Description

Description: In this two-page autograph letter signed, the future Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo writes an appreciative note of thanks to the Hon. Seymour Van Santvoord for having sent him two judicial addresses by Santvoord and his father:

“I thank you for the two addresses, the one by your father and the one by you. I have read them both with interest.

What struck me very forcibly was the advanced quality of your father’s thought. The ideas of the juridical function which rank today as the most progressive, were prefigured and clearly stated more than seventy years ago.

With appreciation of your courtesy and with best wishes for a pleasant summer.

I am sincerely yours/Benjamin N. Cardozo”

Written on a 6⅞” x 5¼” piece of “BNC” embossed ivory stationery and dated July 28, 1928 from Allenhurst NJ. Item #A01873

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870-1938) was the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1927-1932) until being nominated to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1932-1938). Cardozo is remembered for influencing the development of American common law in the 20th century, and for forming part of the liberal bloc of justices known as the Three Musketeers (justices who supported FDR’s New Deal).

Seymour George Van Santvoord (1858-1938) served as the Chairman of the New York Public Service Commission, was Dean of the Rensselaer County Bar Association, and wrote several books on Roman history. His father, George Van Santvoord, a district attorney, wrote the culturally significant book Sketches of the Lives and Judicial Services of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (1851).

Condition: Mailing fold line, otherwise fine condition with a large, strong signature.