SIGNED BY ALL 38 MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: THE 1974 IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST PRESIDENT NIXON IN 43 VOLUMES
(NIXON, Richard M.). Impeachment of Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States. Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives. WITH: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary… Pursuant to H. Res 803, a Resolution Authorizing and Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to Investigate Whether Grounds Exist for the House of Representatives to Exercise its Constitutional Power to Impeach Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America. May-June 1974. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1974. Forty-three volumes. Quarto and octavo, original tan printed paper wrappers.
Original printing of the 1974 Impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, leading to Nixon becoming the first President in history to resign office, with the House Judiciary Committee’s Final Report signed by all 38 members of the committee. From the collection of the Chairman of the Committee, Peter Rodino Jr.
"Threats of impeachment, first made in October 1973, were renewed in the following summer. The President admitted he had attempted to cover up the original crime at the Watergate. On August 9 1974 [Nixon] became the first President in American history to resign office" (Palmer, 248).
The Final Report volume is signed on the front cover by Peter W. Rodino Jr., Wiley Mayne, Jack Brooks, Charles B. Rangel, Delbert Latta, Barbara Jordan, Trent Lott, and John Doar / Special Counsel; inside the front cover by James R. Mann, M. Caldwell Butler, Charles E. Wiggins, Edward Mezvinsky, George Danielson, Edward Hutchinson, Robert McClory, Henry P. Smith III, Elizabeth Holtzman, Larry Hogan, Tom Railsback, Carlos J. Moorhead, Jerry Waldie, Joshua Eilberg, Walter Flowers, and William J. Hungate; and inside the rear cover by Harold D. Donohue, Paul Sarbanes, Robert F. Drinan, Robert W. Kastenmeier, Ray Thornton, Don Edwards, Peter W. Rodino, Jr. (again), John Conyers, Hamilton Fish, Jr., Charles W. Sandman, Jr., Joseph J. Maraziti, Bill Cohen, David W. Dennis, John F. Seiberling, Wayne Owens, and Harold V. Froehlich.
The set includes: two copies of the Judiciary Committee's Final Report, one signed by the members as described above, the other unsigned; Statement of Information Submitted on Behalf of President Nixon (4 books); Statement of Information (12 Books, 3 Appendices and Background Memorandum in 24 volumes—apparently without Part I of Book VII and Appendix I, although Chairman Rodino did attest in his 1975 letter that the set was complete in 43 volumes); Transcripts of Eight Recorded Presidential Conversations; Comparison of White House and Judiciary Committee Transcripts of Eight Recorded Presidential Conversations; Debate on Articles of Impeachment; Impeachment Inquiry (3 books); Testimony of Witnesses (3 books); Brief on Behalf of the President of the United States; Minority Memorandum on Facts and Law; Summary of Information; and Errata. Accompanied by photocopy of the September 15, 1975 letter of Congressman Peter W. Rodino, Jr., as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary acknowledging "that the representatives [i.e., representations] made by Channel 13 regarding my donation to its recent auction are accurate. The forty-three volume record of the Judiciary Committee's impeachment proceedings is complete. The signatures which appear on the Final Report are the authentic signatures of the Members who served on that Committee."
George Plimpton, in an article in The New York Times, June 1, 1975, headlined "Channel 13 Counting on $1 Million From Auction," notes the inclusion in the June 6-14, 1975 auction of a "record of the impeachment proceedings against former President Nixon signed by the 38 members of the House Judiciary Committee and to be auctioned off by Chairman Peter Rodino himself"—the present set. At the auction, 35 years ago, this signed set sold for $2,100.
A few minor bumps; Book VIII of Statement of Information without rear wrapper. Near-fine condition. Most scarce and desirable, with excellent provenance.