<--PREV Doc #42  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #44 Document #43; February 21, 1957 To Herbert Brownell, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   Dear Herb: I understand you have already received a copy of Senator Bricker's letter to me of February thirteenth.1 When you have completed your comments on it, won't you communicate directly with Senator Bricker? I really think it is senseless to use me merely as a post office in transmitting messages that are by their very nature extremely technical in character. My own views on this subject have not changed since the whole matter was first explained to me.2 In spite of the above, I hope you will report to me on the results of your conversations with Judge Orie Phillips.3 With warm regard, As ever 1 Eisenhower was referring to a February 13 letter from Senator John W. Bricker (AWF/D) regarding the Senator's latest efforts to limit the treaty-making power by amending the Constitution. The Senator had expressed disappointment with the Justice Department's "blanket condemnation" of the text of a proposed revision to the controversial amendment (see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, no. 2150). He said that he had asked Judge Orie L. Phillips to analyze the Justice Department's arguments. Bricker further suggested that he was in "full accord with the three objectives stated in your letter of September 25" (i.e., that no treaty should be valid if it conflicts with the Constitution; that treaties should be used in the conduct of foreign relations and not as a subterfuge to enact domestic law; and that no amendment should hamper the president's power to conduct foreign affairs; see ibid., no. 1995). "Why not," he asked, "have your legal and diplomatic advisers draft a constitutional amendment strictly limited to the three basic principles on which we are agreed? Such a draft might open the way for fruitful discussions. I just can't believe," he wrote, "that the English language is so inflexible that the three principles . . . are incapable of constitutional expression." On February 18 Eisenhower had acknowledged Bricker's letter and promised that when he returned to Washington from his Thomasville vacation, he would discuss the matter with Attorney General Brownell (AWF/D). 2 For Eisenhower's opposition to the Bricker amendment see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, nos. 59, 741, and 1824. For more on the Bricker amendment see Duane Tananbaum, The Bricker Amendment Controversy: A Test of Eisenhower's Political Leadership (Ithaca, 1988), pp. 203 - 9, 227. 3 On Orie Leon Phillips, former Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Denver, see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, nos. 415 and 1725. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Herbert Brownell, Jr., 21 February 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 43. 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/43.cfm <--PREV Doc #42  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #44

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