ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered as a thinker and a statesman, rates lower than Abraham Lincoln. While one must admit that he proceeded with practical wisdom and moderation, one cannot compare him to Lincoln in depth of understanding. By 1933, the Great Depression had produced an economic crisis unparalleled in American history, and the National Recovery Act of that year was part of a comprehensive effort made by the New Deal Administration to remedy the depressed state of the nation's economy. The crucial political issue of the 1930s was the extent of the economic regulatory powers of the national government allowable under the commerce clause. Roosevelt had a humane man's dislike of poverty, probably a belief that poverty makes men worse in a certain way, and a democrat's prejudice against inequality. Roosevelt's New Deal constituted a profound modification of the traditional American Democracy, a modification arrived at through a break with the earlier liberalism.
