TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY NEWSPAPER EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, WORLD WAR I SECRETARY OF THE NAVY AND CHAMPION OF WHITE SUPREMACY JOSEPHUS DANIELS.

Daniels writes to future Congressman Seymour Halpern, then a young autograph collector, apologizing for the delay in signing and returning a photo of himself [not here present]: "I was away when [the picture] was received and have been under great strain since. I am very glad to autograph it and feel very much honored that you should desire it."

Josephus Daniels [1862-1948] was a Democrat and a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina. He was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I. He also served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to Mexico from 1933-41. Though opposed to the Ku Klux Klan, he began a white supremacy campaign in North Carolina which led to Democratic victories and to the disenfranchisement of African Americans. He was regarded as responsible for inciting the Wilmington Race Riots in 1898. The USS Josephus Daniels was named after him as well as schools and public buildings all over North Carolina.

The Queens, New York Republican Congressman Seymour Halpern (1913-1997) started his political career as a campaign aide to New York's powerful mayor Fiorella La Guardia and first served in New York's State Senate for 14 years before seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress. In Albany Halpern sponsored 279 bills that became law, including measures on schools, housing, civil rights, nutrition and mental health. A Liberal, he was something of an anomaly as the lone Republican representative from New York City, and generally garnered support from Labor Unions and endorsement from the Liberal Party. Yet he never even considered switching parties as he considered membership in the Republican Party a family tradition and commitment. While he found ample time for his private pursuits, including painting and collecting autographs, he took his legislative duties very seriously. Of these, he was proudest of his co-sponsorship of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and of the original 1965 Medicare legislation.