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Harry S. Truman for President
Campaign	1948 Democratic primaries 1948 United States presidential election
Candidate	Harry S. Truman 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953) Alben W. Barkley U.S. Senator from Kentucky (1927–1949)
Affiliation	Democratic Party
Status	Announced: March 8, 1948 Official nominee: July 15, 1948 Won election: November 2, 1948 Inaugurated: January 20, 1949
Headquarters	Kansas City, Missouri
Key people	Clark Clifford (Advisor) Louis A. Johnson (Fundraiser)
Slogan	Pour it on 'em, Harry! Give Em Hell, Harry!
Theme song	I'm just wild about Harry

In 1948, Harry S. Truman and Alben W. Barkley were elected president and vice president of the United States. They defeated Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey and vice-presidential nominee Earl Warren. Truman, a Democrat and former vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt ascended to the presidency upon Roosevelt's death in 1945. He announced his candidacy for election on March 8, 1948. He wasn't challenged by any major nominee in the Democratic primaries and easily won all the contests, however many Democrats like James Roosevelt opposed his candidacy and instead insisted former Chief of Staff of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower to run.

As the convention approached, Truman wanted Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas to be his running mate; however, Douglas declined, claiming lack of political experience. It was rumored that the real reason for Douglas' refusal was that he did not want to be a "number two man to a number two man". The 1948 Democratic National Convention convened at Philadelphia Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 12 to July 15. Truman was impressed by a keynote address delivered by Senator Alben Willaim Barkley of Kentucky, which energized the delegates. Truman selected Barkley as his running mate. When the convention adopted Truman's Civil Rights plank in a close vote of 651½-582½, many southern delegates bolted the convention. Soon after, Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina led a walkout of a large group of delegates from Mississippi and Alabama. After the order was restored, a roll call vote gave Truman a majority of delegates to be the nominee, and Barkley was nominated the vice-presidential candidate by acclamation.

While campaigning, Truman mostly focused to continue blaming the Republican-controlled Congress for not passing his legislation. He called it a "do-nothing Congress". Few days after the convention, Henry A. Wallace, a former democratic vice president was nominated by the Progressive party to run against Truman. Governor Thurmond too ran against Truman as a Dixiecrat, campaigning for States' Rights. With a split of the Democratic party, most of the polls and political writers predicted victory for Dewey, giving little chance to Truman. In early September, Truman conducted various whistle-stop tours across the nation covering over 21,928-mile (35,290 km) from a train named "Ferdinand Magellan". However, of all the speeches he gave during his whistle-stop tour, only about 70 were broadcast on the radio even locally, while but 20 were heard nationally. During the final days of the campaign, his team released a film named The Truman Story using existing newsreel footage of his whistle-stop tour. Although he received some notable endorsements including the endorsement of Screen Actors Guild's president Ronald Reagan, most of the broadcasting companies were sure of Dewey's victory. Initially leading in the popular vote, Truman defeated Dewey in an upset victory receiving 303 electoral votes to Dewey's 189 and Thurmond's 39. Before the result came out, an early edition of Chicago Tribune had printed the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN", strongly anticipating a victory for Dewey. Truman's photograph taken on November 4 holding Chicago Tribune with the erroneous headline is considered as the "greatest photograph ever made of a politician celebrating victory". He was inaugurated on January 20, 1949.

This article is part of a series aboutHarry S. Truman
Early life Electoral history Assassination attempt Legacy Truman Day Scholarship USS Harry S. Truman Truman Reservoir Little White House Bibliography Senator from Missouri Senate career Truman Committee Senate elections 1934 1940 33rd President of the United States Presidency timeline Executive actions Foreign policy Truman Doctrine international trips Cabinet Judicial appointments Supreme Court candidates First term First inauguration Atomic bombing Marshall Plan Strike wave Mental Health Act Potsdam Conference NATO Timeline '45 '46 '47 '48 Second term Second inauguration Korean War Housing Act Fair Deal Sherman Minton Supreme Court nomination Steel strike Puerto Rican referendum Timeline '49 '50 '51 '52–'53 Presidential and Vice presidential campaigns 1944 campaign convention election 1948 primaries convention campaign election Dewey Defeats Truman 1952 primaries convention Post-presidency Presidential library Death National historic Site
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Background

Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He served as Presiding Judge of Jackson County, Missouri, and was elected as a senator from Missouri in 1934. As a senator, he served as the head of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, known as the Truman Committee. In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to replace Vice President Henry A. Wallace from his ticket with Truman. Though he showed little interest to be the vice president, he was nominated by the Democratic National Convention as the vice-presidential nominee; and the Roosevelt-Truman ticket won the 1944 presidential election defeating the Republican Dewey-Bricker ticket. Truman was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 1945. He had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Explaining the burden of the presidency, he said – "I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me".

Truman asked all the members of Roosevelt's cabinet to remain in place, and told them he was open to their advice. He emphasized a central principle of his administration: he would be the one making decisions, and they were to support him. During World War II, with the invasion of Japan imminent, he approved the schedule for dropping the two available bombs. Truman always said attacking Japan with atomic bombs saved many lives on both sides; military estimates for the invasion of Japan were that it could take a year and result in 250,000 to 500,000 U.S. casualties. Hiroshima was bombed on August 6, and Nagasaki three days later, leaving 105,000 dead. The Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 9 and invaded Manchuria. Japan agreed to surrender the following day.

