Henry A. Wallace (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States (1941–1945), the 11th Secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940), and the 10th Secretary of Commerce (1945–1946). His father, Henry Cantwell Wallace, also served as the Secretary of Agriculture during the second administration of Theodore Roosevelt (1913–1921). As a farmer, Wallace founded the Hi-Bred Corn Company, which experienced immense success and made him a wealthy man.

Wallace was a leading member of left-wing of Progressive Party and an ardent supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal policies. Throughout his lifetime, Wallace championed the idea of social democracy and was the main spokesman of American farmers. Wallace sought conciliatory policies with the Soviet Union, opposing the foreign policy of Thomas E. Dewey and the party right-wing.

During the 1944 Progressive convention, the leader of party's conservative wing, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., died in France during the Normandy landings just a week before the convention. On other hand, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's health was seriously declining and the party leaders realized, if Roosevelt died during his next term, the Vice President would become President, making the vice presidential nomination very important.

Wallace had a favorable lead on other vice-presidential nominees. However, right-wing elements strongly opposed Wallace's renomination for his perceived radical and eccentric ideas. Instead, the rightists favored Thomas E. Dewey, a moderate from New York. After a hard-fought convention, Dewey eventually won the second ballot as a compromise candidate between the right and left wings of the party.