(1884-1972) 33rd President of the United States who led the country in the closing days of World War II and through the rebuilding of Europe under the Marshall Plan and the Korean War. TRUMAN ARGUES THE POLITICAL STANCE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Fine content T.L.S. on his personal letterhead, 1p. 4to., Independence, Nov. 3, 1958 to Leslie Moore, Executive Editor of the Worcester Telegram - The Evening Gazette arguing the political stance of former president John Quincy Adams, himself from Massachusetts, and taking the opportunity to cast a mild insult at his correspondent. Truman writes, in full: 'Thank you for sending me a copy of your editorial on John Quincy Adams. I enjoyed reading it. First, you said I'd gone too far in claiming him as a Democrat, and then you went ahead to give some of my principal, valid reasons for doing so. Obviously, the cause of the Mugwumps is not lost in Massachusetts. According to his own statement, John Quincy Adams wasn't sure that he was a Federalist, or a Democrat, or an Independent. Nevertheless, he left a fine career behind him. I was reading through some documents not long ago and was reminded that he had asked Andrew Jackson to be his Secretary of State before he appointed Clay. And during that period he backed Andrew Jackson as the first Military Governor and occupation director of the Florida Territory, still another example of his friendliness toward the Jefferson program. Whether he was willing to admit it then, or whether anyone else will admit it now, in my opinion he was a Democrat.' Fine condition. Truman's refers to the Mugwumps, a 19th-century faction of reform-minded Republicans who, in 1884, broke with their party to support Democrat Grover Cleveland for president. Advocating for civil service reform, they opposed political corruption, 'machine" politics', and the 'spoils system', some of the very accusations that were made against Truman himself. While Adams belonged to the Democratic-Republican party for a time, he generally favored a strong national government, supporting internal improvements and protective tariffs, often aligning more with the National Republican/Whig ideology.