Description:

Truman, Harry S. (1884-1972) Six weeks after being sworn in as U.S. Senator, Truman is annoyed at being transferred out of his Army Reserves command - he hopes his wife will give him as a birthday present Freeman's biography of Robert E. Lee whose photograph he later hung in his Senate office

Typed Letter Signed "Harry S Truman," one page, 8" x 10.5". United States Senate, Washington, D.C., February 15, 1935. To John W. Snyder, Grand National Bank of St. Louis. Later his Secretary of the Treasury, Snyder was a close friend of Truman since 1928; they served together in the U.S. Army Reserves after World War I. Light tanning at upper and right edges. Two file holes at top edge. Fine condition.

In full, "I was not consulted at all when I was transferred out of the Seventh Corps Area. I don't appreciate it a bit, for I wanted to stay in command of the Regiment. The transfer was made and I was notified without even being consulted or considered. I am glad Colonel Mueller believes that I have a military record. I was very much afraid that he didn't think so. I wish you were here in Washington with me. We could both go over and tell Mr. Eccles the duties [crossed out by Truman, who replaced it with an illegible word] of diplomacy.

"I just had a long letter from Eddie McKim, in which he explained to me how the country boys took him to a trimming on the Liquor Bill for Nebraska. He had gone home to think it over and let them quarrel among themselves. I am hoping he got it straightened out. If the Regiment goes to either Ft. Sill or Des Moines, you can count on me to be present for part of the time. I am hoping to come to Missouri while the state legislature is still in session. If I do I will stop by St. Louis and see you. I haven't read Freeman's 'Robert E. Lee.' I am hoping my wife will give it to me for her birthday." Truman probably meant "my" birthday. Bess had turned 50 just two days before he wrote this letter; Harry would be 51 on May 8th.

After Colonel Truman was transferred out of the Seventh Corps, his Lieutenant Colonel, John W. Snyder, the recipient of this letter was put in command.

Mr. Eccles was Marriner S. Eccles, Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1934-1948 when he was replaced by President Truman for opposing his policy relating to government borrowing. Eccles remained on the Fed's Board of Governors until 1951 when he resigned over differences between the Federal Reserve and John W. Snyder's Treasury Department.

Eddie McKim served under Capt. Harry S. Truman, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery Regiment from 1917-1919, and, subsequently in the U.S. Army Reserve Corps. Ten years after this letter was written, in the spring of 1945, McKim was setting up a poker game late on a weekday afternoon in a room at Washington's Statler Hotel when he received a message that Vice President Truman would soon be there, but first he had to return a telephone call from the White House. While waiting, McKim turned on the radio and heard that President Roosevelt had died in Warm Springs, Georgia. It was April 12, 1945. The game was not cancelled, just postponed until May; the venue was changed from the Statler to the White House.

Published in 1934, Douglas S. Freeman's four volume "R.E. Lee" won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. Truman expressed his admiration of Gen. Lee in a letter written five months later, on July 9, 1935, to his 11-year-old daughter Margaret: "Sunday, I went up to Gettysburg and went all over the battlefield. You know it is one of the great military contests of history. I stood on the spot where General Robert E. Lee stood while the famous and immortal Pickett made his charge... I picked two little flowers from the foot of the Virginia Monument which stands on the spot where Lee stood and I am sending them to you. They will remind you of how a great man takes a terrible defeat. Lee didn't blame anybody. He accepted the responsibility and stated that if there was any fault it was his, although two of his principal leaders had been remiss in their duties. Longstreet did not come up and Ewell wouldn't move forward. Yet Lee blamed no one. The Secretary of the Senate gave me a picture of him and I am hanging it under Washington and over Margaret."

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