And now my friends, that you have made your decision, i will fight to win that office with all my heart and soul. And with the your help, i have no doubt that we will win. Help me to do the job and this autumn of conflict and of campaign. Yeah and we will justify our glorious paths and the loyalty of silent millions who look to us for compassion, for understanding, and for honest purpose. We will serve our great tradition greatly. I ask of you all you have. I will give you all i have. That was our contender this week, Adlai Stevenson accepting the democratic nomination for president in 1952. We are joined by historian Richard Norton smith here in Adlai Stevensons old study in liberty bell, illinois. Richard norton smith, who was this one term governor . Two millions of americans, thats all he was, a one term governor of illinois. They knew nothing more about him. They had never heard a voice like his. They did not know that in some ways, a Political Revolution was being touched off that night, and that for the next decade, Adlai Stevenson would be certainly the voice of the Democratic Party, someone who would transform american politics, even though he was never successful in his quest for the white house. How did he get the nomination in 1952 and 1956 . He is arguably the last candidate to be drafted, the last candidate to require more than one valid at a convention. He didnt want the nomination, is the short answer. Especially if they nominated Dwight Eisenhower, who everyone thought was unbeatable, and who stevenson secretly thought wouldnt be such a bad president. There is a vacuum in the Democratic Party. Harry truman was retiring. There is no obvious successor, and stevenson gave a remarkable welcoming address at the chicago convention. It had the effect, almost, of William Jennings bryant. It touched off this draft, and a couple of days later, he was delivering the speech you just heard. Welcome to Liberty Ville, illinois, and the contenders. This is the ninth an our 14week series looking at the men who ran for president and changed american politics. Tonight, our focus is adlai youing stevenson, 1900 to 1965, for his years of living. We are joined by wellknown author and historian, Richard Norton smith. We are live from liberty, bill illinois about 40 miles outside of chicago at the stevenson family farm. We are in adelaide stevensons old study right now, in the house. In just a moment, we will be joined by newton men, oh who worked and new Adlai Stevenson for years and we are also pleased to tell you that we will be joined by senator Adlai Stevenson the third, the son of Adlai Stevenson and a tenyear senator from the state of illinois. Richard norton smith, before we leave the office here, there are some things sitting around that we want to hopefully learn a little bit more about governor stevenson from. What is this hand, first of all . Stevenson spoke about suffering from a bad case of hereditary politics. There is multiple generations of stevensons that are part of the story. His great grandfather was a man in jesse fell, who actually helped persuade Abraham Lincoln to run for president in 1860. The lincoln connection was a very powerful one with stevenson. This, in fact, is a cast of lincolns hand, part of the famous life cast that was created in 1860. Also on the desk here on the Adlai Stevenson desk is an address book. Some of the names in this address book include Eleanor Roosevelt, walter and jean kerr, Jackie Kennedy, jon stein back, archibald maclean. It hints at the range of his appeal. He was a nonpolitician in many ways. He was lionized by intellectuals and academics, by men and women of letters, and eventually by millions of americans who proudly declared themselves Stephen Sonias. And standing between us is this old office chair. It is a very historic peace. This is governor stevensons cabinet chair. During the Kennedy Administration, we will talk about this later or, he had an historic stint as ambassador to the United Nations. As such, he was made a member of the cabinet. This is the chair that commemorates that. It was a somewhat difficult relationship that he had with the Kennedy Administration. Richard norton smith, you risk for to the stevenson political dynasty a little earlier. Here on the wall are some artifacts. Yes, governor stevensons wife eleanor says that the stevensons all suffered from bad cases of ancestor warship. His grandfather was Vice President of the United States. They had interesting ancestors. He ran again in 1900 under William Jennings bryant, unsuccessfully. This was grandfather stevensons hat. You can see the Campaign Items from the Grover Cleveland campaigns as well. Welcome to you, thank you for joining us for the contenders tonight, live from Liberty Ville illinois. Richard norton smith and i will work our way over to the stevenson barn here on the family farm. We are currently in the house, in the study, but next to it is a barn. This was a semi working farm at one point, with animals, sheep, horses, its set era. We will work our way over there, where there is a new display about Adlai Stevenson, so you can see that as well. First, we want to show you Campaign Commercials so you can see some of the video of Adlai Stevenson. These Campaign Commercials are from 1956 and 1952. In fact, one of them, we will show you, was filmed right here in this study. Its