The Autobiography of Leverett Saltonstall by Byrd Richard E. III;Saltonstall Leverett;Weeks Edward; & EDWARD WEEKS

Author:Byrd, Richard E., III;Saltonstall, Leverett;Weeks, Edward; & EDWARD WEEKS
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442249905
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2015-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

I had never realized what a demanding correspondence a United States senator is expected to carry on. In normal times I must have received from 200 to 400 letters a day; when a hot issue like the Taft-Hartley Act was being debated, or later when my colleague Sen. John F. Kennedy was in the hospital for a long period, we handled well over 500 a day. We had an early-bird secretary who arrived at the office at 8 a.m., opened all the mail, and directed the letters to staff members who were specialists — one girl, for instance, would handle letters from the veterans, another those having to do with welfare and appeals from senior citizens. John Jackson checked the answers and was expected to sign my name to what was routine. Serious letters bearing on legislation went to either Henry Minot or Jim Reynolds, and letters addressed “Dear Leverett” I read and signed myself. In this way every letter was processed within twenty-four hours of its arrival, with those which raised more difficult questions being referred to the proper government agency. Finally, I followed Calvin Coolidge’s axiom, “Never write when you can speak, and never speak when you can remain silent.”

Russell Gerould helped me with my speeches, as he had done throughout my governorship. He was extremely adept in looking up data for my historical references, and he followed my preference for short, succinct statements.

When I was governor the most interesting item which together we brought to the attention of the citizens of Massachusetts was the fact that the commonwealth had never adopted the first ten amendments to our Constitution, the Bill of Rights. Accordingly, I recommended that the legislature rectify this omission by voting a belated adoption of the amendments, and when the resolution was forwarded to the secretary of state, Mr. Hull formally acknowledged its receipt in a stiff parchment sealed with wax, which is now in the State Archives.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.