Dudley Field Malone Sends Congratulations To The Recently Appointed Secretary Of State, Robert Lansing: May “The Days And Nights Of Your Service To Our President And The Country May Be Filled With Events The Result Of Which Will Bring The Greatest Satisfaction To You, And The Greatest Lasting Benefit To America”

TLS. 8” x 10”. 4pg. June 30, 1915. New York. A lengthy typed letter signed “Dudley Field Malone” to Secretary of State Robert Lansing, who had just been appointed after William Jennings Bryan resigned: “I have purposely refrained from writing to you before now because, from experience, I know the veritable deluge of letters and telegrams that must have been poured upon you after your appointment by the President. But, I do want to tell you how sincerely happy I am that the President, the country, and the Democratic Party have been credited with an appointment which has given such obvious unanimous satisfaction to the American people. I know I do not state the facts too strongly because the people of our country, partly through conviction that the Diplomatic Serices should be headed by a man of skilled ability and partly through the contstant misrepresentation of Mr. Bryan’s honest efforts, was most anxious that a man of your eminent qualifications should be chosen for Secretary of State. There is no man who has the complete confidence of the President as I know it to be the possession of Colonel House. When the Colonel recently arrived from Europe I was the first man to meet him down at the Ambrose Lightship, and we spent three hours in conference before the newspaper men and others reached out to him…The two most important matters…were the way in which Germany would receive the second note, and the type and character of man who should be chosen to be Mr. Bryan’s successor…I do know that the Colonel wrote a strong letter to the President, urging the wisdom of your selection. I wish to say these things to you in the strictest confidence…he did, and in that instance, as in all others throughout this Administration, he gave his unbiased judgment and advice to the President as to what was the best step to take in order to serve the Administration and the people of the country…you may know that he was, and is a most sincere admirer of you and the great work you have done for Woodrow Wilson’s Administration. As one who was a close and intimate friend of the President long before any of his present Cabinet knew him, as the man who nearly six years ago was the first in the Democratic Party top take the stump in advocacy of Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States, and as just one citizen who wishes nothing so much as the great success of the President and his present Administration, I want to send you my most sincere good wishes that the happiness, which must have come to you now in the reflection that great and efficient service has been publicly rewarded, may be of the fullest measure, and that the days and nights of your service to our President and the country may be filled with events the result of which will bring the greatest satisfaction to you, and the greatest lasting benefit to America.” The letter has two mailing folds, and is on “Treasury Department” letterhead. One part of the left margin of the first two pages is missing, but it affects no text.