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ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Political Memorabilia Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 500.00 USD
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
(1884 - 1962) First Lady, wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States. Eleanor was active in a wide range of liberal and humanitarian projects. Superb content T.L.S. 1p. 4to., New York, Apr. 6, 1953, to Mrs. Eiler. At the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism, Eleanor tartly writes in response to an article sent by the correspondent about the Suffragette reformers, their "Communist" persuasions and no doubt other mud-slinging political claims, in part: "...The subtle working of people who want to destroy our consitutional form of government is far less harmful than the attacks which are being made on people who are good citizens even though they may not conform to certain conventional patterns. These attacks are making people turn against ther neighbors and are achieving what the Soviets want, which is disunity and suspicion among ourselves. There is not a shred of truth in the article you sent. Mrs. [Carrie Chapman] Catt did want peace but she was not a communist and neither was Miss [Jane] Addams. The Red Network named a lot of people all of whom were later cleared. A great many of the organizations named are most important to the protection of our freedom, for instance the American Civil Liberties Union. They must mean the American Civil Liberties Congress, and yet they say the Union and not the Congress. The Women's League for Peace and Freedom is pacifist but not communist. The people who believe Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent were not all communists. Certainly neither Dr. Channing Tobias not Phillip Jessup nor I are, or ever were, communists. Socialism is not communism and no one will deny that there are certain things about our government such as our postal system, which are more or less socialist ways of getting things done but they are not communist, and it is a well known fact that the socialists in Europe have fought more bitterly than anyone else against communism...". In April 1953,Eleanor had written several posts lambasting Senator McCarthy, most notably regarding requests from her readers about how they could obtain a copy of the notorious Report that was not made readily available to the public. On April 4, Eleanor quipped: "I am told that the Senator feels he is being unfairly attacked because of the patriotic work he is doing by bringing to the attention of the public the danger of communism in the United States. I often wonder if he realizes how well he is doing the work of the Soviets...To make people suspicious of one another and to weaken a nation from within is good Communist procedure, and Senator McCarthy has been extraordinarily successful in accomplishing these ends". As history has borne out, no one connected with any liberal groups was safe from the FBI's prying eyes: Eleanor mentions NAACP leader Channing Tobias, who was under constant and enormous pressure to prove he was anti-Communist with the publication of his scathing attack on the American racism "We Charge Genocide" in 1951, while the lesser-known diplomat and jurist Phillip Jessup was a primary target for McCarthy for his "unusual affinity for Communist causes" and alleged affiliation with known Communist groups. The great humanitarian Eleanor too came under fire for her affiliation with liberal groups. Although she was never subject to a formal FBI investigation, a file of some 3,000 pages on her was created. Three holograph emendations, boldly signed and in very good condition. With original envelope bearing stamped franking signature.