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It's March 4, 1933. A cold wind sweeps across the steps of the U.S. Capitol as Franklin

Delano Roosevelt raises his right hand to swear the oath of office. Five months earlier, a nation

rife with unemployment and losing faith in its government had elected Roosevelt over-incumbent Herbert Hoover.

Now, as millions hunch over their radios, listening for the assurance that change is finally at hand,

FDR begins to speak.

President Hoover, Mr. Chief Justice, my friends, this is a day of national consecration,

and I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans

expect that on my induction into the presidency,

I will address them with a candor

and a decision which the present situation of our people impels.

His first inaugural words will join a long American tradition of presidential speechifying.

Less than a century earlier, Abraham Lincoln stood on a Pennsylvania battlefield

soaked in the blood of its dead, calling on a fractured nation to fulfill the ideals for

which they'd fought.

Before him, George Washington famously bade farewell to public life with words of warning

to future Americans.

Across the centuries, these moments reveal the extraordinary power of presidential

oratory to steady the nation, rally the people, and rechart the course of American history.

I'm Don Wildman, and you're listening to American History Hit.

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