In the 1952 U.S. presidential election, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, ending Democratic control of the White House that stretched back two decades. In his farewell address on January 15, 1952, Harry Truman said, “Next Tuesday, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as President of the United States. A short time after the new President takes his oath of office, I will be on the train going back home to Independence, Missouri. I will once again be a plain, private citizen of this great Republic. That is as it should be. Inauguration Day will be a great demonstration of our democratic process. I am glad to be a part of it–glad to wish General Eisenhower all possible success, as he begins his term–glad the whole world will have a chance to see how simply and how peacefully our American system transfers the vast power of the Presidency from my hands to his. It is a good object lesson in democracy. I am very proud of it. And I know you are, too. Regardless of your politics, whether you are Republican or Democrat, your fate is tied up with what is done here in this room. The President is President of the whole country. We must give him our support as citizens of the United States. He will have mine, and I want you to give him yours. When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. And I have tried to give it everything that was in me. Through all of it, through all the years that I have worked here in this room, I have been well aware I did not really work alone–that you were working with me. No President could ever hope to lead our country, or to sustain the burdens of this office, save as the people helped with their support. I have had that help–you have given me that support–on all our great essential undertakings to build the free world’s strength and keep the peace. Those are the big things. Those are the things we have done together. For that I shall be grateful, always. And now, the time has come for me to say good night–and God bless you all.”
(Friday Church News Notes, November 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)