LEGISLATIVE/ISSUE CORRESPONDENCE Series Overview

LEGISLATIVE/ISSUE CORRESPONDENCE principally includes correspondence from New Jersey constituents expressing their opinions on issues regarding national and international affairs, US foreign policy, domestic public policies, pending Federal legislation, judicial decisions, nominations of Federal officials, and other matters related to HAW in his capacity as legislator. State and local issues are less common in this series, but do appear, particularly to the extent they relate to possible Federal-level action (e.g., funding of various programs, housing, transportation infrastructure, etc.).

The bulk of the material conveys the basic position (i.e., pro or con) a constituent held on an issue or specific bill, often with a deeper explanation of their perspective. Often, this explanation refers to the influences on the correspondent, such as newspaper editorials, magazine articles, interest group pamphlets, personal experiences or employment, and the like. To reinforce their position, many correspondents included clippings or other material with their letters; these materials were retained with the correspondence.

Correspondents include a broad and diverse cross-section of HAW's constituency, including individuals of various class, gender, race, age, education, and life experience; company officers; representatives of educational, religious, and other institutions; state and local government officials; and others. As such, this series is a rich source of insight into the social, cultural, economic, and public policy perspectives of the New Jersey citizenry during the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s.

The series also includes information about HAW's response to constituent correspondence, though this takes different forms over time, ranging from carbon copies of individual responses to files of standard text to Correspondence Management System work orders. These responses provide insight into HAW's positions on issues and, for ongoing issues (e.g., Vietnam War, gun control, economic issues) the evolution of his positions over time.

The series includes correspondence to/from other senators, Congressmen, and government officials on legislative matters, but there is not a large volume of such correspondence, nor is it found consistently throughout the series. While individual pieces of correspondence found in the files may be of interest to researchers, this series does not include extensive intra-Senate correspondence focused on the development of legislation.

Correspondents from outside New Jersey are represented in the series, though to a limited extent. For the most part, this is because far less correspondence was received by HAW from outside New Jersey. But appraisal decisions also reduced the collection size by discarding much material from non-New Jersey correspondents in this series, particularly in the case of files segregated as "out-of-state" by HAW's office, often as part of "no answer required" files.

Although the original files included much correspondence in the form of repetitively-worded, often pre-printed, letters and postcards, these were discarded during processing, with only representative samples retained. Further, where large volumes of unique correspondence were received regarding specific issues, the bulk was discarded with only representative material retained. In short, the retained material in the series consists of a substantive core of the original mass of constituent correspondence received by HAW on legislative issues during his 23 years in the Senate.

LEGISLATIVE/ISSUE CORRESPONDENCE is organized into eight sub-series. Seven of these sub-series reflect the various filing systems used for legislative correspondence by HAW's office during his years in the Senate. In part, these filing systems reflect the quantity of correspondence received on particular subjects and the means by which responses to the constituent were generated. An eighth sub-series includes the standard texts for many of HAW's form letter responses. The eight sub-series are: