Memorandum to Richard Nixon on the status of blacks, 16 Jan. 1970. This memo was quoted in an article in the New York Times, 1 Mar. 1970, which reported: "The phrase 'benign neglect,' Mr. Moynihan said in a telephone interview, came from an 1839 report on Canada by the British Earl of Durham. The Durham report, he said, described Canada as having grown more competent and capable of governing herself 'through many years of benign neglect' by Britain, and recommended full self-government."