The Memorial to F.D.R.: What the President Wanted

By Felix Frankfurter
Editor’s Note: Now that the type of memorial for President Franklin D. Roosevelt has become a matter of public discussion, his own wish regarding it ought to be made known. Reflecting on the matter in 1941 under stress of a family bereavement, he summoned an old friend, Mr. Justice Felix Frankfurter, and told him what he would prefer as a memorial, if one should be undertaken, and charged him to remember it “if the time should come.” The conversation was recorded by the Justice at the time. The documents published below were brought to the attention of President Roosevelt’s successor promptly upon his accession to the presidency, and later, after Congress had established the Roosevelt National Memorial Committee, the documents were brought to the attention of that committee. In view of the course that events have taken, Mr. Justice Frankfurter feels that President Roosevelt’s wish ought to be publicly known, and he has therefore consented to the Atlantic’s publication of what follows.

IN THE forenoon of Friday, September 26, 1941, General Watson phoned to say that the President would like to see me after the funeral of G. Hall Roosevelt, at about half past three that day. I duly turned up, was ushered by General Watson into the President’s office, where the President and I talked about sundry matters while he was having his hair cut. The President seemed under considerable strain, and plainly enough he just wanted to talk. After the barber left, talk continued, going hither and yon, and the President told me of a letter to Fred Delano, which the latter had sent to him, from a correspondent who had apparently just discovered that Jackson Park contains the statues of four Revolutionary heroes and that the equestrian statue of Jackson was incongruous in this Revolutionary setting. He read me his memorandum in reply to the suggestion for the removal of the Jackson statue. (A copy of the memorandum which, at my request, he sent me, is herewith annexed.)

When he finished reading the memorandum, this followed:

F.D.R. This leads me to say something that I want you to remember because you are much more likely to be here longer than I shall be.

F.F. (jocosely). You mean that I shall remain on the Supreme Court longer than you will remain in the White House.

F.D.R. (smilingly but sharply). No, that isn’t what I mean at all. I mean in plain English that I am likely to shuffle off long before you kick the bucket. And if that should happen and if any memorial is to be erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. Now please remember what I am telling you as my wish in case they are to put up any memorial to me. About halfway between here and the Capitol is the Archives Building. Now I have some relation to Archives. And right in front of the Archives Building is a little green triangle. If, as I say, they are to put up any memorial to me, I should like it to be placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives Building. I should like it to consist of a block about the size of this (putting his hand on his desk). I don’t care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it to be plain, without any ornamentation, with the simple carving “In memory of——.” That is all, and please remember that, if the time should come.

F.F. I shall indeed remember, and you deeply honor me in putting this wish in the keeping of my memory.

F.D.R. Don’t you think I am right in wanting that kind of a memorial and none other?

F.F. The founder of your party, Jefferson, left specific instruction for that beautifully simple memorial of his at Charlottesville, and I think your idea entirely comports with wisdom about such things.

Our talk then drifted to other matters.

After leaving the White House, I made pencil notes of the above conversation, and I have dictated the above from these notes the following morning, Saturday, September 27, 1941.

FELIX FRANKFURTER

The White House Washington

September 20, 1941

MEMORANDUM FOR F.A.D.

I think you should tell Mr. Kay-Smith that, in my judgment, we should let sleeping heroes lie. The District is pock-marked with Generals, statesmen, foreigners, visiting firemen, etc., on horseback, standing, and sitting — all without any particular reference to a plan.

Personally I want to see old man Jackson and the horse which is balanced on its tail, in front of the White House as long as I am here. How the General is able to wave without holding on to his pummel, I have never known. I am still fascinated — and I think almost everyone else is too.

From the practical point of view, we should spend no money these days in re-distributing heroes round the parks and squares of Washington.

F.D.R.