ASSOCIATE JUSTICE FRANK MURPHY - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/25/1939 - HFSID 291689

FRANK MURPHY
As Attorney General, he sends belated thanks for the gift of a book about Abraham Lincoln.
Typed Letter signed: "Frank Murphy" as Attorney General, 1 page, 7x9¼. Washington, D.C., 1945 March 25. On official letterhead to G. Lynn Sumner, New York City. In full: "The very attractive volume on Lincoln and His Books which you so kindly sent me was received while I was confined to my room because of illness. I am sorry indeed that absence from Washington and the press of work have further delayed this acknowledgement. The book is one which I shall be pleased to have in my library, and I wish to thank you most heartily for your thoughtfulness in sending it to me. Sincerely". Frank Murphy (1890-1949), a former Mayor of Detroit (1930-1933), Governor-General of the Philippine Islands (1933-1936) and Governor of Michigan (1937-1938), became President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Attorney General on Jan. 2, 1939, serving until Jan. 17, 1940. On Jan. 18, 1940, he was sworn in as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, serving until his death in 1949. As an Associate Justice, Murphy wrote many of the Court's opinions concerning civil liberties, including that for the 1940 Thornhill v. Alabama case, in which he clarified labor's right to strike, holding that peaceful picketing was a manifestation of freedom of speech. Mailing fold through center. Mounting residue on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.