Adlai Stevenson II (1900 – 1965) was a cultivated and articulate Democrat who ran for the U.S. Presidency in 1952 and 1956. He was the governor of Illinois from 1949 – 1953 and was the U.S.’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1961 – 1965. There he was often known as a talented negotiator. One of his triumphs was the signing in 1963 of the treaty banning all underground testing of nuclear units.
While many of his supporters have been impressed by his mind and eloquence, Stevenson was referred to as “an egghead,” a derisive remark leveled in opposition to well-educated politicians. Trained in legislation and diplomacy, Stevenson typically squared off in heated debates with Senator Joseph R. McCarthy who was an early practitioner of jugular-vein politics. After a few years of service, Stevenson stated: “I feel authorities ought to be small in scope and as native in character as doable.”
To Name This Day . . .
Quotes
Reflect upon these statements of perception by Adlai Stevenson:
- “My definition of a free society is a society the place it’s secure to be unpopular.”
- “The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. So we must not ever neglect any work of peace inside our attain, nevertheless small.”
- “I imagine in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.”
- “There is a religious starvation in the world — and it can’t be glad by higher vehicles on longer credit score phrases.”
Spiritual Practice
The religious follow of imaginative and prescient encompasses the discovery of recent insights about the means issues are and the cultivation of totally different outlooks on what could be. Below is a imaginative and prescient assertion by Adlai Stevenson. After meditating on his view of what his nation may very well be, write your personal credo about your nation.
“I see an America the place no man fears to suppose as he pleases, or say what he thinks. I see an America the place slums have vanished and youngsters are raised in decency and self-respect. I see an America the place women and men have the leisure from toil — leisure to domesticate the sources
of the spirit. I see an America the place no man is one other’s grasp — the place no man’s thoughts is darkish with concern. I see an America at peace with the world. I see an America as the horizon of human hopes.”
— Adlai Stevenson throughout his 1952 marketing campaign for the U.S. Presidency
