PRESIDENT TRUMAN SIGNS A 1946 MEMORANDUM ABOUT TRANSFERRING WHITE HOUSE OFFICE EMPLOYEES

HARRY TRUMAN (1884-1972).  Truman was the Thirty-Third President. 

Archive. 1945-1946. The White House.  An archive of materials related to transferring White House and Executive Department personnel shortly after Truman took over as President.  The highlight is a June 28, 1946 typed memorandum signed “M.C. Latta Executive Clerk” addressed to Truman.  The content states “The attached list has been prepared pursuant to your approval of the transfer to this office of certain employees now on detail from various Departments and agencies of the government and the promotion of some of these as well as regular White House Office employees to grades approved by the Civil Service Commission.  Action as indicated, effective July 1, 1946, is hereby recommended.”  At the conclusion, Truman wrote “Approved Harry S Truman”.  The memorandum is stapled to a ten page typed list of various Executive Department employees, including their name, the department where he or she works, their title, pay grade and salary.  There are several other similar typed memoranda, several signed by Frank K. Sanderson, an executive administrator in the Truman White House.  Overall, the pieces are in very good condition.  Most unusual Presidential content, reminding people that the President also runs one-third of the Federal government.

JOHN TYLER SIGNS A WHALING PAPER FOR A NEW BEDFORD SHIP

JOHN TYLER (1790-1862).  Tyler was the Tenth President.

DS. 1pg. June 19, 1843. No place [Washington].  A partly printed, four language ships paper signed “John Tyler” as President and co-signed “H.S. Legare” as interim Secretary of State.  The papers are for the Java, sailing from New Bedford, Massachusetts to the Indian Ocean.  It was carrying “provisions stores and Utensils for a Whaling voyage”.  The ship is listed in History of the American Whale Fishery, written by the appropriately named Alexander Starbuck, and the Java returned to New Bedford on April 3, 1845.  The paper has the usual folds and a very large, dark signature that has a small pinhole because of fold intersections.

JOHN TYLER SIGNS A WHALING PAPER FOR A NEW BEDFORD SHIP

JOHN TYLER (1790-1862).  Tyler was the Tenth President.

ABEL UPSHUR (1790-1844). Upshur was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Tyler; in July 1843, Tyler made him Secretary of State. On February 28, 1844, he was killed when the gun of the USS Princeton exploded.

DS. 1pg. September 27, 1845. No place [Washington].  A partly printed, four language ships paper signed “J Tyler” as President and co-signed “A.P. Upshur” as Secretary of State.  The papers are for the William & Henry, captained by Ithamar B. Benjamin, and sailing from New Bedford.  There was a whaling book about this ship, entitled Journal of the Mobile (Ship) and William and Henry (Ship), mastered by William Rawson and Ithamar B. Benjamin, on Whaling Voyages between 1836 and 1844.  Although this paper was dated after Tyler’s term ended in March 1845, these papers were signed in masse by the President and distributed to the ports, and then used as needed.  The paper has the usual folds (including a vertical one through the Presidential autograph) and a very large, dark signature.  It is framed with an engraving of Tyler.

(GEORGE WASHINGTON).  (1732-1799).  Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, President of the Constitutional Convention and the first President.

Contemporary copy. 1pg. November 7, 1780. Passaic Falls.  A contemporary copy of a George Washington letter to Colonel Henry Babcock: “Sir, I have received your favor of the 24^th of October, and have to observe on the Subject, that the plan suggested, for paying and supplying the Army and prosecuting the War with vigor, would undoubtedly be eligible, if practicable; how far this is, or is not the case, I cannot take upon myself to determine.  Should the scheme in contemplation be carried into execution; whether it would be most advantageous to have the Plate coined and thrown into circulation, or made the basis of a Bank to support our Credit, might be made a question.  But that this aid (if well disposed of) with other vigorous and decisive measures for drawing out the resources of the Country, would have a powerful influence, in retrieving our affairs, disconcerting those of the Enemy, and inducing them to wish for a peace: does not admit of a single doubt.  The adoption of the plan spoken of by you might give a credit to the public virtue of this Country at Foreign Courts that would be attended with important advantages to us.”  Colonel Henry Babcock (1736-1800), a Yale graduate, fought at Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.  The next year, he was dismissed from command of Rhode Island troops because of his “distempered mind”.  There is a vertical fold and contemporary writing on the verso.

TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY WOODROW WILSON DURING HIS PRESIDENCY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MERCHANT MARINES: “THEY HAVE INTERESTED ME VERY MUCH AND INSTRUCTED ME NOT A LITTLE”

WOODROW WILSON (1856-1924). Wilson served as President from 1913 to 1921.

TLS. 1 pg. 8” x 10”. January 31, 1910. Princeton, N.J. A typed letter signed “Woodrow Wilson” as President of Princeton University to “Mr. Lewis Nixon”: “I have read with real interest the two pamphlets you were kind enough to send me, containing your address on the question of the Merchant Marine. They have interested me very much and instructed me not a little”.  In 1910, Wilson was nominated and elected to be Governor New Jersey, and within three years he was elected President of the United States. As President during World War I, Wilson would advocate for an expansion of the United States Merchant Marine in his 1914 State of the Union address: “To speak plainly we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted and hindered the development of our merchant marine … It is necessary for many weighty reasons of national efficiency and development that we should have a great merchant marine.” This is an idea he perhaps received from Lewis Nixon (1861-1940), a well-respected naval architect, building executive, and Democratic political activist who frequently spoke on the importance of America increasing its naval power. America’s entry into World War I was in large part over Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare against American merchant ships. Wilson also signed the 1915 Seamen’s Act, “the Magna Carta of American sailors' rights.” In someone else’s hand, probably a previous owner, is the handwritten note, “President of Princeton University President of the United States”. The letter is on the official stationery of the “PRESIDENT’S ROOM” at Princeton. It is in very condition with trimmed margins, toning and a dark autograph.

WOODROW WILSON (1856-1924). Wilson was President during World War I.

TLS. 1pg. 6” x 8”. October 26, 1910. Princeton.  A typed letter signed “Woodrow Wilson” to John McCarthy of Chicago.  Writing on “President’s Room” letterhead, Wilson  stated “On returning from a speaking tour I find your interesting and important letter of October 22^nd.  I wish most unaffectedly that I could comply with the request it contains, but unhappily it is literally impossible for me to come to Chicago before Election Day, or even to write such a letter as I would be willing to have read.  I have time only to send my very warm greetings and to express my great regret that I cannot lend my small aid to the thing you are trying to accomplish.”  Wilson was then running for Governor of New Jersey.  The letter has toning from a previous framing and a horizontal tape remnant to the top margin.