Scope and Content Note
The papers of Joseph Patrick Tumulty (1879-1954) span the years 1898-1969, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1913-1940. They consist primarily of correspondence, letterbooks, legal material, and drafts of speeches and writings. Those papers received and organized by the Library in the 1960s are arranged and described as Set I of the General Correspondence, Special Correspondence, and Miscellany series in the collection and are predominantly concerned with Tumulty's White House years. Additions to the papers, with the exception of letterbooks and a “Black Book” of patronage, emphasize Tumulty's post-White House years, 1922-1940, when, as a Washington lawyer, he assumed an active role in Democratic Party politics. The collection is organized into nine series: Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Special Correspondence, Letterbooks, Subject File, Legal Case File, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, and Oversize.
During his years as presidential secretary, Tumulty exercised the duties that in later administrations were apportioned to more than a dozen specialized advisers. The General Correspondence and Special Correspondence series reflect his wide-ranging contacts with prominent personalities in the theater and the press as well as with nationally known government officials and politicians. Perhaps the most important file in the Special Correspondence is that relating to Woodrow Wilson. Other special correspondents represented by substantial amounts of material include John T. Barnett, Bernard M. Baruch, William Jennings Bryan, James M. Cox, Joseph Edward Davies, James A. Farley, John Nance Garner, Edward Mandell House, Edward N. Hurley, Warren F. Johnson, James Kerney, Charles Lynch, W. G. McAdoo, William Frank McCombs, Arthur J. Sinnott, Alfred Emanuel Smith, and Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.
The most fruitful single source of documentation for Tumulty's years as Wilson's secretary is found in the Letterbooks. Though mostly routine, the content provides insight into Tumulty's role in dispensing patronage and also reveals the style and manner in which he carried out his duties as secretary and adviser. Tumulty never severed his interest in local New Jersey politics, and the Special Correspondence and General Correspondence reveal his continued relationship with figures of local political influence. Tumulty's early political training as a Hudson County assemblyman to the New Jersey legislature (1907-1910) left a lasting impress on him. His use of patronage is well documented in the so-called “Black Book” in the Miscellany that provides biographical information on candidates for political appointments.
Tumulty's post-White House years are equally well documented in the papers. Many of his personal traits emerge in his letters to close friends and former colleagues. He often assumed the debts of others as shown in the Family Correspondence and under various headings in the Subject File. Set II of the Special Correspondence contains material that demonstrates Tumulty's sensitivity to a need for reconciling political ambitions and tactics with religious and philosophical precepts.
Though he declined to run for political office, he continued to give advice to political friends after 1920, as can be seen in the Special Correspondence series. Tumulty's backing of Alfred E. Smith in 1928 and his continued devotion to Wilsonian principles are apparent in correspondence from the 1920s. Material dated during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administrations reflects his declining political influence. This trend can best observed in the special correspondence files of various politicians and newspapermen.
The General Correspondence is mostly routine, but Set II includes letters from prominent figures such as J. Edgar Hoover, Harold L. Ickes (1874-1952), William Frank McCombs, Theodore Roosevelt, Oswald Garrison Villard, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939), Sam Rayburn, and W. Averell Harriman.
The Subject File contains material relating to Tumulty's controversial speech at the National Democratic Club's Jefferson Day banquet in April 1922. Centered around a misunderstanding over what Tumulty perceived to be Wilson's endorsement of James M. Cox as Democratic candidate for the 1924 presidential election, the speech caused a break in the friendly relationship between Wilson and Tumulty that lasted until Wilson's death in February 1924. Other entries in the Subject File are concerned with Tumulty's private life and personal interests.
Tumulty's legal career is documented in the Legal Case File which is an alphabetical listing of client counseling and litigation proceedings undertaken by his law firm, and, as such, includes correspondence of his law associates, Charles Baker and Ralph Kelley. The Speeches and Writings File includes the typescript of Tumulty's Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him as well as speeches from 1923 to 1940 and some articles and other writings. The Miscellany series contains financial papers, correspondence of persons other than Tumulty, scrapbooks, newspaper clipping, and printed matter.