Adlai Ewing Stevenson Sr.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson

Adlai Ewing Stevenson Sr. (born October 23, 1835 in Christian County , Kentucky , † June 14, 1914 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American Democratic politician . He served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States under President Grover Cleveland from 1893 to 1897  .

Life

Stevenson's family were from Northern Ireland coming Presbyterians . He was born on his parents' farm in Christian County. In 1852, Stevenson and his parents moved to Bloomington , Illinois after the frost destroyed the tobacco crop and the father released their slaves. Stevenson worked in his father's sawmill and as a teacher to help finance his studies. He attended the Illinois Wesleyan University and later the Center College in Danville (Kentucky). There he met his future wife, Letitia Green, who was the principal's daughter. Since her parents did not see him as an appropriate match for their daughter, they did not get married until 1866. After attending college in Danville, he studied law , was inducted into the bar in 1858, and began practicing in Metamora .

In the presidential election of 1864 he was a member of the Electoral College for the Democrats . Subsequently he was district attorney from 1865 to 1868; finally he moved on March 4, 1875 for Illinois into the United States House of Representatives , where he initially remained until March 3, 1877. He lost when he tried to be re-elected, but returned to Congress on March 4, 1879 for two more years before suffering another defeat.

From 1885 to 1889, during President Cleveland's first term, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Post . After Cleveland, meanwhile replaced by Benjamin Harrison , won the presidential election of 1892 , Stevenson became his vice-president. In 1897 both left office together. On the side of William Jennings Bryan Stevenson applied again in 1900 for the vice presidency; however, they were subject to Republican incumbent William McKinley and his running mate Theodore Roosevelt . In 1908 Stevenson was then still a Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois, where he narrowly lost to Republican Charles S. Deneen . He then retired to Bloomington.

Stevenson was married to Letitia Green . The couple had three daughters and the son Lewis (1868-1929; Secretary of State in Illinois 1914-1917), who then became the father of two-time Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson . Actor McLean Stevenson was a cousin. His great-grandson Adlai Ewing Stevenson III also became a politician and sat for Illinois in the US Senate , whose son Adlai Stevenson IV (born 1956) became a television journalist in the 1980s. Adlai Stevenson was also a cousin of Congressman Sydenham Benoni Alexander .

literature

• Jules Witcover: The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D. C. 2014, ISBN 978-1-5883-4471-7 , pp. 210-218 (= 23. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois ).
• John J. Patrick, Richard M. Pious, Donald A. Ritchie: The Oxford Guide to the United States Government. Oxford University Press, New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-19-514273-0 , p. 608 (= Stevenson, Adlai: Vice President ).

Web links

Commons : Adlai Ewing Stevenson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Biography on the website of the US Senate (English)
• Adlai Ewing Stevenson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Adlai Ewing Stevenson in the nndb (English)
• Adlai Stevenson II senior in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• Adlai Stevenson II senior in the database of Find a Grave (English)