I am writing about a matter that touches the integrity of my Department, hence I am asking you to give to this letter your personal attention.

On May 15th, 1918, I addressed the following letter to the Provost Marshal General:-

“My dear General Crowder:-

In his report on the Pitt County situation one Phillips, a representative of the Department of Justice, takes occasion to say that ‘the Governor of North Carolina is playing politics.’ I do not know this man Phillips, and am not at all concerned about his private opinion of my official conduct, but I seriously challenge the charge made by a representative of the Department of Justice that the Governor of North Carolina is playing politics in the administration of the selective draft law. This charge is infamously false, without a shadowy foundation of truth. The only explanation of this baseless charge that I can conceive of is that Phillips did not know what he was writing. Upon his visit to Greenville to inspect Pitt county situation he was drinking, and his conduct reflected no credit upon the Department of Justice. Upon a recent visit to the office of Major Langston he was very noticeably under the influence of whiskey. Whiskey may or may not be the cause of his making baseless charges, but however that may be, I desire to give notice that not further report made by this man, who represents the Department of Justice, will be even read by this department.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) T. W. Bickett, Governor.”

General Crowder acknowledged the receipt of the above letter and said that it had been referred to your department, and I assumed that I would not be further annoyed by this representative of the Department of Justice.

Recently, however, it has come to my attention from two local boards that this man Phillips has been calling for copies of my letters upon which to base further criticism of this office.

I assume that you are entirely ignorant of this man’s conduct, and would not tolerate his spying upon the Governor of North Carolina. I have given my very soul to the work of winning this war. I have taxed my energies, of body and mind, to the breaking point in keeping the people of North Carolina solidly behind the administration in the prosecution of the war, and I deeply resent the indignity of having a representative of the Department of Justice going about the State and calling for my letters, and poisoning the minds of the local boards with veiled suggestions that my conduct is under suspicion in Washington.

The hardest and most vital work I have done as Governor has been driving home to the hearts of our people the truth that the selective service law is the very essence of equality, the sublimation of the square deal.

You can easily see how the foundation of this work will be undermined if the people are taught that the Governor, himself, is not giving a square deal. The real evil in the suggestions made by this representative is not done to me but to the cause for which all of us are making every sacrifice.

Hence, I insist on the removal of this man from North Carolina because:

(1) He has made serious charges against the Governor of North Carolina that are absolutely without foundation.

(2) He has a fundamentally erroneous conception of his duties when he presumes to spy on my conduct. I assume that he is no more authorized to do this than he is to spy upon the conduct of the Provost Marshal General in the enforcement of the law, and certainly, if this representative should presume to file with you his opinion that the Provost Marshal General is playing politics in the discharge of his high and responsible duties, your Department would not tolerate him for one moment longer.

(3) His attitude toward the Governor of North Carolina is hurtful to the due and orderly enforcement of the draft law.

(4) He has rendered himself hopelessly persona non grata to me, and I cannot co-operate with him in the administration of the draft law. For these reasons I must insist upon is withdrawal from this State.