Adlai Stevenson

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Adlai Stevenson
Adlai Stevenson
In office
1961 – 1965
President John Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Preceded by James J. Wadsworth
Succeeded by Arthur Goldberg
In office
January 10, 1949 – January 12, 1953
Lieutenant Sherwood Dixon
Preceded by Dwight H. Green
Succeeded by William Stratton
Election date
November 4, 1952
Running mate John J. Sparkman
Opponent(s) Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
Incumbent Harry S. Truman (D)
Election date
November 6, 1956
Running mate Estes Kefauver
Opponent(s) Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
Incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)
Born February 5, 1900(1900-02-05)
Los Angeles, California
Died July 14, 1965 (aged 65)
London, England, United Kingdom
Political party Democratic
Spouse Ellen Borden (married 1928, divorced 1949)
Alma mater Princeton University, Northwestern University Law School
Religion Unitarian Universalist[1]
This is about the mid-20th-century politician and diplomat; for other American politicians so named, see Adlai Stevenson (disambiguation).

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician, noted for his intellectual demeanor and advocacy of liberal causes in the Democratic Party. He served one term as governor of Illinois and ran, unsuccessfully, for president against Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. He served as Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 to 1965.

Contents

[edit] Childhood, education, and early career

Although Stevenson was born in Los Angeles, he was a member of a famous Illinois political family. His grandfather Adlai E. Stevenson I had been Vice President of the United States. His father, Lewis Green Stevenson, never held an elected office, but served as Secretary of State of Illinois and was considered a strong contender for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1928. His mother was Helen Davis Stevenson.

Stevenson was raised in the small city of Bloomington, Illinois; his family was a member of Bloomington's upper class and lived in one of the city's well-to-do neighborhoods. In December 1912, Stevenson accidentally killed a 16-year-old friend while demonstrating drill technique with a rifle, accidentally left loaded, during a party at the Stevenson home.[2]

Stevenson left Bloomington after his junior year in high school and received his diploma from University High School in Normal, Illinois, Bloomington's "twin city" just to the north. After high school, he attended preparatory school at The Choate School, where he participated in sports, acting and journalism, the last as business manager of the school paper The News, where he was elected editor-in-chief. In 1918, he enlisted into the United States Navy and served at the rank of Seaman Apprentice.

He attended Princeton University, becoming managing editor of The Daily Princetonian and a member of the Quadrangle Club, and receiving a A.B. degree in 1922.[3] He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity there. He then went to Harvard Law School under prodding from his father but failed several classes and withdrew. He returned to Bloomington where he wrote for the family newspaper, The Daily Pantagraph, which was founded by his maternal great grandfather Jesse Fell, who had also served as Abraham Lincoln's campaign manager in his 1858 race for the US Senate.

Stevenson became interested in the law again a year or so after leaving Harvard after talking to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.. When he returned home to Bloomington, he decided to finish his law degree at Northwestern University School of Law, attending classes during the week and returning to Bloomington on the weekends to write for the Pantagraph. Stevenson received his LL.B. law degree from Northwestern in 1926 and passed the Illinois State Bar examination that year. He obtained a position at Cutting, Moore & Sidley, an old and conservative Chicago law firm. In 1928 Stevenson married Ellen Borden, a well-to-do socialite. The young couple soon became popular and familiar figures on the Chicago social scene.

[edit] 1933 to 1948

In July 1933, Stevenson took a position as special attorney and assistant to Jerome Frank, the general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) a part of Roosevelt’s New Deal. Following the repeal of Prohibition in 1934, Stevenson changed jobs, becoming chief attorney for the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA), a subsidiary of the AAA which regulated the activities of the alcohol industry.

In 1935, Stevenson returned to Chicago to practice law. He became involved in civic activities, particularly as chairman of the Chicago branch of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (known often as the White Committee, after its founder, William Allen White). The Stevensons purchased a seventy-acre tract of land on the Des Plaines River near Libertyville, Illinois where they built a house. Although he spent comparatively little time at Libertyville, Stevenson considered the farm home.

In 1940, Colonel Frank Knox, newly appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy, offered Stevenson a position as Principal Attorney and special assistant. In this capacity, Stevenson wrote speeches, represented Secretary Knox and the Navy on committees, toured the various theaters of war, and handled many administrative duties. From December 1943 to January 1944, he participated in a special mission to Sicily and Italy for the Foreign Economic Administration to report on the country's economy. A report he wrote following that mission was very well regarded, and he was offered several jobs as a result.

After Knox died in April 1944, Stevenson returned to Chicago where he attempted to purchase Knox's controlling interest in the Chicago Daily News, but his syndicate was outbid by another party.

