Convention, my fellow citizens, i accept your nomination and your program. [ cheers and applause ] and now my friends that you have made your decision, i will fight to win that office with all my heart and my soul. [ cheers and applause ] and with your help, i have no doubt that we will win. [ cheers and applause ] help me to do the job in this autumn of conflict and of campaign. Help me to do the job in these years of darkness and doubt and crisis which stretch beyond the horizon of tonights happy vision. And we will justify our gorgeous past and the loyalty of silent millions who look to us for compassion, for understanding, and for honest purpose. Thus we will serve our great tradition greatly. I ask of you all you have. I will give you all i have and 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 hold study in libertyville, illinois. Richard norton smith, who was this oneterm governor of illinois . Well, to millions of americans thats all he was, a oneterm 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 in 1956. Hes the last candidate to be drafted. Hes the last candidate to require more than one ballot at a convention. He didnt want the nomination is the short answer. Especially if the republicans nominated as they did Dwight Eisenhower who everyone thought was unbeatable and who stevenson thought wouldnt be such a bad president. There was a vacuum in the Democratic Party. Harry truman was retiring. There was no obvious successor and stevenson gave a remarkable welcoming address at the Chicago Convention that had the effect almost of William Jennings brian cross of gold. It touched off this drafted and a couple days later, he was giving this speech you just heard. This is the 9th in our 14week series, looking at the men who ran for president and changed american electricity. Tonight our focus is Adlai Stevenson, 1900 to 1965 were his years of living. We are joined by Richard Norton smith. We are live from libertyville, illinois, 40 miles outside of chicago, at the stevenson family farm. We are in Adlai Stevensons hold study in the house. And were going to be joined by newton minow who worked and knew Adlai Stevenson for years and we are also pleased to tell you that we will be joined by senator Adlai Stevenson iii, the son of Adlai Stevenson and tenyear senator from the state of illinois. Richard norton smith, before we leave the office here, theres some things sitting around that we want to hopefully get to learn a little bit more about governor stevenson. First of all, what is this hand . He talked about himself saying that he suffered from a bad case of hereditary politics. There are multiple generations of stevensons that are part of the story. His great grandfather who actually helped to persuade Abraham Lincoln to run for president . 1860. The lincoln connection was a powerful one with stevenson. This in fact is a cast of lincolns hand that was created in 1860. Also on the desk here is an address book. Some of the names in this address book include Eleanor Roosevelt, walter and jean kerr. It hints at the catholicity of stevensons appeal. He was a nonpolitician in many ways. Eventually by millions of americans who declared themselves stevensonens. And standing between us is this old office chair. This in fact is governor stevensons cabinet chair during the Kennedy Administration, no doubt well talk about this later on, he had a historic stint as American Ambassador to the United Nations and as such he was made a member of the cabinet. This is the chair that commemorates that. Somewhat difficult relationship that he had with the Kennedy Administration. Now, Richard Norton smith, you referred to the dynasty, the stevenson political dynasty a little earlier. Here on the wall are some artifacts very quickly. His wife said that the stevensons all suffered from a bad case of ancestor worship. His grandfather was Vice President of the United States. They had impressive ancestors. And then he ran again under William Jennings brian. This is grandfather stevensons hat and you can see the Campaign Items from the Grover Cleveland campaigns as well. Again, welcome to you, thanks for joining us tonight for the contenders, live from libertyville, illinois. Richard norton smith and i are going to work our way over to the barn, the stevenson barn, on the family farm. Were currently in the house in the study. Next to it is a barn. This was a working semiworking fashl rm with anima. Were going to work our way over there where theres a new display about Adlai Stevenson so youll be able to see that as well. First, we want to show you Campaign Commercials so you can see some the video of Adlai Stevenson. These Campaign Commercials are from 1956 and 1952. One of them was filmed right here in this study. Its wonderful how sitting right here in my own library, thanks to television, i can talk to millions of people that i couldnt reach any other way. But im not going to let this spoil me. Im not going to stop traveling in this campaign. I can talk to you, yes, but i cant listen to you. I cant hear about your problems, about your hopes and your affairs. To do that ive got to go out and see you in person. And thats what ive been doing for the past several years, i traveled all over this country, hundreds of thousands of miles. Ive been in every state. Many of them more than once. And i have met thousands of you and millions of you have seen me. Its adlai to me, adlai to you. I dont care how you pronounce it. Just go out and vote it. Stevenson. I would rather have a man with a hole in his shoe that a hole in everything that he says. Id rather have a man who knows what to do when he gets to be the prez. I love the governor of illinois. I know the gov will bring the dove of peace and joy. He was the boy who told all the crooks get lost. Adlai, love you madly. What you did for your own great state, youre going to do for the rest of the 48. Were going to choose the gov that we love. Hes the gov that nobody can shove. Old mcdonald had a farm back in 31 conditions filled him with alarm back in 31 just broken down farmland everywhere and farmer mac doesnt want to go back to the days where there wasnt a moo or quack to the days of 1931 when he didnt have bread former mac knows what to do going to go out with everyone in the usa to vote for Adlai Stevenson to keep his farm this way with a vote vote here and a vote vote there and a vote for stevenson everywhere its good for you and its good for me all america loves that farm vote stevenson today and if you should elect me your president next november, i shall be the better for having done it, im 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 Adlai Stevenson. You and i have been hearing from our republican friends that things are so good, they couldnt be better. Better for who, i wonder . Do you think that things cant be better for the Small Business man, like