Nixon White House Tapes ›Tape 145 › Conversation 145-003

Nixon phone call with Ehrlichman on Revenue Sharing and Philadelphia

Saturday, September 30, 1972 · 2:32 PM–2:36 PM ET · Camp David Study Table ·4 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Ehrlichman, John D.Conversation145-003 onTape 145StartSaturday, September 30, 1972 at 2:32 PMEndSaturday, September 30, 1972 at 2:36 PMRecording deviceCamp David Study TableSourceNixon Library record for 145-003 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and John Ehrlichman discuss administrative matters regarding Raymond Price's schedule and the development of an upcoming radio address. The core of their conversation centers on a proposal to move a revenue sharing event from the White House to a historical venue in Philadelphia, such as Independence Hall, to symbolically align the administration's "New American Revolution" agenda with the nation's founding sites. Ehrlichman is tasked with investigating the logistics of this proposal, including the feasibility of hosting hundreds of guests at a National Park Service site.

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Transcript (AI-generated)

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Hello.
Yes, sir.
I've got Ray Price coming up, and I thought that I probably won't get to see him this afternoon.
Are you up here yet?
No, I'll be up about 5.
Oh, fine, fine.
No, no problem, no problem.
But you can talk to him.
You had a chance to talk to him about the radio thing.
Right, I have.
I'll talk to him then.
I think he's got some stuff fairly nearly done.
Well, I was just meaning to want to just give him some.
want him to you know he has to give me he wants I know he'll want to get some feel of things and also general things so but you've already done your talking with him right we talked this last week I had another idea that just occurred to me that's maybe pretty outlandish but knowing that you're always the dog and pony guy I thought probably I'd submit it to you the you know we've been thinking about what you about doing revenue sharing in another place
Right.
I wonder if we could get Constitution Hall to do it in.
We're not going to Philadelphia on any other plans.
You know what I mean.
You go to Philadelphia, you go to Constitution Hall, it's a significant place.
It's Rizzo, a mayor that's favorable.
You just have to cart the damn Congress up there in a plane.
In fact, I'll go with them.
What about it?
Not bad.
Just to do something entirely different, you know, than the East.
Now, there are two halls there.
The other one is Carpenters.
That's the one where the Declaration of Independence was actually written, as I understand it.
Or, excuse me, not the Declaration of Independence, the other one, the Articles of Confederacy, which is right down the street from Independence Hall.
Well, that probably doesn't have quite the feel.
It may not.
It should be the place where the Constitutional Convention was held.
That's what I'm thinking.
If it could be used for such a purpose.
Now, of course, it's a national...
monument, I guess, and all that sort of thing.
Well, it's a national park.
National park.
Yeah, Park Service runs it.
But what I was thinking was, I haven't seen it for years.
I don't even remember.
Well, I had my kids up there a couple of months ago.
Oh, you did?
Yeah, and there's the famous room that shows in the painting, you know, where Benjamin Franklin presided.
Then there's another room where the first House of Representatives sat, which is a good deal larger.
and has the Congressman's desks in a semicircle, and it's a good-sized room, bigger than the other room.
Yeah, well, you might, it really wouldn't make a hell of a lot of difference which room it was in.
That's right.
If it were in basically what we call Constitution...
In the Independence Hall complex.
Independence Hall.
That's right.
In this place where the first Congress met and the Constitution was written.
Pretty interesting.
Decoration.
Why don't you give it a little thought?
Sure.
I've just been over the guest list this morning.
It runs about 550 people.
Oh, Jesus Christ.
Well, of course, they won't all come.
Some of them are in Alaska and Hawaii and so forth.
But it's a good list.
We've got people on there, chairman of the boards of companies and so on, who are on the Citizens Committee.
The difficulty, of course, with having something there is that then the bus or you have the reception and so forth is... No, I think there's a good place for it there.
You could have a place to give them some coffee.
Sure, sure.
Shake hands.
Have a receiving line.
You bet.
Right.
But I'm just thinking something to sort of pull her out of the White House.
Of course, to them, to the people who come, it means more to come to the White House.
On the other hand, to the country, it might be more interesting to go to a different place, you know, which has really historical significance.
And, of course, that, if you're talking about an historical, you know, a revolutionary change in all of our business, the new American Revolution, all that sort of thing, certainly this
This tells it better than any words would tell it.
Right.
Yeah.
Let me fool with that a little.
Well, you can fool with it.
Okay.
Run it by others, see what they think.
Okay, John.
And as I say, I'll be up there between 5 and 6.
Don't hurry.
Don't hurry.
I won't see you today.
Okay.
Bye.

NARA Description

On September 30, 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman talked on the telephone at Camp David from 2:32 pm to 2:36 pm. The Camp David Study Table taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 145-003 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 145-3

Date: September 30, 1972
Time: 2:32 pm - 2:36 pm
Location: Camp David Study Table

The President talked with John D. Ehrlichman.

[See Conversation No. 214-3]

            Raymond K. Price, Jr.
               -Ehrlichman's schedule
                   -Radio speech

            Revenue sharing event
               -Constitution Hall
                   -Philadelphia
                   -Frank L. Rizzo
                   -Congress
                   -East Room
                   -Carpenters Hall
                        -Declaration of Independence
                        -Articles of Confederacy
                        -Independence Hall
                   -Constitutional Convention
                        -National park
                        -National Park Service
                        -Ehrlichman’s recollection
                        -Benjamin Franklin
                        -House of Representatives
                   -Independence Hall complex
                        -Constitution
                        -Declaration of Independence
               -Guest list
                   -Size
                   -Possible regrets
                        -Alaskan residents

                                       (rev. Feb-24)

                          -Hawaiian residents
                     -Businessmen
                     -Citizens Committee
                     -Reception
                          -White House
                     -New American revolution
                     -Ehrlichman's schedule

Also recorded on September 30, 1972

  • 145-002 2:05 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 2:05 pm and 2:32 pm.
  • 214-003 2:32 PM · 4 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 2:32 pm to 2:36 pm.
  • 145-004 2:36 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 2:36 pm and 2:42 pm.
  • 145-005 2:42 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman talked on the telephone at Camp David from 2:42 pm to 2:45 pm.
  • 214-004 2:42 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 2:42 pm to 2:45 pm.
  • 145-006 2:45 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Camp David operator talked on the telephone at Camp David at an unknown time between 2:45 pm and 2:51 pm.
  • 145-007 2:51 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson talked on the telephone at Camp David from 2:51 pm to 2:59 pm.
  • 214-005 2:51 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Charles W. Colson met in the Aspen Lodge study at Camp David from 2:51 pm to 2:59 pm.

All 29 conversations from September 30, 1972 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 145-003, September 30, 1972. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/145-003 (accessed September 18, 2026).