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Lot 205
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Harry S. Truman's stance on religion: "The Protestant Church, The Catholic Church, and the Jewish Synagogue - bound together in the American unity of brotherhood"
Harry S. Truman's stance on religion: "The Protestant Church, The Catholic Church, and the Jewish Synagogue - bound together in the American unity of brotherhood"
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Description:

Truman Harry

Typed Document Signed, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1946. 4 pp. 8 x 14 in.

President Truman Addresses the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, Calling for Spiritual Renewal in Post-War America

Less than a year after becoming President, Harry S. Truman addressed the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America at Columbus, Ohio, on March 6, 1946. A radio broadcast carried the speech to a nationwide audience. He arrived in Columbus by train with former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri, the day before.

Truman’s address reiterates the principles of religious freedom established in the Bill of Rights, defended in the recent war against totalitarianism, and written into the United Nations Charter. He calls for a moral and spiritual awakening to solve the nation’s and the world’s problems, including the danger of atomic energy, American youth neglected as their fathers and mothers fought and worked in war factories, and starving millions around the world. He calls on religious leaders to support the construction of 2.7 million low cost homes and to provide temporary shelter for veterans and their families in local churches and synagogues.

This document was an advance copy, released two days before the speech by Charles G. Ross, Secretary to the President, to news media but with the caution, “EXTREME CARE MUST BE EXERCISED TO PREVENT PREMATURE PUBLICATION” before “12:00 NOON, E.S.T., Wednesday, March 6, 1946.”  Truman made a few slight changes to the address when he delivered it, some of which are noted in the excerpts below.

Excerpts

“I like to consider this conference…as one which represents no one particular sect or creed, but rather as one which represents the spirit of religion as a whole.  We are a people who worship God in different ways. But we are all bound together in a single unity - the unity of individual freedom in a democracy.”

“[B]oth religion and democracy are founded on one basic principle, the worth and dignity of the individual man and woman. Dictatorship…is founded on the doctrine that the individual amounts to nothing; that the State is the only thing that counts; and that men and women and children were put on earth solely for the purpose of serving the State.”

“If the world is long to survive,  the gigantic power which man has acquired through atomic energy, must be matched by spiritual strength of greater magnitude…. Only a high moral code  can master this new power of the universe, and develop it for the common good.”

“The Protestant Church, the Catholic Church, and the Jewish Synagogue - bound together in the American unity of brotherhood - must provide the shock forces to accomplish this moral and spiritual awakening…. Oh for an Isaiah or a Saint Paul to reawaken this sick world to its moral responsibilities!”

“All the questions which now beset us in strikes and wages and working conditions would be so much simpler if men and women were willing to apply the principles of the Golden Rule.”

“As your President, I appeal to…all Americans everywhere - to prove your faith and your belief in the teachings of God by doing your share to save the starving millions in Europe and Asia and Africa… prove yourselves worthy of the liberty and dignity which you have preserved on this earth, by helping those less fortunate who have been starved by the dictators for so many long years and who still starve even in liberation....

“We have this America not because we are of a particular faith, and not because our ancestors sailed from a particular foreign port. We have our America because of our common aspiration to remain free and our determined purpose to achieve for ourselves, and for our children, a more abundant life in keeping with our highest ideals.

“Let us determine to carry on in that same spirit - in a spirit of tolerance, and understanding for all men and for all nations - in a spirit of religion  and religious unity.”

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), Thirty-third President of the United States. A Missouri native, Truman first won elective office in 1922, winning a judge’s seat on the Jackson County Court.  After serving several terms, Truman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, and in 1940 gained national attention for his chairmanship of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, which was eventually nicknamed “The Truman Committee.” Truman continued his political rise in 1944, when he was elected Vice-President as FDR’s running mate. After only 82 days in the White House, Truman was thrust into the Presidency when FDR died unexpectedly. His inheritance was a world at war. Germany had surrendered, but Japan refused to give up the war. Truman, in a desperate move to avoid having to invade the Japanese mainland, ordered the deployment of two atomic bombs. They were dropped on August 6 and August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.

As President, Truman waged an undeclared war on the Soviet Union, drafting the “Truman Doctrine,” which proclaimed the United States’ willingness to provide aid to countries resisting communism. The Marshall Plan sought to strengthen the European economy in the hopes that this program, too, would prevent the spread of Soviet influence. Elected President for a full term in 1948, he also brought United States troops into the Korean War (1950-1953). In addition to his cold war activities, Truman’s administration expanded the New Deal and promoted Civil Rights initiatives.

Provenance:

Ex William "Bill" Steiner Collection, Manuscripts and Autographs, June 27, 2015, lot 195

R.M. Smythe & Co., Inc., May 11, 2000, lot 408

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