CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES E HUGHES - PASSPORT SIGNED 07/31/1923 - H

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES

Passport for James Bird signed by Charles Evans Hughes as President Warren G. Harding's Secretary of State in December 1924. This passport includes a great photo of James Bird and is signed by him at the bottom of the picture.

Passport is signed "Charles E. Hughes" as President Warren G. Harding's Secretary of State. The passport has 2 pages, 8¾x12. With red 1¾-inch Great Seal of the United States affixed near the left corner. Passport is for James Bird who intended to travel to "All Countries and visit relatives”. After Harding death Hughes stayed on as Calvin Coolidge's Secretary of State until 1925. Hughes (1862-1948, was born in Glen Falls, New York) was Governor of New York (1907-1910) when President Taft appointed him Associate Justice. In 1916, Hughes resigned from the Supreme Court having received the Republican nomination for President; he lost to Wilson. President Harding appointed him Secretary of State in 1921, and he remained in that office when Coolidge became President in 1923, staying until 1925. When Chief Justice Taft retired in 1930 because of ill health, President Hoover appointed Hughes as Chief Justice, only the second man reappointed to the Supreme Court (the first was John Rutledge). The Hughes court approved many exercises of federal power, but struck down a number of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal programs. Hughes served until he retired in 1941. The passport has creases from being folded but is in other wise great condition. Please let us know if you have any questions about this piece of history, thanks.