FDR - Jean Edward Smith [479]
56. FDR to Knox, July 22, 1940, 2 F.D.R.: His Personal Letters 1048–1049. For an extract of Cohen’s memorandum, see Philip Goodhart, Fifty Ships That Saved the World 152 (New York: Doubleday, 1965).
57. Francis P. Miller Papers, record of Century Group meeting July 11, 1940, University of Virginia. The acquisition of American bases in the British possessions in exchange for the cancellation of war debts had long been advocated by the isolationist press, particularly the Chicago Tribune. See Langer and Gleason, 2 Challenge to Isolation 746.
58. Quoted in Robert Shogan, Hard Bargain: How FDR Twisted Churchill’s Arm, Evaded the Law, and Changed the Role of the American Presidency 153 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1995).
59. WSC to FDR, July 31, 1940, quoted in Churchill, Their Finest Hour 401–402 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1949) (Churchill’s emphasis).
60. John Morton Blum, 2 From the Morgenthau Diaries 177 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965); Ickes, 3 Secret Diaries 283.
61. Stimson diary (MS), August 2, 1940.
62. Ibid. Stimson, who did not know Farley, formed a high opinion of the postmaster general. “I was particularly pleased with the attitude throughout this whole day’s debate of Jim Farley, who sat next to me. His suggestions were fair-minded and entirely non-political.” Also see 288 Morgenthau Diaries 158 (MS). Morgenthau was not present, but Daniel Bell, who represented Treasury, provided a memo of the session.
63. FDR’s memo of the cabinet meeting and his call to White is in 2 F.D.R. His Personal Letters 1050–1051.
64. WSC to Lothian, August 3, 1940, quoted in Churchill, Their Finest Hour 402–403.
65. The New York Times, August 5, 1940.
66. Ibid., August 11, 1940. The other signatories were Charles C. Burlingham, Thomas D. Thacher, and George Rublee.
67. Acheson to Philip Goodhart, quoted in Goodhart, Fifty Ships 162. The text of Acheson’s letter is reprinted in Appendix A of Goodhart.
68. Stimson diary (MS), August 12, 1940.
69. Ibid., August 15, 1940.
70. Matthew 26:63, quoted in Peters, Five Days 165–166.
71. The New York Times, August 18, 1940.
72. 39 Ops. Atty. Gen. 484 (1940). The text of Jackson’s Opinion is most easily accessible in 9 Public Papers and Addresses 394–405 (August 27, 1940).
73. The text of the Hull-Lothian agreement, actually, an exchange of letters between the two, September 2, 1940, is ibid. 392–394.
74. Goodhart, Fifty Ships 192–193. For a list of the vessels provided, see Arnold Hague, Destroyers for Britain: A History of Fifty Town Class Ships Transferred from the United States to Great Britain in 1940 passim (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1990).
75. 677th Press Conference, September 3, 1940, 9 Public Papers and Addresses 375–390.
76. Churchill, Their Finest Hour 408–409.
77. The New York Times, September 4, 1940.
78. Under the rule expounded by Justice Sutherland, speaking for a unanimous Court in Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447 (1923), an individual lacks standing to sue the federal government over a constitutional issue unless he or she has been seriously injured by the governmental action complained of. An individual taxpayer’s injury is “so remote, fluctuating and uncertain, that no basis is afforded for an appeal to the preventive powers of a court of equity.” Sutherland said that if every taxpayer could bring suit, every government policy would be challenged in the courts and the Supreme Court would become the ultimate arbiter of all government policy: “an authority which plainly we do not possess.” (Cf. Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83 (1968)).
79. The Gallup Poll 239, 242. September 3, 1940, reflecting interviews conducted August 24–29; September 20, 1940, reflecting interviews September 5–10, 1940.
80. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt 320.
81. Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox 442.
82. Perkins, The Roosevelt I