this one . Small business profits are down 52 . That they cant be better for our farmers, like these . Farm income is down 25 . Are your schools good enough for the richest nation in history . Your schools like this need a third of a million more classrooms. What about you . Are you now 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. Rising cost of farming, lower income. Caught in a squeeze . Then vote democratic, the party for you, not just a few. Vote for Adlai Stevenson for president. And we can back live at the stevenson farm in libertyville illinois. Were joined by newton minow. If youve ever heard the phrase, tv is a vast waste land, that was newton minows phrase. But for our purposes tonight, he worked with and was an associate of Adlai Stevenson for many years. Newton minow, if you could start by telling us, when did you first meet governor stevenson. I was a law clerk at United StatesSupreme Court for chief Justice Vincent. And one of our law professors came to visit one day. He later offered my clerk a job as his assistant in springfield, assistant counsel to the governor. Turned out that howard wasnt interested, but i was. And i ended up interesting entered by governor stevenson at 7 00 a. M. For 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 Vincent runs for president , if he asked me to stay with him, i would like to do that. And governor stevenson 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. Well, i was hired and i reported for work and he was then nominated as president. What was he known for as governor . He was known as being, first of all, totally honest, which was not necessarily a prerequisite for election in illinois. But he was a different kind of candidate. He was honest. He was an intellectual. He was he 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, theres no doubt. One of the reasons and you would know much, much better than i, that entered into his hesitation at least about seeking the presidency was the sense that the democrats had been in power for 20 years and even the most partisan democrat who thought they had been 20 glorious years thought perhaps the party and 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 had to, among other things, weigh and calculate the chances of which party he might be running against. He was very reluctant to run, wasnt he . He did not want to run. And of course, who could have beat Dwight Eisenhower . It was like running against jesus christ. It was an impossible thing to win. 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 you got to remember the democrats tried to draft general eisenhower. The democrats tried 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, it was the first time he was ever on National Television. And Adlai Stevenson was never any good on television. If you were with him, he was a lot of fun. He had a great personality. And you always went away feeling better about yourself. But when you watched him on television, he was either nervous, but he was never himself, but the country didnt know him. So he gives the welcoming address and he essentially gets drafted, wins 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 Dwight Eisenhower, he probably could have won. Remember, just how different the Democratic Party was in 1952. Who does he pick for a running mate . John sparkman, senator from alabama. Its still the solid south. In fact he has to worry about keeping the solid south solid. Exactly. And it taught me a lesson also about how we pick Vice President s. John sparkman was picked at the last minute. Did he have a relationship with John Sparkman . Not really. The way we do things in this country, its amazed weve stayed so successful for a couple hundred years. Did he wakefauver want to be the ticket . Adlai did not like kefauver at all of tennessee who ended up being the Vice President ial candidate in 56. Who harry truman liked to call cal fever. Truman, who today is regarded as a dear, great president , someone that we all look up to for his divisiveness, for his ability to make Big Decisions and to commit the United States in the cold war, but the fact is at the time he was a very unpopular president. The korean war was an unpopular war. He had fired douglas mcarthur, which, again, today basically theres a consensus he did the right thing for the right reason, but at great political cost. Harry truman had been in power seven years. And he had decided seven years was enough. He had the power to prevent kefauver from becoming the nominee. He probably had the power prevent Adlai Stevenson from becoming the nominee. But in some way the deadweight of the truman administration. Truman and stevensons relationship never quite recovered from that fact. I think it was worse than that. You got there was another factor. There have been a lot of corruption in the Democratic Party. There had been a scandal with one of president trumans assistants and there had been it was not a happy thing to become the democratic candidate for president in 1952. Especially if you had Harry Trumans imper matter on you. As i left the Supreme Court to work for stevenson, i went to see the chief justice to say goodbye and he was very, very close to president truman. And the chief said to me, your guy is not going to make it. And i said, what . He said, no, i was with the president last night and he told me that hes lost patience with adlai. He doesnt say yes, he doesnt say no. Its going to be barkley, alvin barkley. Alvin barkley was then the Vice President of the United States. Age 74. Right. And they tried they actually tried to get it for barkley, but everybody said, hes too old. That opened it up again and then stevenson was drafted. And we are live for libertyville, illinois, the stevenson family farm 40 miles outside of chicago. The phone numbers are on the screen. 2027370001 for those of you in the east and central time zones. 2027370002 for the mountain and pacific time zones. Adlai stevenson won 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 40some at that point. One thing to keep in mind about that election, is to compare it with 1948 in losing governor stevenson got 3 million more votes than harry truman had in winning three years earlier. Dwight eisenhower got 12 million more votes than tom dewey. What you had was the largest increase in Voter Participation in four years since the 1820s. Why . Because you had two outstanding candidates, each in their own way, who were able to excite the electorate in a way that i dont think wed seen in this country in sometime. Heres a little bit more of Adlai Stevenson at the 1952 convention. What does concern me of both parties is not just winning this election, but how it is won. How well we can take advantage of this great opportunity to debate issues sensibly and soberly. I hope and pray that we democrats win or lose can campaign not as