[Released March 29, 1956. Dated March 28, 1956]
Dear Mr. Secretary:
It is with profound personal regret that I accept your resignation as Secretary of the Interior, effective April fifteenth.
While I am reluctant to forego your valuable assistance as a member of the Cabinet, I understand your purpose and I salute your determination to bring the facts pertaining to this Administration before your fellow citizens of Oregon.
Under your guidance and with your enthusiastic leadership, the Department of the Interior has ably met its responsibilities in carrying forward the essential programs designed to assure orderly development and wise use of our natural .resources, in accord with sound conservation principles.
Our mission has not been completed. While we have made significant progress in the past three years, much remains to be done before the aims of this Administration will have been fully met.
As a Cabinet member you have helped shape our programs for the benefit of 166 million Americans. Your counsel in these matters has been of inestimable value. Your knowledge of natural resource conservation and management, gained through long years of experience in private life and as a public official, has served the nation well during the period you have been Secretary of the Interior. I have no doubt that it will continue to be of benefit to your State and the nation in the years to come.
I am sure that there are many who share with me a sense of loss at your departure and who join me in extending every good wish as you undertake this new phase of your distinguished public career.
With warm personal regard,
Sincerely,
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Note: Secretary McKay's letter, dated March 27, 1956, follows:
My dear Mr. President:
Because I am convinced that I can best serve the Nation and you at the present time by returning to Oregon and carrying to the people of my state certain issues and principles in which we both believe, I respectfully ask that you accept my resignation as Secretary of the Interior, effective April 15, 1956.
I leave your administration with the most profound admiration for your inspiring leadership. To have served under you has been the most cherished and rewarding experience of my life.
I am grateful for the opportunity you have afforded me to serve the people of our country by carrying forward the vital programs for wise use and conservation of our natural resources. One of the most important pledges you have made to the American people is to assure that these programs would be carried out in accord with our fundamental traditions. I am proud of the efforts and the accomplishments of the Department of the Interior in fulfilling this challenging assignment.
Special words of tribute are due the members of my staff and my fellow workers in the Department, each one of whom has offered me his wholehearted aid and cooperation through the many months we have shared these common tasks and objectives.
In the months to come, you may be sure that I will strive to further the ideals and objectives of your administration so that the great work which has thus been started will go on to the shining goals which you have set.
If ever I can be of service to you in any way, I hope you will not hesitate to call upon me.
God bless you.
Faithfully yours,
DOUGLAS McKAY
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter Accepting Resignation of Douglas McKay as Secretary of the Interior. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233057