PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT - MEMORANDUM SIGNED 05/23/1930 - HFSID 42076

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
As Governor, FDR signs a typed memorandum to his law partner, Basil O'Connor, seeking advice about appointments to a commission to study legal reforms. (Framed in the Gallery of History style, with explanatory plaque and unsigned FDR photo to 24x22)
Typed Memorandum initialed: "F.D.R." as Governor of New York, 1p, 6¾x8½. On State of New York, Albany letterhead, but written from Warm Springs, Georgia, 1930 May 23. Headed: "MEMORANDUM FOR D. B.O'CONNOR". In full: "The Commission of Study Law Reform is to be composed of (1) 4 members of the Legislature who will all be lawyers, two Republicans and two Democrats; (2) two appointees of the Bar Association of the State of New York, both of whom I assume will be lawyers and probably upstaters; (3) four appointees of the Governor, of whom you will be the only lawyer. I want the other three to be laymen. Perhaps you could run in and have a talk with Judge Cardozo, confidentially, in my behalf and ask him if he has any suggestions to make in regard to the three lay appointees. It will be hard work without any pay but there is a fairly generous appropriation for the expenses of the commission, so that experts and clerical help can be obtained." Roosevelt, who served as Governor of New York from 1929-1933, and "DOC" BASIL O'CONNOR were law partners from January 1, 1925 until March 3, 1933, the day before FDR's inauguration as President. Roosevelt first visited Warm Springs, Georgia's naturally heated mineral springs as treatment for his polio related paralysis in 1924. The Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, a hospital for polio patients, was founded by FDR in 1927. Today, it is the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, a comprehensive medical and vocational rehabilitation facility, providing services for people with many different types of disabilities. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), the 32nd President of the U.S., served as President longer than any other man (1933-1945). Roosevelt, who was elected to an unprecedented four terms as President and served for 12 years before dying in office in 1945, led the nation through two of its greatest crises, the Great Depression and WWII. He had previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1920), a post once held by his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, and as a New York State Senator (1911-1913), and had been a candidate for the Democratic Vice Presidential nomination in 1920. Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Type light but legible. Receipt stamp at upper right margin. Fine condition. Framed in the Gallery of History style: 24x22.