PERSONAL GLIMPSES XIII

From Reader's Digest 

From Plain Speaking

Oral biography of Harry S. Truman

By Merle Miller

In answer to the author's question if leaving the pomp and circumstance of the White House bothered him:

"Never gave me any trouble at all," Truman replied. "I always kept in mind something old Ben Franklin said at a meeting in Philadelphia. They had a big discussion about what should be done with ex-presidents, and Alexander Hamilton, I think it was, said that it would be a terrible thing to degrade them by putting them back among the common people after they'd had all that power. But Franklin didn't agree. He said, 'In free governments the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former therefore to return among the latter is not to degrade them but to promote them' "

Truman smiled. "I kept that in mind when I was in the White House," he said, "and I've had it in mind ever since I got my . . . promotion."