With the end of World War II, Truman implemented the Marshall Plan. Apart from primaries and campaigning in 1948, Truman dealt with the Berlin Blockade, which is considered the first major diplomatic crisis of the Cold War. During his presidency, Truman's approval ratings had significantly reduced from 80% in early 1945 to 30% in early 1947. The mid-term election of 1946 had alarmed Truman when Republicans won control of both the houses of Congress for the first time since the 1920s. Once in 1947, Truman told his Secretary of Defense James Forrestal that except for the reward of service, he had found little satisfaction in being President.

Gaining the nomination

Preparing for a run

Truman had initially decided not to run, however in early 1948, he agreed to run for presidency asserting that he wanted to continue "contributing to the welfare of the country". His advisor Clark Clifford later said that the greatest ambition Truman had was to get elected in his own right. Due to his reducing popularity, he considered choosing General Dwight D. Eisenhower as his running mate, but Eisenhower declined. His candidacy faced opposition within Democratic Party by the Progressive movement led by former Vice-President Henry Wallace, and the Dixiecrat movement led by South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond.

In November 1947, Democratic political strategist James H. Rowe wrote a memo named "The Politics of 1948", highlighting the challenges and the road map for Truman's campaign. Clark Clifford edited and presented the memo to the president, which stated that "the Democratic Party is an unhappy alliance of Southern conservatives, Western progressives, and Big City labor". Rowe accurately predicted Dewey to win the Republican nomination, and also stated about the potential threat from Southern Democrats and Henry Wallace. Rowe-Clifford memo advised Truman to project himself strongly as a liberal and to focus his campaign primarily on urban blacks, labor, and farmers—who made up the core of the New Deal coalition. Although Truman didn't trust Rowe, he enthusiastically endorsed the strategy. In his 1948 State of the Union address, Truman emphasized Civil rights and said —"Our first goal is to secure fully the essential human rights of our citizens." On March 8, 1948, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Senator from Rhode Island Howard McGrath officially declared Truman's candidacy on his behalf. He said—"The president has authorized me to say, that if nominated by the Democratic National Convention, he will accept and run." The presidential primaries contests began the next day with New Hampshire Primaries. Truman won the support of unpledged New Hampshire delegates unopposed. He faced little opposition in primary contests as he was the sole major contender. He won almost all the contests by comfortable margins, receiving almost 64% of the votes overall. Gallup Poll indicated that almost irrespective of how Truman might campaign, he would lose in November to any of four possible Republican nominees including Dewey, Vandenberg, former Governor Harold E. Stassen of Minnesota, and General Douglas MacArthur.

Historian and author Andrew Busch described the political scenario as:

"Americans in 1948 had to render judgment on three major policy innovations. It was the first presidential election since depression, war, and the presence of Franklin D. Roosevelt in which the nation could take stock of the New Deal direction of domestic policy. It was also the first election after the establishment of containment as the foreign policy of the United States and the first since Truman had made civil rights an important part of the federal policy agenda.....
The presidential nominating system in 1948 was substantially different from the reformed system to which we are accustomed, and the differences were important. Primary elections influenced the nomination but did not control it; it was possible to seriously consider a genuine last-minute draft of a candidate; and the national conventions really mattered."

Early developments

In early June, the University of California invited Truman to award an honorary doctorate. Truman turned up his California tour to a whistle-stop train tour, campaigning from June 3 through eighteen strategic states. It was paid from the president’s discretionary travel fund, particularly due to the lack of donations in the Democratic National Committee. Although Truman referred to it as a "non-political trip", he delivered a speech at every stops, amounting to a total of 76 speeches. He focused on the eightieth Congress in his speeches, referring to it as "the worst congress". As his tour progressed, the crowd significantly grew from 1,000 people in a Crestline, Ohio to 100,000 people in Chicago, Illinois. At Omaha, Truman's address at Ak-Sar-Ben auditorium became an embarrassing foul-up. The auditorium had the capacity of 10,000 seats, but fewer than 2,000 people attended as the event in charge Ed McKim didn't publicize the fact that auditorium was open to the public and not just veterans of the 35th Division. Images of the nearly vacant auditorium were printed in newspapers, and columnists interpreted it as a further sign of Truman’s dwindling popularity.

Although Truman ran mostly unopposed in primaries, still the "Eisenhower craze" was in full swing among few Democrats a few weeks before the convention. Franklin D. Roosevelt's son James Roosevelt campaigned for Eisenhower to contest the nomination and take Truman's place on the ticket. Despite several statements of refusal, Eisenhower was still pursued by various political leaders. The polls showed that Eisenhower was likely to defeat Dewey if he ran in place of Truman. Reacting to it, Truman at a news conference on July 1, 1948, told that he would not withdraw his candidacy even though no one had seriously challenged him in a single Democratic primary. Still, Roosevelt made no secret of his intention to prevent Truman from becoming the nominee. Truman once told James Roosevelt that "If your father knew what you were doing to me, he would turn over in his grave."

