Adlai E. Stevenson

Adlai E. Stevenson was the 23rd Vice President of the United States; and throughout his career, he held many roles in government and led a life of public servitude. Interestingly enough, as a comparison to the 2008 Presidential election: in 1874, Stevenson was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth Congress, serving from March 4, 1875 to March 4, 1877. Local Republican newspapers painted him as a "vile secessionist," but the continuing hardships from the Panic of 1873 caused voters to sweep him into office with the first Democratic congressional majority since the Civil War. Sound Familiar? Also, research the history of this period in the political landscape; the "parties" of today have some differences from the 1800's (Republican Vs. Democrat).


In 1876, Stevenson was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election. The Republican presidential ticket, headed by Rutherford B. Hayes carried his district, and Stevenson was narrowly defeated, getting 49.6 percent of the vote. In 1878, he ran on both the Democratic and Greenback tickets and won, returning to a House from which one-third of his earlier colleagues had either voluntarily retired or been removed by the voters. In 1880, again a presidential election year, he once more lost narrowly, and he lost again in 1882 in his final race for Congress (sourced:Wikipedia).

What he did leave behind, were some inspiring quotes across the political landscape: below are selections that pertain to "Freedom" and "Democracy“

"The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum."

"The definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular."

"Freedom rings where opinions clash."

"Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than the freedom to stagnate."

"Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for."

-Adlai E. Stevenson