Samuel Rosenman
Samuel Rosenman | |
---|---|
White House Counsel | |
In office October 2, 1943 – February 1, 1946 | |
President | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry Truman |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Clark Clifford |
Personal details | |
Born | Samuel Irving Rosenman February 13, 1896 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
Died | June 24, 1973 New York City, U.S. | (aged 77)
Political party | Democratic |
Education | Columbia University (AB, LLB) |
Samuel Irving Rosenman (February 13, 1896 – June 24, 1973) was an American lawyer, judge,
Personal life and political career
Rosenman was born in
He became active in Democratic politics and was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 11th D.) in 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925 and 1926; and a justice of the New York Supreme Court (1st D.) from 1936 to 1943.[3] By the mid-1930s, Rosenman had emerged as a leading spokesman for the New York Jewish community.[4]
Rosenman was a senior advisor to presidents
He was a speechwriter under both presidents, helping Roosevelt with his speeches from his days as governor. Rosenman was responsible for the term "New Deal", a phrase in the conclusion of FDR's acceptance speech at the 1932 Democratic National Convention.[5] While he was not heavily involved in speechwriting during Roosevelt's first term, he started traveling to Washington to help out with important talks during the 1936 campaign and was a key speech aide for the remainder of Roosevelt's life. He officially joined the White House after ill health forced him to have to choose between his judicial work and his presidential work.
Beginning in 1940, Rosenman was frequently engaged by F.D.R. to assist in the reorganization of Government agencies to create greater efficiency in war mobilization. He coordinated the meetings and discussions that led to the reorganization of agencies overseeing production of war materials, allocation of resources, housing, control of inflation and other domestic concerns critical to the war effort.[6]
He submitted his resignation as Special Counsel upon Roosevelt's death but Truman asked him to stay on, initially through V-E Day, then through V-J Day, and finally into 1946. Rosenman wrote the 1946 State of the Union Address for Truman on his own in 1946.[7] Even after leaving the White House, he would periodically return to aid the president with major speeches, including his acceptance speech to the 1948 Democratic National Convention.
Rosenman's memoir, Working with Roosevelt is one of the most quoted and praised first-person accounts of the Roosevelt administration.
Rosenman was married to housing activist Dorothy Rosenman. Rosenman's granddaughter Lynn is the wife of current United States Attorney General and former United States Supreme Court Nominee, Merrick Garland.[8]
Editor
Rosenman edited The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, published in 13 volumes from 1938 to 1950. They have extensive notes; the last four volumes published under Rosenman's name, notes to the earlier volumes published as Roosevelt's. The volumes have been immensely influential in the study of the New Deal and Roosevelt's policies; given the enormous mass of data at the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, the papers have been used by historians as a guide, a conceptual framework, and a source. While his selections have given rise to some accusations of partisan selectivity and of deviations from the content of delivered speeches, the work still holds up remarkably well as an important piece of scholarship, and Rosenman will long be remembered as the Thucydides of the Roosevelt era, according to Hand (1968).
Holocaust
As a member of the American Jewish Committee, Rosenman was actively involved in addressing issues of concern to the Jewish community. He was a member of its Survey Committee which worked to reduce antisemitism in the United States by promoting national unity. The Committee considered some of the actions of Jewish activists as unproductive in promoting, rather than dispelling, notions of difference rather than of unity. The Survey Committee believed that the most effective answer to antisemitism was to attack it as unAmerican in its divisive purpose. The Survey Committee emphasized the importance of unity in standing up to the Nazi menace, and was influential, in part through Rosenman, in having F.D.R. promote and emphasize national unity in many of his speeches before and after the U.S. entry into World War 2.[9]
On October 6, 1943, three days before
Historian Rafael Medoff, founder of The David Wyman Institute (founded by Holocaust historian David Wyman) characterizes Rosenman this way: "One of FDR’s top advisers and speechwriters was Samuel Rosenman, a leading member of the American Jewish Committee.
Rosenman, a deeply assimilated Jew, was uncomfortable calling attention to Jewish concerns. During the 1930's, antisemitism was increasing in the United States, stoked by the virulent tirades of popular antisemitic personalities such as Father Charles Coughlin, and later aided, perhaps unwittingly, by the arguments of ardent isolationists such as Charles Lindbergh. Rosenman was sensitive to the destructive charges that Roosevelt was led by a "Jewish cabal" and, as with many leading Jews, fearful that antisemitism in the United States could increase further. After the 1938 Kristallnacht pogroms, he warned FDR that admitting German Jewish refugees to America would “create a Jewish problem in the U.S.”
Later career
From 1964 to 1966, Rosenman served as president of the
Publications
- Samuel Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt (1952)
- Samuel and Dorothy Rosenman, Presidential Style: Some Giants and a Pigmy in the White House (1976)
See also
References
- Hand, Samuel B. (1968). "Rosenman, Thucydides, and the New Deal". JSTOR 1899562.
- Hand, Samuel B. (1979). Counsel and Advise: A Political Biography of Samuel I. Rosenman. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-3632-8. The standard scholarly biography
- Ryan, Halford R. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Rhetorical Presidency (1988) online edition
Primary sources
- Rosenman, Samuel I. Working with Roosevelt (1952).
- The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt by Franklin D. Roosevelt; edited by Samuel Irving Rosenman; Random House, 1938 online edition of vol 5
References
- ^ Who's Who in American Jewry. 1928.
- ^ New York Red Book. 1923.
- ^ New York Legislative Manual. 1922–43.
- JSTOR 1396379.
- ^ a b "Samuel I. Rosenman, 77, Dies; Coined New Deal for Roosevelt". The New York Times. June 25, 1973. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
- ^ "National Affairs - The Presidency". Time (August 18, 1941).
- ISBN 9781416565352.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
- ^ American Jewish Committee. "Annual Report 1940-1941" (PDF).
- ^ "1943: Hundreds of rabbis march on Washington - Jewish World - Haaretz.com". Haaretz.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-19.
- ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2021-09-19.