With convention approaching, Truman still had to decide on a running mate. He wanted a running mate younger than him and strong on liberal issues. His initial choice was Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Douglas was also the alternative candidate for the "Eisenhower coalition", but he declined, claiming lack of political experience and wished to remain on the Supreme Court. It was rumored that the real reason for Douglas' refusal was that he did not wanted to be a "number two man to a number two man". A week before the convention, Roosevelt sent telegrams to all 1,592 delegates voting for the party nomination, requesting them to arrive in Philadelphia two days early for a special "Draft Eisenhower" caucus attempting to make a strong joint appeal to Eisenhower. Famous Columnist Drew Pearson wrote that "If the Democrats failed to get Ike to run, every seasoned political leader in the Democratic Party is convinced Harry Truman will suffer one of the worst election defeats in history". Humiliated by the draft, Truman called James Roosevelt a "Demo-republican" and "double-dealer". After Eisenhower again declined, it became clear the Truman would be nominated as the Democratic nominee.

Democratic convention

The 1948 Democratic National Convention convened at Philadelphia Convention Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 12 to July 15. The crowd was relatively less than the Republican Convention held a few weeks ago. Delegates carried some banners with "Keep American Human with Truman" written. From the White House, viewing the first televised Democratic National Convention, Truman heard Senator Alben Willaim Barkley of Kentucky delivering a keynote address that energized the delegates in the convention hall. After his speech, some delegates broke into a spontaneous demonstration and marched around the hall playing "My Old Kentucky Home" carrying banners inscribed with "Barkley for Vice-President". When Senator Howard McGrath asked Truman his views about the speech, Truman said that "If Barkley is what the convention wanted for the vice presidency, then Barkley is my choice too". At 71, Barkley was older than him, and was from Kentucky which neither helped to counteract the issue of Truman's age nor did it brought geographical balance to the ticket. But contrary to that, Barkley was immensely popular within the Democratic party, and political experts wrote that his presence in the ticket would help in cementing the fractious Democratic coalition. The next day, Truman called Barkley requesting him to be his running mate, saying "If I had known you wanted it , I certainly would have been agreeable". Barkley agreed to be Truman's running mate.

July 14 was the final day of the convention scheduled for Truman’s nomination and his speech. Before his arrival, the southern delegates up-roared over civil rights when the convention adopted Truman's civil rights plan which supported equal opportunity in employment and military. Although Truman did not have any intention to alienate the South, many southern delegates of Mississippi were sent with binding instructions to bolt the convention if no "states' rights" plank was endorsed by the convention. Soon after Senator Myers read the civil rights plank, many southern delegates rose in protest. The convention adopted the Civil Rights plank in a close vote of 651½-582½. Hubert Humphrey tried to control the situation with his "The Sunshine of Human Rights" address, saying "We are not rushing on civil rights, we are 172 years late". Soon after, Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina led a walkout of a large group of delegates from Mississippi and Alabama, yelling "Goodbye Harry". The Washington Post’s correspondent Marquis Childs later called it "liquidation of one of the major parties". Soon after the order was restored, a delegate from Georgia Charles J. Bloch shouted "The south is no longer going to be the whipping boy of the Democratic party", and called for the nomination of Senator Richard Russell as an alternative to Truman. The remaining delegates then voted for the nomination, which formally made Truman the Democratic nominee with 947½ delegates to Russell's 266. Although many remaining southern delegates voted for Russell, a split vote in South Carolina gave victory to Truman. Barkley was nominated as the vice-presidential nominee by acclamation. Truman was expected to deliver his acceptance speech at 10 pm, but due to the walkout of delegates, the convention was behind its schedule and he gave his speech at 2 am on July 15. Truman began his speech electrifying the delegates by directly attacking Republicans, and praising Barkley–who was considered the most popular man in the hall. He said:

"I accept the nomination. And I want to thank this convention for its unanimous nomination of my good friend and colleague, Senator Barkley of Kentucky. He is a great man, and a great public servant. Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it – don't you forget that! We will do that because they are wrong and we are right, and I will prove it to you in just a few minutes."

He blamed the Republican-controlled Congress for not passing his legislative measures like the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill. Although he did not mention his opponent Thomas Dewey once, he harshly contrasted the Republican platform with actions of the eightieth congress. He said that he would call Congress back into session on July 26th to pass legislation ensuring civil rights, Social Security, and establishing a national healthcare program. "They can do this job in fifteen days if they want to do it." he challenged. The session was known as the "Turnip Day Session". To his reference of eightieth congress", the Newsweek reported that "Nothing short of a stroke of magic could infuse the remnants of the party with enthusiasm, but the magic he had; in a speech bristling with marching words, Mr. Truman brought the convention to its highest peak of excitement." American author and historian David Pietrusza later referred to his speech as the "first great political speech of the television era". He wrote:

"It transformed a hopelessly bedraggled campaign into an instantly energized effort capable of ultimate victory in November. It is the first great political speech of the television era, moving politics past the print and even radio age, into the ascendancy of the visual, propelling images as well as words immediately into the homes of millions of Americans."

