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Sell or Auction Your Harry Truman Signed Farewell Address for up to $4,000 or More at Nate D. Sanders Auctions

FREE VALUATION. To buy, auction, sell or consign your Harry Truman signed farewell address or other Harry Truman signed speech that is for sale, please email your description and photos to [email protected] of Nate D. Sanders Auctions (http://www.NateDSanders.com).

Harry Truman Signed Farewell Address

We at Nate D. Sanders Auctions sold a Harry Truman signed speech, his farewell address from 1953 for $3,750. Please see details below:

Harry Truman Signed Farewell Address From 1953 — ”…The President…has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody…” & ”…And always in the background there has been the atomic bomb…”

Harry S. Truman signed farewell address with exceptional content, delivered to the nation on 15 January 1953, five days before President Eisenhower’s inauguration. At the time of this address, Truman had a very low approval rating of 22% among the American people, lower even than President Nixon’s 24% when the latter left office. However, in the ensuing years, Truman’s reputation has been rehabilitated and is now considered among most historians as one of the top 10 Presidents, having ended WWII and implemented the Marshall Plan, established the United Nations and NATO, and ignited the issue of Civil Rights in 1948. 

Six page document is signed ”Harry Truman” at the conclusion. Marked ”Confidential” and ”Hold for Release”, document states that Truman will deliver the remarks from the White House on 15 January. Speech brings home, in visceral detail, the concerns and challenges facing leaders post WWII, in part, ”…Next Tuesday, General Eisenhower will be inaugurated as President of the United States. A short time after the new President takes his oath of office, I will be on the train going back home to Independence, Missouri. I will again be a plain, private citizen of this Republic. / This is as it should be. Inauguration Day will be a great demonstration of our democratic process. I am glad to be a part of it — glad to wish General Eisenhower all possible success, as he begins his term — glad the whole world will have a chance to see how simply and how peacefully our American system transfers the vast power of the Presidency from my hands to his. It is a good object lesson in democracy. I am very proud of it. I know you are too…In speaking to you tonight, I have no new revelations to make — no political statements — no policy announcements. There are simply a few things in my heart I want to say to you. I want to say ‘goodbye’ and ‘thanks for your help’…The President — whoever he is — has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job…Your new President is taking office in quite different circumstances than when I became President eight years ago…President Roosevelt had died. I offered to do anything I could for Mrs. Roosevelt…Things were happening fast in those days…On May seventh, Germany surrendered…Meanwhile, the first atomic explosion took place out in the new Mexico desert. / The war against Japan was still going on. I made the decision that the atomic bomb had to be used to end it. I made that decision in the conviction it would save hundreds of thousands of lives — Japanese as well as American. Japan surrendered, and we were faced with the huge problems of bringing the troops home…” 

Truman continues with long analysis of the specter of communism, with the threat of a nuclear war, underscoring the anxiety America felt at the time: ”…I suppose that history will remember my term in office as the years when the ‘cold war’ began to overshadow our lives. I have had hardly a day in office that has not been dominated by this all-embracing struggle — this conflict between those who love freedom and those who would load the world back into slavery and darkness. And always in the background there has been the atomic bomb…After the first World War, we withdrew from world affairs — we failed to act in concert with other peoples against aggression — we helped to kill the League of Nations — and we built up tariff barriers which strangled world trade. This time, we avoided those mistakes…Think about those years of weakness and indecision, and World War II which was their evil result. Then think about the speed and courage and decisiveness with which we have moved against the communist threat since World War II…Most important of all, we acted in Korea…We are living in the eighth year of the atomic age…Starting an atomic war is totally unthinkable for rational men…In the long run, the strength of our free society, and our ideals, will prevail over a system that has respect for neither God nor man…” 

He ends the speech reflecting on the unmatched prosperity America had in the immediate post-war years, ”…we in America have learned how to attain real prosperity for our people…And the income of our people has been fairly distributed, perhaps more so than at any time in recent history…So, as I empty the drawers of this desk, and as Mrs. Truman and I leave the White house, we have no regret. We feel we have done our best in the public service. I hope and believe we have contributed to the welfare of this Nation and to the peace of the world. When Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men better qualified than I, to take up the Presidential task. But the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. I have tried to give it everything that was in me. Through all of it, through all the years that I have worked here in this room, I have been well aware I did not really work alone — that you were working with me. No President could ever hope to lead our country, or to sustain the burdens of this office, save as the people helped with their support. I have had that help — you have given me that support — on all our great essential undertakings to build the free world’s strength and keep the peace. Those are the big things. Those are the things we have done together. For that I shall be grateful, always. And now, the time has come for me to say good night and – God bless you all.” Six page document on three sheets measures 8” x 14”. Folds, light toning and staple at upper left, otherwise near fine condition. Sold for $3,750.

