‘thank you, sir,’ and ‘thank you, madam,’ never had I heard before. Indeed, I had like to have been thrown out in the hurry; but I got a little wine in my glass and passed the ceremony. The ladies sat a good while, and the bottles passed about; but there was a dead silence about. Mrs. Washington at last withdrew with the ladies.

“I expected the men would now begin, but the same stillness remained. The President told of a New England clergyman who had lost a hat and wig in passing over a river called the Brunks [Bronx]. He smiled and everybody else laughed. He now and then said a sentence or two on some common subject, and what he said was not amiss. Mr. Jay [John Jay, the Chief Justice] tried to make a laugh by mentioning the circumstance of the Duchess of Devonshire leaving no stone unturned to carry Fox’s election. There was a Mr. Smith, who mentioned how Homer described Aeneas leaving his wife and carrying his father out of flaming Troy. He had heard somebody (I suppose) witty on the occasion; but if he had ever read it he would have said Virgil . The President kept a fork in his hand, when the cloth was taken away, I thought for the purpose of picking nuts. He ate no nuts, but played with the fork, striking the edge of the table with it. We did not sit long after the ladies retired. The President rose, went up-stairs to drink coffee; the company followed. I took my hat and came home.”

PRESIDENT JOHNSON:

Legislative breakfasts are a weekly occurrence, and, according to Senate Whip Hubert Humphrey, as quoted in Newsweek , have changed from the gay gatherings of the Kennedy era. The congressional leaders are kept so immersed in business that Humphrey claims he can never remember whether he has eaten anything. With such an assemblage of presidential aides (the “Hons.”), majority leaders, and whips, it is a fair assumption that one of the main topics of conversation on that April morning would have been strategy on the civil rights bill.

To the Treasury officials, Johnson said that federal government must set an example for private industry in eliminating job discrimination. Specifically, he said, qualified Negroes hired by the Treasury Department under the government’s equal opportunities program were ready for promotion—to GS-12 rank and above.

Mr. Fowler, who accompanied Secretary Dillon to the 11:15 meeting, is Under Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. McKinney, formerly U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, 1961–63, is a newspaper publisher from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and (like the President) a cattle breeder. We have no clue as to the reason for the meeting.

The Public Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations is a private group to whom Johnson reaffirmed government support for freer international trade and tariff reductions. He stated firmly, however, that we would not

enter into any agreement that did not provide lower foreign tariffs on American agricultural products, as well as on our industrial goods, which the New York Herald Tribune interpreted as a direct warning to France.

The Disciples of Christ, despite their name and the highly appropriate number in the group (twelve), are actually members of an indigenous American religious body more generally known as the Christian Church, which has a large membership in Texas.

Johnson’s remarks to the editors and broadcasters attending a State Department foreign-policy conference made that gathering something like a press conference. He urged the newsmen to mold public opinion to support economic assistance to developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the course of a question-and-answer period, he discussed Cuba, juvenile delinquency, the number of White House visitors, his press relations, Vietnam, the rail strike, and politics (“I am a fellow that likes small parties, and the Republican party is about the size I like”). It is perhaps safe to assume that Vietnam was discussed at lunch, in view of the presence of Secretaries McNamara and Rusk (the latter had just returned from that troubled country the day before). President Johnson’s old friend Governor Connally had come to Washington to testify before the Warren Commission.

The gap in the schedule from sometime after 2:45 to 5:01 P.M. normally represents a nap and a swim, part of the President’s attempt to maintain a sensible regimen since his 1955 heart attack.

Congressman L. Mendel Rivers represents the First District of South Carolina, including Charleston. He is interested in defense problems and, one assumes, civil rights. There is no report of his talk with the President. Señor Betancourt, here for a six-week visit, discussed inter-American relations with Mr. Johnson. There is no public record of the discussions with Mr. McFarland, a former Arizona senator and governor, or of what brought Secretary McNamara to the White House so late at night.