wonderful house sitting right here in my own library, thanks to television, i can talk to millions of people. I couldnt reach them any other way. But i am not going to let this spoil me. I am not going to stop traveling in this campaign. I can talk to you, yes, but i cannot listen to you. I cannot hear about your problems, about your hopes and your fears. To do that, ive got to go out and see you in person, and thats what ive done for the last several years. Ive traveled hundreds of thousands of miles. Ive been in every state, many of them, more than once. And ive met thousands of you, and millions of you have seen me. Its adlai to you, adlai to me, i dont care how you voted. Adlai, adlai, dont pronounce it, just go out and vote it. Stevenson. Id rather have a man with a hole in his shoe than a hole and everything he says. Id rather have a man who knows what to do when he gets to be the president. I love the governor of illinois. I know the governor will bring the dove of peace and joy. The gop double crossed illinois. He was the boy who told all the crooks to get lost. Adlai, love you madly, and what you did for your own great state, you are going to do for the rest of the 48. We will choose the gap of that we love. He is the gave nobody can shove. He is the president of, me, you and the usa. Old mcdonald had a farm back and 31, conditions felt him with alarm back in 31, not a check here or a mood there, just old farmland everywhere. If the farmer doesnt want to go back to the place where there wasnt a quack, to the days of 1930, one when they didnt have, brad when the day was done, farmer mac knows what to do. Election day of 1952, he is going to go out with everyone in the usa to vote for ad lace stevenson, to keep his farm this way. With a vote here and a vote there and a vote for stevenson everywhere, if its good, its good for you and for me. All america loves that farm, vote stevenson today. And if you should elect me or president next november, i shall be the better for having done, it i am sure. Because i know that the strength and the wisdom that i need must be drawn from you, the people. So finally, i hope that the next time we meet, it will be person to person and face to face. Im add Les Stevenson. You and i have been hearing from our republican friends that things are so good, they couldnt be better. Better for whom, i wonder. Do you think that things cant be better for the small businessman, like this one . Small business profits are down 52 . Cant they be better for our farmers . Farm income is down 25 . Are your schools good enough for the richest nation in history . You are schools, like this one, need a third of 1 million more classrooms. And what about money. Are you out of debt . Do you have a comfortable backlog in the bank . Are you paying less for the things that you buy . Or more . Do you really think things cant be better . Of course they can. Working together, we can and will make them better. Vote democratic. The rising cost of farming, you lower farm income. Caught in a squeeze . Then vote democratic, the party for you, not just the few. Vote for Adlai Stevenson for president. But and we are back live in the stevenson farm and Liberty Ville illinois. Richard norton smith and i are now joined by newton mina. You may know him as the former chairman of the federal communications for our purposes, tonight he worked with and was an associate of adelaide stevenson for many years. Newton mindelo, if you can start by telling us, when did you first meet governor stevenson . I was a law clerk at the United StatesSupreme Court for chief Justice Vince and. One of our law professors came to visit one day. He later offered my coclerk a job as his assistant in springfield as assistant counsel to the governor. It turned out that howard was not interested, but i was. I ended up being interviewed by governor stevenson at 7 am for a breakfast in the spring of 1952. And he said to me, if i hire you, young man, is there any reason why you wouldnt take the job. And i said, if my current boss, chief Justice Vince, and runs for president , and it was rumored in the press that he would be a candidate for president , if he asked me to stay with him, i would do that. The governor looked at me and said, i dont think thats very likely. I then drove him to his next appointment. I went to work at the Supreme Court. I picked up the new york times. It said truman offers stevenson the president ial nomination, semicolon, vincent. Out this was the morning after president truman hugged asked had later run. I was hired. I reported for work and he was the nominated for president. What was he known for as governor . You even as a student, i had worked for his campaign as a College Student in 1948. He was known as being, first of all, totally honest, which was not necessarily a prerequisite for an election in illinois. But he was a different kind of candidate. He was honest, and intellectual, cared deeply about good government, and he brought a whole different culture and tone to the office of governor. Richard norton smith, the u. S. In 1952. Set the stage for us. Politically, one of the reasons, and you would know much better than i, that entered into his hesitation, at least, about seeking the presidency, was the sense that the democrats have been in power for 20 years. Even the most partisan democrats, who