Campaign

"It will be the greatest campaign any President ever made. Win, lose, or draw, people will know where I stand."
— Harry S. Truman,

Initial stages

Soon after the convention, Truman stated that the whole concept of the campaign was to motivate the voters and galvanize support for the candidate and political party. Republicans charged Truman with crude politics asserting that his call for a special session of Congress was "the act of a desperate man". Rather than directly attacking Dewey, Truman sought to continue blaming the Republican-controlled congress. On July 17, the southern delegates which bolted the Democratic Convention convened and nominated Strom Thurmond as the official States' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) presidential nominee and Governor Fielding Wright as their vice presidential nominee. With the split of Democratic party, many voters were assure that Truman had little chance of winning. The initial issue Truman had to deal with was financing the campaign. The Democratic National Committee's funds were insufficient to fund the campaign. Moreover, the Dewey campaign had released a collection of quotes from high-profile Democratic politicians, all stating that Truman could not win; which reduces the number of likely donors. A meeting was held at the White House on July 22 to form the campaign finance committee, in which Truman stated that he would travel all over the country after Labor Day, and talk at every whistle-stop to campaign and raise money. Soon after, the Democratic National Committee decided to shift its headquarter from Philadelphia to New York – the "home of advertising industry". Louis A. Johnson was named the campaign fundraiser, and the finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee. With Truman's reducing polling numbers, Johnson’s fund-raising was very crucial for the campaign. William Batt headed a new campaign research unit formed to focus on local issues and trends in the cities where Truman was expected to give speeches. A day before the special session of congress, Henry Wallace was formally nominated by Progressive Party as their presidential nominee with Idaho Senator Glen H. Taylor as his running mate.

Truman was advised by his close friend Oscar Ewing to take his civil rights plan on its next logical step by desegregating the military through executive order rather than passing it through congress. Considering the suggestion to be a "dangerous move" he initially hesitated, asserting that it would surely be opposed by southern Democrats. But on July 26, 1948, Truman signed executive orders 9980 creating a system of "fair employment practices" within the federal government without discrimination because of race, color, religion, or national origin; and executive order 9981 re-integrating the segregated Armed Forces. The following day, in the special session of Congress, he called for action on civil rights, economy, farm support, education, and action on housing development. Republican legislators strongly opposed these measures, but the Dewey campaign partially supported Truman's civil rights plan to separate themselves from the conservative record of Congress. On July 31, Truman and Dewey met for the first and only time during the 1948 campaign trial, at the dedication of Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York. After speeches given by both the major party candidates, Truman humorously whispered to Dewey – "Tom, when you get to the White House, for God’s sake, do something about the plumbing."

In early August when the special session of Congress was about to end, Truman claimed in his weekly press conference that the eightieth Congress had failed to pass legislation he had proposed to curb inflation. When a reporter asked him that "Do you think it had been a "do-nothing" Congress?", Truman replied "Entirely". In a memo to Clark Clifford, William Batt provided an overview of events and challenges that the Truman campaign might face. He suggested that both in August and after labor day in September, Truman should campaign continuously in close contact with voters. At the outset of the fall campaign, Truman's advisers urged him to focus on critical states that had been decided by narrow margins in 1944, and give his major addresses in the twenty-three largest metropolitan areas. It was concluded that he should make three long campaign tours—one each through the Midwest, the far West, and the Northeast, and a shorter trip to the South.

Whistle-stop tour

Truman formally opened his re-election campaign on labor day, making a one-day tour of Michigan and Ohio. In a speech at Grand Rapids, he attacked Republicans by claiming them as party controlled by "special privilege" groups. Grand Rapids was a Republican stronghold, still around 25,000 people attended to listen to him. Six stops in Michigan drew almost half a million people. On September 13, a fundraiser program was held at the White House. About 30 potential donors were invited and requested by Truman to help, saying that his campaign doesn't even have the money to buy radio time and often has to cut an important part of their speeches due to the same. He started his whistle-stop tour in an 83 feet long train named "Ferdinand Magellan" on September 17, shortly after Labor Day. While boarding the train, Senator Barkley asked him that was going to carry the fight to them , to which Truman replied "We're going to give 'em hell". Apart from Truman and his campaign team, about 100 other officials boarded the train including many journalists. Clark Clifford, David Bell, George Elsey, and Charles Murphy were responsible for writing major speeches for the president. The tour was divided into three segments – first cross-country to California for fifteen days, a six-day tour of the Middle West followed by a final ten days in the Northeast, and a return trip to Missouri. Initially, Truman had planned to travel in all 48 states but later decided to cover only swing states and leaning democratic states, leaving the deep south states which heavily favored Dixiecrats. The train departed on September 17 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania towards the west. The first major stop was in Dexter, Iowa where Truman delivered a speech on September 18 at the National Plowing Contest. He appealed to farmers and "average" Americans by dressing like a farmer in shirtsleeves and sitting down next to a group of farmers at a large picnic table. He called the Republican party a "gluttons of privilege", and said that the Democratic Party represents the common people. He said, "I'm not asking you to vote for me, vote for yourselves, vote for your farms, vote for the standard of living you have won under a Democratic administration." Meanwhile, Dewey was also conducting a whistle-stop tour on his train named "Dewey Victory Special". His speeches were also attended by thousands, however, author Zachary Karabell wrote that the crowd could hardly be called excited, as they had no intensity or sense of the importance of the moment.

