by A. J. Baime
“Now, these Republican polls are”: “Address in the Cleveland Municipal Auditorium,” October 26, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/258/address-cleveland-municipal-auditorium.
“not been guilty of using our high”: “Dewey’s Cleveland Talk Scoring Truman on Soviet Policy,” New York Times, October 28, 1948.
“In a little more than three years”: Ibid.
“Your Cleveland speech was one of”: Arthur Vandenberg to Thomas Dewey, October 30, 1948, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 1, Box 195.
“I remember coming into”: Oral History Interview with John Franklin Carter (transcript), 1966, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 30.
“a human sea”: “Throng Of 100,000 Greets President In 25-Minute Hartford Campaign Visit,” Hartford Courant, October 28, 1948.
“That last month you could actually”: Oral History Interview with Clark M. Clifford (transcript), Truman archives, p. 284.
“The month of October absolutely”: Oral History Interview with Oscar L. Chapman (transcript), Truman archives, p. 425.
“more than a little”: “Reagan Campaigns for Truman in 1948,” YouTube video, https://youtu.be/uJDhS4oUm0M.
“has a safe lead over President”: “Globe Poll: Dewey Holds Lead in State,” Boston Daily Globe, October 26, 1948.
“Thomas E. Dewey and Earl Warren”: “Dewey Far in Lead; a Tie in the Senate Strong Possibility,” New York Times, October 25, 1948.
“The tenor of this story”: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Nixon (transcript), Truman archives, p. 646.
“I’ve never seen such a mob”: Oral History Interview with Frank K. Kelly (transcript), Truman archives, pp. 46–47.
“How does this crowd compare”: Ibid.
“Get this straight now”: “Address at Mechanics Hall in Boston,” October 27, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/260/address-mechanics-hall-boston.
“Biggest applause of the evening”: “Margaret Truman Steals Spotlight in Motorcade,” Boston Daily Globe, October 28, 1948.
“as I’ve seldom seen”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, p. 253.
“It’s fantastic”: Ibid., p. 254.
“Thus, during the last six”: Ibid.
“We worked all through the”: Oral History Interview with Clark M. Clifford (transcript), Truman archives, pp. 300–301.
“A social security program that”: “Dewey Offers Own Social Security Plan,” Washington Post, October 29, 1948.
“a GOP ‘New Deal’ in social”: Ibid.
“surpassed anything in our”: J. Howard McGrath to “All National Committeemen, Committeewomen, State Chairman,” October 30, 1948, George Elsey papers, Box 62, Truman archives.
“Suggest you contact wives”: J. Howard McGrath to “All State Chairman,” October 27, 1948, George Elsey papers, Box 62, Truman archives.
“We’re going to lick ’em”: “Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York,” October 28, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/261/rear-platform-and-other-informal-remarks-massachusetts-rhode-island.
“90 percent of the press is”: Ibid.
“What on earth can we”: Dialogue from Oral History Interview with Oscar R. Ewing (transcript), Truman archives, pp. 286–87.
“There was six hours difference”: Ibid.
“From: The President (in New York)”: Harry Truman to George Marshall, October 29, 1948, Clark Clifford Papers, Box 13, Truman archives.
“President again directs every effort”: George Catlett Marshall, The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 6, The Whole World Hangs in the Balance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), p. 607.
“The place was half empty”: Oral History Interview with Donald S. Dawson (transcript), 1977, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 38.
“I marched the parade”: Ibid., p. 39.
“There is a special reason why”: “Address in Madison Square Garden, New York City,” October 28, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/262/address-madison-square-garden-new-york-city.
“I have a confession”: Ibid.
“This brought down the”: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Nixon (transcript), Truman archives, p. 652.
“He can follow me to Cleveland”: “Address in Madison Square Garden, New York City,” October 28, 1948.
30. “I Stand by My Prediction. Dewey Is In.”