In 1945, Stevenson accepted what he called a "temporary" position in the State Department, as special assistant to the Secretary of State to work with Assistant Secretary of State Archibald MacLeish on a proposed world organization. Later that year, he went to London as Deputy United States Delegate to the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations Organization, a position he held until February 1946. When the head of the delegation fell ill, Stevenson assumed his role. His work at the Commission, and in particular his dealings with the representatives of the Soviet Union, resulted in appointments to the US delegations to the UN in 1946 and 1947.

[edit] 1948 election as Illinois governor

In 1948, Stevenson entered the Illinois gubernatorial race as a Democrat and, in an upset victory, defeated incumbent Republican Dwight H. Green in a landslide. Principal among his achievements as Illinois governor were reorganizing the state police, cracking down on illegal gambling, and improving the state highways. He was a popular public speaker, gaining a reputation as an intellectual, with a self-deprecating sense of humor to match.

In 1949, Governor Stevenson appeared as a character witness in the first trial of Alger Hiss.

In 1949, Adlai Stevenson was divorced by his wife, Ellen Borden Stevenson. They had been married for 21 years and had three sons.

[edit] 1952 presidential bid

Early in 1952, while Stevenson was still governor of Illinois, President Harry S. Truman proposed that he seek the Democratic nomination for president. In a fashion that was to become his trademark, Stevenson at first hesitated, arguing that he was committed to running for a second gubernatorial term. However, a number of his friends and associates (such as George Wildman Ball) quietly began organizing a "draft Stevenson" movement for President; they persisted in their activity even when Stevenson (both publicly and privately) told them to stop. As governor of the host state, Stevenson delivered a welcoming address to the delegates to the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago so stirring that it may have helped stampede his nomination. Despite his protestations, the delegates drafted him, and he accepted the nomination with a speech that according to contemporaries, "electrified the nation:"[citation needed]

"When the tumult and the shouting die, when the bands are gone and the lights are dimmed, there is the stark reality of responsibility in an hour of history haunted with those gaunt, grim specters of strife, dissension, and materialism at home, and ruthless, inscrutable, and hostile power abroad. The ordeal of the twentieth century — the bloodiest, most turbulent age of the Christian era — is far from over. Sacrifice, patience, understanding, and implacable purpose may be our lot for years to come. … Let’s talk sense to the American people! Let’s tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions."

Although Stevenson's eloquent oratory and thoughtful, stylish demeanor thrilled many intellectuals and members of the nation's academic community, the Republicans and some working-class Democrats ridiculed what they perceived as his indecisive, aristocratic air. During the 1952 campaign Stewart Alsop, a powerful Connecticut Republican and the brother of newspaper columnist Joseph Alsop, labeled Stevenson an "egghead", based on his baldness and intellectual air. Alsop used the word in a column describing Stevenson's problems in wooing working-class voters and the nickname stuck. His running mate was Senator John Sparkman of Alabama. In the 1952 presidential election against Dwight D. Eisenhower, Stevenson lost heavily outside the Solid South; he won only nine states and lost the Electoral College vote 442 to 89.

During the campaign, a photograph revealed a hole in the sole of Adlai's right shoe.[4] This became a well-known symbol of Adlai's frugality and earthiness. Photographer Bill Gallagher of the Flint Journal won the 1953 Pulitzer prize on the strength of the image.[5]

Following his defeat, Stevenson traveled throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe, writing about his travels for Look magazine. Although he was not sent as an official emissary of the U.S. government, Stevenson's international reputation gave him access to many foreign officials.

[edit] 1956 presidential bid

With Eisenhower headed for another landslide, few Democrats wanted the 1956 nomination. Although challenged by Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver and New York Governor W. Averell Harriman, Stevenson campaigned more aggressively to secure the nomination, and Kefauver conceded after losing several key primaries. To Stevenson's dismay, former president Truman endorsed Harriman, but the blow was softened by former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt's continued support. Stevenson again won the nomination at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, aided by strong support from younger delegates, who were said to form the core of the "New Politics" movement. He permitted the convention delegates to choose Senator Kefauver as his running mate, despite stiff competition from Senator John F. Kennedy. Following his nomination, Stevenson waged a vigorous presidential campaign, delivering 300 speeches and traveling 55,000 miles (89,000 km). He called on the electorate to join him in a march to a "new America", based on a liberal agenda that anticipated the programs of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. His call for a Partial Test Ban Treaty to aboveground nuclear weapons tests proved premature and lost him support.

