Speech to Democratic National Convention accepting presidential nomination, Chicago, Ill., 2 July 1932. The earliest figurative use of the term new deal that has been found is in a letter from John Rathbone to Nicholas Biddle, 18 Jan. 1834, referring to "a new bank and a New Deal." Roosevelt or his speechwriters may have picked up the phrase from earlier political usages by Mark Twain or Woodrow Wilson. See Twain 40; Woodrow Wilson 4