Mark Hatfield: “Mr. President, a very interesting experience occurred this morning at the Senate prayer breakfast. That is that former…”

“Mr. President, a very interesting experience occurred this morning at the Senate prayer breakfast. That is that former Senator Joseph Tydings from Maryland came to join us and some of the newer Senators sitting in our area, and we were informed about Senator Joe Tydings' father, Senator Millard Tydings, who represented the State of Maryland and had a very interesting political experience; and that was that he stood up, as a Democrat, to the effort on the part of President Roosevelt in 1937 to alter the structure of the Supreme Court, and that, as a result, President Roosevelt undertook a purge in the 1938 elections of those Senators who blocked his effort to change the structure of the Supreme Court which was in effect termed in those days 'to pack the Court.' But he failed because the people of Maryland, as well as the people from Georgia, both returned those Senators that helped fight the packing of the Supreme Court--Democrats. They said, in effect, we support Mr. Roosevelt and the New Deal, but when he begins to tamper with the separation of powers and the checks and balances that our forefathers established in the Constitution, President Roosevelt has gone too far.”