WOODROW WILSON | President-elect Woodrow Wilson assures Edward Filene that he holds Louis Brandeis "in very high esteem"

Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang

WOODROW WILSON

TYPED LETTER SIGNED ("WOODROW WILSON") AS PRESIDENT-ELECT AND GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY, TO EDWARD A. FILENE, DISCUSSING LOUIS BRADEIS

One page (9 5/8 x 7 7/8 in.; 245 x 201 mm) on a leaf of gilt-embossed State of New Jersey Executive Department letterhead, [Trenton,] 20 January 1913; staple hole at upper left margin, light fold creases.

Best remembered now for his eponymous department stores, Edward Filene was instrumental in establishing credit unions across the United States. He was also a civic booster and progressive philanthropist, particularly interested in labor and Jewish causes. Filene was one of Jewish leaders who encouraged the largely secular Louis Brandeis to become active in the Zionist movement. Filene evidently sent Woodrow Wilson an endorsement of the brilliant Brandeis, perhaps not aware that Brandeis had advised Wilson on economic issues during the presidential campaign, particularly his concept of "regulated competition." Wilson's reply makes plain his admiration of the reforming jurist:

"By some accident such as I hope does not happen in my own office alone, your letter of December twenty-first was mislaid and has not turned up upon my desk until to-day.

"I appreciate very much what you say about Mr. Brandeis and thank you for saying it, I hold Mr. Brandeis in very high esteem."

So high was Wilson's esteem for Brandeis that he considered him for two cabinet posts (Attorney General and Secretary of Commerce), but did not pursue either when it became clear that the nominations would cause too much controversy. Brandeis did serve as President Wilson's chief economic advisor until his nomination to the Supreme Court in January 1916. The nomination met much opposition, some of which was motivated by antisemitism, but after four months—and the Senate Judiciary Committee's first public hearing on a Supreme Court nominee—Brandeis was confirmed. The first Jew on the nation's highest court, he served as an Associate Justice until his retirement in 1939.