96 206
HUMILIATINGTHE DAUGHTERS OFTHE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
142
●
KENNEDY, JACQUELINE. Autograph Letter Signed, as First Lady, to U.S.
Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach (“Dear Mr Katzenbach”), asking whether there are
many “John Birchers” among the living members of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, explaining that she wants to snub the DAR by not inviting them to a tea she
would hold for members of the Daughters of the Cincinnati, and, in a postscript, convey-
ing that her husband says that her letter should be censored before passing its instructions
along. 4 pages, 4to,White House stationery, written on two sheets; horizontal folds.With
the original envelope.
Washington, 23 April [1962: from postmark]
[2,000/3,000]
“
. . . I thought—with
malicious
pleasure at
humiliating the D[aughters
of the] A[merican] R[evo-
lution]—that I could give a
tea for the Daughters of the
Cincinnati, of which I am
a member. What I would
like to know is—are they
as riddled with John
Birchers as the DAR? If
so, I won’t give the tea.
“
I really don’t approve of
these ancestry organisations,
especially for women, but
my father was so proud of
belonging to it (he was for
Taft, McCarthy & Jack!)
and my aunts just popped
me into it.
“
They seem rather harm-
less as you never read about
them . . . . I just wanted to
make sure General [Edwin]
Walker’s mother isn’t a
member. I fear they proba-
bly are a bit too reactionary
to give a reception for.
“
. . . [Members of the DC]
all have to be descendants
of
officers
in the Revolution . . . I believe the DAR—with all their snobbishness—can just descend
from any old camp follower who marched along beating a drum.
“
Now that they won’t give me the [James] Monroe chair that belongs in theW[hite] House . . . it would
be so pleasant to make them think their origins are so dubious we won’t let them in either.
“
Anyway if someone hasn’t enough work to do, perhaps you could drop this little message on his desk.”
The postscript:“Not this hand written message—my husband says—but a censored version of it.”
In 1817, President James Monroe had ordered a Bellangé suite of furniture for theWhite House. One
of a pair of chairs made its way into the Washington museum of the Daughters of the American
Revolution, while the chair’s mate remained at the White House. In October of 1961, Jacqueline
Kennedy asked the DAR to loan the Monroe chair to the White House so that the pair could be
reunited.The DAR declined to do so.