MORRIS SHEPPARD - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/22/1923 - HFSID 86915

MORRIS SHEPPARD
He signs a typed letter (1923) saying he has no information about plans for a National Archives Building.
Typed Letter signed: "Morris Sheppard" as US Senator, 1 page, 8½x11. Texarkana, Texas, 1923 May 22. On letterhead of the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation to Carson Hathaway, Washington, D.C. Originating address supplied by ink stamp. In full: "Your letter of May 16 addressed to me at Washington, has been forwarded to me here. I regret that I do not have any information or literature available for distribution on the question of a National Archives Building. Senator Smoot, who has been interested in this matter, advises me that no public hearings have been held on the subject, and that there are no public documents available so far as he knows, relating to it. I regret that I can not be of service to you at this time in this matter. Yours very truly". John Morris Sheppard (1875-1941) won election to his late father's seat in the US House of Representatives in 1902, serving there until elected to represent Texas in the US Senate (1913-1941). He was Democratic whip (1929-1933). A strong advocate of alcohol prohibition, Sheppard introduced the Eighteenth Amendment in the Senate and helped write the Volstead Act (1919), which provided for its enforcement. The 18th Amendment was the only one ever repealed by another amendment (the 21st, 1933), belying Sheppard's statement that "there is as much chance of repealing the eighteenth amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail." When Sheppard died in office, Lyndon Johnson ran unsuccessfully in the special election to replace him. Sheppard lived to see the National Archives Building opened in 1935. On display in its rotunda are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Louisiana Purchase, the Emancipation Proclamation, and a copy of the Magna Carta. Normal mailing folds. Creased and toned. Pencil note (unknown hand) on verso.