While President Eisenhower suffered heart problems, the economy enjoyed robust health. Stevenson's hopes for victory were dashed when, in October, President Eisenhower's doctors gave him a clean bill of health and the Suez and Hungary crises erupted simultaneously. The public was not convinced that a change in leadership was needed, and Stevenson lost his second bid for the presidency, winning only 73 electoral votes in the 1956 presidential election.

Despite his two defeats, Stevenson considered a third nomination. Early in 1957, he resumed law practice with associates W. Willard Wirtz, William McC. Blair Jr. and Newton N. Minow. He also accepted an appointment on the new Democratic Advisory Council, with other prominent Democrats. He was employed part-time by the Encyclopædia Britannica.

[edit] 1960-1965

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Prior to the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Stevenson announced that he was not seeking the Democratic nomination for president, but would accept a draft. Because he still hoped to be a candidate, Stevenson refused to give the nominating address for relative newcomer John F. Kennedy, which strained relations between the two politicians. Once Kennedy won the nomination, Stevenson, always an enormously popular public speaker, campaigned actively for him. Due to his two presidential nominations and previous United Nations experience, Stevenson perceived himself an elder statesman and a natural choice for United States Secretary of State, an opinion shared by few in the Kennedy camp. The prestigious post went to the (then) little-known Dean Rusk and Stevenson was appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. There, he worked hard to support U.S. foreign policy, even when he personally disagreed with some of Kennedy's actions.

In April 1961, Stevenson suffered the greatest humiliation of his career. After an attack against Fidel Castro's Communist forces at the Bay of Pigs, Stevenson unwittingly disputed allegations that the attack was financed and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, claiming instead that the anti-Communist forces were supported by wealthy Cuban emigres. When Stevenson learned that he had been misled by the White House, and even supplied with CIA-forged photographs, he considered resigning the ambassadorship, but was convinced not to do so.

His most famous moment came on October 25, 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, when he gave a presentation at an emergency session of the Security Council. He forcefully asked the Soviet representative, Valerian Zorin, if his country was installing missiles in Cuba, punctuated with the famous demand "Don't wait for the translation, answer 'yes' or 'no'!" Following Zorin's refusal to answer the abrupt question, Stevenson retorted, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over." In a diplomatic coup, Stevenson then showed photographs that proved the existence of missiles in Cuba, just after the Soviet ambassador had implied they did not exist.

Stevenson was assaulted by an anti-United Nations protester in Dallas, Texas on October 24, 1963, one month before the assassination of Kennedy in that same city. A woman carrying an anti-United Nations sign hit Stevenson in the head with the sign; afterwards Stevenson told police not to arrest her, stating that "I don't want her to go to jail, I want her to go to school." Disturbed by the incident, Stevenson advised President Kennedy to not visit the city.

While walking in London with Marietta Tree through Grosvenor Square, Stevenson suffered a heart attack on the afternoon of July 14, 1965, and died later that day of heart failure at St George's Hospital.

Marietta Tree recounts: [After leaving the Embassy]

"We walked around the neighborhood a little bit and where his house had been where he had lived with his family at the end of the War, there was now an apartment house and he said that makes me feel so old. Indeed, the whole walk made him feel very not so much nostalgic but so much older. As we were walking along the street he said do not walk quite so fast and do hold your head up Marietta. I was burrowing ahead trying to get to the park as quickly as possible and then the next thing I knew, I turned around and I saw he'd gone white, gray really, and he fell and his hand brushed me as he fell and he hit the pavement with the most terrible crack and I thought he'd fractured his skull."

That night in her diary, Marietta wrote, "Adlai is dead. We were together."[6] Following memorial services in Washington, D.C; Springfield, Illinois; and Bloomington, Illinois, Stevenson was interred in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington, Illinois. The funeral in Bloomington's Unitarian Church was attended by many national figures, including President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

[edit] Additional facts of note

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Stevenson's wit was legendary. During one of Stevenson's presidential campaigns, allegedly, a supporter told him that he was sure to "get the vote of every thinking man" in the U.S., to which Stevenson is said to have replied, "Thank you, but I need a majority to win."

On another campaign occasion, he was somewhat rudely introduced at a Houston Baptist convention in the following way: "Gov. Stevenson, we want to make it clear you are here as a courtesy because Dr. Norman Vincent Peale has instructed us to vote for your opponent." Stevenson stepped to the podium and quipped, "Speaking as a Christian, I find the Apostle Paul appealing and the Apostle Peale appalling."[7]

Stevenson's father, Lewis G. Stevenson, was Illinois secretary of state (1914–1917). Stevenson's eldest son, Adlai E. Stevenson III, was a U.S. Senator from Illinois (1970–1981). Actor McLean Stevenson was a second cousin once removed.

