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ADLAI
E. STEVENSON: A VOICE OF CONSCIENCE
1900-1965
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(Photo
courtesy of Princeton University Library)
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The
Legacy of Adlai Stevenson
An
Exhibition at the Princeton University Library, February
6 - April 9, 2000
Heritage
and Education
Adlai
Ewing Stevenson, governor of Illinois (1949-1953), Democratic
candidate for President in 1952 and 1956, and United States
Ambassador to the United Nations (1961-1965), was born
in Los Angeles, California on February 5, 1900, the son
of Lewis G. Stevenson and Helen Davis Stevenson. He grew
up in Bloomington, Illinois, where his ancestors had been
influential in local and national politics since the nineteenth
century. Jesse Fell, his maternal great-grandfather, a
prominent Republican and an early Lincoln supporter, founded
The Daily Pantograph, a Bloomington newspaper.
His paternal grandfather, Adlai E. Stevenson, served as
Grover Cleveland's Vice President during his second term,
was nominated for the office with William Jennings Bryan
in 1900, and ran unsuccessfully for Illinois governor
in 1908.
Stevenson
attended preparatory school at Choate and went on to Princeton
University, where he served as managing editor of The
Daily Princetonian and was a member of the Quadrangle
Club. He graduated in 1922 and matriculated at Harvard
University Law School. However, in July 1924, he returned
to Bloomington to work as assistant managing editor of
The Daily Pantagraph while the Illinois courts
probated his grandfather's will, determining share ownership
of the newspaper. While working at the newspaper, Stevenson
reentered law school at Northwestern University, and in
1926, graduated and passed the Illinois State Bar examination.
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. In 1928, he
married Ellen Borden, a wealthy Chicago socialite. They
had three sons: Adlai E. Stevenson, III (1930-); Borden
Stevenson (1932-); and John Fell Stevenson (1936-). The
couple divorced in 1949.
Early Public Service
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Named
after his paternal grandfather, Stevenson followed
in his political footsteps, with shared successes
and failures. (Photo courtesy of Princeton University
Library)
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In
the early 1930s, Stevenson began his involvement in government
service. In July 1933, he became special attorney and
assistant to Jerome Frank, general counsel of the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration (AAA) in Washington, D. C. In
1934, after the repeal of Prohibition, Stevenson joined
the staff of the Federal Alcohol Control Administration
(FACA) as chief attorney. A subsidiary of the AAA, FACA
regulated the activities of the alcohol industry. He returned
to Chicago and the practice of law in 1935. During this
time, Stevenson also 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, in honor of 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.
War Years and Electoral
Success
In 1940 Colonel Frank Knox, newly appointed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy, offered
Stevenson a position as his 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. After Knox's death
in 1944, Stevenson returned to Chicago and attempted to
purchase Knox's controlling interest in the Chicago
Daily News, but another party outbid his syndicate.
In 1945, he accepted an appointment 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.
In 1947, Louis A. Kohn, a Chicago attorney, suggested
to Stevenson that he consider running for political office.
Stevenson, who had toyed with the idea of entering politics
for several years, entered the Illinois gubernatorial
race and defeated incumbent 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.
The 1952 Campaign: "Better to lose
the election than mislead the people"
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| A
pleased Harry S Truman displays the official delegate's
badge of his favored successor at the 1952 Democratic
National Convention. (Photo courtesy of Princeton
University Library) |
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 Democratic
National Convention in Chicago with a speech that according
to contemporaries, "electrified the nation."
He chose John J. Sparkman, an Alabama senator, as his
running mate. 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. His Republican opponent, enormously popular
World War II hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower, defeated
Stevenson. Following his defeat, prior to returning to
law practice, Stevenson travelled 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 entree to many foreign officials.
The 1956 Campaign: "The New America"
Back
in the United States, Stevenson resumed his desultory
practice of law. His national reputation, earned through
his presidential campaign, made Stevenson a celebrity
attorney who could pick and choose his clients. He accepted
numerous speaking engagements and raised funds for the
Democratic National Party, then suffering from an $800,000
deficit. Many Democratic leaders considered Stevenson
the only natural choice for the presidential nomination
in 1956, and his chances for victory seemed greater after
Eisenhower's heart attack late in 1955. Although his candidacy
was 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 a few key primaries. To Stevenson's
dismay, former president Harry S. Truman endorsed Harriman,
but the blow was softened by former first lady Eleanor
Roosevelt's continued support. Stevenson again won the
nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
He permitted the convention delegates to choose Estes
Kefauver as his running mate, despite stiff competition
from John F. Kennedy.
