I was curious about the relationship between Harry S Truman and Sam Rayburn because of a piece of corn. Currently at the Sam Rayburn Museum there is corn on the cob encased in resin on display in the “Gifts of a Nation” display case. No one is completely certain why Rayburn had it, but Truman has the same one. This is what led me to look into the friendship between Rayburn and Truman.
The two men shared a tight bond throughout their political careers. The relationship began while they were both in politics, with Rayburn in the House of Representatives and Truman in the Senate, continued through Truman’s rise to the presidency and Rayburn becoming Speaker of the House, and ended with Sam Rayburn’s death in 1961.
Rayburn had a special room in the House of Representatives called “the Board of Education.” It was his place to retire at the end of the day, and only specific people were allowed inside including Harry Truman. Truman was in “the Board of Education” when he got the call about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death on April 12, 1945. Truman looked to Sam Rayburn and said, “‘Sam, I can’t do it!’” Rayburn looked back at him and said, “‘Mr. President, you’ve gotta do it!’” Truman felt unprepared for the presidency, and who better to help him than his good friend Sam Rayburn, who had 32 years of experience in Congress compared to Truman’s 10 years as a senator and vice president.
The two politicians typically took similar views on things, but another reason Truman liked Sam Rayburn so much was because Rayburn gave “him the facts with the bark off.” For example, after Truman became president, Rayburn warned him against certain kinds of people, saying, “‘They’ll come sliding in and tell you’re the greatest man alive – but you know and I know you ain’t.’” This kind of comment made Rayburn a valued friend and political ally to Truman. Truman appreciated Rayburn’s advice so much that before heading to the final session of the United Nations conference in San Francisco in 1945, he worked on setting up presidential succession so that the Speaker of the House became president if there was no vice president to take the job. The Speaker of the House was also an elected official who was then voted to the position of Speaker by their coworkers, so the decision wasn’t just about the two’s friendship.
At Truman’s first Joint Session of the Congress on April 16, 1945, he was so nervous that he started speaking before Rayburn introduced him. Rayburn previously said that because Truman was now the president, he could only call him “Mr. President.” However, this claim went forgotten the moment Truman spoke at the joint session. Rayburn told the new President Truman, “‘Just a moment, let me present you, Harry, will you?’” Sam Rayburn later said that he was just so used to calling him “Harry” that it was like muscle memory. After Truman left the presidency in 1953, he did not take any new jobs, refused board appointments, and did not accept fees for speaking engagements. This meant that he was not earning money, so he called upon his friend, Sam Rayburn, for help. Congress eventually passed the Former Presidents Act in 1958, and Truman was one of the first recipients of a presidential pension totaling $25,000 a year.
Truman and Rayburn were seen outside politics as well. They went hunting and fishing with other politicians, but fishing with Harry Truman proved difficult for Sam Rayburn. Truman was not the kind of man who could sit still for prolonged periods of time. There was a time when he went fishing with Rayburn and Truman fell in the water because he tried standing up in the boat. Truman also visited Rayburn in Bonham a few times, like during his 1948 presidential campaign. I might not know the reason why the two decided to have corn cobs encased in resin, but I can see why they wanted to share things with one another.
This article was originally published on the THC’s Historic Sites blog managed by the Texas Historical Commission, which has 40 historic sites across the state of Texas. For information about the Sam Rayburn House and to see more articles like the one you just read, please visit our website at www.visitsamrayburnhouse.com. You may also contact us at 903-583-5558 or email us at sam-rayburn-house@thc.texas.gov to schedule a tour of this historic home located at 890 W. State Hwy. 56 in Bonham, Texas.
Bibliography
Bacon, Donald C., and D.B. Hardeman. Rayburn: A Biography. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1987.
Riddlesperger, James W. Jr., and Anthony Champagne, eds. Reflections on Rayburn. Fort Worth: TCU Press, 2017.
Steinberg, Alfred. Sam Rayburn: A Biography. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1975.