The Central Illinois Regional Airport near Bloomington has a whimsical statue of Stevenson, sitting on a bench with his feet propped on his briefcase and his head in one hand, as if waiting for his flight. He is wearing the shoes that he famously displayed to reporters during one of his campaigns, a hole worn in the sole from all the miles he had walked in an effort to win the election.

Stevenson smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, before quitting in the mid-1950s. Friends say he resumed smoking at some point in the early 1960s, during his years at the United Nations.

Stevenson once showed in a World Series game between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers that he was neutral by wearing a hat from both teams.

[edit] Stevenson in popular culture

Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove
Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove
  • In episode 424 "Manos: The Hands of Fate", of the series Mystery Science Theater 3000, a character remarks, "Adlai Stevenson buys a car!" over a shot of a similar looking man in an auto dealership.
  • The Avalanche by acclaimed folk artist Sufjan Stevens contains a song about Adlai Stevenson, similarly named.
  • He was quoted in a closing by Alan Shore (James Spader) on Boston Legal
  • Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) in 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's mentions Adlai Stevenson as an ideal man. ("If I were free to choose from anybody alive, just snap my fingers and say come here you, I wouldn't choose Jose. Nehru, maybe, or Adlai Stevenson or Sidney Poitier....")
  • In the movie Annie Hall, character Alvie, played by Woody Allen, wears an 'Adlai' political button.
  • The movie Plain Clothes was set in a high school named after Adlai Stevenson: their teams were the Pagans.

[edit] Schools and other entities named after Stevenson

[edit] References

  • Baker, Jean H. (1996). The Stevensons: A Biography of An American Family. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-03874-2. 
  • Broadwater, Jeff. Adlai Stevenson and American Politics: The Odyssey of a Cold War Liberal. Twayne, 1994. 291 pp
  • Cowden, Jonathan A. Adlai Stevenson: a Retrospective. Princeton University Library Chronicle 2000 61(3): 322-359. ISSN 0032-8456
  • McKeever, Porter (1989). Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-06661-5. 
  • Martin, John Bartlow . Adlai Stevenson of Illinois: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1976) and Adlai Stevenson and the World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1977), the standard scholarly biography
  • Murphy, John M. Civic Republicanism in the Modern Age: Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential Campaign Quarterly Journal of Speech 1994 80(3): 313-328. ISSN 0033-5630
  • Slaybaugh, Douglas. Adlai Stevenson, Television, and the Presidential Campaign of 1956 Illinois Historical Journal 1996 89(1): 2-16. ISSN 0748-8149
  • Slaybaugh, Douglas. Political Philosophy or Partisanship: a Dilemma in Adlai Stevenson's Published Writings, 1953-1956. Wisconsin Magazine of History 1992 75(3): 163-194. ISSN 0043-6534. Argues by 1956, Stevenson had alienated many of his well-placed and well-educated supporters without winning over many new rank-and-file Democrats.
  • White, Mark J. Hamlet in New York: Adlai Stevenson During the First Week of the Cuban Missile Crisis" Illinois Historical Journal 1993 86(2): 70-84. ISSN 0748-8149
  • Adlai Stevenson Had a Peace Proposal.Shouldn't Democrats Today? by Lawrence S. Wittner
  • Stevenson, Adlai. The Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson (6 vol) 1972)
  • Blair, William McC. ed. Adlai Stevenson's Legacy: Reminiscences by His Friends and Family . Princeton University Library Chronicle (2000) 61(3): 360-403. ISSN 0032-8456 Reminiscences by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., William McC. Blair, Adlai Stevenson III, Newton N. Minow, and Willard Wirtz.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Adlai Stevenson
  2. ^ "KILLED IN STEVENSON HOME.; Girl Shot Accidentally by Former Vice President's Grandson.". The New York Times (1912-12-31). Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
  3. ^ Princeton - News - Mudd Library Completes Catalog, Preservation of Adlai E. Stevenson Papers
  4. ^ Pulitzer | 14.32
  5. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes for 1953
  6. ^ Human Rights Commission & Marietta Peabody Tree biography
  7. ^ Hoekstra, Dave. "A former president's gag order; Ford's symposium examines humor in the Oval Office", Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 28, 1986, pg. 22. Retrieved from Proquest Newspapers on Sept. 17, 2007.

[edit] External links

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Political offices
Preceded by
Dwight H. Green		 Governor of Illinois
1949 – 1953		 Succeeded by
William G. Stratton
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Preceded by
Harry S. Truman		 Democratic Party presidential candidate
1952, 1956		 Succeeded by
John F. Kennedy
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Preceded by
James J. Wadsworth		 United States Ambassador to the United Nations
1961 – 1965		 Succeeded by
Arthur Goldberg
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