thought there had been 20 glorious years, thought that the party as well as the country would be well served by a change. But the great issue was, which Republican Party would replace harry truman, if harry truman were to leave. Would it be the isolationist, conservative, midwestern party of bob taft . Or would it be the internationalist, if you will, modern, republicanism of Dwight Eisenhower . And stevenson, among other things, had to calculate the chances of which party he might be running against. He was very reluctant to run. He did not want to run, and who could have picked Dwight Eisenhower . It was like running against jesus christ. It was an impossible thing to win. And as richard said, he got it exactly right, if it had been robert taft as the opponent, i think adlai would have relished running, because there would have been a clear difference in philosophy about americas place in the world. But youve got to remember, the democrats tried to draft generalize and how are. The democrats try to get eisenhower to run as a democrat. Eisenhower was a candidate of both parties. Newton minow, when Adlai Stevenson gave the welcoming address at the Democratic National convention in chicago in 1952, was he a nationally known figure at the time . Was he considered a candidate . He was not that well known. I remember the first time he appeared on National Television was that spring. He was on meet the press. That was the first time he was ever on National Television, and adlai was never any good on television. If you are with him, he was a lot of fun. He had a great personality. You always went away feeling better about yourself. When you watched him on television, he was either nervous, but never himself, but the country didnt know him. So, he gives the welcoming address and essentially gets drafted. He winds on the second or third ballot. Is that correct . Thats right. And it was really unfortunate for him, because the timing was wrong. If he had run for president against a Dwight Eisenhower, he probably could have won. And remember just how different the Democratic Party was in 1952. Who does he picked for running mate . John spark men, a senator from alabama. It is still the solid south. And in fact, he needs to worry about keeping the solid south solid. Exactly. And it also taught me a lesson about how we pick Vice President s. John sparkman was picked at the last minute. Did he have a relationship with John Sparkman . No, not really. And the way we do things in this country, its amazing weve been so successful for a couple hundred years. Did Estes Kefauver want to be on the 1952 ticket . I think Estes Kefauver was always interested in running for president. Adlai did not like Estes Kefauver at all. The senator of kentucky, Estes Kefauver, who ended up, of tennessee, excuse me, who ended up being the Vice President ial candidate in 1956. Who harry truman wanted to call cow fever. Well Richard Norton smith and then newton minow, harry truman in 1952, and his relationship with Adlai Stevenson. Truman, who today is regarded as a great president , someone we all look up to for his decisiveness, for his ability to make big decisions. The fact is, at the time, truman was a very unpopular president. The korean war was an unpopular war. He had fired douglas mcarthur, which again, today, basically, there is a consensus he did the right thing for the right reason. But at great political cost. And harry truman had been in power seven years. He had decided seven years was enough. He had the power to prevent cow fever from becoming the nominee. He probably had the power to make Adlai Stevenson the nominee, but with that power went, in some ways, the deadweight of the truman administration. And my sense is that truman and stevensons relationship never quite recovered from that fact. I think it was worse than that. There was another factor, a lot of corruption in the Democratic Party. There had been a scandal with one of president trumans assistants. It was not a happy thing to become the democratic candidate for president in 1952. Especially if you had Harry Trumans emperor mater on you. As i left the Supreme Court to join the campaign, i went to say goodbye to the chief justice, and he was very close to president truman, chief justice vinson. And he said to me, your guy is not going to make it. I said what. He said no, i was with the president last night. He told me that he has lost patience with adlai. He doesnt say yes. He doesnt say no. He wanted barkley. Alvin barkley was then the Vice President of the United States. Age 74. Right, and they actually tried to get it for barkley, but everyone said hes tool. So that opened it up again, and then stevenson was drafted. We are live from libertyville, illinois, the stevenson family farm, about 40 miles outside of chicago. The phone numbers are on the screen, because we want to hear from you as well, especially if you remember Adlai Stevenson as a candidate. The results in 1952, by the way, that election was held 59 years ago tonight, november 4th 1952. Adlai stevenson one 27 million votes. He got 89 electoral votes, and he won nine states. Dwight david eisenhower, 442 electoral votes. He won 34 million votes, and he won the rest of the states, which would have been 40 some at that point. 41 states. The one thing to keep in mind about that election is to compare it to 1948.