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In this 90 minute lesson, 11th grade students will examine reasons for the passage of the Neutrality Acts (1935-1937) and consider the national debate as a shift to pro-Allied policies including “cash and carry” and Lend-Lease.

September 2, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Under the terms of the Agreement, the United States gave the British 50 obsolete destroyers in exchange for 99-year leases to territory in Newfoundland and the Caribbean. The territories would be used as United States air and naval bases. Substantial legal obstacles complicated the deal. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson and his colleagues spent much of the summer of 1940 trying to resolve some of these issues. Jackson's Acquisition of Naval and Air Bases in Exchange for Over-Age Destroyers was presented on August 27, 1940.

An advocate can be confronted with few more formidable tasks than to select his closing arguments where there is great disparity between his appropriate time and his available material. In eight months -short time as state trials go - we have introduced evidence which embraces as vast and varied a panorama of events as has ever been compressed within the framework of a litigation. It is impossible in summation to do more than outline with bold strokes the vitals of this trial's mad and melancholy record, which will live as the historical text of the Twentieth Century's shame and depravity.

An advocate can be confronted with few more formidable tasks than to select his closing arguments where there is great disparity between his appropriate time and his available material. In eight months- a short time as state trials go- we have introduced evidence which embraces as vast and varied a panorama of events as has ever been compressed within the framework of a litigation. It is impossible in summation to do more than outline with bold strokes the vitals of this trial's made and melancholy record, which will live as the historical text of the Twentieth Century's shame and depravity.

We are debtors to this captivating country and city, not only for a generous hospitality, but more importantly for an inspiring leadership. We lawyers from the United States value this opportunity to compare our own legal philosophy and institutions with those of other American commonwealths. You have no doubt been impressed with our modest habit of expounding our own law by a recital of some case we won.

In accordance with your request I have considered your constitutional and statutory authority to proceed by executive agreement with the British Government immediately to acquire for the United States certain off-shore naval and air bases in the Atlantic Ocean without awaiting the inevitable delays which would accompany the conclusion of a formal treaty.