Scope and Content Note
The papers of Harold Hitz Burton (1888-1964) span the years 1792 to 1965, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1935 to 1964. The collection includes diaries, correspondence, reports, legal case files, speeches and writings, newspaper clippings, and printed matter relating chiefly to Burton's service as associate justice of the Supreme Court and United States senator from Ohio. The material is organized in the following series: Diaries, General Correspondence, Senate File, Supreme Court File, United States Court of Appeals File, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, Classified, and Oversize.
Burton's diaries begin in 1941 and continue through 1963 covering his service as senator and associate justice. They are a rich and comprehensive record of his personal activities, the work of the Supreme Court, and conversations with members of the Court and numerous other government figures.
The General Correspondence briefly treats Burton's life and career in Cleveland, Ohio, prior to his election to the United States Senate. During this period he practiced law, was active in community activities, and served in various city government offices climaxing in his election as mayor. Notable topics in the correspondence are community affairs, family matters, Burton's association with local and statewide Republican party affairs, aspirations for a federal judgeship, and the Townsend Plan. Correspondents include Owen Brewster, John W. Bricker, Burton's personal secretary Earl E. Hart, William Hitz, and Robert A. Taft. This period of Burton's career is documented additionally by political speeches and radio broadcasts in the Speeches and Writings File.
The Senate File represents Burton's one term in the United States Senate where he established himself as a moderate Republican. He served on several Senate committees, including the Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program which brought him into close contact with its chairman, Harry S. Truman. Burton later would become President Truman's first appointee to the Supreme Court. The Committees file documents his work on this committee and his extensive travels to Alaska, the West Coast, and the Middle East. Other committees represented in the file include Immigration, District of Columbia, Commerce, and Appropriations. The correspondence for the Senate years is grouped into four types: campaign, departments and agencies, general, and legislative. The campaign correspondence relates to party workers and organizations throughout Ohio during his Senate election in 1940. Correspondence with government departments and agencies includes appeals for constituents, especially for those in military service. Burton's legislative interests included hospital construction, foreign relations, and establishment of the United Nations. Noteworthy in the general correspondence are copies of Burton's semiannual constituent reports and accompanying responses. Correspondents include Styles Bridges, Harry Flood Byrd (1887-1966), Frank J. Lausche, Donald R. Richberg, Harry S. Truman, and Henry Agard Wallace.
The Supreme Court File documents the judicial activities of Burton and his fellow justices from 1945 to 1958. Material covering this aspect of his career is organized by correspondence, a case file, and a miscellany file. Among the legal material and correspondence are letters, notes, and memoranda from the various members of the Court, most frequently Felix Frankfurter. Others justices represented, some in the correspondence file and others in notes and memoranda retained in the legal files, are chief justices Harlan F. Stone, Fred M. Vinson, and Earl Warren and associate justices William J. Brennan, Tom C. Clark, William O. Douglas, John M. Harlan, Robert H. Jackson, Sherman Minton, Frank Murphy, Stanley F. Reed, and Charles E. Whittaker. Other correspondents include Owen Brewster, John W. Bricker, J. Edgar Hoover, and Harry S. Truman.
The Supreme Court case file contains conference lists, docket sheets with conference votes and brief notes on the justices' positions, bench and certiorari memoranda prepared by Burton's law clerks for study and recommendation, opinions, and studies on individual cases. Though not a prolific opinion writer, Burton saved most of the drafts of the various stages of his opinions along with comments in memoranda or actual annotations by his colleagues on the Court on their copies of opinions which they returned to him. Burton generally retained files on an average of ten to fifteen cases per term, usually the ones in which he wrote a majority, dissenting, or concurring opinion. His specific fields of interest, and the areas in which he was frequently assigned to write the majority opinions, were labor law and state claims versus federal claims. Included in his case files is material related to such landmark cases as Standard Oil v. Federal Trade Commission (October term 1949), for which he wrote the majority opinion, the steel company case Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company v. Sawyer (October term 1952), for which he wrote a concurring opinion, and Brown v. Board of Education (October Term 1953), in which the Court's unanimous opinion was expressed by Chief Justice Earl Warren. A miscellany file in the Supreme Court File includes bound copies of Burton's opinions and official statements from the bench, miscellaneous notes and memoranda from other justices, handwritten notes on Supreme Court history and its previous decisions, Court budgets and statistics, material pertaining to rules for federal courts, hearing lists, case assignments, and moot court competitions.
Upon retiring from the Court in 1958, Burton frequently sat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he was active until his health failed in 1962. The United States Court of Appeals File documents the cases in which he wrote opinions for this court as well as other cases in which he participated. The opinions are similar to those for the individual cases on the Supreme Court, although less in number and in detail.
The Speeches and Writings File covers all periods of Burton's career and contains handwritten and typed drafts and printed copies of his articles, speeches, and statements. A group of articles relates to the Supreme Court and its history, and political speeches document Burton's tenure as mayor of Cleveland. Although the subject file in the series contains speeches and articles as well as pertinent research material covering his years in Cleveland, the Senate, and the Court, a chronological file contains the most comprehensive compilation of Burton's speeches and writings.
The Miscellany series is composed primarily of newspaper clippings and printed matter related to Burton's career and interests. A set of unbound scrapbooks of autographed material includes letters from Harry S. Truman and members of the Supreme Court. Also included is biographical material and genealogical information on the Hitz family. Oversize material includes maps pertaining to Burton's trips with the Senate Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, broadsides, and photographs.