TYPED LETTER SIGNED AS SECRETARY OF STATE, 11 SEPTEMBER 1924, "TO THE DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Washington: Department of State, 1924. Single typed page, on State Department letterhead, signed boldly, "Charles Evans Hughes." Fine.

Hughes had a remarkable career at the highest levels of government. He was Governor of New York at the time President Taft originally nominated him for the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed him easily. Hughes remained on the Court until 1916, when he resigned to run for president as a Republican. He lost to Woodrow Wilson in a close race. President Harding appointed him U.S. Secretary of State after the 1920 election, and Hughes remained in that post through the presidency of Calvin Coolidge. Hughes returned to the bench as Chief Justice in 1930, by appointment of President Hoover. In this Letter, Secretary of State Hughes introduces "to you Mr. Clarence Hungerford Mackay of Roslyn, New York, who is about to proceed abroad. I cordially bespeak for Mr. Mackay such courtesies and assistance as you may be able to render, consistent with your official duties."
Mackay was an extremely wealthy financier, chairman of the board of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Corporation, and president of the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company. Not all went well in Mackay's life, however: for one thing, he failed, despite his best efforts, to prevent his daughter from marrying the famous composer Irving Berlin, whose Orthodox Jewish heritage Mackay deemed a disqualifier.