Adlai Stevenson 1952 presidential campaign speeches

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900-1965) was born in Los Angeles, California, on February 5, 1900 to Lewis G. Stevenson and Helen Davis Stevenson. He was raised in Bloomington, Illinois, where his family had long been involved in politics, most notably his paternal grandfather, Adlai E. Stevenson, who had served as vice president of the United States during President Grover Cleveland's second term (1893-1897) and was William Jennings Bryan's running mate in 1900.

Stevenson was educated at Choate and Princeton University, and earned a JD from Northwestern University in 1926. He practiced law in Illinois in the 1920s and 1930s, before becoming a special assistant to Secretary of the Navy Henry Knox during World War II. After the war, Stevenson was appointed as special assistant in the State Department, working to organize the newly formed United Nations. In 1948, Stevenson decided to pursue political office, running for governor of Illinois. Stevenson won the election.

In 1952, Chicago served as the host for both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the first to be televised. During the 1952 Democratic primary, President Harry Truman withdrew from the race amid a decrease in popularity, leaving Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver as the delegate leader coming into the convention. President Truman and other Democratic leaders did not like Kefauver, in part because of a series of committee hearings on organized crime chaired by Kefauver, which revealed some ties between organized crime and Democratic political machines. Though initially reluctant, prefering to run for reelection for governor, the Illinois delegation to the convention drafted Stevenson to run for presdient, and he won on the third ballot. Stevenson, and his running mate Alabama Senator John Sparkman lost in the general election to Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower and running mate Richard Nixon.

Stevenson ran for president again in 1956, winning the nomination, but losing a second time to Eisenhower. He did not run in 1960, and was appointed as United Nations ambassador by President John F. Kennedy, a position he held until his death.

Adapted from Collection Creator Biography, Adlai E. Stevenson Papers; Public policy papers, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library https://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/MC124#collhist.