Description:

Frankfurter Felix

Felix Frankfurter's Signed Presentation Copy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Graveside Remarks

 

A presentation copy of an address delivered by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965) at the graveside of 32nd U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), inscribed and signed by Frankfurter as "For Dorothy + Tom McAllister, / with the cordial feelings of / F.F." in the upper right hand corner. Frankfurter's remarks are printed and number 5 pages in length. Stapled in the upper left corner. Light overall toning and expected light paper folds. Isolated foxing at the top of the first page. A few chipped edges. Else very good to near fine. 8" x 10.5".

 

On June 1, 1956--Memorial Day--Associate Justice Frankfurter delivered a few remarks at FDR's grave in Hyde Park, New York before members of the Roosevelt Home Club. He had also been invited, along with a few other guests, to attend a luncheon with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962).

 

Frankfurter's eulogy begins with the disclaimer that he is not an historian. Yet he immediately contradicts this statement by placing his friend and colleague within a greater historical context. In the homage, Frankfurter compares FDR to no fewer than two other American legends: Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin. Frankfurter paints a laudatory portrait of the dead president, as both a man and a politician.

 

Excerpts:

 

"Franklin Roosevelt will meet what has been rightly defined as the final test of Presidential greatness: 'to be enshrined as a folk hero in the American consciousness.' He will continue to embody in an uncommonly gay and courageous manifestation the traditions and aspirations of Americans."

 

 

"Franklin Roosevelt cannot escape becoming a national saga, enshrined in myths, if you will…As it was of Lincoln, so it will be of Franklin Roosevelt, vast as are the surface differences between them. They both had the common touch--a sense of kinship with their fellows, communion that comes from the deep things men have in common, not common in the sense of what is vulgar and unedifying, The Roosevelt saga will never swallow up Roosevelt the man, whose friendship gave hope to millions who never knew him and whose death brought a feeling of intimate, personal loss to millions who never saw him.

 

Identification with his fellowmen was Roosevelt's profoundest characteristic and the ultimate key to his statesmanship. He was an instinctive democrat, a democrat in feeling and not through reflection; he was a spontaneous fellow-citizen and did not become one through abstract speculation about government."

 

 

"What was said of Benjamin Franklin may be said of Franklin Roosevelt, that he was 'a harmonious human multitude.' There were fused in him the qualities necessary for leading our people out of a period of deepening economic and moral deterioration by invigorating, through precept and example, the forces of democracy…"

 

Of Frankfurter's tribute, Eleanor Roosevelt later wrote in her longtime syndicated newspaper column "My Day" (June 1, 1956):

 

"The ceremonies were simple and Justice Frankfurter made, I think, one of the best speeches I have heard anyone make. He did not try to be the historian, evaluating the Roosevelt years. He just told how he felt my husband's impact would be on the future and some little stories of his experiences with my husband, particularly one in Hyde Park which delighted everyone present."

 

Felix Frankfurter, an Austrian Jewish immigrant, graduated from Harvard Law School with a superb academic record; he later taught there. FDR appointed Frankfurter to the Supreme Court, and he later became the president's close advisor. Frankfurter served on the bench from 1941 until retirement in 1962.

 

Frankfurter presented this signed copy to Thomas and Dorothy McAllister. Thomas McAllister served as a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit between 1941-1976 in various capacities including Chief Judge. Dorothy Smith McAllister (1899-1983), Tom's wife, was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and an alum of the University of Michigan. Between 1937-1941, Dorothy served as the director of the Women's Division of the Democratic National Committee, and was a dynamic civic leader.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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