WASHINGTON — Former Atty. Gen. Elliot L. Richardson, who became a symbol of government integrity when he refused to carry out President Richard Nixon's order to fire the Watergate prosecutor, died Friday of a cerebral hemorrhage at a hospital in Boston. He was 79 years old.
Richardson, who had been in failing health in recent years, assured his place in history in the so-called "Saturday night massacre" of Oct. 20, 1973, when he resigned from Nixon's Cabinet rather than fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.
When Richardson resigned, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, William Ruckelshaus, also quit, leaving the firing of Cox to then-Solicitor General Robert H. Bork. The abrupt weekend shake-up--so uncharacteristic of the mannered way in which personnel changes usually occur in Washington--stunned the public and escalated doubts about Nixon's truthfulness as the Watergate scandal dragged on.
Richardson returned to the Justice Department the following Monday morning to explain his action to department employees and was greeted with a tumultuous standing ovation in the department's Great Hall. At a time when morale was low for many government lawyers because of the growing Watergate scandal, Richardson's determination to uphold a legally established investigation provided them an emotional high point, many would say later.
The reaction was more mixed among many Republican Party officials who remained loyal to Nixon. Richardson had served the administration as secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, secretary of Defense and undersecretary of State and his decision to quit the high-profile attorney general's post struck these GOP partisans as grandstanding.
While outwardly calm about his action, Richardson in fact was deeply troubled, some friends said, precisely because he thought that he owed loyalty to Nixon. But he believed he could not compromise his legal and ethical standards, given that he had promised the Senate Cox would be guaranteed independence in his investigation.
While considered a pariah by many Republicans for months after that fateful Saturday night, Richardson returned to public service shortly after Nixon resigned from office in August 1974. Nixon's successor, President Ford, appointed him secretary of Commerce and later ambassador to Great Britain. Richardson, who maintained a private law practice in Washington until retiring in 1992, was one of 15 Americans honored by President Clinton last January with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