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Stevenson
and the delegates celebrate his nomination in 1956.
(Photo courtesy of Princeton University Library)
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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 created a storm, but was ultimately enshrined
in the Test Ban Treaty of 1963. 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 crisis erupted. The public was not
convinced that a change in leadership was needed, and
Stevenson lost his second bid for the presidency.
Despite his two defeats, Stevenson remained enormously
popular with the American people. Early in 1957, Stevenson
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, including Harry S. Truman,
David L. Lawrence, and John F. Kennedy. He also served
on the board of trustees of the Encyclopedia Britannica
and acted as their legal counsel.
United Nations Ambassador
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Ambassador
Stevenson working at home c. 1963. Though he often
wrote to friends of his weariness, he strove to
voice his conscience to make a more just and equitable
world. (Photo courtesy of Princeton University Library)
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Prior
to the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Stevenson
announced that he was not seeking the Democratic nomination
for president, but would accept another draft. Because
he still hoped to be a candidate, Stevenson refused to
give the nominating address for relative newcomer John
F. Kennedy, a cause for future 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 many.
In December 1960, Kennedy offered Stevenson the position
of United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson
refused to accept or decline the ambassadorship until
Kennedy named his Secretary of State, deepening the rift
between them. After Kennedy appointed Dean Rusk as Secretary
of State, Stevenson accepted the U.N. ambassadorship.
Although he was initially insulted by the offer, once
he accepted the appointment, Stevenson devoted himself
wholeheartedly to his responsibilities. He served as president
of the Security Council and advocated arms control and
improved relations with the new nations of Africa. He
established residency in an apartment at the Waldorf Astoria,
and threw himself into the busy social scene of the city.
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. During
the summer of 1961, Stevenson toured Latin America, trying
to persuade leaders that Castro was a threat to all of
Latin America as well as to the United States. Just a
year later, in October 1962, Stevenson demonstrated his
seasoned statesmanship during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
After the United States discovered offensive nuclear weapons
in Cuba, Stevenson confronted Soviet Ambassador Valerian
Zorin in an emergency meeting of the Security Council,
challenging him to admit that the offensive weapons had
been placed in Cuba and declaring that he was prepared
to wait "until Hell freezes over" for Zorin's
answer.
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President
Lyndon B. Johnson, United Nations Secretary
General U Thant and Ambassador Stevenson confer
after Kennedy's funeral. U Thant and Stevenson
disagreed with Johnson's escalation of the
war in Vietnam.
(Photo courtesy of Princeton University Library)
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In 1964, increasingly disillusioned by his inability
to participate in the formulation of policy at the
United Nations, Stevenson considered running for the
U. S. Senate from New York, and was also regarded
as a possible running mate for President Lyndon B.
Johnson. In late 1964 and 1965, Stevenson and U.N.
Secretary General U Thant began to discuss opening
negotiations to end the war in Vietnam, although Stevenson
publicly backed Johnson's Vietnam policies. Amid much
speculation that he was considering resigning his
post, Stevenson addressed the Economic and Social
Council in Geneva in July 1965. During a stop in London,
Stevenson died suddenly on July 14, 1965. Following
memorial services in Washington, D.C; Springfield;
and Bloomington, Illinois, Stevenson was interred
in the family plot in Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington,
Illinois. |
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| Taken
at a Michigan campaign stop in 1952, this image won
a Pulitzer Prize for photographer William M. Gallagher
of the Flint Journal. It also endeared Stevenson
to many voters as a hard working candidate.(Photo
courtesy of Princeton University Library) |
-From the Adlai E. Stevenson Papers, Public Policy Papers
Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections,
Princeton University Library
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What
follows is the full text of the privately printed
small volume
published by his sister, Elizabeth S. Ives,
in Chicago, 1965.
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(Courtesy
of Princeton University Library)
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Adlai
Ewing Stevenson 1900-1965
The idea for this small volume
came to me on finding in my brother’s bedroom,
in an old jewel box of my mother’s, four
miniature volumes such as this. I know Adlai cherished
them.
Elizabeth S. Ives
Bloomington, Illinois
1965
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but
a broken spirit drieth the bones.
-Proverbs 17:22
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living.
-Proverbs 27:13
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| (Courtesy
of Princeton University Library) |
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES, LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON,
ON THE DEATH OF ADLAI EWING STEVENSON
The White House July 14, 1965
The President’s Remarks
The
flame which illuminated the dreams and expectations
of an entire world is now extinguished. Adlai
Stevenson of Illinois is dead.
