Harry Truman’s Proposal to His Wife Bess

During his engagement to Bess Wallace, Harry S. Truman wrote her, “Since I can’t rescue you from any monster, or carry you from a burning building, or save you from a sinking ship_simply because I’d be afraid of the monsters, couldn’t carry you and can’t swim_I’ll have to go to work and make money enough to pay my debts and then get you to take me for what I am, just a common, everyday man whose instincts are to be ornery, who’s anxious to be right...” (Written by their daughter Margaret Truman).