Time may be running out for Ol’ Harry – again.
Your dedicated public servants in the state Legislature are trying to complete a joint resolution of the Senate and House to put a larger-than-life statue of Harry S. Truman, native Missourian and 33rd president of the United States, in National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
You may wonder, as I did, why the most famous Missourian of them all isn’t already enshrined alongside eight other presidents (Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Eisenhower, Ford and Reagan) in the rotunda of the Capitol.
It’s a long, winding story involving mistaken identity, bureaucratic delays and a dash of political partisanship. I’ll explain as best I can.
Statuary Hall displays 100 life-size statues of history-making Americans – two from each state. Missouri’s duo, standing proudly since 1899, are Francis Blair Jr. and Thomas Hart Benton, great-great-uncle of the famous muralist we’ve all heard about.
Blair served in both houses of Congress and was a major general in the Union army during the Civil War.
Benton, a friend of Blair’s who joined him in keeping Missouri out of the Confederacy, later became the nation’s first five-term U.S. senator and was a strong advocate for westward expansion.
In 2002, then-state Rep. Ted Farnen, a Democrat from Mexico, sponsored a resolution to replace the Blair statue with a Truman likeness. Farnen’s bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously and was signed by then-Gov. Bob Holden.
It wasn’t until seven years later, however, that then-Gov. Jay Nixon forwarded the request to Washington. A formal agreement was signed with the Architect of the Capitol in 2011. At that point it seemed the only problem was, there was no Truman statue to send. The Truman Library Institute launched a fundraising effort for the $350,000 needed for the project.
Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill took up the cause in 2017, issuing a joint press release to keep the project moving.
Then partisanship, it seems, threw sand in the gearbox.
Six Republican members of the Missouri congressional delegation, including our local representatives Blaine Leutkemeyer, Ann Wagner and Jason Smith, wrote to then-Gov. Eric Greitens in June 2017, asking him to keep Blair in place and remove Benton instead.
Truman, remember, was a diehard Democrat. So was Benton. Blair was a Republican who, according to Wikipedia, bolted to the Democratic Party late in his career.
Greitens didn’t take any action.
Last year, another Republican, state Sen. Dan Hegeman, aligned with the U.S. reps and revived the joint resolution from 2002 – with Benton, not Blair, moving aside for Truman.
Gov. Mike Parson, who replaced scandal-ridden Greitens, had to veto the bill because – you just gotta shake your head over this one – the legislation referred incorrectly to the muralist, not the politician.
Sen. Benton died in 1858. His great-grand-nephew of the same name, who wasn’t born until 1889, became a renowned painter. His series of 13 murals, titled “A Social History of Missouri,” decorate the interior walls of the Capitol in Jefferson City.
By this time Ol’ Harry, who died the day after Christmas in 1972, had to be rumbling in his grave.
That brings us to this year. Hegeman brought up the resolution again, citing the correct Benton this time, and it passed unanimously in his chamber. It awaits House action. The 100th General Assembly ends Friday, May 17, so the clock is ticking.
Meanwhile, the Truman Library Institute has raised almost all the money needed and commissioned Kansas City sculptor Tom Corbin to create a bronze Truman statue, which will show HST in motion coming down stairs – very different from the frozen chosen already on display.
“He was a man of the people,” Corbin said in an interview with a Kansas City TV station. “There had to be some way we could communicate this motion. We looked at all the other statues in Statuary Hall, and they were all static.
“It’s almost like he’s going to go down and greet you.”
Corbin said his work could be ready for installation at the U.S. Capitol by August 2020, around the 75th anniversary of Truman’s taking office upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt.
We mention all this now because Wednesday, May 8, marks the 135th anniversary of Truman’s birth in Lamar, northwest of Springfield. On May 4, the Truman Birthplace Historic Site and the Barton County Chamber of Commerce are co-sponsoring a day of commemoration with activities and exhibits, including World War I and World War II reenactors, historical tours, even a baby-and-toddler show.
It’s all free and well worth the five-hour drive if you’re a history lover like me.
Speaking of historic sites, the Truman Library and Museum in Independence is a must-see the next time you’re in Kansas City. All the exhibits are fascinating, but the best is an exact replica of Truman’s Oval Office, complete with the famous “The Buck Stops Here” sign. The late president himself supervised construction of the exhibit.
Let’s hope our legislators don’t overlook the statue project in the blizzard of late-session action.
If they put it off again, someday Harry might “Give ’em hell” on the other side.
