Presidential Papers, Doc#2 To Robert Alphonso Taft, 21 January 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
<--PREV
Doc #1		  |  Memorial Commission
Home Page		  |  First Term
Table of Contents		  |  Presidential Papers
Home Page 		 | 
Doc#
 |  NEXT-->
Doc #3

Document #2; January 21, 1953
To Robert Alphonso Taft
Series: Taft Papers
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953
Chapter 1: Developing a spirit of teamwork

 

Dear Senator:1 Someone just told me that the nominations I sent yesterday, to the Senate were confirmed today.2 My thanks for the dispatch with which you handled the matter.

I am looking forward to the first of our Joint Executive-Legislative meetings,3 next Monday at 8:30 a.m. There will be coffee on hand! Sincerely

1 Senate Majority Leader in the Eighty-third Congress, the Ohio conservative had been Eisenhower's rival for the 1952 Republican presidential nomination. Though that contest had been bitter, Eisenhower as party nominee had taken considerable pains to befriend Taft and win support among the party's Old Guard (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 945 and 983). Eisenhower wrote this letter in longhand.

2 By a voice vote the Senate had approved John Foster Dulles as Eisenhower's Secretary of State; George M. Humphrey as Secretary of the Treasury; Herbert Brownell, Jr., as Attorney General; Arthur M. Summerfield as Postmaster General; Douglas McKay as Secretary of the Interior; Ezra Taft Benson as Secretary of Agriculture; Sinclair Weeks as Secretary of Commerce; Martin P. Durkin as Secretary of Labor; and Oveta Culp Hobby as Director of the Federal Security Administration (Congressional Quarterly Almanac, vol. XI, 1953, pp. 572-73). Supreme Court Chief Justice Frederick Moore Vinson swore all of them into office in a ceremony held in the East Room of the White House this same day at 5:30 p.m.

For background on Dulles, an international lawyer, see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 218 and 857. On Brownell, a New York lawyer and Republican party leader, see ibid., nos. 196, 740, and 995. Summerfield is discussed in ibid., nos. 712, 813, 873, and 998. On Weeks, former chairman of the Republican party Finance Committee, see ibid., no. 860, and on Durkin, a Catholic, Democrat, and labor union president, see ibid., no. 1006. Humphrey, a coal and iron-ore company executive from Ohio; Benson, whose background was in Idaho and Utah agricultural marketing; and McKay, outgoing Oregon Republican governor, are all discussed in ibid., no. 995. For background on Hobby, a Texan and veteran of World War II, see ibid., no. 1020.

3 Earlier, on December 29, Eisenhower had met with Republican Senate leaders to discuss the principal points of his legislative program (see ibid., no. 1020). On that agenda see no. 26.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Robert Alphonso Taft, 21 January 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 2. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/2.cfm

<--PREV
Doc #1		  |  Memorial Commission
Home Page		  |  First Term
Table of Contents		  |  Presidential Papers
Home Page 		 | 
Doc#
 |  NEXT-->
Doc #3
 


Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission
1629 K Street, NW Suite 801
Washington DC 20006
Phone: 202.296.0004    Fax: 202.296.6464