GERALD R. FORD CONGRESSIONAL PAPERS, 1949-73 ROBERT T. HARTMANN FILES SUB-GROUP, 1965-73

Robert T. Hartmann Files, 1965-73. (Boxes R1‑R34, 13.6 linear feet)
Robert Hartmann assisted House Republicans, 1966‑69, as editor of the House Republican Conference and Minority Sergeant‑at‑Arms.  He then served Ford as Legislative Assistant to the Minority Leader, chief of staff to the Vice President, and Counsellor to the President.  To these posts he brought his years of experience with the Los Angeles Times and, more briefly, as information officer with the Navy 1941‑45 and the Food and Agriculture Organization 1964‑65.

In his 1980 memoir Palace Politics (p.45) Hartmann described his duties for Congressman Ford:

"I was responsible for almost everything unrelated to Ford's role as Representative of the Fifth District of Michigan.  I did the staff work connected with his role as Minority Leader.  When the House was in session I was usually within beckoning range, sometimes acted as lookout when he was off the floor.  I carried confidential messages to and from other Republican members and their aides, with my Democratic counterparts in the Speaker's and Majority Leader's offices.  People got to me when they couldn't get to Ford, or didn't want to bother him, to relay their concerns...

I was go‑between with the Senate leadership, the Republican National Committee, Governors' Association and Congressional campaign staffs.  When Nixon was nominated I was at Permanent Chairman Ford's side on the convention podium.  I represented him in Inaugural arrangements and became his liaison with White House and Executive departments.  I pushed Ford's requests and helped Nixon's lobbyists ‑ Harlow, Timmons and others ‑ push Administration programs in the House."

Hartmann's files document his diverse duties, but in an uneven and fragmentary fashion.  Relatively little material reflects his duties as House Republican Conference editor or Minority Sergeant-at‑Arms.  Of his work on Ford's staff, some subject areas are better documented than others, most notably the investigation of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.  In contrast the subject file is primarily from 1973 and the chronological correspondence file largely omits 1970.

Hartmann kept these files until the end of the Ford presidency.  He then relinquished this material, along with his vice presidential and White House files, to the Ford Library under the Ford deed of gift.  Hartmann also donated a collection of his personal papers to the Ford Library in 1992.