|
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat, noted for his intellectual demeanor, eloquent public speaking, and promotion of liberal causes in the Democratic Party. He served as the 31st Governor of Illinois, and received the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1952 even though he had not campaigned in the primaries. John Frederick Martin says party leaders selected him because he was "more moderate on civil rights than Estes Kefauver, yet nonetheless acceptable to labor and urban machines—so a coalition of southern, urban, and labor leaders fell in behind his candidacy in Chicago."〔John Frederick Martin, "The Trappings of Democracy," ''Historically Speaking'' (2013) 14#4 p4 (in Project MUSE )〕 Stevenson was defeated in a landslide by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election. In 1956 he was again the Democratic presidential nominee against Eisenhower, but was defeated in an even bigger landslide. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination for a third time in the election of 1960, but was defeated by Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. After his election, President Kennedy appointed Stevenson as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He served from 1961 to 1965, dying on July 14, 1965, in London after suffering a heart attack. The prominent historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who served as one of his speechwriters, wrote that Stevenson was a "great creative figure in American politics. He turned the Democratic Party around in the fifties and made JFK possible...to the United States and the world he was the voice of a reasonable, civilized, and elevated America. He brought a new generation into politics, and moved millions of people in the United States and around the world."〔(Schlesinger, p. 239)〕 Journalist David Halberstam wrote that "Stevenson's gift to the nation was his language, elegant and well-crafted, thoughtful and calming."〔(Halberstam, p. 236)〕 W. Willard Wirtz, his friend and law partner, once said "If the Electoral College ever gives an honorary degree, it should go to Adlai Stevenson."〔(Martin, p. 392)〕 ==Early life and education== Stevenson was born in Los Angeles, California, in a neighborhood now designated as the North University Park Historic District. His home and birthplace at 2639 Monmouth Avenue has been designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title= Historic-Cultural Monument List, City Declared Monuments )〕 He was a member of a prominent Illinois political family. His grandfather Adlai Stevenson I was Vice President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland from 1893 to 1897. His father, Lewis G. Stevenson, never held an elected office, but was appointed Secretary of State of Illinois (1914–1917) and was considered a strong contender for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1928. A maternal great-grandfather, Jesse W. Fell, had been a close friend and campaign manager for Abraham Lincoln in his 1858 US Senate race; Stevenson often referred to Fell as his favorite ancestor.〔(Martin, p. 89)〕 Stevenson's eldest son, Adlai E. Stevenson III, became a U.S. Senator from Illinois (1970–1981). His mother was Helen Davis Stevenson, and he had an older sister, Elizabeth Stevenson Ives, an author who was called "Buffie". Actor McLean Stevenson was a second cousin once removed. He was the nephew by marriage of Mary Borden, and she assisted in the writing of some of his political speeches.〔http://www.maryborden.com/Biography/biog.html〕 Stevenson was raised in the city of Bloomington, Illinois; his family was a member of Bloomington's upper class and lived in one of the city's well-to-do neighborhoods. On December 30, 1912, at the age of twelve, Stevenson accidentally killed Ruth Merwin, a 16-year-old friend, while demonstrating drill technique with a rifle, inadvertently left loaded, during a party at the Stevenson home. Stevenson was devastated by the accident and rarely referred to it as an adult. However, in 1955 Stevenson heard about a woman whose son had experienced a similar tragedy. He wrote to her that she should tell her son that "he must live for two", which Stevenson's friends took to be a reference to the shooting incident.〔(McKeever, p. 31)〕 Stevenson left Bloomington High School after his junior year and attended University High School in Normal, Illinois, Bloomington's "twin city", just to the north. He then went to boarding school in Connecticut at The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall), where he participated in sports, acted in plays, and was elected editor-in-chief of ''The News'', the school newspaper. Upon his graduation from Choate in 1918, he enlisted in the Navy and served at the rank of Seaman Apprentice, but his training was completed too late for him to participate in World War I. He attended Princeton University, becoming managing editor of ''The Daily Princetonian'', a member of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society,〔(Daily Princetonian – Special Class of 1979 Issue 25 July 1975 — Princeton Periodicals ). Theprince.princeton.edu (1975-07-25). Retrieved on 2013-07-26.〕 a member of the Quadrangle Club, and received a B.A. degree in 1922 in literature and history. Under prodding from his father he then went to Harvard Law School, but found the law to be "uninteresting", and withdrew after failing several classes.〔(McKeever, pp. 45–46)〕 He returned to Bloomington where he wrote for the family newspaper, ''The Daily Pantagraph'', which was founded by his maternal great-grandfather Jesse Fell. The ''Pantagraph'', which had one of the largest circulations of any newspaper in Illinois outside of the Chicago area, was a main source of the Stevenson family's wealth.〔(McKeever, p. 60)〕 A year after leaving Harvard, Stevenson became interested in the law again after talking to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.. When he returned home to Bloomington, he decided to finish his law degree at Northwestern University School of Law, attending classes during the week and returning to Bloomington on the weekends to write for the ''Pantagraph''. Stevenson received his Bachelor of Laws degree from Northwestern in 1926 and passed the Illinois State Bar examination that year. He obtained a position at Cutting, Moore & Sidley, an old and conservative Chicago law firm. In 1928, Stevenson married Ellen Borden, a well-to-do socialite. The young couple soon became popular and familiar figures on the Chicago social scene. They had three sons: Adlai Stevenson III, who would become a U.S. Senator; Borden Stevenson, and John Fell Stevenson. In 1935, Adlai and Ellen purchased a tract of land along the Des Plaines River near Libertyville, Illinois, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. They built a home on the property and it served as Stevenson's official residence for the rest of his life. Although he spent relatively little time there due to his career, Stevenson did consider the farm to be his home, and in the 1950s, he was often called "The Man from Libertyville" by the national news media. Stevenson also purchased a farm in northwestern Illinois, just outside of Galena, where he frequently rode horses and kept some cattle. In 1949, Adlai and Ellen were divorced; their son Adlai III later recalled that "There hadn't been a good relationship for a long time. I remember her () as the unreasonable one, not only with Dad, but with us and the servants. I was embarrassed by her peremptory way with servants."〔(McKeever, p. 141)〕 Stevenson did not remarry, but instead dated a number of prominent women throughout the rest of his life, including Alicia Patterson, Marietta Tree,〔(McKeever, p. 142; 272)〕 and Betty Beale. Stevenson belonged to the Unitarian faith, and was a longtime member of Bloomington's Unitarian church.〔(Baker, p. 357)〕 However, he also occasionally attended Presbyterian services in Libertyville, where a Unitarian church was not present, and as governor he became close friends with the Rev. Richard Graebel, the pastor of Springfield's Presbyterian church.〔(Baker, p. 358)〕 Graebel "acknowledged that Stevenson's Unitarian rearing had imbued him with the means of translating religious and ethical values into civic issues."〔 According to one historian "religion never disappeared entirely from his public messages – it was indeed part of his appeal."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Adlai Stevenson II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|