adlai ewing stevenson
governor of illinois
quote
"and I suppose flattery hurts no one; that is, if he doesn't inhale"
biography
Stevenson was born in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 5, 1900. He was the grandson of Adlai Ewing Stevenson, who had been vice president, and he attended public schools in Bloomington, Illinois, and the Choate School , and graduated from Princeton University. He studied for two years at the Harvard Law School, left to work for the family-owned Bloomington Daily Pantagraph, and took his law degree at Northwestern University in 1926, being admitted to the bar in the same year. From 1927 to 1941 he practiced law in Chicago, except for a short period of service with two federal agenices. Hismarriage in 1928 to Ellen Borden was terminated by divorce in 1949; the couple had three sons.
Stevenson's government career began with federal agency posts in the New Deal era. But even in the early 1930's, his chief interest was foreign affairs. In Chicago he battled isolationism as a leader in the Council on Foreign Relations and in the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. These activities led to work in wartime Washington, chiefly as assistant to the secretary of the navy. In 1945 he transferred to the State Department and participated in the preparatory conferences leading to the foundation of the United Nations. He served as a U. N. delegate in 1946 and 1947.
Stevenson was elected Democratic governor of Illinois in 1948. In this first candidacy for public office, he achieved his only victory at the polls. During his four-year administration, Stevenson drew able people into the state government and improved the police force, highways, educational system, and welfare programs. He also vetoed bills that troubled him, including an anti-Communist measure which he regarded as "more dangerous to ourselves than to our foes."
Stevenson's electoral triumph and his record as governor aroused national interest in him as a prospective Democratic presidential candidate for the 1952 election Nevertheless, unable to resist pressures generated by President Truman and other party leaders, he accepted a draft to oppose the Republican candidate, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Stevenson's campaign enlarged his circle of enthusiastic followers, but failed to produce victory.
He defended Truman's foreign policy of containment, but rejected the President's "give 'em hell" political technique in favor of "talking sense" to the American people. To Stevenson, talking sense meant essentially avoiding suggestions that there were cheap and easy solutions to the nation's problems. His earnest speeches, however, could not compensate for his opponent's advantages: Eisenhower was a national hero, and there was widespread confidence in his ability in foreign affairs, while Truman's foreign policy was unpopular.
Stevenson captured only nine states; the electoral vote was 442 to 89. After the election, Stevenson continued to play a large political role as titular leader of the Democratic party. He traveled widely, spoke frequently, and criticized the Eisenhower administration vigorously. He maintained that the administration was weakening the vital Western alliance and not doing enough to promote economic development and to combat communism.
In 1956, Stevenson was not a reluctant candidate. Supplementing his established style with informal contacts with voters, he vigorously pursued the nomination in state primaries and secured it on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention. Against Eisenhower, however, he was even less successful than in 1952, capturing only 73 electoral votes. Efforts to force discussion of new issues hurt him. His suggestions for ending tests of H-bombs led to charges that he would weaken the nation's defenses. Rejecting advice to stress domestic issues, he talked increasingly of foreign affairs.
Even more than in 1952, Stevenson lost, despite the popularity of his party, because he could not match Eisenhower's personal appeal. Despite defeat, Stevenson remained a man of influence. He expressed the sense of crisis that many Americans felt after 1956: "our Russian competitors are much tougher than most of us have yet realized" and "this time we might get licked," he warned, "unless we are willing to change our habits, our political behavior and our complacent outlook on the world."
He emphasized two themes—halting the arms race and promoting economic progress in Asia and Africa. By 1960, Stevenson's ideas were widely accepted, and many admirers sought his third nomination. Reluctant to engage in political battles again, he bowed to pressure and became a candidate for the Democratic nomination, but was defeated by the hard-driving John F. Kennedy
Stevenson, who had helped his party return to the white, was rewarded, not with the office of secretary of state that he wanted, but with appointment as ambassador to the United Nations. He accepted with the understanding that he would help shape policy. In 1963, the Kennedy administration took a step he had long advocated by signing a treaty banning nuclear testing in the atmosphere.
Although the UN had not been as effective as Stevenson had hoped, he regarded it as important. As ambassador, he battled to safeguard and strengthen the world organization, as in his successful resistance to Russian efforts to weaken the office of secretary general. In the UN, Stevenson employed his great prestige and skill in debate to defend American policies, such as opposition to the admission of the People's Republic of China and resistance to Russian efforts to place missiles in Cuba, but he also brought the organization's point of view into the councils of his own government. He urged Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B.Johnson to heed world opinion and use UN machinery.
