How Harry S. Truman became President of the United States, is one of America's most interesting stories. But it took Truman a while to get there and it's important to know his history. Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. His father, John Anderson Truman and his mother Martha Ellen Young Truman were both Democrats. Young Truman grew up a farm boy. In 1901 Harry graduated from high school and had planned to attend college, but his hopes were spoiled when his father's business investment soured and most of the family's money was lost.
In 1905 Harry joined the National Guard. He was part of the artillery unit, Battery B. He remained in the National Guard until 1911. In April 1917, the United States entered World War me and Truman reenlisted. He was later assigned to the 129th Field Artillery in France, as Captain, and then placed in command of Battery D. His command fought on the combat line in the Battle, Who Run, in the Allied offensive against the Germans at St.-Mihiel and also in the Argonnes Forest, which was the largest battle American soldiers had ever fought. On November 11, 1918, Germany surrendered and Captain Harry Truman received an honorable discharge.
The summer after he arrived back in the states, he married his childhood sweetheart, Bess Wallace. Margaret Truman, their daughter and only child, was born some years later on February 17, 1924. Truman and an army buddy, Eddie Jacobson, opened a men's clothing store in Kansas City, Missouri. The store was profitable until 1921, when the recession hit and his business were ruined.
THE EARLY YEARS
Now begins Truman's long political rise to the presidency. Truman had always been somewhat interested in politics and when in that same year (1921), Tom "Boss" Pendergast, who headed one faction of the Democratic party called, "The Goats," had is brother, Mike Pendergast, approach Truman to run for county judge of the Eastern Division of Jackson County, he agreed. Truman's membership in the Masonic lodge, old army buddies, his "good ole farm boy campaigning and the biggest the Pendergast connection helped him to win the election. Otherwise, without the Pendergast connection, Truman might never have gone into politics. This connection would later cause him many difficulties in the political arena.
The county judge was not a courtroom position but more like a county commissioner, who levied taxes, built and repaired county roads, maintained homes for the elderly and schools for delinquents and administered other county functions. Truman would hold this position from January 1, 1923 until January 1, 1925. He learned a great deal from this early political experience and Ferrell notes, "Truman once wrote Margaret that "Politics is a great game . . . (I)t is a game of people and how they will act under certain conditions. You never can tell, but you can sometimes guess and I've been a good guesser."1 He retained the county judge position until 1925 and then lost the next two year post to Republican Henry W. Rummell. This was the last time Harry Truman lost an election!
"By the time Truman's term of duty as presiding judge came to a close in 1934. He had proved himself an energetic and efficient administrator. He had refurbished the Independence Courthouse, improved all the county roads, and managed the finances so well that the county had a handsome surplus of funds,"2 as was noted by Melton. Richards notes, "During Harry Truman's two four-year terms as presiding judge of Jackson County, many important programs were enacted. He pushed through a bond issue for new county roads and then proved that he would never be a machine "stooge" by letting contracts to the lowest bidder - regardless of political affiliation."3 The machine he was referring to was "Boss" Pendergast.
Powell notes, "The reader may feel that the story of Harry Truman's connections with the Pendergast machine deals too much with the machine and not enough with Harry. But the story would not be a true one without a complete history of the machine in all its phases and ramifications, for Harry was an integral part of the machine."4 The Pendergast machine, or "Boss" Tom owned a cement firm, Ready-Mixed Concrete Company. His brother, Jim, owned a saloon where gambling and prostitution was rampant. The brothers controlled Kansas City politics with Tom later controlling the Commonwealth of Missouri. The Pendergast machine would rear its ugly head during Truman's 1948 campaign for the presidency.
FROM JUDGE TO SENATOR
According to Melton, "It was 1932 and the nation was in the midst of its worst economic depression. In the spring, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the ex-governor of New York State began to campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. He promised a "New Deal" for the American people. Ready for a change, voters elected Roosevelt by a landslide."5 Two years later, on May 13, 1934 Jim Pendergast and another man met with Harry Truman and offered him the "Boss's" endorsement for the Senate race. This endorsement had been a long time coming with many disappointments along the way for Truman. There were two other candidates in Missouri vieing for the Democratic nomination. They were Jacob L. Milligan and John J. Cochran. Milligan and Cochran had substantial records but could not match the support Truman received from his endorsement by Pendergast.
