Descriptive Summary |
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| Creator: | Williams, Harrison A. |
| Title: | Harrison A. Williams, Jr. Papers (01): Introduction |
| Dates: | 1862-2001 (bulk 1953-1982) |
| Quantity: | 1260 cubic ft. |
| Abstract: | Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (1919 - 2001) represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 1959 until 1982. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1953 through 1956. A member of the Democratic Party, Williams held leadership positions on the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, the Special Committee on Aging, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the Select Committee on Small Business, among others. The Williams papers consist of legislative working files and reference material, correspondence, project and case files, campaign files, photographs, press releases, speeches, memorabilia, audio and visual recordings, and more. Major themes in the papers include the involvement of the Federal government in managing the natural and built environment of the United States (e.g., housing, mass transit, land and wildlife conservation, energy); the search for civil rights, economic equity and security, and the expansion of educational opportunities and initiatives; national tensions over economic and social costs (e.g., expanded entitlement programs vs. taxation, crime and assassinations vs. gun control); business concerns on trade, contractual, and regulatory matters; and Americans' responses to foreign affairs, particularly with regard to the Vietnam War, the Middle East, and the Panama Canal Treaty. |
| Collection No.: | MC 2 |
| Repository: | Rutgers University. Special Collections and University Archives. |
Harrison A. Williams, Jr. Papers has been separated into twelve online files. The finding aid is divided into the Introduction, Case Files-Part 1-2, Special Projects Files, Correspondence-Part 1-3, Legislation, Subjects-Part 1-2, Public Relations and Appendices. This section is Introduction. Click on one of the links below to go to another section.
Introduction
Harrison Arlington Williams, Jr. (1919 - 2001) represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate from 1959 until 1982. He also served in the House of Representatives as Congressman from New Jersey's Sixth Congressional District (Union County) from 1953 through 1956. Known since infancy by the nickname "Pete," Williams was a member of the Democratic Party during a period when Democrats held a majority in the Senate. Consequently, until a Republican majority took office in 1981 toward the end of his career, Williams held the Chairmanships of a number of committees and subcommittees over the years. Further, Williams played important roles as a leader within the Democratic Party, notably as a member of the Democratic Senate Steering Committee, the group responsible for committee assignments.
Williams was born in Plainfield, NJ, on December 10, 1919, son of Harrison A. Williams, Sr. and Isabel Lamson Williams. He attended the Plainfield public schools, then studied economics and political science at Oberlin College, graduating in 1941. After a short stint as a reporter with the Washington Post and beginning graduate work at Georgetown University Foreign Service School, Williams, a Naval reservist, was called to active duty when the U.S. entered WWII. He served on a minesweeper for a year and as a Navy pilot for three years. After his discharge, Williams worked in an Ohio steel mill for a year before attending Columbia University Law School, from which he graduated in 1948. Williams practiced law in New Hampshire for one year before returning to New Jersey to join the firm of Cox and Walburg in Newark and, in the early 1950s, the Elizabeth firm that became Pollis and Williams.
Williams began his political career with unsuccessful runs for the New Jersey Assembly in 1951 and for Plainfield city councilman in 1952. His first victory came against George F. Hetfield in a special election held on November 3, 1953, to fill the Sixth Congressional District vacancy that opened when Clifford Case moved to the U.S. Senate. Williams was re-elected to the House in 1954, defeating Fred Shepard, but lost in 1956 to Florence P. Dwyer. Remaining active in politics, Williams played a leading role in Robert Meyner's 1957 successful gubernatorial bid, earning Meyner's support for Williams's successful 1958 Senate campaign. Williams would win four consecutive Senate races—unprecedented for a Democrat in New Jersey—defeating Robert W. Kean (1958), Bernard M. Shanley (1964), Nelson Gross (1970), and David F. Norcross (1976).
Throughout his Senate career, Williams was a member of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources. (This was the name of the Committee beginning in 1978.The Committee was called the Committee on Human Resources in 1977 and, prior to 1977, the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.) One of Williams's first achievements as a Senator was gaining the approval in 1959 of then-Chairman Lister Hill to create a Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, which HAW chaired until 1968. Williams was successful at publicizing the poor living and working conditions of agricultural laborers and their families, leading to legislative advances, especially for the improvement of migrant health (1962) and education (1964). Williams's concern with working conditions led to at least two other major legislative initiatives in the 1960s: the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA). Connecting his interest in labor with his longtime advocacy of civil rights, Williams wrote the provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlawed discrimination in employment.
