Woodrow Wilson to James Aloysius O’Gorman

Woodrow Wilson to James Aloysius O’Gorman

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924

WWP17684

1913 April 20

Woodrow Wilson writes to James A. O'Gorman regarding his nomination for the Collectorship of the Port of New York.

Wilson Papers, Library of Congress, Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924--Correspondence

COPY.
(Original in President’s handwriting)
My dear Senator

I wish most cordially and unaffedtedly that I could accept your suggestion about the Collectorship of the Port of New York. I distrust my own judgment when I find it differing from yours, and my whole feeling about you, ever since I first knew you, has inclined me to agree with you and act with you.
But in this case, I am deeply sorry to say, it is not possible. I regard the Collectorship as in many ways as central and as intimately connected with my personal success as a place in the Cabinet. Moreover, I would as soon think of asking the Secretary of the Treasury to take a man whom he did not feel he could act with as his first assistant in his Department as ask him to take a man whom he does not feel he can act with as Collector of the Port of New York. The post is, in fact, of much more importance to him in the administration of the Treasury than is the first assistant Secretaryship.
He has known Mr. Polk for a long time and intimately. He trusts him, believes in his capacity, feels that he is especially adapted to the duties of the office, and desires there –– indeed, deems it indispensable that he should have –– someone with whom his relations may be personal and confidential from the first. I have had Mr. Polk very thoroughly looked up since I saw you and now feel sure that Mr. McAdoo is not mistaken in his estimate of him. He is just the man I was looking for. I deem it my duty, therefore, to send his name to the Senate for the appointment. I have reached the conclusion very deliberately and, I trust, with a full sense of my constitutional responsibility.
I beg you to believe that I do this in entire deference to yourself, and I hope most sincerely that you will generously support the vote of confirmation. If I did not see my duty very clearly in this case, it would give me real pleasure to act as you have suggested. I shall hope to have a talk with you again, for a fuller statement of my feeling and obligation in the matter, before I send the nomination to the Senate.
With great respect,

Woodrow Wilson

Hon. James A. O’Gorman
United States Senate.
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL.

Letter

O'Gorman, James Aloysius, 1860-1943