Lot 224
HARRY S. TRUMAN
(1884-1972) 33rd President of the United States who led the country in the closing days of World War II and through the re-building of Europe under the Marshall Plan and the Korean War. Superb content T.L.S. as President, 1p. 4to., Dec. 21, 1948, on White House letterhead to Dr. G. Bromley Oxnam, Bishop of the Methodist Church in New York. In part: "...Please accept my thanks for your letter...I had already seen in the press the answer of the Council of Bishops of the Methodist Church to the charges of the Un-American Activities Committee but am glad to have for ready reference the complete text of the release prepared for the papers of December fifth. The great American public will be strengthened by the assurance that Communism has not infiltrated the churches of the nation...". The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) was formed in 1938 to investigate Communist activities within the United States. In 1945, it became a standing committee seeking to unearth communist and other subversive influences in all areas of society, including, famously, many artistic and cultural institutions. It is no surprise, then, that the liberal Methodist Church would be included among those whose clergy were suspected to harbor anti-American sentiments...and Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam one of them. Oxnam (1891-1963) was elected as Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1936. A lifelong advocate of liberal causes, Oxnam joined scores of semi-political groups including some, such as the Council of American-Soviet Friendship, that were later exposed as Communist fronts. Oxnam made no secret of his interest in left-leaning politics and association with Communist sympathizers such as Professor Henry F. Ward, an alleged member of the CPA, whose works such as The Challenge of Socialism to Christianity certainly suggested his involvement. A spotlight was soon directed upon the influential Bishop and rumors flew. In his anti-Communist pamphlet Bishop Oxnam: Prophet of Marx, Rev. Carl McIntire attempted to correlate text in Oxnam's speeches to that in works by Marx, Lenin and Stalin, going so far as to say: "Oxnam represents the popular, radical, pro-communistic element in religious circles in America. He has reached the highest possible pinnacle of praise and power in the Protestant world....He is the president for the Western Hemisphere of the World Council of Churches, consisting of 153 denominations, and claiming that eight out of every ten Christians on the face of the earth belong to it. In the name of Christ, Oxnam has championed the socialist principles of Karl Marx, and become, I believe, the leading 'religious disciple' of Marx in the free world". It was due in large part to his high rank, association with alleged CP members such as Ward and unabashed liberal leaning that Oxnam was eventually publically accused of being a Communist. The accuser came in the form of California Republican Congressman Donald L. Jackson who, March 17, 1953, made reckless comments in front of the House of Representatives that Reverend Oxnam "served God on Sunday and the Communist front for the balance of the week" and further that he "has been to the communist front what Man O' War was to thoroughbred horse racing". In answer, Oxnam voluntarily went before HUAC on July 21-22, 1953 to confront the charges of those members of Congress who, for over seven years, had been collecting data that suggested a Communist affiliation. According to The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace by Robert S. Ellwood, "he called on the Committee to repent 'practices that jeopardize the rights of free men won after a thousand years of struggle for political and religious freedom' and demanded that. Jackson apologize...". After lengthy and strenuous hearings, an article titled "Investigations: Winner: The Bishop in the Aug. 3, 1953 issue of Time declared Oxnam victorious, saying: "Washington's wealthy, ultra-liberal Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam has been engaged for months in a bitter, long-distance feud with the House Un-American Activities Committee. Chairman Harold H. Velde infuriated him by talking about searching for Communists in the ranks of U.S. churchmen. The bishop made some pointed remarks about 'vermilion vigilantes' - a term he said he invented to describe those who created as much national distrust as Reds themselves...The Committee announced unanimously that it had no record of Communist membership by Bishop Oxnam...". Fine condition, with the original envelope.
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