Harry Truman - Passing Of The Buck Stopper

CHAPTER VII

PASSING OF THE BUCK STOPPER

On January 20, 1953 Truman attended the inauguration of President Eisenhower. This would be his final official task as President of the United States. His return to civilian life would bring on the happiest years of his life.

Surprisingly at the time when Truman left the White House a former Presidents received no pension nor any Secret Service escort. Truman entered politics a common man and intended to return to Independence as a common man making the return trip from Washington by train. The crowds warmly greeted Truman at every stop along the way culminating in a crowd of nearly ten thousand people waiting for him in Independence when the train arrived at 9:03 on January 21, 1953.

After all of his years of federal service the only income that Truman had upon leaving office was his Army pension of $112.56 a month. A modest amount of money for a modest man who earnestly looked forward to getting back to Independence, Missouri to settle down. Bess would inherit a sum of $8,385.90 from her mother and Harry would become joint owner with his brother and sister of the Grandview family farm. The Trumans could certainly live on their income but there wouldn’t be any room for extravagance. It wasn’t until 1958 that Congress passed a law which provided an annual pension of $25,000 to former presidents along with money for staff, office space, and free mailing privileges.

Truman was by no means destitute. He was offered many jobs for upwards of $100,000 dollars a year to lend his name to some company, but Truman refused to sell his name and influence for cash. His financial worries seemed to be over by February of 1953, however, when Life magazine offered him $600,000 for exclusive rights to his memoirs.

Truman would finish the two volume memoirs on July 5, 1955 consisting of over 500,000 words. The first volume was entitled Year of Decisions and covered the first year of his presidency. The second volume was entitled Years of Trial and Hope would cover the rest of his presidency. The original contract with life was for a single volume of approximately 300,000 words. The work quickly ballooned to over 2 million words and would require the effort of several ghostwriters to bring the work to a reasonable size. The contract with Life was renegotiated into the final agreement of a two volume set. Truman received a considerable amount of help on the work from typists, researchers, and ghostwriters. The additional help did not come cheaply and in the end Truman estimated that his expenses for the book were approximately $153,000.

When Truman left the White House he had another dream to create a presidential library where researchers and history lovers could go to pour over the stacks of presidential papers associated with his presidency. Truman, himself an avid reader of history, wanted regular Americans to find out what it was like to be president. The goal in both his memoirs and the library was to make that information accessible.

Harry Truman Buck Stopper Biography

Early Years - His childhood years

Back to the Farm - Truman's early adult life up until he entered the First World War.

Captain Truman - His involvement in WWI

Truman the Democrat - His early political years

President by Tragedy - The Truman presidency

Cold War Years- His presidency through the Cold War

Passing of the Buck Stopper- His post-presidency years

Truman Quotes

Bibliography- Sources used for this biography

Truman Links

Harry S. Truman Library

Project Whistlestop

Whitehouse Truman Page

U.S. History Interactive Pages

Contents Page

Civil War Page

Constitution Page

States of our Union Page

Theodore Roosevelt Page

Harry S. Truman Page

U.S. History Interactive Biographies

Theodore Roosevelt

General William T. Sherman

Eli Whitney

Harry S. Truman

The proposed site for the library was on the old Grandview farm. Using the land at Grandview would have been a considerable financial loss to Harry and his two siblings. The value of Grandview farmland was growing considerably and the Truman clan was land-rich but by no means wealthy. In the end the town of Independence donated one of its parks north of the square for the construction site. Truman would work very hard to drum up the money needed to build the library, which would cost an estimated $1,800,000. The formal dedication of the library occurred on July 6, 1957 with dignitaries like Herbert Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn in attendance.

Less than one month after the marriage of his daughter Margaret on Saturday, April 21, 1956, Harry and Bess Truman would take a grand tour of Europe which would culminate with Truman receiving an honorary degree from Oxford. Truman's popularity at home had increased significantly since he had left the White House and in Europe he was greeted warmly everywhere he went. In Rome he was greeted by hundreds of people at a train station shouting "Viva Truman". During his stay in Rome Truman had a brief visit with Pope Benedict XV. But for Harry Truman, who had never received a college degree, the highlight of the trip was receiving the honorary degree from Oxford on June 20, 1956. Truman was moved to tears when his name was announced and the roaring applause from the crowd continued for a full three minutes.

Truman would remain active in politics after leaving office. He played an active role in the Democratic conventions of 1952, 1956, and at seventy-six was planning to attend the Convention in Los Angeles. Truman, believing that Kennedy had rigged the 1960 Convention, lashed out against the young candidate on national television. When Kennedy won the nomination Truman, true to form, joined in the campaign for Kennedy against Nixon, for whom Truman had an extreme dislike. For his part in the campaign of 1960 Truman delivered 13 speeches and covered nine states. He also appeared in numerous parades, shook hands and held press conferences for Jack Kennedy.

On December 5, 1972 Harry Truman was taken by ambulance from his home on North Delaware Avenue to Research Hospital. Dr. Wallace listed Truman in 'fair' condition honor guard at Truman funeral suffering from lung congestion. Truman would remain in the hospital having brief periods where his condition looked promising only to degenerate again. Reports came from the hospital that on December 14 Truman was no longer able to talk. On Christmas day 1972 Truman had lapsed into a coma. Truman died on December 26, 1972 at Kansas City's Research Hospital at 7:50 A.M.

Prior to his death Truman had been shown the funeral arrangements which had been made for him. He was to lie in state in the Rotunda at the Capitol. Truman thought it was a beautiful plan but said that he wanted to be laid out in Missouri and not Washington.

His funeral on December 27 included thousands of troops lining the streets for the funeral procession which left Carson's Funeral Home traveling along Lexington, River Boulevard, Maple and North Delaware. He was laid out in the Library where thousands of people came to pay their last respects. On December 28 Truman would be laid to rest in the courtyard of his beloved library. Six howitzers lined in front of the library would fire a twenty-one gun salute to the man so many had come to love.

Pictures courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Library and Project Whistlestop