Description:

Cardozo Benjamin

Benjamin Cardozo TLS: " … I must take what you say largely upon faith. Even so, however, I can appreciate the clarity of your argument"


1p TLS on cream stationery paper with "Bar Building, 36 West 44th Street, New York City" letterhead signed by then New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge and future Supreme Court Associate Justice Benjamin Cardozo (1870-1938) as Benjamin N. Cardozo in black fountain pen in bottom right corner. In very good to near fine condition. Expected horizontal paper folds, torn a little at the right edge. Overall toning and minor finger grubbiness near edges. The page measures 5.75” x 7.5.”


Cardozo wrote this letter on September 28, 1929 from his New York City offices. Cardozo's correspondent, New York lawyer Harold Roland Shapiro, had recently sent the judge a letter containing a copy of an editorial Shapiro had submitted to the Journal of Commerce.


"I have your letter of the 27th with a copy of your interesting letter to the editor of the Journal of Commerce", Cardozo began. "I know so little about such matters that I must take what you say largely upon faith. Even so, however, I can appreciate the clarity of your argument," he continued.


Cardozo was probably underestimating his abilities to understand economic theory, especially when we consider that many of his judicial decisions in the New York Court of Appeals and later in the Supreme Court treated the intersection of law and business. Equally striking is Cardozo's unlawyerly statement that he believed in something based on someone's assurance instead of evidence! Yet, if Cardozo's lack of understanding is to be believed, the lawyer in him still appreciated Shapiro's rhetorical style and his clear presentation of arguments.


In 1929, Benjamin Cardozo was almost 3 years into his 5-year term as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. He later resigned from this position to accept the nomination to the Supreme Court by 31st U.S. President Herbert Hoover in 1932.


Cardozo, along with left-leaning justices Harlan Fiske Stone and Louis Brandeis, formed the “Three Musketeers” and voted in favor of many New Deal policies. From 1932 to 1937, they faced off against the “Four Horsemen,” as conservative justices George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter, James Clark McReynolds, and Pierce Butler were called.


Harold Roland Shapiro (active 1930-1970) was admitted to the New York bar in 1927. Shapiro served for many years as an Assistant District Attorney dealing with mainly criminal cases. Shapiro's scholarly interests were diverse: he published monographs on topics ranging from labor law to twentieth-century warfare. Shapiro also contributed to the New York Times and wrote book reviews.


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