At the moment’s put up is from Tammy Okay. Williams, archivist & social media supervisor on the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.
Presidential transitions occur on an everyday schedule after an election, however they will occur abruptly as properly. The primary sudden Presidential transition occurred when William Henry Harrison died on April 4, 1841, after being President simply 31 days. The transition to President John Tyler set an essential precedent: Tyler was certainly President, not simply Performing President, and can be known as such.
The transition from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to President Harry S. Truman additionally occurred abruptly. Whereas at his cottage in Heat Springs, Georgia, Roosevelt died at 3:45 p.m. on April 12, 1945, after struggling a mind hemorrhage.
After presiding within the Senate, Vice President Harry S. Truman had gone to Speaker Sam Rayburn’s workplace. The White Home press secretary reached him there and informed him to come back to the White Home directly. When Truman arrived, Eleanor Roosevelt informed him that President Roosevelt had died. At 7:05 that night, Truman took the oath of workplace as President of america.
Whereas sudden transitions are at all times upsetting, for a lot of President Roosevelt demise was particularly traumatic. For younger folks, Roosevelt was the one President they’d recognized, as he had been President for over 11 years. Roosevelt guided the nation by way of the worst financial melancholy in our historical past, and, since 1941, led the nation by way of the trials of World Conflict II. Many individuals barely knew something about Harry S. Truman and felt not sure about his management.
One group of individuals with confidence in Truman’s management and expertise had been his many associates and acquaintances all through Missouri. Virtually instantly, they wrote to Truman to precise phrases of assist and encouragement. Truman’s highschool math instructor, Ardelia Palmer, wrote to her former scholar the next day.
One among Truman’s comrades in World Conflict I, Choose Albert Ridge, wrote to Truman saying, “Everybody I’ve met in Kansas Metropolis expresses nice confidence in your capability to select up the reins of presidency and keep on, and lead us to peace and a larger America.” Truman acquired a telegram from Kansas Metropolis businessman and buddy Benjamin Sosland, who acknowledged, “To me you’ve the qualities and the character that’s wanted to offer to America the management that it wants right now.”
Truman additionally acquired letters of assist from politicians throughout the nation. Former President Herbert Hoover instantly reached out to the brand new President through telegram, telling him, “You will have the precise to name for any service in support of the nation.”
In his reply to former President Hoover, Truman added a handwritten postscript, “I guarantee you I shall be at liberty to name upon you. Thanks for the provide.”
Truman additionally acquired a letter of assist from the person who would run towards him in 1948, Governor Thomas Dewey of New York. Governor Dewey wrote, “Allow me to increase to you . . . my finest needs in your each success in main america by way of the tough years forward.”
Celebrities additionally reached out to President Truman to supply phrases of encouragement. Baroness Maria Von Trapp, of the Von Trapp household singers, wrote to Truman. In her letter, she wrote, “It was with the best pleasure of coronary heart that we learn your message within the paper this midday, ‘Please pray for me, I actually imply it.’ It made the deepest impression on us, and we don’t need to lose any time in letting that we already began on the very first night after you had taken your oath, to wish for our new President.”
It’s also essential to keep in mind that this sudden transition triggered upheaval not simply in Harry S. Truman’s life, however within the lifetime of his relations as properly. New First Woman Bess W. Truman acquired a letter of encouragement from a lady who had discovered herself in the same state of affairs greater than 20 years earlier: former First Woman Grace Coolidge. She had abruptly turn into First Woman when President Warren Harding died on August 2, 1923, and her husband, Calvin Coolidge, turned President. Mrs. Coolidge wrote, “I’m assured that our nation might be guided properly by way of these difficult occasions by President Truman.”
Find out about Harry S. Truman and extra Presidential historical past by visiting our Presidential Libraries.
