Description:

Jackson Robert

1p TLS on watermarked paper with "Supreme Court of the United States, Washington 13, DC" letterhead signed by Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) as "Robert H. Jackson" in blue ball point pen at center right. A typed excerpt from Cicero's Republic is stapled at bottom of page. In near fine condition, with expected paper folds. Page measures 5.75" x 9".

Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote this TLS on September 11, 1952 from his chambers in Washington, DC, thanking his correspondent, New York lawyer Harold Roland Shapiro, for sending him a quotation by Cicero.

Cicero's quotation affirmed the dynamic nature of self-government. The ancient Roman believed that only over time could "the constitution of our republic" be perfected through the participation of many. Jackson thought that this was an apt analysis, and he would know; he was charged with interpreting one such constitution every day. Indeed, lawyers have debated the question of a rigid or an elastic interpretation of the U.S. Constitution since the 1790s.

Jackson mentioned British Prime Minister William Gladstone (1809-1898) in this TLS. Gladstone had admired the U.S. Constitution, but viewed it as a miraculous, almost spontaneously generated document: it was the most "wonderful work" that had ever been "struck off by the brain and purpose of man". Jackson disagreed with Gladstone's assessment, writing to Shapiro: "we know [the U.S. Constitution] is [of] a continual growth".

Robert H. Jackson was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by 33rd U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Known as being one of the best writers on the Supreme Court, Jackson served as Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials (1945-46). Jackson served on the bench from 1941 until his death in 1954.

Harold Roland Shapiro (active 1930-1970) was a New York attorney and author of several books like What Every Young Man Should Know About War (1937). This book, published on the eve of World War II, included gruesome accounts of modern warfare; Shapiro had apparently come across disturbing World War I medical reports while researching a law case. Shapiro also published books about labor unions and Abraham Lincoln's biographer Emanuel Hertz.

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