FDR: “I must ask you to reconsider this decision.”

I do know it will come, and I do know that tonight there are over seven and a half million Americans overseas or fighting afloat in this great war.

The coming victory of the United Nations means that they, and not their enemies, have power to establish the foundations of the future.

This year we give as well in necessity—necessity for our own.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: