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TLS as president, signed “RN,” one page, 7 x 10.5, White House letterhead, October 30, 1973. Letter to his former vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, who had resigned just twenty days earlier. Although their relationship had been contentious throughout their time in office together, Nixon reaches out to Agnew with a delicate touch and offers him a memento from his tenure as VP.
In full: "Dear Ted: During the years that you served as Vice President, one of your greatest services to the Nation was to help clarify the great issues before it, and to help lead the American people to a deeper and better understanding of those issues.
The chair you occupied across from mine at the Cabinet table is, to me, a symbol of the strength and wisdom you brought to that task as well as to the highest councils of the Government itself. Therefore, I particularly wanted to make a personal gift of that chair, which I hope you will take as a token of both friendship and esteem.
I am confident that the same strength and wisdom will help you through these difficult days, and I am also sure that in the years to come the knowledge that you were right about the great issues will maintain that strength and vindicate that wisdom." In very fine condition. Accompanied by the original White House envelope, which was not postally used suggesting hand delivery of this important letter.
Agnew resigned as Vice President on October 10, 1973, after the U.S. Justice Department uncovered widespread evidence of his political corruption while in Maryland, but also including allegations that his practice of accepting bribes had continued into his tenure as vice president under Nixon. It was a plea-bargain deal that Agnew had to accept—surrender the vice presidency in exchange for his freedom. Nixon would be forced to resign the following year to avoid impeachment over the Watergate scandal, which exposed abuse of power and a cover-up of political crimes.
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