While campaigning, both the major candidates didn't mention each other by name, but indirectly attacked each other's platform. Truman aimed to campaign not against the Republican candidate but continued blaming the "do nothing" Congress and called Republicans a "special-interest" group. During a speech in Salt Lake City, he said "Selfish men have always tried to skim the cream from our natural resources to satisfy their own greed. And… instrument in this effort has always been the Republican Party". In a busy schedule, Truman had to deliver 4-5 speeches a day. But like William Jennings Byan he didn't deliver speeches on Sundays, instead introduced the First Lady and his daughter Margaret to the crowd, reflecting his family values. Robert Donovan, a correspondent New York Herald-Tribune characterized Truman's campaign as "sharp speeches fairly criticizing Republican policy and defending New Deal liberalism". In shorter speeches of about ten minutes, he praised and endorsed the local candidate for congressional election, and gave the rest of the speech covering local and general topics. Town after town, the crowd increased and more people started seeing Truman as a fearless underdog. But, his speeches were covered neither by radio nor television extensively. During a speech, a man from the crowd yelled "Give 'em Hell, Harry!", as news accounts of his promise to Barkley spread across the country. Truman replied – "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them, and they think it's Hell." Soon after, many people started yelling and repeating "Give 'em Hell, Harry!", which by late September had become a well-known campaign slogan. While Truman campaigned in the train, his running mate Senator Barkley too campaigned traveling by airplane, though he too avoided deep south. While addressing a crowd of about 100,000 people in September 28 at Oklahoma, he answered the Republican charges of communism in government. Considering the importance of speech and its effect on the campaign, the Democratic national committee decided to pay for the nationwide radio time. The next day, Truman gave his hundredth speech from the rear platform of the train. The same day, he spoke at 16 stops addressing over half a million people. As Truman continued with his tour, the size of the crowd increased. On October 11, he gave 11 speeches at different stops in span of 15 hours. While addressing a crowd at Springfield, Illinois the next day, he said:

"Democrats are practical folks. We like to get down to cases and talk business. It’s curious that our opponents, who claim to be so businesslike and so efficient, refuse to get down to specific issues. I don’t blame them for trying to campaign on theory. They are afraid to tell the people where they stand on specific issues. The Republicans know they can’t run on their record — that record is too bad. But you ought to know about their record. And since they won’t tell you, I will."

With the end of his tour, he delivered 337 speeches, 252 of which have been delivered from rear platform of the train covering 21,928 miles (35,290 km).

Media and polls; the final days

As Truman's whistle-stop tour continued, the size of the crowd started increasing. The large, mostly spontaneous gatherings at Truman's whistle-stop events were an important sign of a change in momentum in the campaign, but this shift mostly went virtually unnoticed by the polling agencies. Except Louis H. Bean and Survey Research Center's (SRC) polls, most of the other polls conducted during the fall campaign polled Dewey having a clear decisive lead over Truman. Dewey's campaign strategy was to avoid major mistakes and act presidential, which likely helped keep his polling numbers high. Elmo Roper, a major pollster had announced his organization would discontinue polling since it had already predicted Dewey's victory by a large majority of electoral votes. He said: "My whole inclination is to predict the election of Thomas E. Dewey by a heavy margin and devote my time and efforts to other things." His latest poll showed Dewey leading by 44 to 31 percent. In early October, when Newsweek in an election survey asked fifty major political writers their prediction – all 50 chose Dewey. When Truman received the article, he said – "I know every one of these fifty fellows. There isn’t a single one of them has enough sense to pound sand in a rat hole." In the wake of the expected Democratic defeat nationally, editors of major media corporations predicted that the South would regain its initial influence in the Democratic party.

Out of all the speeches Truman gave in September and October, only about 70 were broadcast on the radio even locally, while but 20 were heard nationally. New York Herald Tribune reported that "The voters are turning out to see the President of the United States; turning out in larger numbers than they will see candidate Dewey." Most of the major newspapers like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Star, etc. endorsed Dewey. The only major editorial endorsing Truman was the Boston Post, under the heading "Captain Courageous". Truman called Boston Post newspaper as "humbly honest, homespun and doggedly determined to do what is best for America as Abraham Lincoln". He arrived back at the White House in early October and conducted some meetings with Democratic National Committee's research division. On October 3, Truman met with the campaign team to discuss strategy and concluded that the campaign needs a new approach to illustrate his effort for peace and security in the world. He decided to send Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson on a diplomatic mission to Moscow attempting to negotiate the end of the Cold War with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. Vinson initially disagreed, asserting that members of the court should confine themselves to their Court duties especially in an election year, however, he finally agreed to go. As soon as the news of Truman's "Vinson mission" broke out, several of his advisors included Clifford and Elsey vehemently opposed, resulting in Truman immediately calling off the plan. Several editors and columnists accused Truman of his attempted appeasement by including foreign policy in his campaign. The Times magazine wrote, "His attempted action was shocking because it showed that he had no conception whatever of the difference between the President of the United States and a U.S. politician."

"It is not just a battle between two parties. It is a fight for the very soul of the American government."

