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“MAKE A CHOICE BETWEEN AN UPSTART
LITTLE RABBIT ANDTHE PRESIDENT”
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TRUMAN, HARRY S. Typed Letter Signed, “Harry,” as President, to James M.
Pendergast (“My dear Jim”), explaining why he should not support [Roger C.] Slaughter.
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1
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pages, 4to, White House stationery, written on the first and fourth pages of a single
folded sheet; folds.With the original envelope. (TFC)
Washington, 21 May 1946
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“
. . . I wanted to talk with you about Slaughter. He has become insufferable to the Administration,
because of his actions as a member of the powerful Rules Committee of the House. He owes his posi-
tion on that Committee to me. After giving Speaker Rayburn and myself unqualified assurance that
he would go along without question on Administration measures Rayburn appointed him to the
Committee. . . .The meanest partisan Republican has been no more anti-Truman than has Slaughter.
“
Now if the home county organization with which I have been affiliated slaps the President of the
United States in the face by supporting a renegade Congressman it will not be happy for the President
nor for the political organization. . . .
“
Of course, I don’t intend to rehash history . . . . Nor did I suppose that it would ever be necessary for
me to ask a Pendergast to make a choice between an upstart little Rabbit and the President of the
United States.
“
It seems that that is what confronts me—much to my regret. Slaughter is obnoxious to me and you
must make your choice. . . .”
Missouri Democratic Representative Roger C. Slaughter (1905-1974) had been supported by
Pendergast’s political machine until 1946, when Truman asked Pendergast to support another
Democratic congressional candidate, Enos Axtell, because Slaughter had been repeatedly voting against
Truman’s policies. Slaughter was defeated by Axtell in the primaries, but in the election, a Republican won
the seat instead of Axtell, who was naturally more opposed toTruman’s policies than was Slaughter.
In the Kansas City politics of Truman’s day, a “Rabbit” was a Jeffersonian Democrat led by Joseph
Shannon and who inhabited the wards near the rivers, and a “Goat” was aWest Bottoms-dwelling New
Deal Democrat whose political boss was a member of the Pendergast family.