Frances Perkins: The Woman Behind the New Deal

Immigration & Impeachment > Impeachment

Robert Edward Edmondson

Roosevelt’s Supreme Council An “Alien-Star” Revolutionary-Power in Control of Washington New Deal Political Policies

New York: Edmondson Economic Service, 15 November 1935

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 62

In this broadside, Perkins is one of five members of “America’s Invisible Governors,” named with thirty other “alien-minded New Dealer ‘advisors’ … all owing allegiance to the Frankfurter-Brandeis-Baruch-Morgenthau Monopoly … directed by Professor Felix Frankfurter.” Note that Perkins’s long-time secretary, Frances Jerkowitz, is included in her triangle headed “Friend of Aliens.”

Gift of Frances Perkins

The 1938th Psalm

[1938]

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 62

FDR, his administration, and The New Deal were not without enemies. This anti-psalm states “Mr. Roosevelt is my shepherd / I am in want, / He maketh me to lie down on park benches, / He destroyeth my soul … Surely unemployment and poverty shall follow me all the days of my life; / And I shall dwell in a mortgaged house forever.”

Gift of Frances Perkins

House of Representatives

H. Res. 67 [Resolution for the impeachment of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor] January 24, 1939

[Washington: Government Printing Office, 1939]

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 122

The formal charge for the impeachment of Frances Perkins, along with two other Labor Department employees, was made by Mr. Thomas of New Jersey, on grounds that they “have failed, neglected, and refused to enforce the … immigration laws of the United States; and have conspired together to violate the immigration laws of the United States; and have defrauded the United States by coddling and protecting from deportation certain aliens illegally within the United States in violation of the statues in such cases made and provided.” First and foremost in the charge is the case of Harry Bridges, here accused of being a member of the Communist Party with intent to overthrow the Government of the United States. This pamphlet contains Perkins’s marginal notes and underlining throughout.

Gift of Frances Perkins

Frances Perkins

[Statement before the House Judiciary Committee in reply to House Resolution 67, Impeachment of Frances Perkins]

Typescript, fourth draft, with her autograph corrections, Washington, 8 February 1939

Frances Perkins Papers, Box [Speeches]

This eight-page typescript appears to be the copy that Perkins used in her hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. In conclusion, she stated: “It is because I share the confidence of other Americans in the capacity of our institutions to protect me against injustice that I have satisfaction in the consideration of these charges, and my denial of them … This faith exists and must be confirmed daily by those of us who hold high office so that liberty may not perish from the land.”

Gift of Frances Perkins

House of Representatives

Speech of Hon. John A. Martin … Dismissal of Impeachment Proceedings Against Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor [with printed Envelope]

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1939

Frances Perkins Papers, Box 122

Gift of Susanna Perkins Coggeshall, 1970

 

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