On October 10, he continued with the final segment of his whistle-stop tour visiting rural counties in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The same day, he received a telegram from Strom Thurmond insisting on a debate, but Truman's campaign ignored it as Thurmond's polling numbers were almost 2%, even less than Wallace. The next day, Dewey too went on a seven-day tour of the Midwest. By the nature of his campaign, Truman was forced to make some campaign promises primarily because Dewey raised no issues forcing him to respond. As his tour progressed, a crowd of several thousand waited hours for Truman at various stops. Assured of his victory, Truman said that there are going to be "a lot of surprised pollsters". With two weeks to election day, polls showed Dewey's lead reduced by 6%, yet polling within the Truman campaign showed Truman winning with 340 electoral votes to Dewey's 108 and Thurmond's 42. He moved closer to the progressive Left, drawing crowds on Wallace’s message. At the packed stadium in Chicago, Truman delivered a speech to a crowd of 24,000 which is considered to be his most influential speech during the campaign. One of the authors of the speech, David Noyes later said that "it was to provoke Dewey into fighting back, a strategy Truman accepted." Days before the election, he campaigned in Massachusetts at various stops attended by millions of people. The campaign team released a film named The Truman Story on October 27, using existing newsreel footage of his whistle-stop tour. It was an instant success in comparison to The Dewey Story, released by the Republican campaign team. On October 31, two days before election day, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged voters to vote for Truman in a nationally broadcast radio address. Soon after, various leading authors including Noble Prize winner Sinclair Lewis endorsed Truman. President of Screen Actors Guild Ronald Reagan too endorsed him, saying "more than a little impatient with those promises the Republicans made before they got control of Congress a couple of years ago".

Election day

On the afternoon of election day, Truman secretly went to Biltmore Hotel to stay away from the media, with only his family and the Secret Service knowing his location. Assured of Dewey's victory, the head of the secret service James Maloney reached New York to provide security to Dewey. At about 9 in the evening just before Truman was about to sleep, he called Jim Rowley in his room and asked him to wake him if anything important happens. Initial counting showed Truman leading in the popular vote, but news commentators predicted a Dewey victory. Sometime near midnight, Truman woke up, switched on the radio, and heard National Broadcasting Company commentator H. V. Kaltenborn saying – "Although the president is ahead by 1,200,000 votes, he is undoubtedly beaten". At four in the morning, Rowley waked up Truman saying "We’ve won!". At 9:30, he was declared the winner in Illinois and California.

Truman received 303 electoral votes to Dewey's 189 and Thurmond's 39. He narrowly carried Ohio, Illinois, and California, three most crucial states to both the campaigns. He won 28 states and received 49.5% of the popular vote. In congressional races, Democrats won control of both the houses with 54 Senate seats for the Democrats and 42 for the Republicans. In the House of Representatives, the Democratic victory was overwhelming, 263 seats to 171. In an upset defeat, Dewey officially conceded at 11 a.m. on November 3rd. Truman’s triumph astonished the nation and most of the pollsters. Newsweek on its cover called Truman's victory a "startling victory", "astonishing" and "a major miracle". Truman's close friend Jerome Walsh recalls Truman on the election night as –

"He displayed neither tension nor elation. For instance someone remarked bitterly that if it hadn’t been for Wallace, New York and New Jersey would have gone Democratic by good majorities. But the President dismissed this with a wave of his hand. As far as Henry was concerned, he said, Henry wasn’t a bad guy; he was doing what he thought was right and he had every right in the world to pursue his course."

Truman was the first candidate since 1876, except Woodrow Wilson in 1916 to win the presidency without carrying New York. In his victory speech on November 3, he called it "a victory by the Democratic party for the people". An early edition of Chicago Tribune had printed the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN", strongly anticipating a victory for Dewey. On November 4, Truman stepped out onto the rear platform of the Ferdinand Magellan during a brief stop in St. Louis, Missouri. Holding the Chicago Tribune paper, he posed for reporters to capture the moment. Time magazine later called it the "greatest photograph ever made of a politician celebrating victory". Author and Truman's biographer David McCullough called later wrote –

"Like some other photographs of other presidents—of Theodore Roosevelt in a white linen suit at the controls of a steam shovel in Panama, or Woodrow Wilson at Versailles, or Franklin Roosevelt, chin up, singing an old hymn beside Winston Churchill on board the Prince of Wales in the dark summer of 1941—this of Harry Truman in 1948 would convey the spirit of both the man and the moment as almost nothing else would."

Results

Aftermath and legacy

President Truman and Vice-President-elect Barkley were inaugurated on January 20, 1949, at the first nationally televised inauguration. In his second term as president, Congress ratified the 22nd Amendment, making a president ineligible for election to a third term or for election to a second full term after serving more than two remaining years of a term of a previously elected president. As Truman was eligible to run in 1952, he contested the New Hampshire primaries, but lost to Senator Estes Kefauver. Amid the Korean War, his approval rating had dropped to 30%. 18 days after the New Hampshire primary, Truman formally announced he would not seek a second full term. Truman was eventually able to persuade Adlai Stevenson to run, and the governor gained the nomination at the 1952 Democratic National Convention. Stevenson lost the 1952 presidential election to the Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Truman's 1948 campaign and the election is most remembered for the failure of polls, which predicted an easy win for Governor Dewey. One reason for the press's inaccurate projection was that polls were conducted primarily by telephone, but many people, including much of Truman's populist base, did not own a telephone. The Rowe-Clifford memo, which highlighted the challenges and the road map for Truman's campaign was later described by Washington Post as "one of this century’s most famous political memorandums." McCullough noted that when it came to his message, Truman "had just one strategy—attack, attack, attack, carry the fight to the enemy’s camp." His whistle-stop tour is often compared to William Jennings Bryan's tour. Historian Michael Kammen wrote –

"Truman shrewdly ran against the Republican ghost of Herbert Hoover than against the formidable dullness of Thomas E. Dewey..... Memories and misconceptions of the past may have played a crucial role in shaping both public opinion and government policies.... the belief that a reading of history 'taught' that thus-and-so seemed the prudent course of action to follow. Harry Truman may be the most notable exemplar of that attitude."

