<--PREV Doc #273  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #275 Document #274; August 6, 1957 To Dan Hendrickson Series: EM, WHCF, President’s Personal File 1705 ; Category: Personal The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part II: Civil Rights; June 1957 to September 1957 Chapter 4: "Logic and reason must operate gradually"   Dear Mr. Hendrickson: From time to time and from various places in the world you have sent to Mrs. Eisenhower and me different mementos and gifts which have evidenced your thoughtful kindness and continued consideration. We have accepted them as such, and no more.1 Only today there arrived for Mrs. Eisenhower and me several robes of obvious quality and beauty. However, at the same time I learned that your brother visited Governor Adams recently with the suggestion that he again enter governmental employment. In these circumstances I cannot possibly accept the gifts, because I make it an invariable practice never to accept even a token gift from anyone who has a direct or indirect interest in any official act of the Executive Department. I know, of course, that you do not mean these presents as anything to influence my decision, but I have followed the inflexible policy described above, so that there can never be the slightest question in such a delicate matter.2 In this instance I am uncertain as to whether you or a number of commercial firms are actually the donors of the gifts, but I return the items to you with the request that they reach the proper individual. I of course continue to appreciate your thoughtfulness and many courtesies to my wife and to me.3 Sincerely 1 Hendrickson worked for the National Cash Register Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although Eisenhower had accepted a selection of ties from Hendrickson in November 1954, he had asked Hendrickson at that time to discontinue sending gifts (see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 1150). 2 In January 1955 Eisenhower had appointed Robert Clymer Hendrickson, former Republican senator from New Jersey, as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand. The following year he had resigned the post to return to private life (see ibid., no. 1242, and New York Times, Mar. 23, 1957). 3 Hendrickson would reply on August 11 (same file as document). "In the future," he wrote, "I most certainly will convey my expressions of friendship and appreciation by letters and cards. I did not intend to cause you . . . any embarrassment." Hendrickson added that he regretted that "the critics, the press and yes reporters" should "indicate publically [sic] that an act of kindness, thoughtfulness and appreciation must carry behind it an ulterior motive for personal selfish gain." Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal To Dan Hendrickson, 6 August 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 274. 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/second-term/documents/274.cfm <--PREV Doc #273  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #275

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