Jackson, Henry M. “Scoop”

Description

Type: Letter
Description: (1912-1983) Washington State lawyer and politician, US Rep 1941-53, influential Senator 1953-83. The Cold War liberal and anti-Communist Democrat supported higher military spending and a hard line against the USSR, while also supporting social welfare programs, civil rights, and labor unions.

Jackson practiced law after graduating from the Univ. of Washington Law School, won election to Congress in 1940 and joined the Senate in 1953. He supported major civil rights bills of the 1960s and authored the National Environmental Policy Act, which helped establish the principle of publicly analyzing environmental impacts. He co-sponsored the Jackson-Vanik amendment which denied normal trade relations to countries with restrictive emigration policies.

He was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 1963-81, twice an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination (1972 & 1976).

He strongly supported civil rights, human rights, and safeguarding the environment, but with an equally strong commitment to oppose totalitarianism in general communism in particular.  His political philosophies and positions influenced key neoconservatives, incl. Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, both his former Senate aides.

The Seattle-based Henry M. Jackson Foundation was created in 1983 to further his work. In 1987, the Dept. of Defense gave the Foundation a one-time, $10M appropriation for its endowment in honor of the Senator. To date it has awarded over $26M in grants to educational and nonprofit institutions. Jackson also sponsored legislation to form the Foundation to Advance Military Medicine, re-named at his death to the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.

A.Willis Robertson (1887-1971) Virginia Democrat, lukewarm Byrd Organization ally, US Rep 1933-46, US Senator 1946-66. A member of the conservative coalition during his congressional career, Robertson was a vocal opponent of civil rights. He was the father of televangelist Pat Robertson.

He co-authored the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act which creates the formula for federal sharing of ammunition tax revenues with states to establish wildlife areas, a primary financing source for wildlife areas.

Robertson was chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 1959-66. In 1956, he was one of 19 senators who signed the  “Southern Manifesto” against the  Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) decision which mandated school desegregation. When First Lady Lady Bird Johnson made a train trip through the South to encourage support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Robertson was one of 4 Southern Senators who refused to meet with her. In retaliation, President Johnson personally recruited considerably more liberal Democrat Wm. B. Spong  Jr. to run against Robertson in the 1966 Democratic primary. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had added Black and lower-income voters and Spong defeated Robertson in one of the biggest upsets in Virginia political history.

LaFayette “Fayette“ McMullen  (1805-1880) Virginia politician and banker,  2^nd appointed Governor of Washington Territory.

He was a member of the Virginia Senate 1839-49, elected as a Democratic to Congress 1848, served 1849-57.  He was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Navy Department 1851-55, and chairman of the Committee on Expenditures on Public Buildings 1855-57. McMullen was a delegate to the 1852 & 1856 Democratic National Conventions and was appointed (2nd) Territorial Governor of Washington by President Buchanan, serving 1857-59.  He was elected to the CSA Congress, serving 1864-65. He later engaged in agriculture and banking and lost election for Virginia governor in 1878.

TLS “Scoop” on 8 x 6 “United States Senate/Washington, D.C.” letterhead, Nov. 13 1964. to Virginia US Senator (D) A. Willis Robertson. Jackson thanks him for sending a Virginia newspaper article on Fayette McMullen’s service as 2^nd Governor of Washington Territory, which Jackson read with great interest, adding: “We are proud of our Virginia connections in this State. Some of the earliest settlers came from your great State.”

Condition: Very good