See also

• 1948 Republican Party presidential primaries
• 1948 Republican National Convention
• Thomas E. Dewey 1948 presidential campaign
• States' Rights Democratic Party
• Strom Thurmond 1948 presidential campaign
• Progressive Party (United States, 1948)
• Henry A. Wallace 1948 presidential campaign

Notes and references

Notes

1. In New York, the Truman vote was a fusion of the Democratic and Liberal slates. There, Truman obtained 2,557,642 votes on the Democratic ticket and 222,562 votes on the Liberal ticket.
2. In Mississippi, the Dewey vote was a fusion of the Republican and Independent Republican slates. There, Dewey obtained 2,595 votes on the Republican ticket and 2,448 votes on the Independent Republican ticket.
3. A Tennessee faithless elector voted for Thurmond/Wright

References

1. McCullough 1992, p. 26.
2. McCullough 1992, p. 259.
3. McCullough 1992, p. 327.
4. Eisenberg 2016, p. 1.
5. McCullough 1992, p. 380.
6. McCullough 1992, p. 391.
7. McCullough 1992, p. 384.
8. McCullough 1992, p. 500.
9. Baime 2020, p. 7.
10. Baime 2020, p. 2.
11. Karabell 2001, p. 41.
12. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 651.
13. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 653.
14. Lemelin 2001, pp. 39–40.
15. ^ Baime 2020, p. 101.
16. ^ Lemelin 2001, p. 6.
17. ^ Karabell 2001, p. 73.
18. ^ Guide to U.S. Elections 2009, pp. 397–398.
19. Busch 2012, p. 2.
20. ^ Farley 1989, p. 150.
21. Baime 2020, p. 134.
22. McCullough 1992, p. 694.
23. Karabell 2001, p. 164.
24. McCullough 1992, p. 692.
25. Karabell 2001, p. 165.
26. ^ Busch 2012, p. 104.
27. Baime 2020, p. 138.
28. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 709.
29. ^ Baime 2020, p. 153.
30. Baime 2020, pp. 151–152.
31. Baime 2020, p. 151.
32. Baime 2020, p. 152.
33. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 707.
34. Donaldson 1999, p. 160.
35. ^ Karabell 2001, p. 197.
36. McCullough 1992, p. 708.
37. ^ Baime 2020, p. 159.
38. Karabell 2001, p. 194.
39. ^ Busch 2012, p. 108.
40. Karabell 2001, p. 198.
41. Murphy 2020, p. 77.
42. Busch 2012, p. 109.
43. ^ Baime 2020, p. 169.
44. ^ Karabell 2001, p. 200.
45. Donaldson 1999, p. 164.
46. Gullan 1998, p. 101.
47. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 712.
48. Pietrusza 2014, p. 3.
49. Truman 2003, p. 53.
50. Lee 1963, p. 256.
51. ^ Pietrusza 2014, p. 4.
52. ^ Truman 2003, p. 59.
53. ^ Pietrusza 2014, p. 1.
54. McCullough 1992, p. 735.
55. ^ Truman 2003, p. 4.
56. McCullough 1992, p. 715.
57. Gullan 1998, p. 104.
58. ^ Baime 2020, p. 207.
59. Baime 2020, p. 210.
60. Baime 2020, p. 212.
61. Baime 2020, p. 213.
62. Gullan 1998, pp. 106–107.
63. ^ Baime 2020, p. 214.
64. McCullough 1992, p. 723.
65. Gullan 1998, p. 108.
66. Donaldson 1999, p. 168.
67. Karabell 2001, p. 236.
68. Baime 2020, p. 224.
69. McCullough 1992, p. 724.
70. Karabell 2001, p. 239.
71. Busch 2012, p. 136.
72. ^ Baime 2020, p. 256.
73. McCullough 1992, p. 657.
74. Baime 2020, pp. 262–263.
75. Baime 2020, p. 250.
76. McCullough 1992, p. 265.
77. List to board President's special train, Toledo, Ohio 1948, p. 3.
78. Some Aspects of the Preparation of President Truman's Speeches for the 1948 Campaign 1948, p. 2.
79. McCullough 1992, p. 726-727.
80. Karabell 2001, p. 262.
81. Karabell 2001, p. 263.
82. Karabell 2001, p. 264.
83. Karabell 2001, p. 252.
84. Karabell 2001, p. 253.
85. ^ Truman 2003, p. 85.
86. List of Campaign Speeches 1948, p. 1-6.
87. McCullough 1992, p. 734.
88. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 736.
89. Baime 2020, p. 293.
90. Baime 2020, p. 291.
91. Karabell 2001, p. 271.
92. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 754.
93. McCullough 1992, p. 774.
94. Truman 2003, p. 115.
95. McCullough 1992, p. 654.
96. List of Campaign Speeches 1948, p. 6.
97. Karabell 2001, p. 269.
98. Baime 2020, p. 294.
99. Visser 1994, p. 48.
100. ^ Eisenberg 2016, p. 7.
101. Lemelin 2001, p. 42.
102. McCullough 1992, p. 729.
103. ^ Karabell 2001, p. 273.
104. Karabell 2001, p. 285.
105. Karabell 2001, pp. 270–271.
106. Karabell 2001, pp. 303–304.
107. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 773.
108. Baime 2020, p. 311.
109. Baime 2020, p. 312.
110. McCullough 1992, p. 760-761.
111. McCullough 1992, p. 761.
112. McCullough 1992, p. 762.
113. Baime 2020, p. 9.
114. Donaldson 1999, p. 82.
115. Baime 2020, p. 321.
116. Karabell 2001, p. 305.
117. Donaldson 1999, p. 183.
118. McCullough 1992, p. 766.
119. McCullough 1992, p. 771.
120. McCullough 1992, pp. 771–774.
121. Karabell 2001, p. 307.
122. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 777.
123. McCullough 1992, p. 778.
124. Baime 2020, p. 326.
125. Baime 2020, p. 346.
126. Baime 2001, p. 346. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBaime2001 (help)
127. McCullough 1992, p. 781.
128. McCullough 1992, p. 782.
129. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 783.
130. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 786.
131. Karabell 2001, pp. 392–393.
132. Gullan 1998, p. 176.
133. McCullough 1992, p. 787.
134. McCullough 1992, p. 658.
135. Baime 2020, p. 392.
136. ^ McCullough 1992, p. 795.
137. Baime 2020, p. 398.
138. McCullough 1992, p. 798.
139. McCullough 1992, p. 849.
140. McCullough 1992, p. 980.
141. McCullough 1992, p. 1065.
142. The Spiral of Silence in the 1948 Presidential Election 1948, pp. 141–142.
143. Baime 2020, p. 104.
144. Busch 2012, p. 130.
145. Karabell 2001, p. 265.
146. Gullan 1998, p. 218.

