John F. Kennedy Annotated Campaign Speech.

KENNEDY, John F.

Item Number: 3731

St. Louis:, 1960.

Original John F. Kennedy campaign speech with extensive annotations in his hand. This is a reading copy of the speech Kennedy delivered in St. Louis on October 2, 1960. Quarto, bound in a loose leaf folder with gilt titles and ruling to the front panel. 14 double-spaced pages, with notes in the presidential candidate’s hand throughout. The speech begins, “Massachusetts and Missouri are closely linked in the history of this republic. Both have been cradles of American freedom. The French who founded this city — and the Germans who helped to settle it — came here to find a greater freedom than they had ever known. Your symbol here is the Statue of Liberty — the symbol of freedom. And your champions in Washington have been the champions of freedom…” Bound with the speech is an engraved portrait of Kennedy and several mimeographs of newspaper clippings from The New York Times pertaining to Kennedys campaign, with headlines including: “Kennedy Dazzles Women on Tours”, “Hoffa Will Press Drive on Kennedy”, “Nixon, in Boston, Hailed by 250,000”, “Kennedy Invokes Depression Fears”, and “Kennedy Gets Political Phrases From Five-Foot Shelf Writers.”

The 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, junior United States Senator from Massachusetts, was formally launched on January 2, 1960, as Senator Kennedy announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 1960 presidential election. Kennedy was nominated by the Democratic Party at the national convention on July 15, 1960 and he named Senator Lyndon B. Johnson as his official running mate. On November 8, 1960 they defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon and United Nations Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in the general election. Kennedy was sworn in as president on January 20, 1961 and would serve until his assassination on November 22, 1963. His brothers Robert and Ted would both later run for president in 1968 and 1980, but neither received the presidential nomination.