One for a moment, not because its not an interesting question but because i really have to think that through. Eisenhower and reagan have gotten comparisons because of their age, because of their politics, and because of the size of their victories, but im the times were so different. Id have to think about that one. But in terms of what happens with the moment in milwaukee, one way of looking at this is that eisenhower deluded what could have been a strong statement of support for his mentor. In so doing, he could have made and taken the opportunity to position his presidency against such irresponsible statements. Even if they were true. Yes. Right . But he doesnt do that. He either he does one of two things for certain. He either amends the speech, himself, or he allows his speechwriters, john hughes, to cut this out at his bequest. What does that say about eisenhower . That says that either eisenhower wants to try to keep peace in the valley with mccarthy, and he sees mccarthy as being too big to take on on the National Stage right here, or he needs to win wisconsin. I mean, wisconsins a lot of electoral votes now. You dont throw those away. Must have take and page out of fdrs book then. Thats an interesting point. Thats a good point. I know you. So, dr. Greene, bob, thank you very much for another excellent program. If the library can find a way to get you back for a fifth program in five years, ill certainly be here. Thank you, henry. Thank you all very, very much. While congress is on break, were showing you American History tv normally seen weekends here on cspan3. Coming up, the president ial campaign of Adlai Stevenson. In about two hours, well show you his acceptance speech at the 1952 Democratic National convention and in about an hour and half, a discussion of the impact on the 1952 campaign between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower. American history tv primetime continues wednesday night with a look at the 16 1964 president ial campaign of barry goldwater. It begins at 8 00 eastern with the contenders, two hour discussion of the life and career of the republican nominee. 10 05 p. M. Eastern, Barry Goldwaters nomination acceptance speech. 10 50, a look at his role in the Conservation Movement in the 1950s and 60s. The cspan radio app makes it easy to continue to follow the 2016 election wherever you are. Its free to download from the Apple App Store or google play. Get audio coverage and up to the minute information for cspan radio and television plus podcast times for our popular public affairs, book and history programs. Stay up to date on all the election coverage. Cspans radio app mean you always have cspan on the go. Now the contenders. Our series on key political figures who ran for president and loft but nevertheless changed political history. Tonight we feature Adlai Stevenson, former governor of illinois and twotime president ial candidate. This program was recorded at Adlai Stevensons family home in libertyville, illinois. It is about two hours. This is American History tv only on cspan3. Ladies and gentlemen of the convention, my fellow citizens, i accept your nomination and your program. And now, my friends, that you have made your decision, i will fight to win that office with all my heart and my soul. And with your help, i have no doubt that we will win. Help me to do the job in this autumn of conflict and of campaign. Help me to do the job in darkness and of crisis which is stretch beyond the horizon of tonights happy vision, and we will justify our glorious path 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 add l Adlai Stevensons old study in libertyville, illinois. Who was this one of term governor of illinois . Well, to millions of americans, thats all he was, a oneterm governor of illinois. They knew nothing more about him. Theyd 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 arguably the last candidate to be drafted and hes the last candidate to require more than one ballot at a convention. He didnt want the nomination, is the shofrt answer, especially in the republicans nominated, as they did, Dwight Eisenhower, who everyone thought was unbeatable and stevenson thought wouldnt be a bad president. There was a vacuum in the party. Harry truman was retiring and there was no obvious successor and stevenson gave a remarkable welcoming address at the Chicago Convention that had the effect almost of William Jennings bryants cross of gold. It touched off this draft and a couple of days later he was delivering the speech that you just heard. And welcome to libertyville, illinois, and the contenders. This is the ninth in the 14week series, looking at the men who ran for president and changed american politics. Tonight our focus is Adlai Ewing Stevenson 19001965 were his years of living. We are joined by wellknown author and historian Richard William smith. Were live from libertyville, illinois, 40 miles outside chicago at the stevenson family farm. We are in Adlai Stevensons old study right now in the house and in just a moment were going to be joined by newton minow who worked and knew Adlai Stevenson for years and were 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, there are some things setting around that i want to hopefully get to learn a little bit more about governor stephenson. First of all, what is this hand . Stevenson talked about himself that he suffered from a bad case of hereditary politics. There are multiple generations that are part of this story. His greatgrandfather was a man named jesse feld who helped persuade Abraham Lincoln to run for president in 1860. The lincoln connection was a very powerful one with stephens stevenson. This, in fact, is a cast of lincolns hand and part of the white mast that was created in 1860. Now also on the desk here on Adlai Stevensons desk is an address book. Some of the names in this address book include eleanor roosevelt, walter and gene cur, jackie kennedy, john steinbeck, archibald mcleash. It hints at the catholicity of stevensons appeal. He was a very unusual he was a nonpolitician in many ways who was lionized by intellectuals and academics, by men and women of letters and eventually by millions of americans who proudly declared themselves stevenosonians. And standing between us is this old office chair. Yeah, very historic piece. 