Former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley recently got into trouble after she discussed the cause of the American Civil War but did not mention slavery. Democrats, Republicans, the press, all criticized her for her ignorance on the topic, and some implied that her immigrant background did not make her fully aware of American history. Perhaps, Haley should have studied the words of the first civil rights President of the 20th century, the first since Pres. Grant. Had she made a slight effort, Haley could have discovered the cause of the civil war as maintained by Harry Truman, the first civil rights President of the 20th century, the first President to address the NAACP, the first to order the racial integration of the American armed services and Truman also ordered desegregation of the federal civil service, reversing the separation policy instituted by Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, a few years prior to his leading the nation into the war to save democracy. Most of the implementation for integrating the armed services would not occur until after Truman left office and Gen. Eisenhower, a Republican replaced him. Truman also appointed a committee to study the race problems in America, and it produced, "To Secure These Rights," a short, easy to understand presentation of problems Negroes faced. True, not all were impressed; Dr. W, E. B. Du Bois indicated he would not support Democrat Truman for President in 1948, but instead favored another FDR VP, Henry Wallace, who was running as the left-wing Progressive Party candidate. The NAACP then promptly fired Du Bois. A few years later, Truman got his revenge when his Justice Department arrested Du Bois as a foreign agent. At a time when many Americans worried about Commie fronts, by firing those who rejected Truman, the NAACP became a Democratic Party front group.
So, what caused the Civil War?
In mid-September 1963 former Pres. Truman was invited to be a speaker at a fundraiser for Ohio's Dem. Senator Stephen Young. He was the last person to speak., after a glowing introduction.. As the Baltimore Sun (16 Sept. 1963, p.5) reported, "We are living in a very troubled age of world history. The argument on civil rights has been stirred up by Boston and New England demagogues just as the War Between the States was brought about by Harriet Beecher Stowe and William Lloyd Garrison." So Northern Abolitionists caused the American Civil War. Slavery was not the cause of the war; those who objected to slavery were the trouble-makers. In the 1960s, when Truman no longer required black votes, he made his views explicit on current events too. He denounced Northern Freedom Riders as trouble-makers who should stay home. He called the March on Selma, "silly." He asserted that if any sit-in protestors came to his store, he would physically throw them out. And he denounced Martin Luther King, Jr. as a liar, etc. To place Truman's speech in context, he made it one month after the massive March on Washington (in which King presented his "I Have a Dream" address), and Truman's speech was two months before Pres. Kennedy would be murdered in Dallas.
To shore up Truman's reputation, liberal Republican historian William Leuchtenberg wrote and article for American Heritage, "The Conversion of Harry Truman," (Nov. 1991) in which he cites Truman's early racist comments. For example, in 1911 he wrote his girl friend, soon to become his wife, that he could get along with most people, so long as they were white. He elaborated on the creation, that God made the whites out of the dust, the n*****s out of the mud, and the Chinese out of what was left over. He added, God hates Chinese and Japs, and so does Mr. Truman. Truman was no child when he wrote this; he was an adult, 27, and a few years later, would volunteer to join American forces in the Great War; Truman would be promoted as an officer in the artillery. The liberal Leuchtenberg sees Truman's conversion on race after WWII when he learns of a black soldier who returns from war and has both eyes gouged out by racists in America. And so Truman embraces a more liberal view on race, and as President, tries to implement more sympathetic policies.
For the first Presidential election after victory in WWII, many found Truman a weak candidate, certainly no Franklin Roosevelt. Truman's Democratic Party had been in power since 1933, but the party of FDR had now split 3 ways. The left, including many CIO unions, supported Henry Wallace, who had been FDR;s VP in the early 1940s. Had Roosevelt died a year prior, Wallace would have become an American President. Wallace was liked by the left and endorsed by the American Communists. Meanwhile, many Southern Democrats, disgusted by Truman's sudden conversion on the race issue, chose to vote against the official Democratic ticket, hoping to throw the election into the House of Representatives, where they would make a deal with one of the candidates to not interfere with the Southern way of life. Confident, they made sure Truman was not on the ballot in Alabama - if you voted Democrat there, you voted for Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats. It would make no difference, for all the polls showed that Gov. Tom Dewey, who had signed the nation's first state civil rights act of the century, would easily glide to election victory over Truman. To the surprise of most Americans, Truman won the election (and with the help of the black vote in many crucial Northern states). Both Wallace and Thurmond had about the same % of the vote, 2.4% each, Truman 49.6%, Dewey 45.1. Dewey had received a higher popular vote and percentage in his 1944 race against FDR, 45.9% The opinion polls had been proven wrong. Truman won even though he was not on the ballot in Alabama.
During the campaign, Truman publicly sounded like a liberal on race. Leuchtenberg's conversion? But when he no longer required black votes, Truman blamed Northern abolitionists for the Civil War, and denounced sit-ins, Freedom Riders, and Martin Luther King. Either a short "conversion," or no conversion at all, simply a cynical politician seeking to win elections. But academia will always seek to make the liberal look good.
HUGH MURRAY
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