Ascending to the Chairmanship of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources for the entire decade of the 1970s, Williams continued at the forefront of legislative reforms in the areas of occupational safety, pension protection, access to education, equal employment opportunity, women's rights, health initiatives, minimum wage, and much more. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Amendments Act of 1977, and the Home Energy Assistance Act (1980) are just a few of the significant pieces of legislation sponsored by Chairman Williams and reported by his Committee. Himself a victim of alcoholism, as he informed the public in 1970, Williams was also a supporter of legislation aimed at the prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol abuse; his initiative created the Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics in 1971 to focus on the issue.
Williams also spent his entire Senate career on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (known as the Committee on Banking and Currency before 1971). As Chairman of the Securities Subcommittee throughout the 1960s and most of the 1970s, Williams sought to increase the regulatory oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to improve disclosure in securities offerings and in corporate takeover attempts, to enforce equitable lending practices, and to implement other market reforms. As a member of the Select Committee on Small Business for over a decade, Williams sought ways to strengthen the effectiveness of the Small Business Administration, and much of his constituent project work centered on connecting small firms with SBA opportunities. Williams's appreciation of commercial interests—including those of New Jersey's agricultural, pharmaceutical, and other industries—often involved Williams in matters of royalty and patent protection, import/export restrictions, and other matters of importance to business. Additionally, Williams place on the Banking Committee and his interest in housing was part of a broader vision of a Federal role in managing the natural and built environment of the U.S., particularly with respect to urban centers and their greater metropolitan areas. Mass transportation was an essential part of Williams's vision. Beginning with his Mass Transportation Act of 1961 and continuing throughout his career, Williams sponsored legislation aimed at reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, while increasing the availability and efficiency of commuting options. Similarly, Williams sought to protect open space within these metropolitan areas, leading him to pursue the conservation of Sandy Hook, the Delaware Water Gap, the Great Swamp, and other New Jersey areas for recreation rather than for development. Williams's legislative efforts to regulate ocean dumping, to eliminate inhumane animal trapping, to preserve endangered species, to identify alternative energy sources, and so forth linked into his efforts to create a sustainable economy and a pleasurable, socially-responsible way of life.
Williams's overall efforts on the housing front dovetailed with his participation on the Special Committee on Aging. Here, Williams was principally concerned with housing and health care (including his Preventicare program) for senior citizens. Additionally, Williams was concerned about the extent to which the elderly were often victims of fraud. For example, he pressed for legislation over several Congresses to regulate the disclosures required for interstate land sales.
Despite the domestic orientation of Williams's Committee assignments, foreign affairs—including the Vietnam War and the Cold War—were issues that he retained interest in. In the 1950s, Williams was an ardent anti-Communist. Nevertheless, while he recognized the importance of military defense, he perceived the United State's confrontation with the Soviet Union as principally one of ideology, which could be won by building allies through diplomacy, cultural engagement, and economic development. As a Congressman, his committee assignments involved him in foreign operations administration, and through this work Williams pressed for enhancements in foreign aid, trade activities, and support for foreign service personnel. By the 1960s, Williams's view of the Cold War translated into his initial support for the Vietnam War, though he eventually came to oppose it, supporting or sponsoring various legislative efforts pressing for a resolution. Williams was also a strong supporter of Israel, at least in part because of his perception of that country as a democratic ally and bulwark against Communist influence in the Middle East. Williams's sponsored legislation included efforts to break the Arab embargo on companies doing business with Israel.
With an appreciation for intellectual activity as a national resource, Williams pursued funding for a wide range of initiatives in the sciences, arts, and humanities. He lent his name to a number of institutions; at various times he was, for example, a director for the New York Lyric Ensemble, a member of the Steering Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, and a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. Perhaps most notable in this connection was Williams's sponsorship of legislation in the early 1960s forming a Woodrow Wilson Commission with the objective of creating an appropriate memorial to the former President. William's involvement as a leader of the Commission led to the founding of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1971.
