Truman had seen a lot of enthusiasm throughout the campaign, and the crowd in St. Louis brought it to a climax. “The country was aware of the fact that Truman had conducted a one-man battle,” recalled Robert Nixon. “Americans have an affection for people who fight for what they believe in . . . [St. Louis] was his last speech of the campaign, the grand finale . . . There was a fist in almost every word and a fight in every sentence.” Meanwhile the reporters began to realize that Truman was not giving the speech they expected; they would have to scramble to rewrite their stories.
I have been in many a campaign, my friends . . . But never in my lifetime have I been in a campaign, nor seen a campaign, such as I have been through recently. I became President of the United States 3 years, 6 months, and 18 days ago, and we have been through the most momentous period in the history of the world in that time. Twenty-six days after I became President, Germany surrendered unconditionally. Four months and 21 days after I was sworn in as President of the United States, Japan folded up and surrendered unconditionally, thus ending the greatest war in the history of the world . . .
Four days after Japan surrendered on September the 2d, my first policy message went to Congress. That message contained 21 points . . . When that message went to Congress, the smear campaign on your President started in all its vile and untruthfully slanted headlines, columns, and editorials.
This was the ultimate Give ’Em Hell Harry speech. The audience “applauded for about two and a half hours,” recorded John Franklin Carter. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was a wild, wild reception.”
Truman railed against the “saboteurs and character assassins” of the press. He attacked his old foe—the “do nothing” Eightieth Congress—for failing to pass the administration’s housing bill during a housing crisis, for failing to pass health-care reform, for failing the farmers of America by taking away their grain-storage bins. After a half hour, he brought the speech to an extemporaneous end.
People are waking up that the tide is beginning to roll, and I am here to tell you that if you do your duty as citizens of the greatest Republic the sun has ever shone on, we will have a Government that will be for your interests, that will be for peace in the world, and for the welfare of all the people, and not just a few.
With those final words, the president turned and walked off the stage. It was the last appearance Harry Truman would ever make in a campaign of his own. Later that night of October 30, he recalled, “I returned from the bedlam of the longest and hardest political campaign of my career to the restful quiet of my home in Independence.”
“The campaign is all over,” Margaret wrote in her diary on November 1. “Now we wait until tomorrow is done to see how the voters decide. We can take whatever comes, but I wonder if the country can.”
On the night of November 1, both Truman and Dewey made final “get-out-the-vote” radio speeches—Truman from his living room in Independence, and Dewey from the Manhattan studios of NBC.
“We have come to the end of a campaign which will decide the course of our country in the four fateful years ahead,” Dewey said. “The speeches have been made. The debate is ended. Tomorrow we will go to the polls.”
Any number of publications and pundits offered final predictions, and while they varied in detail, they were unanimous in terms of the outcome. Radio broadcaster Walter Winchell gave the election to Dewey, with 15 to 1 odds. One St. Louis bookie gave Dewey 8 to 1 odds. One in Chicago offered 3 to 1. The final polls: Crossley had it 49.9 percent for Dewey and 44.8 for Truman, with the remainder for Wallace and Thurmond. Gallup gave 46 percent to Dewey and 40 percent to Truman. The third big pollster, Elmo Roper, gave the election to the GOP with a statement: “I stand by my prediction. Dewey is in.”
The New York Times predicted a Dewey landslide of 345 electoral votes. Newsweek forecast an even bigger landslide, with 366 electoral votes. Life magazine had already published a photo of Dewey in a boat with the caption, “The next President travels by ferryboat over the broad waters of San Francisco Bay.” Columnist Ralph McGill wrote in the Atlanta Constitution: “I have already made up my mind that Gov. Dewey is to be the next President of the United States. It is no new decision. It became obvious some months ago.” The nation’s most popular political columnist, Drew Pearson: “I would say that Governor Dewey had conducted one of the most astute and skillful campaigns in recent years . . . Undoubtedly, you’ll have teamwork in the White House under Dewey.” The Wall Street Journal: “Government will remain big, active and expensive under President Thomas E. Dewey.” Kiplinger magazine: “What will Dewey do?”
“You’ve got to live with him for four years, possibly eight,” Kiplinger stated. “He will influence your life, your thinking, your work, your business.”
Even in Britain, pundits were digging Harry Truman’s political grave, using boldface headlines as the shovel. The Manchester Guardian: “Harry S. Truman: A Study of a Failure.” The London Daily Mail: “Dewey Gets the Votes: Truman—Admiration.” The United Kingdom’s most widely circulated daily paper, the Daily Express: “What kind of President will Tom Dewey make?”
“Most of the articles [in Britain] read like obituaries of President Truman’s Administration,” commented New York Times political writer Clifton Daniel from the paper’s London office. (This story would prove especially ironic, as Daniel would later become Margaret Truman’s husband and Harry Truman’s son-in-law.)
In the nation’s capital, the switchboards at hotels were reportedly ringing off the hook as Republicans were booking rooms for the inauguration. It was also reported that Republican families were renting homes in Washington and enrolling their kids in schools for the spring 1949 semester.
At home