“It is great to be home again”: Press release, “Text of the Address by Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican Nominee for President, Delivered at Madison Square Garden,” October 30, 1948, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 117.
“has been divided against”: Ibid.
“On that trip . . . he came”: Oral History Interview with Raymond P. Brandt (transcript), 1970, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 46.
“He assumed in ’48 that”: Oral History Interview with Jack L. Bell (transcript), 1971, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 53.
“I am ‘jumping the gun’”: Arthur Vandenberg to Thomas Dewey, October 30, 1948, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 1, Box 195.
“By the time you receive”: George R. Wallace to Thomas Dewey, November 1, 1948, ibid., Series 5, Box 198.
“Since knowing you I have”: Clellan S. Forsythe to Thomas Dewey, November 1, 1948, ibid., Series 5, Box 66.
“I could hardly get through”: Oral History Interview with Philleo Nash (transcript), Truman archives, p. 391.
“I brought up a draft”: Dialogue from ibid., p. 393.
“Unity is basically a weak concept”: Ibid., p. 394.
“little shadow”: “Informal Remarks in New York,” October 29, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/264/informal-remarks-new-york.
“Pour it on, Harry!”: “President Renews Civil Rights Plea,” New York Times, October 30, 1948.
“All of a sudden, there”: Oral History Interview with Philleo Nash (transcript), Truman archives, pp. 399–400.
“This, in my mind, is a most”: “Address in Harlem, New York, Upon Receiving the Franklin Roosevelt Award,” October 29, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/265/address-harlem-new-york-upon-receiving-franklin-roosevelt-award.
“Eventually, we are going to have”: Ibid.
“Immediate and far-reaching”: “President Renews Civil Rights Plea,” New York Times, October 30, 1948.
“shallow, hollow, worthless promises”: “Wallace Calls Truman Vows ‘Worthless,’” Washington Post, October 30, 1948.
“invited the Dixiecrats”: Ibid.
“a Federal horsewhip to”: “Thurmond Assails Rivals,” New York Times, October 30, 1948.
“Our campaign is based on”: “Address by Governor Thurmond, States’ Rights Candidate, in Texas,” New York Times, October 31, 1948.
“un-American”: Ibid.
“On the last long ride”: Oral History Interview with John Franklin Carter (transcript), Truman archives, p. 26.
“Are you going to deliver”: Dialogue from Oral History Interview with John W. Snyder (transcript), Truman archives, p. 936.
“We got to St. Louis and”: Oral History Interview with Carleton Kent (transcript), 1970, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 74.
“There were so many people”: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Nixon (transcript), Truman archives, p. 660.
“Thank you my friends”: “Address at the Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri,” October 30, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/268/address-kiel-auditorium-st-louis-missouri.
“The country was aware”: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Nixon (transcript), Truman archives, p. 669.
“I have been in many a”:
“Address at the Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri,” October 30, 1948.
“applauded for about”: Oral History Interview with John Franklin Carter (transcript), Truman archives, p. 26.
“saboteurs and character assassins”: “Address at the Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri,” October 30, 1948.
“I returned from the bedlam”: Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 220.
“The campaign is all over”: Diary entry of Margaret Truman, November 1, 1948, Margaret Truman Daniel and E. Clifton Daniel Papers, Box 14, Truman archives.
“We have come to the end”: “Dewey Text,” Boston Daily Globe, November 2, 1948.
“I stand by my prediction”: “Poll Shows Dewey Still Leads Race,” Hartford Courant, November 1, 1948.
“The next President travels by”: Robert J. Donovan, Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945–1948 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996), p. 429.
“I have already made up”: “Dewey to Win: But the People Fret,” Atlanta Constitution, November 1, 1948.
“I would say that Governor”: “The Washington Merry-Go-Round: Dewey Unscathed in Gantlet Run,” Washington Post, November 1, 1948.
“Government will remain big”: “Dewey As President,” Wall Street Journal, November 2, 1948.
“What will Dewey do?”: Abels, Out of the Jaws of Victory, p. 261.