Williams's career began to close in February 1980 when the press reported that he was a target of a FBI undercover operation, known as Abscam. The Abscam operation had snared several businessmen and politicians, but Williams was the most prominent and highest-ranking official involved. In October 1980, a nine count indictment against Williams was announced which included bribery, receipt of an unlawful gratuity, conflict of interest, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other charges. Williams's trial started on March 30, 1981 and, on May 9, Williams was found guilty on all counts. The Senate Committee on Ethics then opened its own hearings into the matter, which led to a recommendation in September 1981 that Williams be expelled from the Senate. As the Senate neared the end of its deliberations on this recommendation, Williams resigned in March 1982. Though continuing to pursue various avenues for fighting the charges in court, Williams was sentenced, and he entered the penitentiary at Allenwood, Pa. in January 1984. Throughout the ordeal, Williams argued that he was innocent and that the FBI had abused its power. Williams's contentions were important ones that resulted in fierce debate in the news media and in Congress where hearings were held on the FBI's investigative tactics.
After his release from prison in 1986, Williams returned home to retirement in Bedminster, NJ, where he had lived since 1974 with his second wife, Jeanette. Williams died of heart disease on November 17, 2001.
The above biographical note was based, in part, on an unpublished paper prepared by public history intern Anthony Manganaro for the Williams processing project. For researchers interested in further detail regarding Williams's legislative career, following is a link to the full paper.
Harrison Williams Senate Career Biographical Sketch
The Harrison A. Williams, Jr. papers (HAW papers) comprise approximately 1260 cubic feet of material. 660 cubic feet are processed and 600 cubic feet are unprocessed.
The collection is organized into three sub-groups: Harrison A. Williams, Jr. papers, Jeanette Williams papers, and Williams Family papers. The Jeanette Williams sub-group consists of approximately 10 cubic feet of material, circa 1953 - 1980. These materials include correspondence, speeches, and other documents from the files of Jeanette Williams (JW), and relate principally to JW's public activities as the wife of a US Senator (1974 and thereafter). The Williams Family sub-group consists of approximately 1 cubic foot of material, from HAW's mother, father, and other ancestral family members, dating circa 1862-1960. Both the JW and Williams Family sub-groups are unprocessed and are only referenced in Appendix D: Summary Inventory of Unprocessed Material. All other references in this Inventory, unless otherwise noted, are to the Harrison A. Williams, Jr. sub-group, which comprises the bulk of the collection.
The HAW papers hold a wide variety of documentation types including, correspondence, project proposals, internal office notes, working files, legislative bills, Committee Reports, campaign material, press releases, speeches, Senate floor remarks, published or otherwise printed material, photographs, awards, memorabilia, microfilm, and audio and video recordings. Much of this material remains unprocessed, however, summary description of the unprocessed material can be found in Appendix D. Outside of Appendix D, all references in this Inventory are to the processed material only, unless otherwise noted.
The HAW papers have a number of strengths for research use. The processed portion of the collection documents:
The bulk of the collection dates from HAW's years, in the House of Representatives and, especially, the Senate, 1953-1982. A number of themes are well represented in the collection, including:
The processed material is organized into the following series:
CASE FILES, WASHINGTON OFFICE and SPECIAL PROJECTS FILES include correspondence and other materials related to the work HAW and his Washington office performed on behalf of constituents seeking benefits, grants, contracts, jobs, services, visas, loans, rulings, and other favorable considerations from Federal and state departments and agencies. CASE FILES, WASHINGTON OFFICE principally pertains to individual constituent matters; SPECIAL PROJECTS FILES principally relates to matters raised by companies, non-profit organizations, universities, municipalities, school districts, and other institutions.
CASE FILES, NEWARK OFFICE includes casework handled by HAW's Newark, NJ office. (No casework from Toms River or HAW's other New Jersey offices are in the collection.) CASE FILES, COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES includes casework concerning issues that fell within the scope of HAW's Committee assignment and were referred (or "bucked") by HAW's office to his Committee staff for resolution.
Correspondence can be found in most series in the collection, regardless of the primary content of the files. Nevertheless, the bulk of correspondence received by HAW, especially that from constituents, was retained by his office staff in centralized correspondence files. Over the course of HAW's twenty-three years in the Senate, a variety of filing structures were used for correspondence, and the correspondence series are organized accordingly. The correspondence series consist principally of letters written to HAW by individual New Jersey constituents, with a carbon copy or other form of response attached. Correspondents also include US Presidents, other legislators, committee staff members, department and agency officials, and representatives of companies, unions, industry associations, and other institutional interests. The correspondence series also include carbon copies (with little or no other attached documents) of HAW-initiated letters to editors, Presidents, other Senators, government officials, etc. The correspondence series include:
· SUBJECT CORRESPONDENCE (1959) reflects a short-lived filing system and includes issue-related constituent correspondence.
· DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE (1959-1964; 1972-1977) includes constituent correspondence on regulatory issues and government programs referred to departments and agencies by HAW's office for review and comment. Particularly in the 1960s, HAW's office was not consistent in distinguishing issue-oriented departmental correspondence from casework and projects involving departments, so these materials can be found to some extent in DEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE as well.
· LEGISLATIVE / ISSUE CORRESPONDENCE (1959-1982) includes correspondence regarding specific pending or proposed legislation (e.g., Civil Rights Act of 1964) or general public policy matters (e.g., Vietnam War).
· GENERAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS CORRESPONDENCE (1959-1964; 1972-1977) includes the wide range of topics that did not fit into departmental or legislative correspondence, from routine requests or congratulatory notes to substantive correspondence on political affairs and New Jersey state issues.
· CENTRAL CORRESPONDENCE reflects the principal correspondence filing system in place from 1965 to early 1972 and includes departmental, legislative, and general correspondence.
· CMS ENCYCLOPEDIA includes the text of HAW's outgoing correspondence generated by the Correspondence Management System (CMS) from 1977-1982.
HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES includes HAW's copy of author and Committee staff member Thomas A. Lindsley's 1980 draft of the Committee history that would be published in 1981, along with some related documents. COMMITTEE RECORDS includes photocopies and original duplicates of staff memoranda and other documents that were in the collection but were returned to the Senate in 2006 because they were determined to be records of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources and the Committee on Banking and Currency.
LEGISLATION FILES principally pertains to bills, including private bills, introduced or co-sponsored by HAW. In addition to printed bills, the files often include draft bills, correspondence from other legislators, remarks, reference material, and/or staff notes. The series also contains HAW co-signed letters and correspondence to HAW from other Senators ("Dear Colleague letters") regarding bills which HAW chose not to co-sponsor.
NATIONAL INFORMATION FILES consists mostly of reference material on a wide range of subject areas, many of which had direct relevance to HAW's legislative or project initiatives.
CAMPAIGN FILES includes materials relating principally to HAW's bids for election and re-election to the House and Senate, and includes the subject files maintained by assistant Robert Barrie in preparation for HAW's first Senate race in 1958. CAMPAIGN FILES also includes HAW's files from his leadership position in Robert Meyner's 1957 gubernatorial race.
ABSCAM includes correspondence, clippings, legal filings, transcripts, and other material related to HAW's indictment, trial, appeals, conviction, and imprisonment stemming from the FBI's Abscam operation; the Senate investigation into HAW's conduct and the resulting expulsion proceedings; and the Senate and House's inquiries into the FBI's undercover investigative tactics.
The following is a description of the general approaches to arrangement taken during processing. The series descriptions provide information on arrangement as it specifically pertains at that level.
Substantial portions of the files were kept in their original order and the rest could be readily reconstructed. Generally, this original order is reflected in the organization of series and sub-series, and often in the arrangement within a series or sub-series. Nevertheless, rearrangement was commonly implemented because of anticipated research use, appraisal decisions, consolidation of like material into fewer folders, or other considerations.
Folder descriptions applied during processing generally reflect those from the labels of the original folders. Nevertheless, there are several exceptions to this practice. Most are mundane changes, such as replacing inconsistent department acronyms with consistent ones. Substantive alterations to original folder labels are described in the series descriptions. Alterations at the individual folder level are not marked in any way, except for the ABSCAM FILES series in which folder descriptions imposed or modified during processing are enclosed in brackets.
Portions of the processed collection were retained in the original folders. In these instances, any notations made on the original label by the processing archivist are enclosed in brackets.
The folder-level date range used in the container list is not necessarily reflective of all documents in a given folder because of the impracticality of looking at every individual document during processing. The source of the date range varies by series, and is described in the series description. Folders that appear in the container list with no date range are those that could not be dated following the general rule for the series and contained undated documents.
The folder level description in the container list may include up to six index terms assigned by the processing archivists. The general purpose of the index terms is to identify substantive folder content in cases where the folder label is insufficient. The index terms do not indicate the only content in the folders. Specific indexing strategies were employed by the archivists for some series and sub-series. When used, these strategies are described within the series descriptions.
Unordered material or material on a specific topic found in various isolated folders were consolidated and placed within an appropriate series or folder of like material. Generally, this was done without annotation, though notation was made with the material or in the series description when such placement seemed substantive.
