TLS signed “Ike,” one page, 8 x 10.5, personal letterhead, July 29, 1952. Letter to Brigadier General Benjamin F. Caffey, in full: "While there are no definite plans for me to come into Florida, I have a number of very urgent invitations from Republican leaders. If we do get down that way, we shall certainly try to see you. However, I must sadly record the fact that I am less the master of my own time than I have ever been in my whole life—and for many years I have been little more than a slave. I agree with you that people want a lot of definite and detailed statements and assurances, but I ask you—what is the use of my saying that I am not a stooge of Dewey? Actually Governor Dewey has never throughout this campaign offered me one single word of political advice. The most he has ever done is to criticize my appearance and my manner of speech. Yet if someone wants to spread the tale that I am any one’s stooge, I should think there would be little that I could do about it. Likewise, if some one alleges that I am a stooge of the Chicago Tribune, some one else would have to make the defense—if any is necessary. In your own section you can do more to inform people as to whether or not I would or could ever be a stooge of anybody than it would be possible for me to do. Mamie is standing up well, except for a very odd and painful neuralgia, and joins me in sending our very best to you both.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
Republican New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey was one of Eisenhower’s earliest and, almost certainly, most important political backers, announcing his support of the general as a possible presidential contender on October 15, 1950. Just as the ‘I like Ike’ slogan took wing across America, Dewey, the Republican party's presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948, helped spearhead the grassroots ‘Draft Eisenhower’ movement in September 1951 and, two weeks later, at the National Governors' Conference meeting, seven Republican governors endorsed Eisenhower’s candidacy. With Dewey’s political machine behind him, Eisenhower won the Republican nomination in mid-July 1952, not long before writing this very letter.
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