Adlai Stevenson

This page is about the Illinois governor and unsuccessful presidential contender from the 1950s; for Grover Cleveland's vice president, see Adlai E. Stevenson; for the U.S. senator from Illinois during the 1970s, see Adlai Stevenson III.

Adlai Stevenson
Born
February 5, 1900 Los Angeles, California, U.S.A
Died
July 14, 1965 London, England

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician, noted for intellectual demeanor and advocacy of liberal causes in the Democratic party. He served one term as governor of Illinois and lost, by landslides, in two races for president against Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. He was Ambassador to the United Nations, 1961-65.

Childhood, education, and early career

Stevenson was born in Los Angeles into a 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.

Adlai was raised in Bloomington, Illinois. When Stevenson was a child, there was a tragic incident that haunted him for the rest of his life. While showing off with his brother's hunting rifle, he accidentally shot and killed a young playmate named Ruth Merwin. Stevenson rarely discussed the incident, but many have theorized that his dedication to causes may have been due to the terrible burden of guilt he carried.

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 Navy and served at the rank of Seamen 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. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity there. He then went to Harvard Law School under prodding from his father but he 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.

Stevenson became interested in 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, and became a popular member of Chicago's social scene.

Marriage and children

Stevenson married Ellen Borden, a wealthy socialite, in 1928. The couple had three sons, Borden (1930), Adlai III (1932), and John Fell (1936). In September 1949, Stevenson announced that the two were separating, and that he would not contest a divorce, which occurred later that year.

Stevenson dated various women during the rest of his life, including the Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham; he was romantically involved with Marietta Tree, who was then the wife of multimillionaire Ronald Tree. Stevenson, however, never remarried.

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 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.

1948 election as Illinois governor

In 1948, Stevenson entered the Illinois gubernatorial race as a Democrat and, in the November 1948 Democratic landslide, defeated incumbent Republican Dwight H. Green. 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.

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. Despite his protestations, the delegates drafted him, and he accepted the nomination at the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a speech that according to contemporaries, "electrified the nation." ^{[citation needed]} Stevenson's distinctive speaking style quickly earned him the reputation of an intellectual and endeared him to many Americans, while simultaneously alienating him from others. Stevenson's intelligence was the subject of much ridicule; it was during the 1952 campaign that Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California labelled Stevenson an "egghead." 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 his shoe. This became a well-known symbol of his frugality and earthiness.

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.

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 John F. Kennedy. Following his nomination, Stevenson waged a vigorous presidential campaign, delivering 300 speeches and traveling 55,000 miles. 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 an end 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.

1960-1965

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Adlai Stevenson's Cuban Missile Crisis speech

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 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. 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!" in demanding an immediate answer. 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 said they did not exist.

Stevenson was assaulted by an anti-United Nations protester in Dallas, Texas, one month before the assassination of Kennedy in that same city on November 22, 1963. That assault contributed to the viewpoint that Dallas was filled with right-wingers hostile to JFK.

Stevenson died suddenly of heart failure on the afternoon of July 14, 1965 in London. 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 [1] was attended by many national figures, including President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

File:Adlai Stevenson statue at airport.jpg

Adlai Stevenson statue showing hole in sole of shoe

Additional facts of note

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 America, to which Stevenson is said to have replied, "Thank you, but I need a majority to win."

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 in popular culture

• Northern Illinois University has a student residence hall named in honor of Adlai Stevenson; it is commonly referred to as Stevenson Towers [2].

• A section of Interstate 55 in Chicago is named for Adlai Stevenson II in addition to the high school in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

• Peter Sellers claimed that his portrayal of President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove was modelled on Stevenson.

• Stevenson's legendary "Don't wait for the translation" speech to the Soviet ambassador Valerian Zorin on the 25 October 1962 in front of the Security Council of the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis was in part replicated for dramatic effect in the sixth Star Trek film, The Undiscovered Country.

• Sufjan Stevens released a song titled "Adlai Stevenson" on his 2006 LP, The Avalanche.

• In a bizarre conspiracy theory which has circulated on the internet for some years, the theory suggests that Stevenson provided the inspiration for, makes a cameo appearance as, or is in fact the same person as Gogo, a character from the 1994 videogame classic Final Fantasy VI. The theory was supported by five alleged Adlai Stevenson quotes, very reminiscent of descriptions of Gogo's situation in the game - the quotes have since nearly all been proven to be hoaxes.

• In the classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode Manos, the Hands of Fate, during the short feature Hired!, the salesman is talking to a bald middle-aged man, this is followed by the comment "Adlai Stevenson buys a car!"

See also

• Adlai E. Stevenson High School located in Lincolnshire, Illinois
• Interstate 55 - known as the Adlai E. Stevenson Expressway in Chicagoland

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• 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

Primary sources

• 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.

External links

• Adapted parts from: Adlai E. Stevenson: A Voice of Conscience, part of a series on notable American Unitarians
• Adlai Stevenson Last of the Beautiful Losers Early Influences: "A Bad Case of Hereditary Politics", biography, Mudd Library, Princeton University
• Stevensons put stamp on history, www.pantagraph.com
• NNDB biographical facts
• A brief biography, United Nations Association - McLean County Chapter.
• Booknotes, April 7, 1996
• University of California, Santa Cruz: - Adlai E. Stevenson College
• Text, Audio, Video of Stevenson's United Nations Security Council Address on the Buildup of Soviet Missiles in Cuba
• Site of Stevenson's Funeral: - Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington-Normal

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

Template:ILGovernors Template:USDemPresNominees

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