PRESIDENT DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 12/17/1956 - HFSID 30948

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Dwight D. Eisenhower sends a typed letter of thanks for the gift.
Typed Letter Signed: "D.E." as President, 1p, 7x8¾. The White House, Washington, 1956 December 17. To Brigadier General Robert Cutler, Chairman, Old Colony Trust Company, Boston. In full: "I suspect you have many times been told this, but you have a rare quality of thinking of things that especially delight Mamie and me. So it is with the quotation from Fra Giovanni that you have had so beautifully illuminated for us (and so it is, incidentally, with your bachelor's Christmas wrapping!). Won't you please convey to the artist my admiration of his lovely work -- and to you, as always, my lasting appreciation of your friendship and thoughtfulness." The quotation from 16th century Italian monk Fra Giovanni was most probably this one, written in 1513: "I salute you! There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much, that, while I cannot give, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take Peace. The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy. And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you, with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away." ROBERT CUTLER (1895-1974) had served as the nation's first Special Assistant for National Security Affairs for President EISENHOWER from 1953-1955, returning on January 7, 1957, just three weeks after this letter, serving again until June 24, 1958. Heavy stains on verso show through upper quarter of letter, above the body of the letter, else in fine condition.