National Committee for Impeachment Records

Dates

1965-1978

Scope and Content Note

From the records in the collection, consisting of 5 and one-half manuscript boxes which span from 1965-1978, definite dates of the activity and existence of NCI are unclear; the first recorded date of its activity is May, 1972, with the placement of the New York Times ad and the last recorded date of activity is the 1977 court case of NCI vs. Nixon and Ford. The bulk of the material is from 1972, which appears to be the only period of real activity for the Committee. Those records which may not be officially of NCI document related activities of the Committee officers.

The papers of the National Committee for Impeachment are arranged into five series in two subgroups. The subgroup for NCI includes three series, and the remaining series are included under the Randolph Phillips and Robert L. Bobrick subgroup. Included in the NCI papers are financial records (including bank statements, deposit slips, and receipts of contributions), legal briefs and proceedings, correspondence, letters and response clippings from the New York Times ad, both from those supporting and those condemning the Committee, and a copy of the impeachment ad in poster form. There is also a great deal of printed material including newspaper clippings, journals, and individual journal articles.

Papers documenting financial activities are in the FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS (1972). The documents indicate the months of June, July, and August, 1972 to be those filled the main activity of recording and depositing impeachment ad contributions, and financial records appear to have been maintained only in regard to payment of the New York Times ad and financial contributions in response to it. Documents include financial dealings with Calderhead Jackson, Inc., the advertising firm hired to design the ad, bank statements from May through July, 1972, including deposit slips and bounced checks, and a ledger including itemized daily receipts of contributions and reports of mail and withdrawals for miscellaneous expenses.

Papers documenting legal proceedings are included in the LEGAL DOCUMENTS (1972, 1973, and 1977), which is divided into three subseries, each covering a separate case. The first and second subseries are the cases of U.S. vs. NCI and its appeal. The Federal Government brought the original case against NCI, charging it with acting as a political committee in its New York Times ad without reporting documentation of expenditures and receipts, therefore violating the Federal Campaign Act of 1971. In the original case an injunction was brought barring further political activity of NCI; this decision was reversed on appeal. The records in the U.S. vs. NCI Background folders were grouped together as they provide a view of the events leading up to the law suit and include the following documentation: a biographical article on Randolph Phillips, a broadsheet of House Resolution 976 and the New York Times ad, a number of different drafts of the House Resolution, papers of NCI e numerating the arguments for impeachment, letters from the Schuchman Foundation Center for the Public Interest, The Committee to ReElect the President, and Common Cause, to the General Accounting Office (GAO) arguing that NCI was acting as a political committee, instigating correspondence between the GAO and NCI, requesting that they complete the proper financial documentation. Also included are GAO federal regulations and forms to complete this process.

The third subseries is the NCI vs. Nixon and Ford case in which NCI sued for injunctory and monetary damages, issued a claim under the Freedom of Information Act, and charged that the Ford pardon of Nixon was illegal. Documentation includes legal proceedings of the case and correspondence indicating that NCI filed a notice to dismiss the lawsuit, as a motion had been made by the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of N.Y. to dismiss t he complaints against Ford.

The SUBJECT FILES (1967-1969, 1971-1978, 1982, and 1985) documents public response and financial contributions to the Impeachment ad, and the folders of newspaper clippings document key political issues of those years, forming a general indictment of the Nixon and Ford Administrations. The folders of public response to the ad include correspondence from those who are supportive and include inquiries on becoming involved with the work of NCI, and correspondence from those who condemn it, generally accusing NCI of being of unpatriotic Communists who are encouraging the North Vietnamese and slowing U. S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Endorsement and contribution receipts include groupings by state. The newspaper clippings were separated by year and include the subjects of: U. S. involvement in Vietnam, the relationship of Vietnam to Nurnberg, the bombing of Cambodia, Anti-Nixon riots and demonstrations, alleged election campaign fraud of Nixon, the House Resolution and Impeachment Ad, and the illegality and invalidity of Ford's pardon of Nixon (the bulk of the articles in the 1974 folders cover this topic).