“Harry S. Truman: A Study”: David McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 703.
“Dewey Gets the Votes”: “London Press Sees Dewey Victory, But Shows No Warmth for Him,” New York Times, November 2, 1948.
“What kind of President”: Ibid.
“Most of the articles [in Britain]”: Ibid.
31. “Tens of Thousands, and Hundreds of Thousands! How Can He Lose?”
“The ballot is stronger”: Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years (New York: Sterling, 2007), p. 78.
“Harry S. Truman, 219 North”: “3 Trumans Go to the Polls,” New York Times, November 3, 1948.
“How do you think it will”: Dialogue from ibid.
“Well . . . that’s two votes we”: “Gov. Dewey, Family Sit Up to Scan Election Returns,” Boston Daily Globe, November 3, 1948.
“more votes than the pollsters say”: “Wallace Votes, Then Tends Farm,” New York Times, November 3, 1948.
“They said back at Philadelphia”: “Thurmond and His Wife Vote States’ Rights,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1948.
“Boy, those ulcers of mine”: Oral History Interview with Tom L. Evans (transcript), 1963, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 526.
“We didn’t talk any about”: Oral History Interview with Wallace H. Graham (transcript), 1989, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 23.
“How do you think it’s”: Smith, Thomas E. Dewey, p. 23.
“Five votes for Dewey, two”: Donald P. Miller, “A Remembrance of November 2, 1948,” Harry S. Truman Papers, President’s Secretary’s Files, Truman archives.
“What do you think of the”: Dialogue from “When Hotel Muehlebach Becomes the White House,” George Elsey papers, Truman archives. Also published in book form: Barney L. Allis, When Hotel Muehlebach Becomes the White House, privately printed, 1949.
“It was a rather sober bunch”: Oral history of Carleton Kent (transcript), Truman archives, pp. 67–68.
“Nobody here”: Dialogue from Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, pp. 11–12.
“We had the President’s office”: Oral History Interview with Philleo Nash (transcript), Truman archives, p. 405.
“Were it not for all these”: Diary entry of Eben Ayers, November 2, 1948, in Eben A. Ayers, Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), p. 83.
“I had a feeling that perhaps”: Alonzo Fields, My 21 Years in the White House (New York: Coward-McCann, 1961), p. 148.
“terrible uncertainty”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, p. 238.
“We had planned to stay”: Ibid., p. 239.
“Police said at least half”: “Soviet Press Takes Note of Election,” Hartford Courant, November 3, 1948.
“Wallace seemed to be in”: Oral history of Calvin “Beanie” Baldwin, Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library, p. 36.
“Early reports reaching us”: “Statement by Herbert Brownell Jr.,” Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 117.
“We want Harry”: “Truman Gets Out of Sight During Count,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1948.
“frantic . . . I am not using”: Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (New York: Morrow, 1973), p. 40.
“Dad isn’t here”: McCullough, Truman, p. 706.
“At this moment the polls”: “Text of 7:30 Statement by Brownell,” Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 117.
“Along in the evening”: Oral History Interview with Mary Ethel Noland (transcript), 1965, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 200.
“That went on all night long”: Ibid.
32. “Under No Circumstance Will I Congratulate That Son of a Bitch”
“The halls leading to the”: “Vote Peps Up Surprised Democrats,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1948.
“We are now getting into”: “Statement by Herbert Brownell Jr., at 11:15 pm,” Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 117.
“undoubtedly beaten”: McCullough, Truman, p. 707.
“We now know that Governor Dewey”: “Statement by Herbert Brownell Jr. at 1:45 am,” Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 117.
“Well, Mr. President . . . you’re”: Dialogue from Oral History Interview with Tom L. Evans (transcript), Truman archives, p. 534.
“a churning madhouse”: “When Hotel Muehlebach Becomes the White House,” George Elsey papers, Truman archives. Also published in pamphlet form under byline Barney L. Allis (Kansas City, MO: Hotel Muehlebach, 1949).
