Harry Truman was a different kind of President than we’re used to these days. He probably made as many important decisions as any other President. But a better measure of his greatness may be what he did after he left the White House.
As president, he had paid for all his own travel expenses and food. After Eisenhower was inagurated, Harry and his wife Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. No Secret Service followed them. His income upon retirement was his U.S Army pension, reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his own stamps and personally licking them, granted him an allowance, and later a retroactive prension of $25,000 a year.
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.”
The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence, Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.