The Randolph Phillips and Robert L. Bobrick papers subgroup include documentation of actions carried out independently of NCI by Phillips or Bobrick, but with some assistance from the other. In the first series, RANDOLPH PHILLIPS VS. WARREN BURGER, COURT DOCUMENTS, Bobrick acts as consulting attorney. Phillips had formed the Burger Opposition Committee to prevent approval of his nomination as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Subsequent to Senate approval of Burger, Phillips brought the case, arguing that the confirmation was unconstitutional. Documents include legal proceedings, records of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, and a draft of a proposed opposition ad to be printed in the Washington Post.

The papers used to support the nomination of David Henry Mitchell for the Nobel Peace prize comprise the DAVID HENRY MITCHELL FILES. Bobrick' s case in nominating conscientious objector Mitchell is based on the illegality of the war and his claim that Mitchell was the first American to challenge the illegality of Vietnam in U. S. Courts. Documentation includes briefs and proceedings in Mitchell's 1960s cases in the U.S. District Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court, anti-war journals and articles, Bobrick' s papers for the lecture, "Russian Roulette and Nurnberg", and correspondence including the nomination letter to the Nobel Committee.

Extent

2.5 cubic foot (5 manuscript boxes and one half manuscript box)

Language of Materials

English

Conditions Governing Access

No Restrictions.

Additional Description

Abstract

Historical Sketch

The National Committee for Impeachment was an unincorporated, generally informal organization which carried out a campaign in the early 1970s to support, primarily by fundraising, the impeachment of President Nixon through House Resolution 976. The main officers of The National Committee for Impeachment (NCI hereafter) were Randolph Phillips, Chair man, Dr. Elizabeth Most, Secretary-Treasure;r:-, and at that time a professor at the New School for Social Research, and Robert L. Bobrick, General Counsel. The records in the collection span from 1965 through 1978; however, no inclusive dates for the existence of t he organization, nor during which years within this span the organization was active, are apparent. Additionally, a number of actions in t he documentation appear to be carried out independently of t he NCI by Phillips or Bobrick, but apparently with some assistance from the other. A key example of this is the appended DAVID HENRY MITCHELL FILES, which Bobrick used to support the 1977 nomination of David Henry Mitchell, a conscientious objector of the Vietnam War, for t he Nobel Peace Prize.

The records of the collection are not those of a traditional organization; they contain no minutes and include financial accounts for only a few months of 1973. NCI was a political grassroots organization, formed for a specific purpose. The basis for the organization lay in the following grievances, which were incorporated into the Articles of Impeachment of House Resolution 976, against then President Richard M. Nixon : the death and destruction of the illegal war in Southeast Asia; the extension of the war to Cambodia and Laos; expenditures towards the illegal war which diverted funds from the needs of the American public; the denigration, though the war, of the name of the U.S. at home and abroad, causing great social dissent in the U.S.; and the violation the Office of the President by buying the 1968 Republican nomination.

The most significant action, and apparently the only major action, of the NCI was the placement of a two-page ad in May, 1972 in the New York Times entitled "A Resolution to Impeach Richard M. Nixon as President of the United States", calling on individuals to endorse the Committee and contribute funds to its work. Support for the NCI was nationwide, as it received contributions and endorsements from across the county, and a portion internationally. After the placement of the ad, NCI was sued by the Federal Government (U.S. vs. NCI) on the grounds that it had violated the Federal Campaign Act of 1971 by acting as a political committee while neglecting to fill out the necessary General Accounting Office forms recording receipts and expenditures of funds. An injunction barring NCI from any further political action was ordered, which was reversed on appeal. In 1977 NCI sued Nixon and Ford for injunctive and monetary relief of damages, which included the issuance of a claim under the Freedom of Information Act, and declared Ford's pardon of Nixon to be illegal. NCI eventually filed for dismissal of the suit when it became aware of a motion for dismissal that had been filed by the Court on Ford's behalf.

The founder and main force behind the NCI appears to have been its Chairman, Randolph Phillips. Phillips, now deceased, was a financial consultant and referred to himself as a corporate watchdog. He had a history of bringing litigation against corporations and agencies, including the Alleghaney Corporation, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, The Interstate Commerce Commission and The Securities and Exchange Commission. Phillips was born in New York on Nov. 29, 1910, and was a graduate of the 1931 class of Columbia University. A conscientious objector during WWII, he won in a Circuit Court of Appeals the right for those morally objecting to war to be exempt from military service with out having to belong to a pacifist religious group. At the time of the House Resolution to impeach Nixon he was the Coordinator for the Lawyers Committee on American Policy towards Vietnam, and Chairman of the Committee for a Fair, Honest, and Impartial Judiciary, and he had previously (around 1968/1969) formed the Committee in Opposition to the Nomination of Warren F. Burger (as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). In the legal cases of NCI, Phillips acted as attorney prose.

