12-14-46
Gladstone said "The American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."
Gladstone was right of course. [He was Oxford too]. Now I'm standing on that grand old document-I must stand on it-if it weren't for the constitution of the United States I'd be out of a job right this minute.
Mr. Ambassador Oxford evidently doesn't teach our boys Gladstone. One of em is trying to pull the Constitution from under me. Maybe we'd better education our Statesmen in our own Land Grant Colleges.
I was very much taken with that splendid horse and wind up of that buggy skit last skit. You know on last Armistice Day I said that I intended "co-operate in every proper manner with members of Congress and that my hope and prayer is that this spirit of cooperation will be reciprocated.
I have been working on my State of the Union message making notes about various items to appear in it. I think I happen to have one those notes in my pocket. Let's see. I thought maybe I'd see some of my good friends in the Republican Party here tonight and perhaps I could discuss some of these points and get advise on them. Instead of trying to see all the Republican leaders separately which might take a long time there are so many of them now, I'll just read a few of these suggested points for the message and the Republican leaders then may want to make some suggestions to me.
Read
Now after these things have all been done the new Congress won't have much to do so I would like to suggest a series of investigations-particularly of Democratic elections-but I wouldn't stop there. It seems to me that much time might be constructively spent on the whole Democratic regime from Mar. 4, 1933 to Jan. 3, 1947.
Senator I speak from experience. I am an experienced investigator. In fact that is why I'm constitutionally in the White House. As a new Senator I would like to suggest that you go after this investigation business and I can give you some real cooperation and advice on that.
But Senator, I must warn you, remember no football game is won until the last gun is fired at the end of the 4th quarter. Now the first gun of the first quarter of this game will be fired Jan. 3, 1947. And I'll be in there playing constitutionally and cooperatively until the end of the last quarter. I've seen a many a game won in the last five minutes of the 4th quarter.