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The American President briefly put Queen's at the centre of international attention in 1938, when he received an honorary degree from the university and used the occasion to make an important foreign policy speech. War was looming in Europe and Roosevelt was under intense pressure to declare what action the United States would take, if any, in the event of hostilities.

He was reluctant to alienate American isolationists but also wished to make his own sympathies for the European democracies clear. In his speech at Richardson Stadium on August 18, 1938 he declared: "The Dominion of Canada is part of the British Empire. I give to you assurance that the people of the United States will not stand idly by if domination of Canadian soil is threatened by any other empire."

As bland as this assurance sounds today, it was widely reported in the press across Western Europe and North America as heralding a dramatic departure from American isolationism.

FDR visits Queen’s

On Aug. 18, 1938, a crowd packed into the old Richardson Stadium. Students balanced precariously on its walls to see something that had never happened in Ontario: an American president paying an official visit to their province.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had come to Kingston to receive an honorary degree and also to open the new Ivy Lea Bridge linking Canada and the United States. The president sat in his huge Cadillac convertible with beaming Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, elated to be in the presence of a man who brought hope to many Americans in the depth of a cruel depression.

As the 1930s progressed, each nation was preoccupied by the necessity of economic recovery and the looming threat in Europe. There were strong isolationist impulses on both sides of the border. Mackenzie King was wary of rushing too readily to support Britain. He preferred freer trade with America and some sense that Washington would see its foreign policy in continentalist terms.

The invitation to President Roosevelt originated in the office of Kingston’s mayor and was facilitated by O.D. Skelton, the Undersecretary of State for External Affairs in Ottawa. A Queen’s alumnus and a former dean of arts, Professor Skelton used his influence with U.S. Secretary of State Sumner Welles to push the president towards his alma mater. The negotiation hinted that more was at stake than an honorary degree and a ribbon cutting — the hope was that the president would clarify Washington’s intentions with regard to its northern neighbour.

President Roosevelt didn’t disappoint. His 13-minute speech culminated in a promise that would resonate through the darkening days of the late 1930s: “I give you assurance that the people of the United States will not stand idly by if domination of Canadian soil is threatened.” Mackenzie King looked pleased as he sat beside the president in that Cadillac and departed the stadium onto Union Street.

Queen’s principal Wallace noted that, “all free countries will look on this as a great day.” A year later, when Canada went to war with Germany, the president made it quietly clear that America would support its neighbour in the conflict. Military equipment was, for instance, secretly shipped to Canada. Two years later, America joined the war as a Canadian ally.

Queen’s would later award an honorary degree to FDR’s spouse, Eleanor Roosevelt, an outspoken social activist who had worked to combat homelessness and fight for women’s rights. Unsuccessful presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson was similarly honoured in the 1950s and in 2012, former U.S president Jimmy Carter received a Queen’s LLD. President Carter used his speech to thank Canada for its role in freeing American diplomatic hostages in Tehran in 1980.