make a living—a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.” —The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, page 733 “For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people’s property, other people’s money, other people’s labor— other people’s lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.” —The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, page 733

Annual Message to Congress • Franklin D. Roosevelt “This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty. As our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded— these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.” CONSTITUTION 201: THE PROGRESSIVE REJECTION OF THE FOUNDING AND THE RISE OF BUREAUCRATIC DESPOTISM

—The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, page 745 “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all…. “The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation; “The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; “The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; “The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; “The right of every family to a decent home; “The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; “The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; “The right to a good education.” —The U.S. Constitution: A Reader, pages 745-746

Study Questions

1. How does Franklin D. Roosevelt define statesmanship? 2. What rights does Roosevelt name in his “Second Bill of Rights”? 3. President Roosevelt argues that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” should be modified by adding “security.” What does he mean by “security”? 4. FDR argued that “______men are not free men.” What does this mean? 5. FDR states that “For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of ______inequality.” How did this view influence the creation of the New Deal?

CONSTITUTION 201: THE PROGRESSIVE REJECTION OF THE FOUNDING AND THE RISE OF BUREAUCRATIC DESPOTISM

Discussion Questions

1. What is the proper understanding of statesmanship? How does Franklin D. Roosevelt’s definition differ from that of the Founders? 2. Why does adding “security” to the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” undermine them, rather than ensure them? 3. What is the difference between “political equality” and “economic equality”? 4. How does FDR’s definition of “equality” differ from the Founders’ definition?