“We don’t say that we’re”: Oral History Interview with Frank Holeman (transcript), 1987, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 22.
“Dear Barney, I need a room”: Ibid.
“As the night wore on”: Oral History Interview with Samuel C. Brightman (transcript), 1966, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 115.
“He was sweating”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, pp. 20–21.
“Jim, you can take it”: Ibid., p. 21.
“What is Drew Pearson saying?”: Dialogue from Oral History Interview with John Franklin Carter (transcript), Truman archives, pp. 48–49.
“We were all trying to”: Letters to the Editor, Life, November 22, 1948, p. 12.
“there was pandemonium”: Oral History Interview with John Franklin Carter (transcript), Truman archives, p. 69.
“The Ohio vote finally came”: Oral History Interview with Carleton Kent (transcript), Truman archives, p. 684.
“Bill, stop writing that”: Ibid., pp. 684–85.
“It’s awful”: Smith, Thomas E. Dewey, p. 49.
“What do you know?”: Ed Cray, Chief Justice: A Biography of Earl Warren (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), p. 193.
“And all of the sudden”: McCullough, Truman, p. 707.
“Mr. President . . . I don’t”: Dialogue from Oral History Interview with H. Graham Morison (transcript), 1972, Truman archives, pp. 248–49.
“We’ve got ’em beat”: McCullough, Truman, p. 707.
“I told him so all the time”: John C. Culver and John Hyde, American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), p. 502.
“Tonight we have had an”: “Wallace Vote Is Far Short of His Party’s Expectations,” New York Times, November 3, 1948.
“so long as the policy of”: John J. Abt, with Michael Myerson, Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), pp. 163–64.
“Under no circumstance”: Ibid., p. 164.
“The President is on his way”: Dialogue from “When
Hotel Muehlebach Becomes the White House,” George Elsey papers, Truman archives.
“I looked up”: Ibid.
“I heard the broadcast”: Ibid.
“His door was wide open”: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Nixon (transcript), Truman archives, p. 687.
“It looks as though we”: Dialogue from “When Hotel Muehlebach Becomes the White House.”
“the most gratifying phone”: Clifford, Counsel to the President, p. 239.
“He displayed neither tension”: Letters to the Editor, Life, November 22, 1948, p. 12.
“At 6 a.m. today”: “Forecasts Upset: President Surprises by Taking Early Popular Vote Lead,” New York Times, November 3, 1948.
“Election Still in Doubt”: “Election Still in Doubt,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1948.
“The ballots haven’t been”: “An Affectionate Farewell to Harry,” Atlanta Constitution, November 3, 1948.
“The first postelection question”: “Matter of Fact: Flying Dual Control,” Washington Post, November 3, 1948.
“Thomas E. Dewey Amerikas”: “Thomas E. Dewey Amerikas neuer Präsident,” Muenchen Merkur, November 3, 1948.
“Dewey, Warren Win; Business Gain”: “Dewey, Warren Win; Business Gain Seen,” Women’s Wear Daily, November 3, 1948.
“ ‘Persistence’ Is the Dominating”: “ ‘Persistence’ Is the Dominating Trait that Carried Dewey to the Presidency,” Washington Post, November 3, 1948.
“Dewey Defeats Truman”: “Dewey Defeats Truman; G.O.P. Sweep Indicated in State,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 3, 1948.
“arguably the most famous”: “Dewey Defeats Truman,” Chicago Tribune, December 19, 2007.
“Thank you, Mr. President”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, p. 23.
“The wine shimmered effervescently”: Ibid.
“Now I want you to talk to”: Oral History Interviews with India Edwards (transcript), 1969 and 1975, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 81.
“I burst out crying”: Ibid.
“Gentlemen . . . I have here a message”: Jack Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, p. 23.
“Dewey has conceded!”: “When Hotel Muehlebach Becomes the White House,” George Elsey papers, Truman archives.