MARCH 2, 2007 Jeff Jacoby BOSTON — When Harry Truman left the White House in 1953, historian David McCullough records, "he had no income or support of any kind from the federal government other than his Army pension of $112.56 a month. He was provided with no government funds for secretarial help or office space, not a penny of expense money." One of the reasons Truman and his wife moved back into their far-from-elegant old house in Independence, Missouri, "was that financially they had little other choice."
Ulysses S. Grant sold insurance after leaving office, but Truman was the reason why they implemented a pension program for past presidents and, as you know, that has grown far beyond anything that makes sense, along with the amount of money that they manage to "earn" on top of their salaries while in office.
Harry Truman quotes: When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the president, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale." Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."
IMO, he was a great president. I read that he truly agonized over whether to drop the Bomb. Some heroes are born, some are made and some just do the best they can with the job that destiny assigns them.
"In an unexpected victory, Harry S. Truman became our country's thirty-third President. Although he had free "franking" privileges as President, he always kept a coil of stamps in his desk to use on any correspondence that was personal". He would lick his own stamps and put them on personal letters. He said that he didn't think his personal mail was any business of the government.
he died in 72 and I remember the military rolling into Independence. my god it looked like martial law had been declared