On Oct. 18, 1952 -- 70 years ago last month -- President Harry S. Truman visited the Brighton residence of Cardinal Richard J. Cushing.

With a presidential election around the corner, President Truman was in Boston campaigning for the Democratic ticket, led that year by Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson. His visit to the Hub was one of the last stops of his three-day whistle-stop tour of New England, where he gave speeches in cities from Manchester, New Hampshire, to New Haven, Connecticut.

In Boston, he gave a major speech to an overflow crowd at Symphony Hall, making headlines for his sharp rebuke of Republican candidate Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's support of Sen. Joe McCarthy, which he equated to supporting a "reign of terror by slander." "I don't trust a man like that," President Truman said to the crowd, "And I don't think you do, either." (Eisenhower went on to win Massachusetts by a landslide, carrying 13 of the state's 14 counties.)

Before his fiery speech at Symphony Hall, President Truman had added a last-minute stop to an already jam-packed itinerary: a visit to the cardinal's residence on Commonwealth Avenue in Brighton. The president's office had requested the meeting only four days earlier, on Oct. 14. In a memo to his personal secretary, Cardinal Cushing wrote, "The President of the United States expressed the desire to call and see me on Friday evening . . . He is coming, of course, in his capacity as the president therefore we must receive him with due honor."

President Truman, accompanied by Massachusetts Gov. Paul A. Dever and a young congressman named John F. Kennedy, arrived at the cardinal's residence at 7 p.m. on the evening of the 18th. The party was greeted by the St. Joseph's CYO band of Medford, which played "I'm Just Wild About Harry" as they arrived. Entering the residence, they were greeted by Cardinal Cushing and Bishop Edward F. Ryan, who happened to be visiting from his home diocese of Burlington, Vermont.

President Truman's visit with the cardinal and the bishop was brief, lasting only about 10 minutes. What the men spoke about remains largely unknown. After the meeting, assistant presidential Secretary Robert Tubby told the press, "Any comment as to what was discussed will have to come from the archbishop."

The archbishop, for his part, was uncharacteristically reticent about the meeting, stating only that the men discussed "the menace of communism." A photo of the visit that he later inscribed and sent to the White House suggests the meeting was warm. "To Our President," the inscription read, "A courageous leader of his people -- With affection and admiration -- Cardinal Richard J. Cushing."

While the cardinal's position forbade him from endorsing President Truman's politics, he could and did speak of his admiration for the man as a citizen and a leader. Years later, Cardinal Cushing would tell the Boston Globe that he always felt that President Truman was "a very thoughtful and kindly Christian gentleman." In 1959, President Truman told the same publication, "We've been friends for 25 years or more."

After the meeting inside the cardinal's residence, the president and his party stepped outside to meet a crowd of seminarians from neighboring St. John's Seminary. Stepping onto a platform that had been specially erected for his visit, the president stood for photographs and then delivered a 10-minute informal speech to those gathered.

"I came out here because I understood the archbishop wanted you to see a 'has-been,'" he joked, drawing laughter from the crowd. "Well, I want you to know that I'm going to be the liveliest has-been the world has ever seen."

President Truman told the seminarians, "I've been trying with all I have for the last seven years to combat the Godless, unmoral (sic.) forces of the world." He challenged them to engage with politics and with the issues of the day "so that we can go down the road that Jesus Christ traveled and not the road of the anti-Christ."



VIOLET HURST IS AN ARCHIVIST FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.