Truman campaigned for the Democratic nomination by automobile, traveling from town to town in Missouri. Ten days into his campaign, Johnny Lazia (a well known mobster) was gunned down in Kansas City. According to McCullough, his last words were recorded as, "If anything happens, notify Mr. Pendergast. . . my best friend, and tell him I love him."6 This was printed on the front pages of newspapers all over Missouri. Truman trudged on with his campaign with the Pendergast/Lazia episode glooming over him. The other candidates took many potshots at his connection with the "Boss." Truman, on the other hand, presented himself to the people as a "common sense country boy." On the day of the primary, August 7, the final tally was Truman 276,850; Cochran, 236,105 and Milligan, 147,614. Harry S. Truman was now the Democratic nominee for the Missouri Senate seat. In the fall general election, his opponent was Republican Roscoe C. Patterson. This election proved to be a pushover for Truman. On January 3, 1935 at fifty years of age, Truman took the oath of office as a United States Senator.
During the first year, Senator Truman listened a great deal. In 1941, the prospect of a second world war seemed inevitable. President Roosevelt called for enormous increases in production of military weapons. Billions of dollars in contracts were awarded to construction companies to build factories. Senator Truman began to hear of waste and misappropriations of funds with these contracts. He decided to tour Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and then other military posts and he found the charges to be true. Truman returned to Washington and reported his findings to the Senate. He was immediately appointed the head of a special investigating committee known as "The Truman Committee." Because of his investigations and findings, reforms were forced upon the US Army, Navy and the manufacturers. Truman was making a name for himself among the Senate members and the President. According to Melton, "Truman remained in the Senate six years and was ready to run again when the Senator from Missouri found he was in trouble in his own state - Pendergast again! Tom Pendergast was indicted for accepting bribes from several of the nation's leading insurance companies in order to pay for his passion of betting on horses. Realizing that he was caught and too tired and sick to put up a fight, Pendergast pleaded guilty and was sent to jail for fifteen months."7 Another man from Missouri had announced his intentions to run for Truman's Senate seat and it appeared that Truman didn't have a chance of winning." "But Truman returned to Missouri and campaigned with determination. He beat the odds and won the election. When he returned to the Senate on January 3, 1941, his colleagues awarded him a standing ovation." Later that same year in December 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
A NEW VICE PRESIDENT
It was the summer of 1944, and the most extraordinary political arrangement of this century took place. Roosevelt in failing health was to run for his fourth term for the presidency. The vice president at the time, Henry A. Wallace was not well liked. He was viewed as having little political experience. Wallace's only appointment prior to becoming vice president was secretary of agriculture in 1933.
In 1944, Roosevelt, a Democrat was up against a strong Republican candidate, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. Roosevelt would need to choose a new vice presidential running mate other than Wallace. Roosevelt's health was rapidly deteriorating, unbeknowingst to him. So his party leaders undertook a conspiracy of sorts to persuade Roosevelt to accept a reliable man as his vice presidential running mate. The party leader for this job was Edwin W. Pauley, the Democratic treasurer. His plan was to move forward rapidly in the form of "a huddle" with Pa Watson, Roosevelt's appointments secretary. Watson's job was to give oval office appointments to anti-Wallace delegates and keep pro-Wallace delegates out. He also enlisted Frank C. Walker, the Postmaster General and George Allen, Democratic Secretary, Robert Hannegan, a lawyer and National Democratic Chairman. In the late spring of 1944 the Pauley conspiracy was working. Roosevelt turned against Wallace. To ultimately rid him of the vice presidential seat, Roosevelt sent Wallace on a fact-finding tour of China with a side trip to Siberia. Also at this time, Byrnes, Roosevelt's assistant to the president was aspiring to run for the presidency. Roosevelt sought to do him in by encouraging party leaders to spread the word that Byrnes, who was from South Carolina, bore the burden of the South's racial attitudes and he would lose Negro votes in New York City and other large northern cities.