Harry Truman signed farewell address
Harry Truman Signed Farewell Address From 1953. Click to enlarge.
Harry Truman signed farewell address
Harry Truman Signed Farewell Address From 1953. Click to enlarge.

We also sold the following Harry Truman autograph items:

Exceptionally Rare Harry Truman WWII Victory Proclamation Signed as President — Gifted to White House Staff in 1945 — in Seldom-Encountered Near Fine Condition

Rare V-E Day proclamation signed ”Harry Truman” as President, given by Truman to his White House staff at the 1945 White House Christmas party. Dated 8 May 1945, printed document formally announces the Victory of Europe and surrender of Nazi Germany. Text reads in part, ”The Allied Armies, through sacrifice and devotion and with God’s help, have wrung from Germany a final and unconditional surrender. The Western World has been freed of the evil forces which for five years and longer have imprisoned the bodies and broken the lives of millions upon millions of free-born men. They have violated their churches, destroyed their homes, corrupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our Armies of Liberation have restored freedom to these suffering peoples, whose spirit and will their oppressors could never enslave…” Single-page Proclamation is beautifully decorated in red, blue and gilt. Measures 14.75” x 21.75”. A few stray moisture spots, overall in unusually near fine condition. Proclamation is cited in the Seeley reference book as having been issued as a Christmas gift to White House staff in 1945, and one example remains in the collection of the Truman Library. Sold for $7,500.

Harry Truman signed farewell address
Exceptionally Rare Harry Truman WWII Victory Proclamation Signed as President. Click to enlarge.

Consign your Harry Truman signed farewell address at Nate D. Sanders Auctions. Send a description and images of your Harry Truman signed farewell address to us at [email protected].

Harry Truman Twice-Signed 10″ x 8″ Photograph, Famously Showing Truman Holding Up the “Dewey Defeats Truman” Newspaper — Original UPI Press Photo — With University Archives COA

Rare UPI press photo twice-signed by Harry Truman, showing the newly elected President holding up the famous “Chicago Daily Tribune” newspaper that erroneously proclaimed his defeat. Truman signs “Harry Truman” across the white newspaper, and again on his sleeve “Harry Truman”, where he also inscribes the photo. Upon the verso is the United Press-International stamp, transferring the photo to the Truman Library. A piece of paper from the Truman Library is also taped to the verso. Satin-finish silver gelatin photo measures 10″ x 8″. Mild buckling to lower portion and some fading to black ink signatures, otherwise near fine condition. An exceptionally rare photo as signed by Truman. With University Archives COA. Sold for $4,200.

Harry Truman signed farewell address
Click image to enlarge.

Auction your Harry Truman signed farewell address at Nate D. Sanders Auctions. Send a description and images of your Harry Truman signed farewell address to us at [email protected].

Harry Truman Letter Signed as President With Rare Communist Content — ”…to the charges of the Un-American Activities Committee…communism has not infiltrated the churches of this Nation…”

Excellent letter signed by Harry Truman as President, dated 21 December 1948 on White House stationery. Truman writes to Dr. G. Bromley Oxnam, Bishop of the Methodist Church in New York City regarding the famous Communist ”witch hunt” of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Shortly before writing this letter, the Committee had interviewed Alger Hiss — as he was named a Communist by former Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers, and was apparently now putting the Methodist Church in its sights. Letter reads in part, ”…I had already seen in the press the answer of the Council of Bishops of the Methodist Church to the charges of the Un-American Activities Committee but am glad to have for ready reference the complete text of the release prepared for the papers of December fifth. The great American public will be strengthened by the assurance that Communism has not infiltrated the churches of this Nation…[signed] Harry Truman”. Measures 7” x 8.75”. Single horizontal fold and light creasing, otherwise near fine. With originally White House transmittal envelope. Sold for $1,500.

Harry Truman Letter Signed as President. Click to enlarge.

FREE VALUATION. To buy, auction, sell or consign your Harry Truman signed farewell address that is for sale, please email your description and photos to [email protected] of Nate D. Sanders Auctions (http://www.NateDSanders.com).

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