Franklin D. Roosevelt

A Letter of Praise for Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley.

January 21, 1938

My dear Mac:

I understand that friends of Alben Barkley are giving a dinner in his honor in Louisville tomorrow night and since you are also a Kentuckian I wish you would go down to Louisville and tell the home folks how much we in Washington think of their senior Senator.

Alben Barkley, during his twenty-five years in Congress-first as a member of the House of Representatives and now for more than a decade as a member of the Senate—has rendered distinguished service. Kentuckians have always borne a conspicuous part in our national affairs and the present senior Senator is not only the inheritor of a great tradition of public service but the exemplar in modern terms of that tradition.

These are critical times, times which demand all that a public man can command of resources and experience. Senator Barkley's long familiarity with national affairs, his integrity, his patriotic zeal, his courage, and loyalty and his eloquence in enunciating and elucidating problems and principles give him exceptional equipment as a legislator and as a leader.

For all that he has done in his country's service, his countrymen owe him a debt of gratitude which it is difficult to estimate but which I embrace this opportunity to acknowledge. I send him and all who gather in his honor my hearty good wishes.

Very sincerely yours,

Honorable Marvin H. Mcintyre,

The White House,

Washington, D.C.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, A Letter of Praise for Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/209169

Filed Under

Categories

Attributes

Simple Search of Our Archives