The stage was set, the leaders, Pauley, Hannegan, Walker, Allen, Flynn (leader of the Bronx), Mayor Kelly of Chicago, and John Boettiger, the president's son-in-law arranged a dinner conference with Roosevelt on July 11, 1944. After telling Roosevelt that Wallace and Byrnes were unacceptable, they proceeded to speak to him about Truman. Roosevelt did not know Harry S. Truman very well. He knew of his good work in the Truman committee and he knew that Senator Truman had voted down the line for New Deal measures. After the group left Roosevelt's study, Walker asked Hannegan to get the agreement for Truman as Vice President in writing from President Roosevelt. Hannegan did indeed get it in writing and it was dated July 19, the opening day of the Chicago convention. Although they had the meeting and Truman's nomination in writing it still was not certain. Roosevelt wanted Byrnes and Wallace notified that they were out. But Byrnes and Wallace refused to bow out unless it came directly from the president. When Brynes and Wallace contacted Roosevelt, he refused to tell them they were out and insisted that Truman was the leader's preference. Wallace and Byrnes both were to go to the convention each believing he had the President's support. The party leaders had to forestall this from happening, so on Saturday, July 15 as the president's train stopped in the Chicago rail yards, Hannegan went aboard. Hannegan's visit with Roosevelt was timed by reporters at fifty-two minutes. Ferrell notes, "It was believed that Hannegan was obtaining a typewritten version of the July 11 handwritten note. "As finally written, that letter said uncertainly that the president, if a delegate, would vote for Wallace, but that he did not want to dictate to the convention. It became known as the "kiss-of-death" letter."8 Byrne's candidacy took a different turn. Byrne's contacted Truman and indicated that Roosevelt had given Byrne's "the go sign" and Byrne's asked Truman to nominate him. Truman promised to do so. Byrne's was so conniving that he convinced Hannegan from July 14-16 that Roosevelt had changed his mind about Byrnes and had made him his vice presidential candidate. So much so that Hannegan became Byrnes's advocate among the party leaders. The conspiracy became so entangled that most thought Truman was out of the nomination. Roosevelt had met with Sidney Hillman, the vice president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations concerning the nomination. Hillman had been for Wallace but would accept anyone Roosevelt wanted. Roosevelt spoke with Hillman about Byrnes, but Hillman did not support Byrnes due to his wartime administration policy of "hold the line" on workers wages. This conversation between Roosevelt and Hillman was misconstrued on Roosevelt's part and Roosevelt interpreted Hillman's negative talk of Byrnes as him being out also. On Tuesday, July 18, Truman traveled to Chicago committed to nominating Byrnes at the convention. On Monday there was a great deal of opposition, led by Hillman against Byrnes. Roosevelt was told that labor would not accept Byrnes and the conservative vote would split and give Wallace the nomination unless Byrnes was out. Roosevelt gave the go ahead to "go all out for Truman." The next morning at breakfast, as Hillman and Truman chatted, Truman became profoundly aware that he was the president's choice for the vice presidential nomination. He was seized with consternation and immediately phoned a friend, Tom Evans of Kansas City. The conversation proceeded as follows according to Ferrell, "I need you up here to help keep me from being vice president. How soon can you get up?" Tom, "I can come right away." Truman, "Well, come on. I need you."9 Tom thought Truman's idea that he did not want the vice presidency was ridiculous. Truman was worried about "skeletons in the closet." The skeleton was that Truman had put Bess, his wife, on the payroll in his Senate office and he didn't want her name drug over the radio and the front pages of the paper. Or perhaps Truman feared another skeleton. Bess's father, David W. Wallace had committed suicide in 1903 and Bess was extremely protective of this information. Bess viewed the vice presidency as all publicity would focus on the occupants of the White House and Truman's vice presidency would lead to the presidency and the publicity. Bess most likely believed that moving to the White House would be the downfall of her family as it had encompassed the Roosevelt family with an empty marriage and divorces among the Roosevelt's children. Truman did not want to budge on the issue of the vice presidential nomination, so a meeting ensued on July 19th between Truman and Hannegan. Hannegan placed a call to Roosevelt in San Diego and told the president that the Senator Truman was as contrary as a Missouri mule. Roosevelt replied so loud that everyone in the room was able to hear, "Well, you tell him if he wants to break up the Democratic Party in the middle of a war that's his responsibility." Then Roosevelt slammed down the receiver. Truman hesitantly replied yes to the vice presidential nomination. At the convention the following evening, Roosevelt was nominated for a fourth term and what followed was a stampede by Wallace's supporters. After a short while, the party leaders were able to bring things under control and adjourned the convention. On July 21, 1944, delegates at the convention voted a second ballot in nomination of a vice presidential candidate. Truman's strength in votes built up and he was nominated 1,031 to 105. Truman was now the vice presidential nominee under Roosevelt.