A great deal of material in the files was obviously misfiled, likely misfiled, or, because of the indistinct lines within the filing systems, filed inconsistently under multiple headings. Generally, this material was left in place with descriptive techniques, including series description and index terms, used to identify significant occurrences. Nevertheless, some obvious misfilings were silently corrected during processing when the correct location was obvious and it seemed unlikely that a researcher would find the material if left in its incorrect location.
Most series were foldered in letter-size (8-1/2" x 11") folders. In these instances, any thick legal-size documents in the series required separation; these documents, along with any associated documents, were placed in legal-size folders in separate boxes designated for these materials. A placeholder folder, which includes the folder description and the notation "see legal size box," marks the separation point in the container and container list. Series that use separate legal-size boxes for material indicate this in the arrangement note of the series description along with the box numbers.
Printed materials, such as government publications, annual statements, product brochures, and the like, were generally removed without notation from the collection wherever there was little or no context for the material. For example, an unsolicited boilerplate transmittal of a company annual report to HAW found in the correspondence files was insufficient context to retain the report; however, the same annual report would have been retained if it was in a project file related to a company proposal. Removed material was transferred to a Special Collections and University Archives' bibliographer for disposition.
Loose newsprint clippings were discarded unless they were from obscure sources and seemed essential for providing context to other material in the folder. Clippings and other transmitted material attached to correspondence was generally left in the collection, unless it presented severe preservation threats to other material in the folder.
Redundant pressure mail received in bulk was discarded; representative samples were retained with a note in the folder describing the extent of the discards and any apparent common attributes linking the correspondents (i.e., same town, institutional affiliation, etc.).
Paper clips, binder clips, and binders or report covers with metal fasteners were removed, with the material placed together in a paper sleeve or with a plastic clip. Staples were removed only where they prevented documents from opening, had exposed points, were rusted, or otherwise adversely impacted the use and preservation of the documents.
The Harrison A. Williams, Jr. papers came to Rutgers University in five accruals (as of December 2007). First, Rutgers collected approximately 800 cubic feet of material from the Washington, DC office of Senator Williams (HAW) in March 1982, immediately after his resignation. Second, also in 1982, Rutgers received all of HAW's papers held at the Federal Records Center in Suitland, Maryland-approximately 2500 cubic feet of material. Third, HAW delivered 15 cubic feet of material in 1990. Fourth, Jeanette Williams donated 25 cubic feet in February 2006. Finally, Jeanette Williams donated another 8 cubic feet of material in February 2007. Until 2005, the materials were held in custody for HAW and, after his death in 2001, for Jeanette Williams. In December 2005, Jeanette Williams signed a deed of gift, donating the entire collection to Rutgers University.
Shortly after material was received at Rutgers in 1982, a high level appraisal was performed by the staff of Special Collections and University Archives. Routine office administration files, rejected academy candidate files, many case files, routine requests (for American flags, tours of the White House, etc.), Congressional Records, and similar materials with low archival value were discarded. This appraisal reduced the size of the material taken from HAW's office to about 511 cubic feet and the material from the Records Center to approximately 1499 cubic feet. With the 40 cubic feet received in 1990 and 2006, the total collection size was approximately 2050 cubic feet at the start of the processing project begun in 2006.
During the course of processing in 2006-2007, much additional material was discarded as well as condensed with more efficient use of folder and container space. Also, a substantial volume of Committee records were found in the collection, and these were returned to the Senate. Together, these actions, netted against the 2007 accrual received from Jeanette Williams, reduced the size of the collection to approximately 1300 cubic feet as of December 2007. Further information on material discarded during processing can be found in the Series Descriptions below.
During processing, a Microsoft Access database (version 2000) was used to document both the processed and unprocessed HAW collection. The most crucial element of the database is the container list data, which was the source of the container lists that appear in this Inventory. Therefore, it is expected that this Inventory will meet the needs of most researchers without reference to the Access database. Nevertheless, the database does include some secondary information about folder content not found in this Inventory. Perhaps more usefully, those researchers familiar with Access can take advantage of the software's search filters and sort capabilities to navigate the extensive container list. (Researchers are advised to not use case-sensitive searches.) The Access database can be obtained at the reference desk in Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA). However, to use the database researchers will need to copy it from a flash drive onto their own computer via a US port and run the application with their own copy of Access software. SC/UA will oversee the transfer of the database to the researcher's computer, but will not provide technical support. Researchers are advised to contact the reference desk in advance of their arrival date if they intend to request a copy of the database.
In addition to the information found in the container lists in this Inventory, the Access database contains the following data for each folder in the "Processed Material" table and form: