Harry S. Truman

TLS as president, two pages on two adjoining sheets, 7 x 8.75, White House letterhead, January 5, 1953. Letter to Ray Denslow in Missouri, outlining his Masonic acumen and commenting on the group's moral code. In part: "One day I was in the barnlot at home on the farm at Grandview discussing things with a cousin of my mother. I told him that I was interested in Masonry and hoped to become a Mason some day. This was in November 1908. A short time after, I received an application for membership in Belton Lodge 450 AF & AM of Missouri. I signed it and was elected for initiation, which happened on February 9, 1909. I studied faithfully and was given the 3rd Degree on March 9, 1909…A Lodge U.D. was set up at Grandview with myself as Master U.D. in the spring of 1911. At the fall meeting of the Grand Lodge in Saint Louis, Grandview Lodge U.D. was granted a charter as Grandview Lodge 618. I was elected Master of the Lodge. It was a very active organization and continued to grow. I became Master a second time when the Lodge was four years old and then Secretary. World War I came along and I went to France. The Lodge Hall burned down, destroying all the records. But the Lodge continued to grow. When I returned from overseas after World War II [sic] I took an active interest in Masonic affairs in the whole country. When the District Deputy died I was appointed to the place in 1924. I entered politics in 1922 and was elected again in 1926 after a defeat in 1924. In 1930 William R. Gentry was elected Grand Master of Masons of Missouri. He appointed me to the Grand Lodge line and in 1940 I was elected Grand Master of Masons of the Grand Lodge of Missouri. In the study of the Masonic Lectures and the reading of the Biblical references I was impressed with the moral code taught by the Lectures and the Bible. I always tried to live and act by this moral code." In fine condition, with some light creasing along the length of the hinge. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
Immediately after becoming president, Harry S. Truman faced one of the most severe moral dilemmas that has confronted any president—whether to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. In his diary on July 25, 1945, Truman mused: 'We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark.' It is fascinating to see how Truman's thought was informed by Biblical prophecy filtered through Masonic teachings even in his private writings on such an important decision. The 'Euphrates Valley Era' is a distinctly Masonic formulation of Biblical prophecy, not found in the King James version of the Bible.

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