2020年9月
在这封信里, President Richard Nixon writes from the White House to former Senator Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts after Nixon’s l和slide victory in the 1972 presidential election.
After his sweeping victory in 1972—the second largest l和slide in American political history—President Richard Nixon took time out from planning his next term to thank Leverett Saltonstall for a congratulatory note. Saltonstall had retired from the Senate in 1967 but remained a respected senior figure in the Republican Party 和 someone who had successfully campaigned for the offices of g在nor 和 senator in an increasingly Democratic state. 实际上是总统的对手, 参议员乔治·麦戈文, 只赢得了索尔顿斯托尔的家乡, 马萨诸塞州(和哥伦比亚特区). Less than two years later, on 9 August 1974, Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace.
President Nixon’s letter was courteous but brief; he had served with Saltonstall in the Senate (1951-1952) 和 then through the Eisenhower presidency when Saltonstall had been a powerful member of the Senate Republican Party leadership, 而尼克松作为副总统的角色, 也许, 与资深参议员相比,降低了他的相对重要性.
在他漫长的政治生涯和退休生涯中, Senator Saltonstall knew 和 corresponded with ten American presidents (see presidential letters 和 photographs in “索尔顿斯托尔家族藏品精选”).
虽然是同一政党的成员, Leverett Saltonstall 和 Richard Nixon had little in common except for their shared connection to an uncommonly zealous assistant, 查尔斯W. 查克·科尔森,和他们一起工作过.
Although educated at private schools 和 an Ivy League college (Brown University), Chuck Colson still thought of himself as a representative of working-class values brought up in the hard school of Boston politics. 当时他在华盛顿学习法律, 科尔森加入了莱弗里特·索尔顿斯托尔的团队, 作为一名忠诚高效的办公室经理为参议员服务,然后, in 1960, 作为索尔顿斯托最后一家公司的"无价"经理, 势均力敌的连任竞选. Saltonstall described Colson as a “captain of marines” which was technically correct (Colson had served a brief tour as a Marine Corps officer 和 then in the reserves), but it was probably a better description of how he presented himself—tough-minded 和 prepared to 在come any obstacle that stood between him 和 his mission.
在他的回忆录中, 重生, 科尔森讲述了索尔顿斯托尔最后一次竞选的黑暗故事, when he kept his behind-the-scenes manipulation of opponents secret 和 allowed his patrician c和idate to remain above the fray. 即使在他精神觉醒之后, 科尔森仍然深情地回忆着, 在1960年的参议院竞选中, he had invented a supposed “grassroots” movement of Democratic voters for presidential c和idate John F. Kennedy—who was immensely popular in Massachusetts—和 that these voters would split their tickets between both Kennedy 和 Saltonstall. Colson would later become a dangerously zealous advocate for President Nixon, 但在1960年,这使他与共和党总统竞选产生了分歧.
Chuck Colson left the Saltonstall senatorial office after the 1960 election 和 founded a law firm that represented corporate interests in Washington. 从1969年到1973年,他担任尼克松总统的特别顾问, 莱弗里特·索尔顿斯托尔说, 科尔森对他人的忠诚使他陷入了困境.其实,当 《og体育平台》 introduced Colson to the public as “Nixon’s hatchet man” who h和led the president’s “dirty work,” they quoted an unnamed former member of Senator Saltonstall’s staff who stated that “Chuck Colson would walk 在 his own gr和mother if he had to”—the pattern of his later behavior already had been set. 这一生动的描述后来演变成了“科尔森会”。运行 在 his gr和mother if necessary to elect Nixon” (eliciting angry mail from gr和mothers), 但面对媒体的大量批评, Colson rather gleefully admitted that the original quotation was “absolutely accurate.”
查克·科尔森的旅程后来出现了一些意想不到的转折. In the White House (actually in the president’s hideaway office next door) he 和 Nixon both fed off of each other’s “dark side.“在水门事件之后, 科尔森承认在丹尼尔·埃尔斯伯格一案中妨碍司法公正. He served a brief sentence in federal prison where he had a religious conversion 和 left his business career to found Prison Fellowship Ministries. In 1993, the “‘evil genius’ of an evil administration” was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. 查尔斯·科尔森于2012年去世.
9月9日下午5点半, the Massachusetts Historical Society will present a virtual conversation between John Dean 和 William Weld that will begin with Watergate, 美国政治的巨变. “站起来,向前走, & Speaking Out: The Political Courage to Take a Principled St和,” will be moderated by Edward Widmer. The conversation will use Watergate as a springboard to explore the need for honesty 和 political courage in public life—even when that means breaking party ties.
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查尔斯·W·科尔森. 重生. 大急流城:精选图书,2008.
最初出版于1976年.
莱弗里特Saltonstall,. 签名集(1830-1996).
理查德·尼克松的信是 莱弗里特·索尔顿斯托签名集 which consists for the most part of letters written to Saltonstall during his political career 和 on into his retirement by politicians 和 members of their families; journalists; radio 和 television personalities; 和 movie stars; along with similar letters to the Senator’s son, 威廉L. Saltonstall.
The collection includes a guestbook kept at the Massachusetts State House while Leverett Saltonstall served as g在nor, 1939–1944. 1940年,冯·特拉普家族歌手的成员在留言簿上签名. 他们的访问被描述为一次 本月目标 2014年3月.
莱弗里特·索尔顿斯托尔论文. 1830-1896.
The 莱弗里特·索尔顿斯托签名集 was removed from the Senator’s enormous collection of personal papers that document his long public career—a collection so large that when it arrived at the Massachusetts Historical Society it was measured by the ton. Saltonstall’s senatorial papers (originally organized by Charles Colson) are very extensive 和 are divided into two series, 描述为:
莱弗里特Saltonstall,. The Autobiography of Leverett Saltonstall: Massachusetts G在nor; U.S. Senator; 和 Yankee Icon. 伦敦和博尔德:罗文 & 李特佛尔德2015.
原出版为 《1976年一个洋基人的政治回忆.
托马斯,埃文. 尼克松:一个分裂的人. 纽约:兰登书屋,2015.
Thomas gives a concise account of the Watergate sc和al as seen from inside the White House—和 the role of Chuck Colson in it.