While Mr. Bush’s father welcomed his input, staff members did not always share that enthusiasm. The archives reveal polite but firm attempts to rein him in. Jane Kenny, special assistant to Mr. Bush’s father when he was vice president, twice wrote to ask Mr. Bush to route requests for appointments through her instead of contacting an agency or office directly.

“That way,” Ms. Kenny wrote, “there will be no chance for misunderstanding.”

Recommending Allies

Jeb Bush had run out of patience with his father’s staff. The White House had yet to officially nominate an ally, Dexter Lehtinen, as United States attorney for South Florida, as Mr. Bush had repeatedly recommended. His letter to C. Boyden Gray, the White House counsel, was blunt and emphatic. “Boyden, it’s time to act,” Mr. Bush wrote.

The case demonstrated how doggedly Mr. Bush advocated for those close to him, deploying a growing self-confidence and an increasingly assertive tone that might have invited scorn if he had had a different father. When the United States attorney job came open in 1988, Mr. Bush, who by then had begun his ascent in Florida politics, moving from Republican county chairman to state secretary of commerce, made his preference well known. He called Craig Fuller, his father’s chief of staff, and followed up with a handwritten note. “Dexter is a very bright guy with an excellent record in criminal law,” Mr. Bush wrote.

The Reagan White House appointed Mr. Lehtinen as interim United States attorney, a status that eventually left Mr. Bush dissatisfied. In 1990, after his father had become president, he wrote to Mr. Gray that Mr. Lehtinen was being “treated unfairly by the press” and that the Bush administration had been “unfair” to leave him in limbo. (The Senate ultimately rebuffed Mr. Lehtinen’s nomination.)

In his correspondence, Mr. Bush did not elaborate on his ties to Mr. Lehtinen, which had grown deep: He had managed the successful congressional campaign of Mr. Lehtinen’s wife, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Mr. Bush did not limit his advice to suggesting potential appointees for United States attorney. Seven months into his father’s presidency, he aimed much higher, offering his suggestion for a Supreme Court appointment in a letter to the White House. He enclosed the résumé of Peter T. Fay, a federal appellate judge.

Image Jeb Bush with his parents, George and Barbara, and two children, Noelle and George P., during his father’s 1980 campaign for vice president. His letters show a fascination with government. Credit... Dirck Halstead/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images

“Judge Fay is respected by his peers and the many people who know him in Miami,” Mr. Bush wrote.

Mr. Gray replied that if there were an opening, Judge Fay would get “thoughtful consideration.”