
Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965) was a progressive Republican and Episcopalian, a high ranking official during the war, New Deal Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President of the U.S. 1941-45. He is considered a notable contributor to American liberalism and political culture. This brief will not cover his life or political work but highlight his particular interest in the evolution of spirituality in American life. Wallace convinced Secretary of the Treasury Hans Morgenthau to put Novus ordo seclorum on the new dollar bill in 1935. Highly fascinated with symbolism, Henry Wallace was strongly drawn to the motto E Pluribus Unum. His personal beliefs aroused strong criticism, such as his belief that the world needed a new religion, and a new “religious expression for the American people,” echoing theosophical ideals.
As a man with such views in the spotlight of politics, criticisms led Henry A. Wallace to publicly replace his theosophy with a more conventional Christian expression. However, in the background his spiritualistic-theosophical ideas continued to animate his life, and Henry A. Wallace attempted to bridge his mysticism with his profession in politics and science.
- https://www.theosophyforward.com/index.php/theosophy-and-the-society-in-the-public-eye/789-henry-a-wallace.html
- https://theosophy.wiki/en/Henry_A._Wallace
- Searching for the “Inner Light”: the Development of Henry A. Wallace’s Experimental Spiritualism, Mark L. Kleinman https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9814&context=annals-of-iowa

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