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. Yeah. Governor stevensons wife, ellen, said the stevensons suffered from a bad case of ancestor worship. They had pretty impressive ancestors. Under Grover Cleveland. Under Grover Cleveland. Then he ran again under William Jennings bryant, unsuccessfully. Anyway, this is grandfather stev stevensons hat. 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 here on the family farm. Were currently in the house, in the study. But next to it is a barn. This is a working, semiworking farm at one point with animals, sheep, horses, et cetera, and were going to work our way over there where theres a new display about add lay stooemlai. Youll be able to see that as well. First, we want to show you Campaign Commercials so you can see some of the video of Adlai Stevens stevenson. These Campaign Commercials are from 1956 and 1952 and one of them we will show you 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 ive 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 you, adlai to any i dont care how you care it adlai, adlai, dont pronounce it just go out and vote it stevenson id lather have a man with a hole in his shoe than a hole in everything he says id rather have a man who knows what to do when he gets to be the prez i love the gov, the governor of illinois i know the gov will bring the dove of peace and joy when illinois the gop double cross he was the boy who told all the crooks get lost adlai, love you madly and 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 he is the gov nobody can shove we have the gov, the president of the you, me and the usa old mcdonald had a farm back in 31 conditions filled him with alarm back in 31 not a chick, chick here, not a moo, cow there, just broken down farmland everywhere snoit farmer man doesnt want to go back to the days where there wasnt a moo or quack to the days of 1931 when they didnt have bread when the day was done farmer mac knows what to do, election day of 52 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 note for if its good for mac, you see, its good for you and its good for moe 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 persontoperson and facetoface. Im Adlai Stevenson. You and i have been hearing from our republican friends the things are so food, they couldnt be better. Better for whom, i wonder . Do you think things cant be better for the small businessman 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 one need a third of a million more classrooms. And 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 farm income . Caught in a squeeze . Then vote democratic, the party for you, not just the few. Vote for Adlai Stevenson for president and Estes Kefauver for Vice President. And we are back live at the stevenson farm in libertyville, illinois. Richard norton smith and i are now joined by newton minow. You may know him as the former chairman of the federal communications commission. If youve ever heard the phrase tv is a vast wasteland, 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 the United StatesSupreme Court for chief justice vinson. And one of our law professors carl mcgowan came to visit one day. He later offered my coclerk a job as his assistant in springfield as assistant counsel to the governor. Turned out that howard wasnt interested, but i was. And i ended up being interviewed by governor stevenson at 7 00 a. M. 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 boss, chief justice vinson, runs for president , and it was rumored in the press that he would be a candidate for president , and if he asked me to stay with him, id 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, vinson out. This was the morning after president truman had asked aldai to run. Well, i was hired. I reported for work and he was then nominated for president. What was he known for as governor . Even as a student, i have worked in his campaign for governor and was a College Student in 1948. 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. Well politically, theres no doubt, i think 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 a sense that the democrats had been in power for 20 years. And even the most partisan democrat who thought theyd been 20 glorious years nevertheless thought that perhaps 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 darst 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. Of course, it was who could have beat Dwight Eisenhower . It was like running against jesus christ. It was an impossible thing to win. And as richard said, hes 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 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. Well, 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. First time he was ever on National Television. And adlai was never any good on television. Why . If youre 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 a Dwight Eisenhower, he probably could have won. And, remembe