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as an academic truism, that the Republican Party was founded to free the slaves. It is quite another, and more important, to remind representatives of that party, time and again as they attempt to work out this brief that they had to file, that their party creed has pretty much foreclosed how they must stand. You may recall, also, that right in the middle of this project, the President in his Boston speech recalled the eqal rights beginnings of his party, a preliminary payoff from our first researches.

So, with historical research, working something like 12 to 15 hours a day, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, with no time off, we kept them honest. Watching the brass as it handled its great temptation was worth a nervous breakdown, which I didn't get anyway.

Three weeks ago last Friday, we finished the brief; the Appendix, longer still, we finished two weeks later. Both projects were cleared, in page proof, at least twice in echelons considerably higher than is given to even the most unusual cases. And the position was adopted.

Then, as one of the letters we got from the South immediately afterwards stated, then the "fiery hell of Southern oratory broke loose", and our sober, restrained little brief was characterized as an "inflammatory political document", designed to "stab the South in the back". The Atlanta Constitution, a notably liberal Southern newspaper, liberal that is by Southern standards, then went on to say that you should not blame the President, for when he spoke of states' rights, he obviously was merely confused, but you should point the finger at those who sang a siren song that good Democrats should follow the Republicans for they would end that miserable Truman civil rights program, naming Byrnes, Shivers, and Byrd.

You see, Joe, this was a wonderful opportunity. First, to get my name on an important brief; second, to work on the most complicated legislative history problem that has come along in some decades; third, to contribute something of importance to the history of these years; but most importantly, to do a non-political professional job and to enjoy the consequences, even though those consequences were purely irrelevant to the work at hand.

Now I'm done, and I'm tired. As a result of our efforts, and the compliments paid our brief by professionals whose praise is praise indeed, we, and me included, are to be kept on the Department's rolls. For awhile at least, probably permanently.

Perhaps I'm too tired of it, or perhaps I have the glimmerings of good sense, but the more I think of it, the more the idea of a practice in Iowa becomes attractive. Just to think, to be unhatched, free to say and do what I'd like to say and do, that is most attractive. And as for a living, I should be able to make a living there, and that is all I've ever been able to do here.

The financial end is still a rub; I can't just quit until I have something to quit to, and quite apparently I can't do that until I can go out there and look over the country. So, I shall stay here for the next couple of months at least, until I work up a week's leave. Then I'll take that leave for a trip to the plains, and be seeing you.