THRUSTON B. MORTON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/24/1969 - HFSID 172204

THRUSTON MORTON
Just retired from the Senate as President Nixon takes office, he signs a typed letter to a US Ambassador, informing him that he has recommended him to the new Secretary of State.
Typed Letter signed: "Thrus", 1 page, 7x10. Louisville, Kentucky, 1969 February 24. On personal letterhead to Ambassador Ben H. Brown, Jr., US Embassy, Monrovia, Liberia. In full: "I have contacted Secretary Rogers and brought to his attention my high regard for you. I hope and believe that you will get an assignment commensurate with your talents. You know that I hold these talents in high esteem. Belle Clay joins me in all good wishes. We are now in Louisville but I seem to be as busy as ever. Sincerely yours". Thruston Ballard Morton (1907-1982), a Lt. Commander in the US Navy in World War II, was Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations during the Eisenhower administration. He represented Kentucky in the US House (1947-1953) and Senate (1957-1968). He was Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1959-1961). Morton was Chairman and Director of Churchill Downs and President of the American Horse Council. When this letter was written, Morton had just retired from the US Senate but was still well connected in Washington. His brother, Rogers Morton, was a US Representative from Maryland, who would become President Nixon's Secretary of the Interior in 1971. According to President Nixon's daily diary, the President met with Thruston Morton and his wife, Belle Clay Morton, on March 15, 1969. Morton probably met Ben Hill Brown, Jr. (1914-1989), a US Foreign Service Officer, when both worked in the State Department's Office of Congressional Relations. His intercession on Hill's behalf with incoming Secretary of State William Rogers was unsuccessful, however. Hill, who had been appointed Ambassador to Liberia by President Johnson in 1964, apparently did not receive "an assignment commensurate with [his] talents" in the new administration, and retired from the Foreign Service. Staple holes at upper left corner. Two filing holes at top margin. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.