Dear Cardinal Spellman: It causes me real distress to have to return a negative reply to your invitation for the Al Smith Dinner this fall.1 Any request of yours has always been to me very close to a command; I so value your friendship and I so respect the work you are doing through the Al Smith Dinner that I feel especially guilty in declining this one.2
My reasons are of such a character that I am certain you will consider them completely valid. My fall schedule is already a terrifying one and unfortunately includes a number of "must" speeches--in fact, too large a number. I have always been certain that one who has to appear often in public must earnestly strive to limit the occasions on which he must make a so-called speech. To make too many is like writing too many checks on an account that can easily be overdrawn.
Included in my October schedule are trips to Kansas City, Texas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania.3 At least two of them are engagements that were made last year, and another is based upon the absolute necessity of meeting with Mexican authorities down on the Rio Grande.4 These examples will give you some hint of what this life is.
When the time comes I should be glad, of course, to send to your guests some kind of a message if you should so desire--indeed I would have no objection to your making some notation in your invitation of my great interest in the occasion. For example, you might want to include such a statement as:
"The Al Smith Dinner not only honors the memory of a great American, but helps to foster that mutual understanding among all men that must be the basis of our free society."5
Sincerely
