Dear Jim:
As I accept your resignation, effective at the close of my term January 20, 1953, I want to express to you my appreciation of your willingness to give up the lifetime tenure of a Judgeship to accept, at my request, the office of Attorney General of the United States.
To anyone who knows you, your sense of patriotic duty comes as no surprise. I told the truth about you when I awarded you the Medal for Merit in March 1946. As Assistant to the Attorney General, you were outstanding in your supervision of the agencies of the Department of Justice that were responsible for our wartime internal security.
As Attorney General, in a time of international tension, you have again helped to protect our democratic institutions by the vigorous prosecution of those who would undermine and destroy them. And in your scrupulous regard for individual rights and due process, you have strengthened the basic freedoms which are the heart of our democracy.
For all these things and for your prompt acceptance of my call to duty, I am deeply grateful. It is my sincere wish that the days and years to come may bring all the best things in life to you and to your family.
Sincerely yours,
HARRY S. TRUMAN
Note: Mr. McGranery served as The Assistant to the Attorney General from November to, 1943, to October 8, 1946, as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from October 9, 1946, to May 26, 1952, and as Attorney General from May 27, 1952, to January 20, 1953. His letter of resignation, dated January 15, was released with the President's reply.
Harry S Truman, Letter Accepting Resignation of James P. McGranery as the Attorney General. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231390