Senator Truman





Harry arrived in Washington with a real inferiority complex. No one paid much attention to him,





and it didn't help that Bess and Margaret were gone much of the time.


America was going through the depression, and Truman supported FDR and his New Deal programs.





But Roosevelt had no use for the Junior Senator from Missouri.


And neither did anyone else. He sat in the Senate chamber for months without making a speech. He became known as....





"Go along get along Harry."

Because of this, Truman had to prove himself.





So he worked longer





and harder





than anyone else. He was assigned to committees and show up to meetings when no one else would. But in time, they began to take notice.


Truman was becoming his own man, but he was still loyal to Pendergast. In fact, he kept a framed portrait of the Missouri boss in his office.





Pendergast, himself, was in trouble. He was seriously ill and his gambling was out of control causing him to owe millions.


He was indicted by the Grand Jury in 1939 for tax evasion.





He was convicted, sent to prison for fifteen months and banned from politics for five years.


The scandal tainted Truman.





It couldn't have come at a worse time. In 1940, he was up for re-election.


Harry tried to convince people that President Roosevelt supported him, but he never did. In fact, Roosevelt considered Harry an embarrassment to the Democratic party.


Without the support of the President or Pendergast, Harry was left to campaign on his own.







Most people didn't give him a chance, but he won by 8,000 votes.





He returned to the senate his own man,





but he stayed in the background until, once again, a war revealed his strength as leader, and put him back in the limelight.


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