I am sending a delegation of distinguished Americans
headed by Vice President Humphrey to London to
bring back his body to America, on the airplane
of the President of the United States.
His great hero, Abraham Lincoln, said at the beginning
of his political career, "I have no other
ambition so great as that of being truly esteemed
of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of
their esteem."
And although his disappointments were many, in
this, like Lincoln, he was vindicated.
Like Lincoln he was rooted in America's heartland,
yet his voice reached across every boundary of
nation and race and class.
Like Lincoln he was a great emancipator. It was
his gift to help emancipate men from narrowness
of mind and the shackles which selfishness and
ignorance place upon the human adventure.
Like Lincoln he will be remembered more for what
he stood for than for the offices he held, more
for the ideals he embodied than the positions
in which he served. For history honors men more
for what they were than who they were. And by
this standard, Adlai Stevenson holds a permanent
place on that tiny roster of those who will be
remembered as long as mankind is strong enough
to honor greatness.
It
seems such a short time ago that out of Illinois
came that thoughtful eloquence summoning an entire
nation back from its dangerous drift toward contentment
and complacency. For an entire generation of Americans
he imparted a nobility to public life and the
grandeur to American purpose which has already
reshaped the life of the nation and which will
endure for many generations.
One by one he sounded the great themes of our
time—peace and justice and the well-being
of humanity. And many men will labor for many
years toward the vision and the high purpose which
was the generous outpouring of this great man's
heart and skills.
He
was an American. And he served America well. But
what he saw, and what he spoke, and what he worked
for, is the shared desire of all humanity. He
believed in us perhaps more than we deserved.
And so we came to believe in ourselves much more
than we had. And if we persevere, then on the
foundation of that faith, we can build the wondrous
works of peace and of justice among all of the
nations.
He will not see that day. But it will be his day
still.
So let us therefore, adversary and friend alike,
pause for a moment and weep for one who was a
friend and who was a guide to all mankind.
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| (Courtesy
of Princeton University Library) |
TRIBUTE BY U THANT, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE UNITED
NATIONS
During
the four and a half years that Adlai Stevenson
served as the Permanent Representative of the
United States of America, he stood as the embodiment
of dedication to the principles of the United
Nations. His many speeches, which expressed so
well his whole mental and intellectual approach,
in the championship of fundamental rights, in
defence of the dignity and worth of the human
person, in support of the equal rights of nations
large and small, were cheered and applauded by
all sides of the house. He not only spoke with
a rare gift of phrase, but with such an obvious
sincerity that his words carried conviction.
There is no doubt that Adlai Stevenson has earned
a place in history—not only a place in the
history of his own country, but a place in the
history of this world Organization. He brought
to international diplomacy, in his dignity, his
gentility and his style, a special dimension.
Even more, he has earned the admiration and affection
of millions of people to whom he was but a name
and a legend.
This was so, I think, because so often his voice
rang true as the voice of the people, his eloquence
expressed the hopes and aspirations of the common
man the world over. He was, in our times, in a
quite unique way, the people's friend. Equally,
he has earned a permanent place in the hearts
of all those who knew him, and today I mourn his
passing, not just as a great historical figure,
a famous man, but as a true and trusted friend.
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| (Courtesy
of Princeton University Library) |
TRIBUTE BY GOVERNOR OTTO KERNER OF ILLINOIS
America
and Freedom itself have lost a profoundly great
spokesman. Adlai Stevenson was among the noblest
figures to have graced our political life—a
public servant of the highest order. We in Illinois
benefitted immensely from his service as Governor,
and we were proud to have called him our son as
he served the nation and the free world.
I
vow to thee my country,
all earthly things above—
Entire and whole and perfect,
the service of my love;
The love that asks no question:
the love that stands the test:
That lays upon the altar,
the dearest and the best:
The love that never falters,
the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted,
the final sacrifice.
To England
by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, 1918
Two hundred and fifty copies
of this keepsake have been designed and printed
at The Lakeside Press, R. R. Donnelley & Sons
Company, Chicago, Illinois.
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Stevenson
with Eleanor Roosevelt
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The
Stevenson Memorial, twenty feet tall, in
Bloomington, Illinois, was dedicated on
United Nations Day, Oct. 24, 1969
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Photo
portrait of Stevenson by Karsch
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(Photos
courtesy of Princeton University Library)
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| The
Unitarian Church in Bloomington, Illinois, in
which a memorial service for Stevenson was held
in July of 1965. |
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