833101
Benjamin N. Cardozo
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Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, 1870-1938. Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court, 1932-1938. Scarce Autograph Note Signed, Benjamin N. Cardozo, as Supreme Court Justice on a 4½" x 2¾" card, Washington, [D.C.], October 28, 1937. With original envelope.
Cardozo, the second Jewish member of the Supreme Court, politely responds to Oklahoma attorney Ewing C. Sadler, who sought his autograph. In full: “I take pleasure in complying with your request for an autograph. / Very truly yours / Benjamin N. Cardozo".
The accompanying mailing envelope is engraved Supreme Court stationery. Cardozo has addressed it himself and has signed his initials above the return address, providing, in a sense, a second autograph.
Ironically, it was President Herbert Hoover who appointed Cardozo to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. In 1928, Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew, supported Hoover's opponent, New York Governor Al Smith, for the presidency. Although Cardozo respected Hoover, he wrote that the Republican Party comprised "all the narrow-minded bigots, all the Jew haters, all those who would make of the United States an exclusively Protestant government. . . . The defeat of Smith will be acclaimed as a great victory by . . . the friends of obscurantism."
Cardozo's appointment was even more politically intriguing for three reasons: The Supreme Court already had a Jew, Justice Louis D. Brandeis; it already had a New Yorker, Justice Harlan Fiske Stone; and Cardozo was a Democrat, while Hoover was a Republican. Hoover may have thought that a nonpartisan appointment would help him in his uphill bid for reelection later that year.
Whatever Hoover's motive, the appointment was popular. Cardozo was a respected jurist who had been elected to the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, after endorsements from the major political parties. He wrote and lectured on jurisprudence in addition to serving with distinction on the bench. The organized bar, academics, and the news media all enthusiastically supported his appointment.
Cardozo's autograph material as a Justice is scarce because of the short time, six years, that he served on the Supreme Court before his death. This card is in extra fine condition, and Cardozo's handwriting and signature are bold. The envelope is a little stained, and the stamp has been removed from it, but overall it is in fine condition.
Unframed.
This item has been sold.
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