Franklin Roosevelt actually said...

I think it is a completely minor detail.

I think it probably goes back to the days of—when did we first get California? 1847, wasn't it?

I do hereby proclaim that a state of war unhappily exists between Germany, on the one hand, and Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands, on ...

They have often served to keep lines of communication open when disorder, war, or misfortune closed other channels.