Reference: Bedingfield, R. E. (January 10, 1960). Personality: A thorn in corporate flesh. The New York Times, Sec.III, p. 3, 11. (Box 1, folder 5)

Biographical / Historical

Chronology of Events

May 10, 1972
: House Resolution 976 (to impeach President Nixon) is officially filed
May 31, 1972
: NCI places a two-page ad in the New York Times supporting the Resolution for Impeachment, asking for endorsement and funding for NCI to achieve that end
August 18, 1972
: Federal suit filed by Justice Department in Southern District of N.Y. against NCI for violation of the Federal Campaign Act of 1971
August 18, 1972
: NCI ordered to show cause why a motion for a preliminary injunction should not be granted in this case
August 18, 1972
: New York Civil Liberties Union issues press release protesting the Federal suit filed by the Justice Department of the Southern District of New York as a violation of the First Amendment
August 29, 1972
: Affidavit from Robert L. Bobrick stating that Judge Sylvester Ryan of the Southern District Court could be disqualified in this case for personal bias or prejudice against Randolph Phillips
October 31, 1972
: US vs. NCI reversed and overturned in Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
April 24, 1973
: Order dismissing US vs. NCI suit without prejudice and without costs to any party
August 15, 1977
: NCI files a case against Nixon and Ford, making claims for injunctive and monetary relief and claiming that Ford's pardon of Nixon was a violation of the constitution and hence null and void
November 2, 1977
: NCI files a notice to dismiss the lawsuit, upon imminent dismissal of the case by the Court in behalf of former President Ford

Randolph Phillips and Robert L. Bobrick Papers

1969
: Randolph Phillips vs. Warren Burger--Phillips sues Burger as a challenge to his nomination as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Phillips is unsuccessful.
December 28, 1977
: Letter from Robert Bobrick to the Nobel Committee nominating David Henry Mitchell for the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
November 27, 1978
: Letter from Bobrick to Mitchell stating that the nomination has been unsuccessful as Bobrick is not qualified to make a nomination according to the regulations of the Nobel Committee

Background Chronology

1965/1966
: Mitchell tried in the United States District Court, District of Connecticut, and on appeal in the US. Court of Appeals for his refusal to fight in Vietnam, and is convict ed in both cases
October Term 1966
: Mitchell vs. U.S. comes before the U.S. Supreme Court
March 20, 1967
: Decision of No Opinion is rendered and handed down from the Court

Arrangement Note

Documents of the National Committee for Impeachment records are arranged into two subgroups, the first comprised of three series of NCI papers, and the second consisting of two series of papers, one of which Randolph Phillips used in opposing the nomination of Warren Burger to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the other used by Robert L. Bobrick in supporting his Nobel Peace Prize nomination of David Henry Mitchell. This subseries was appended to the NCI papers as opposed to comprising its own collection, as Bobrick was General Counsel to NCI, Randolph Phillips appears to have had some input, and because the subject matter of both series is closely related to that of NCI.

Much of the collection materials arrived in a disorganized state, some in folders, some in envelopes, and some were loose; all the documents were refoldered. Most of the folders required new labels, though original suitable labels (particularly those of the HENRY DAVID MITCHELL FILES) were retained.

Legal documents and related papers from different cases arrived mixed together, and were separated by case and refoldered for the researchers' convenience. For the same reason, the newspaper clippings of the Nixon and Ford administrations were separated and refoldered by years.

All materials in the collection were retained with the exception of two duplicate impeachment ad posters, several duplicate news paper editorials, and duplicate General Accounting Office receipt and expenditure forms, all of which were discarded.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title: Inventory to the National Committee for Impeachment Records
Status: Edited Full Draft
Author: Arda Agulian
Date: May 1994
Language of description note: Finding aid is written in English.
Sponsor: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.