Established in 1959, the internal congressional group, the Democratic Study Group (DSG) sought to counterbalance the Dixiecrat-Republican alliance that had prevented institutional reforms from being implemented. “Many of the campaigns for reform were led by the Democratic Study Group (DSG), a group of liberal congressional Democrats who believed firmly in the need for substantive institutional reform,” historian Julian Zelizer noted.¹ Reform of the House Rules Committee in 1961, hearings on congressional reform in 1965, and continual challenges to the Senate filibuster serve as three examples of these efforts.

The DSG had opposed Richard M. Nixon on several occasions before Watergate. In 1969, for example, the DSG rejected Nixon’s approach toward consumer protections, a stance described by the Washington Post as “let the buyer beware.” “President Nixon’s indifference has encouraged lethargic enforcement of existing consumer laws,” a report issued by the organization argued while putting forth 30 different pieces of legislation pertaining to consumer protections in several areas including product safety, the availability of consumer information, and protection against fraud and deception among others.²

The Democratic Study Group Records span the years 1959-1995 documenting the activities of the legislative service group. In regard to Watergate, researchers will want to consult the Subject File series in Part I which contains a 1972 report on the Nixon administration (Box I:63) as well as the Subject File Series in Part II which features three folders on the president grouped under Nixon, Richard M., presidential administration (Box II:153). Additionally, boxes II:178-184 contain a collection of news clippings documenting the scandal.

Notes

1. Julian Zelizer, "Bridging State and Society: The Origins of 1970s Congressional Reform," Social Science History, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Summer 2000): 387. Back to text
2. "Hill Group Charges Nixon Neglects the Consumer," Washington Post, August 11, 1969. Back to text

The following collection title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. A link to the collection finding aid is included when available.

Ralph Ellison’s New York Times obituary described his novel Invisible Man “as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century, has been read by millions, influenced dozens of younger writers and established Mr. Ellison as one of the major American writers of the 20th century.”³ Invisible Man chronicles the journey of a young black man trying to find his identity as he confronts racism in 1930s America. Not only was the novel a bestseller in 1953 and winner of the National Book Award, it “became a pioneer work of fiction for the emerging genre of African-American literature of identity and can be credited with stimulating a vital strain of ethnic fiction, drama, and poetry in the United States . . . ,” as described in the Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1994-1995 report.⁴ The Ralph Ellison Papers in the Manuscript Division document the nation’s cultural history through Ellison’s extensive collection that includes family papers, general correspondence, writings, and a reference file. The Reference File series of Part I contains information relating to Watergate. The Part I: Reference File contains one folder pertaining to Richard M. Nixon, located in the biographical information section, and three folders about the Watergate Affair. The Reference File consists primarily of newspaper and magazine clippings, and printed matter about subjects and prominent individuals of interest to Ellison.

Notes

3. Richard D. Lyons, “Ralph Ellison, Author of ‘Invisible man,’ Is Dead at 80,” New York Times, April 17, 1994. Back to text
4. “Ralph Waldo Ellison Papers,” Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1994-1995, p. 57.Back to text

The following collection title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. A link to the collection finding aid is included when available.

Initiated in 1991, the Oral History Project of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit documents chiefly the history of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Because of their location in the nation’s capital and their jurisdiction over federal agencies, these courts are considered two of the most important venues in the country. The collection preserves the recollections of judges, judges’ spouses, lawyers, and court staff associated with the District of Columbia. The interviews, arranged alphabetically by name, chronicle primarily the period from the 1940s to 2004 and include biographical information, discussions of the judicial process, history of the circuit, the evolution of significant cases, and the role of law clerks in the circuit.

The Oral History Project contains interviews with several players who were involved with the Watergate Affair in various capacities that related to their employment or position in the federal government. The interviewees include Robert H. Bork, Samuel Dash, and Judges Laurence Silberman and Gerhard Alden Gesell. While Solicitor General during the Richard M. Nixon administration, Bork fired special prosecutor Archibald Cox. In his interview Bork does not discuss any of the events known as “the Saturday Night Massacre” in which Nixon tried to prevent the special prosecutor from getting access to his White House tape recordings. Dash served as chief counsel and staff director of the United States Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (known as the Watergate Committee) during the investigation of President Richard M. Nixon and his staff. Dash discusses Watergate at great length during several segments of his interview regarding his selection of staff, his negotiations with Sam Ervin, Howard Baker, and Fred Thompson, his views of Judge John J. Sirica, and the public relations and political maneuvering that occurred on the committee. In his interview, Judge Gesell does not discuss any of the Watergate cases but does include appendices to his interviews. Two of these, consisting of Gesell’s writings, contain his reflections about Watergate and Judge John J. Sirica’s role in the Watergate cases. Laurence Silberman served in various capacities in the Nixon administration, first as Solicitor to the Department of Labor then then Undersecretary of Labor, before being appointed Deputy Attorney General in 1974. In his oral history, Silberman discusses President Nixon and Watergate at length. In addition, the second appendix features a speech given by Silberman to the Los Angeles Lawyers Division of the Federalist Society in 1999 discussing the 25th anniversary of the Saturday Night Massacre.

The following collection title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. A link to the collection finding aid is included when available.

The U.S. Commission on CIA Activities within the United States was an ad hoc commission, created by President Gerald R. Ford by Executive Order 11828 on 4 January 1975, and known as the Rockefeller Commission after its chair, Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller. The commission was charged with determining whether the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted domestic surveillance and other activities. Its final report, published June 6, 1975, found that the CIA had conducted unlawful acts within the United States that included infiltrating dissident groups, opening private mail, testing behavior-inducing drugs on unknowing citizens (MKULTRA project), and subjecting foreign defectors to physical abuse and prolonged confinement.

The commission records consist of a selected group of original documents from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library that were created by Rockefeller as a set of proceedings and reference materials. The files include testimonies and staff interviews with witnesses regarding the full range of subjects covered by the commission's final report, as well as many of the CIA's most sensitive internal documents. The collection is organized into two series, a Reference File containing the original source material and background information used in authoring the commission's final report, and a Transcripts of Testimonies File containing depositions of major witnesses appearing before the commission. Teams of lawyers were responsible for researching and compiling the various portions of the final report, and each team maintained its files separately.

The Schwarzer-Manfredi File (Classified) subseries of the Reference File features Watergate material. The subseries includes correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, and testimony of senior counsel William W. Schwarzer and counsel George A. Manfredi concerning alleged improper CIA support of White House operations, the Watergate affair, domestic activities of the directorate of operations, and CIA indices and files on American citizens (boxes CL 25-CL 26). Also present are files pertaining to the hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities and folders about Charles W. Colson, John R. Ehrlichman, and E. Howard Hunt Jr.

The Transcripts of Testimonies File series consists of depositions and related correspondence, exhibits, memoranda, and notes concerning all aspects of the commission's inquiry, taken during formal hearings. These testimonies, provided under oath as depositions before the sitting commission, differ from less formal interviews conducted with various parties by individual staff members, filed in the Reference File. The transcripts are arranged chronologically by date of testimony.

The following collection title links to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. A link to the collection finding aid is included when available.