Description:

A large archive of over 280 congratulatory letters written to Justice Owen J. Roberts on the occasion of his nomination to the Supreme Court – including letters and telegrams from all the sitting justices

(SUPREME COURT) An archive of over 280 letters and telegrams addressed to Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, all written upon the occasion of his nomination and subsequent confirmation to the Supreme Court in May 1930. Bound in two handsome quarto volumes in red morocco with gilt titling and rules and ribbed spine, the letters come from prominent members of the legal and business worlds including original letters from sitting Associate Justices James Clark McReynolds (ALS, May 21, 1930), Louis D. Brandeis (ANS, May 21, 1930), and Harlan Stone (2 TLsS, May 12 & 23, 1930), as well as congratulatory telegrams from Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, Justice Pierce Butler, and Supreme Court Clerk, Charles Elmore Cropley. The volumes also include letters from numerous other judges, government officials, current and former law partners, and an assortment of business leaders and academics (including a May 10, 1930 TLS from future Supreme Court Justice, Felix Frankfurter, who would join Roberts on the bench in 1939). Most of the letters are in overall fine condition save for occasional light toning and file holes. Offered together with a small volume, Justice Owen J. Roberts Resignation from the Supreme Court of the United States. ([Washington: Privately Printed, 1945]), octavo, 6 leaves, limited edition of 100 (this being no. 2), bound in titled black boards, containing facsimiles of Robert's letter of resignation of June 30, 1945 and President Harry Truman's acceptance of the same. Minor rubbing to boards.

The collected congratulatory letters to Roberts evoke the excitement of what was a crowning achievement to a long and successful legal career. Chief Justice Hughes's telegram, which begins the series of bound correspondence, reads, in full: ''TELEGRAM RECEIVED STOP ACCEPT MY HEARTIEST CONGRATUATIONS STOP I SHALL BE GLAD OT SEE YOU TOMORROW AFTERNOON AT THE CONFERENCE ROOM OF THE SUPREME COURT AT THE CAPITOL AT THREE THIRTY IF THAT TIME WILL SUIT YOUR CONVENIENCE = CHARLES E. HUGHES." Justice McReynolds, after congratulating Roberts, advised him: "You will find the work exacting and at times wearisome; but there are compensations among them the satisfaction of working out correct and helpful results without fear or favor." Justice Stone, who wrote two letters to Roberts, added in his second message (May 23, 1930): "I don't know whether you will be thinking of getting a house in Washington or not, and doubtless you will be in no hurry about it, but I have taken the liberty of giving to Mrs. Pendleton May a card of introduction to Mrs. Roberts. She has for sale or rent some very attractive houses in this vicinity, and I think you would do well to see what she has."

Frankfurter's letter to Roberts is perhaps the most thoughtful and profound: "As one whose chief preoccupation is the work of the Supreme Court and whose devotion to it is exceeded by none, perhaps I may add a word before you take the veil, without being guilty even of constructive contempt. There is a good deal of talk about 'conservative' and 'liberal'. The characterizations hardly describe anybody since we are all a compound of both. What divides men much more decisively is the extent to which they are free–free from a dogmatic outlook on life, free from fears. And that is what cheers me so about your appointment. For you have, I believe, no skeletons in the closet of your mind, and are a servant neither of a blind traditionalism nor of blind indifference to historic wisdom. Yours, I believe, is the spirit of Maitland, who defined the function of history 'as that of explaining, and therefore lightening the pressure that the past must exercise upon the present, and the present upon the future.'"

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