It was noted in Ferrell's book that, "Truman's campaigning took an odd twist, when Roosevelt made a request of Truman. "Roosevelt said, "I'll not be able to do any campaigning, you'll (Truman) have to do it all, and there's one request I want to make of you." "I want you to promise me you'll (Truman) not do any flying." Truman asked why and Roosevelt replied, "Harry, I'm not a well man, we cannot be sure of my future."10 This was the first indication that Roosevelt had some knowledge of his failing health. Truman campaigned from a railroad car attached to passenger trains. He made approximately fifty-four speeches and shook hands with a hundred thousand voters. But Truman, a senator from Missouri was not well known in this country. Roosevelt won his fourth term as president and Harry S. Truman became the vice president. They were both sworn in on January 20, 1945.
Truman was never confident about his abilities to take over as president should Roosevelt's health deteriorate even more and he dies. Truman visited Independence shortly after becoming vice president and confided in a close friend, Harry Easley. This was the conversation between Easley and Truman according to Ferrell, "He told me (Easley) just lying there in bed after things quieted down that he (Truman) had been lonesome ever since the day they put the Secret Service on him, and that he had not yet seen the President at all. He told me (Easley) that the last time he saw him(Roosevelt) that he had the pallor of death on his face and he knew that if he (Truman) lived that he would be President before the term was out . . . I think it frightened him, even the thought of it."11
A NEW PRESIDENT
Some months passed, and the story of how Harry Truman learned he was president still holds its fascination today. It was a spring day and Truman had recessed the Senate and strolled over to have a drink with Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House, and some friends. When Truman arrived at Rayburn's office, Rayburn told Truman that Stephen Early had called and asked Truman to call him back immediately. Truman did and Early asked him to come to the White House immediately, straight to the front entrance and directly up to the family quarters on the second floor. When Truman arrived at the White House he was escorted to the elevator and then to a sitting room where Mrs. Roosevelt, Anna (Roosevelt's daughter), Anna's husband and Early was waiting. Mrs. Roosevelt rose to greet Truman, she put her arm around his shoulder and gently said, "The President is dead." The time was 5:30 p.m. and Roosevelt had been dead for about two hours. Shortly thereafter, Truman frantically phoned Bess. An hour elapsed and Bess and Margaret were driven to the White House. By 7:00 p.m. an inaugural group assembled in the cabinet room and the chief justice began the swearing in. The time was 7:09 p.m. and Truman was officially the President of the United States
THE WHISTLE-STOP
Harry S. Truman had become vice president under Roosevelt and due to Roosevelt's death was now the President. Truman would have to win the presidency on his own in 1948. He began campaigning in 1948 and the election marked Truman's greatest personal triumph in the presidency, it was known as the "Whistle-Stop" campaign. Ferrell says, "It was the biggest political upset in American history. None of the presidential candidates, from 1788 on, had come from behind and won in the extraordinary way Truman did." The Democratic party did not want Truman and the Republicans chose Governor Dewey of New York as their candidate. Governor Dewey had almost a spotless record and he chose Governor Earl Warren of California as his vice presidential running mate. Dewey and Warren appeared to be a shoo-in. The 1948 campaign was played on personalities and played little on issues. Truman surprised everyone by his strong campaigning. At the 1948 convention, a series of floor votes and speeches locked everyone in for many hours. President Truman did not have the floor to speak until 1:45 a.m. the next day. The delegates were exhausted but as Ferrell notes, "Truman roused the convention to a frenzy in the first moments of his short speech: "Senator Barkley (Truman's running mate) and I will win this election and make those Republicans like it-don't you forget that!" he shouted." He further stated that a special session of Congress would be held on "Turnip Day" (named after a piece of Missouri wisdom) on the 26th of July, / Sow your turnips wet or dry."12 Truman fought hard, as if for his political life as he had done in the 1940 Senate race. His running mate, Barkley from Kentucky, was seventy years old in 1948 but he was an expert at holding the audiences, especially southern audiences. And Barkley had a wit about him, as Ferrell notes, "In Dover, Delaware, Barkley announced (unbelievably) that he was cutting his speech short. "I don't want you to get wet," he said. "In fact, I don't even want you to get dewey."13 The Republicans, Dewey and Warren, were mismatched except for the fact that they both balanced the ticket, Dewey of New York and Warren of California. Henry Wallace, the former vice president under Roosevelt headed the Progressive party and had as his running mate, Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho. According to Ferrell, "Wallace's party was considered to be the liberals and his candidacy pushed most liberal democrats into a new Democratic party organization, Americans for Democratic Action." "This organization had two beliefs: no group must divide the Democratic vote, and Wallace's party was a communist front."14 The two beliefs hurt his campaign and pushed Wallace in close proximity of the communist line. Truman had always felt that Wallace was too much of a loner and didn't ever get to know the other senators when he held the vice presidential position. This loner quality virtually erased him from public view and the candidacy. Another party, The States' Rights Democratic party, or Dixicrats, as it was known was considered to be a "splinter party." Their candidates were Governors J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Fielding Wright of Mississippi. This party believed in the federalism of 1787 and remained far behind the present times in their thinking. They staunchly opposed civil rights for American blacks. Mayor Hubert Humphrey of Minneapolis sponsored a civil rights plank at the Philadelphia delegate's convention. The plank passed and all the Mississippi delegation and half of the Alabama delegation walked out of the convention hall. The remaining southerners voted for Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. for president, against Truman. Russell received 263 delegate votes and Truman 947.5. The Democratic party had Wallace on the left and Thurmond on the right with Truman in the middle. A poll in 1948, had each splinter party (Wallace & Thurmond) with 1.1 million votes in a 48-million-vote election. One of his most triumphant speeches was in Dexter, Iowa. Truman lambasted the Republicans for taking money from the farmers by their refusal to allow the Commodity Credit Corporation to build more grain storage bins in the summer of 1948. This farm speech was an indication of how Truman's oratory abilities were improving. His personality had become more direct, he was interested, concerned and he absorbed information easily. Truman began to rely less on the written text of his speeches and began to ad lib. His campaign took a turn for the worst and the money was running out. Eight times the train Truman campaigned from could not get out of station without frantic telephoning to secure amounts as "1,500, $2,000, $5,000. On the eve of the election, many believed Dewey was a sure win. The Crossley poll had 49.9 percent for Dewey and 44.8 for Truman. Truman's victory was not clear until during the night after the election. According to Russell, "at 9:30 a.m. the next morning, the Ohio vote came in and a sudden chatter of teletypes and radio announcers across the nation grabbed their microphones to proclaim, in near hysteria: "Ohio has gone Democratic! This puts Truman over the top. . . . Ladies and gentlemen, President Truman has won the election!" He had fought for his political life and won, although less than half the eligible voters bothered to vote either for him or his opponent, Governor Dewey.
Truman believed labor had put him over the top. Others believed the farmers had helped him win as well as the small town Ohio vote. Ohio did prove crucial to his election and on October 11, Truman whistle-stopped such places as Lima, Ottawa, Deshler, Fosteria, Willard and Rittman. The election offered some lessons for the future. On such lesson was that 1948 was the last time labor voted as a bloc in a presidential election. Second, farmers have become far less important in American politics than they once were as farms have dwindled in present times. Third, campaigning from the train was replaced with the airplane. Fourth, the coaxial cable's appearance caused massive change in the country. In 1948 when Truman campaigned there were fewer than twenty television stations but by the 1952 campaign, it was thoroughly televised. And last, according to Ferrell, "the presidential campaign of 1948 offered a single lesson that no candidate in subsequent years should have forgotten. That a candidate must himself be sincere; he must not merely possess some vision for what the country needs but believe in it and consider himself a- to use a seventeenth-century phrase well understood in Puritan theology- chosen instrument for that grand purpose. In that single respect Truman made a superb candidate."15