Works cited

Books

• Baime, A. J. (2020). Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1-328-58506-6. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Open Library.

• Busch, Andrew (2012). Truman's Triumphs: The 1948 Election and the Making of Postwar America. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1866-8. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Google Books.

• Donaldson, Gary (1999). Truman Defeats Dewey. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2075-1. LCCN 98024424. OL 364156M. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Open Library.

• Farley, Karin Clafford (1989). Harry S. Truman : The Man from Independence. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: J. Messner. ISBN 978-0-671-65853-3. LCCN 88031188. OL 2053299M. Retrieved June 25, 2021.

• Gullan, Harold I. (1998). The Upset That Wasn't: Harry S Truman and the Crucial Election of 1948. Ivan R. Dee Publisher. ISBN 978-1-56663-206-5. LCCN 98026167. OL 365819M. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Open Library.

• Karabell, Zachary (2001). The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-307-42886-8. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Google Books.

• McCullough, David (1992). Truman. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-86920-5. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Open Library.

• Truman, Harry S. (2003). Neal, Steve (ed.). Miracle of '48 : Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-Stops. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2557-3. LCCN 2003010658. OL 3675149M. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Open Library.

• Guide to U.S. Elections. SAGE Publications. 2009. ISBN 978-1-60426-536-1. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via Google Books.

Journals and articles

• Bray, William J. "Recollections of the 1948 Campaign". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Political File. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.

• Eisenberg, Lucy (2016). "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948" (PDF). Constitutional Rights Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved June 23, 2021.

• Lee, R. Alton (1963). "The Turnip Session of the Do-Nothing Congress: Presidential Campaign Strategy". The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly. 44 (3): 256–267. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved July 4, 2021 – via JSTOR.

• Lemelin, Bernard (2001). "The U.S. Presidential Election of 1948: The Causes of Truman's "Astonishing" Victory". Revue française d’études américaines (French journal of American studies): 38–61. doi:10.3917/rfea.087.0038. ISSN 0397-7870. Archived from the original on June 19, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021.

• McDonald, Daniel G.; Glynn, Carroll J.; Kim, Sei-Hill; Ostman, Ronald E. (April 2001). "The Spiral of Silence in the 1948 Presidential Election". SAGE Journals. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via ResearchGate.

• Murphy, Charles S. (December 6, 1948). "Some Aspects of the Preparation of President Truman's Speeches for the 1948 Campaign". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Truman Administration File. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.

• Murphy, John M. (2020). "The Sunshine of Human Rights: Hubert Humphrey at the 1948 Democratic Convention". Rhetoric and Public Affairs. 23 (1): 77–106. doi:10.14321/rhetpublaffa.23.1.0077. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021 – via JSTOR.

• Pietrusza, David (2014). "Harry S. Truman's Speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention–Harry S. Truman (July 15,1948)" (PDF). Library of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021.

• Visser, Max (1994). "The Psychology of Voting Action: On the Psychological Origins of Electoral Research, 1939-1964" (PDF). Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 30: 43–52. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2021.

• "List of Campaign Speeches". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Truman Administration File. 1948. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved July 4, 2021.

• "List to board President's special train, Toledo, Ohio". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. President's Secretary's Files. Toledo, Ohio. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.

External links

• President Harry Truman 1948 Presidential Acceptance Speech — (C-SPAN)

• 1948 election campaign collection – Harry S. Truman Presidential Library

• Harry S. Truman
• Democratic Party (United States) presidential campaigns
• Presidency of Harry S. Truman
• Political history of the United States