National Politics: Democratic Primaries and Convention 1952

NATIONAL POLITICS: DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES AND CONVENTION 1952

Democratic Primaries

Estes Kefauver's campaign performance dominated the Democratic primaries. His surprise victory over Harry S Truman in New Hampshire embarrassed the president and quickened his decision not to seek another term. Yet, despite Kefauver's impressive showing in the northern primaries, several of his victories came in states such as Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, where the delegates were required by law to remain unpledged. Furthermore, fellow southerners regarded the famous senator from Tennessee to be a traitor to the white South on issues of segregation—and were eager to hand him a string of defeats in the Dixie primaries. Sen. Richard Russell—a Georgia conservative and an anti—Fair Deal candidate who had campaigned little in the early northern primaries—easily defeated Kefauver in Florida, signaling the South's solidarity in their opposition to the Tennessee senator.

Democrats Search for a Candidate

The party brass in the northeastern and midwestern urban centers also were prepared to withhold delegates from Kefauver. As chairman of the Senate Crime Investigating Committee, popularly referred to as the Kefauver committee, the Tennessee senator had helped expose the link between organized crime and the big city Democratic bosses. Truman also was less than enamored of Kefauver, who had openly attacked the administration for having failed to address corruption in government. Party leaders clamored for an alternative candidate to Kefauver. Truman thought he had found his man in Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson. Although he had built a reputation as a reformer of Illinois politics, Stevenson had the strong support of the state Democratic political machine. Stevenson had also worked in the Roosevelt administration as a New Dealer and was perceived to be an ally of organized labor and of the Truman administration.

An Attempt to Draft Stevenson

As titular head of the Democratic party, Truman promised Stevenson the nomination if he were to run. But Stevenson demurred, claiming that he wanted to remain a governor and had little desire to seek the presidency. Stevenson's coyness outraged Truman, who began to swing his support to his seventy-four-year-old vice-president, Alben Barkley, just prior to the opening of the convention. The hope among administration insiders what that Barkley's great popularity (he was the first vice-president to be affectionately dubbed the "Veep") and his Kentucky roots might produce a groundswell of support from both northerners and southerners on the convention floor. But organized labor was opposed to a Barkley candidacy—ostensibly because of his age. By the first day of the convention, none of the declared candidates had emerged as a front-runner for the nomination. The hopes of the party leaders and the attention of the press and the nation remained fixed on Stevenson, who nevertheless continued to insist that he was not a candidate.

1952 Democratic Convention

The Democratic Convention opened under the glow of television camera lights in Chicago's International Amphitheater on 20 July—days after the Republican drama had climaxed in the same setting. The Democrats, however, came to Chicago knowing that they could not afford the kind of political fireworks that had characterized the Republican's divisive convention. The current Democratic administration was unpopular, and still lingering were memories of the 1948 Democratic convention, when southern delegations walked out in protest over a civil rights plank that had been authored by northern party leaders. With millions of Americans watching, the party was determined to put on a show of unity and assure the masses that Democrats were still capable of governing. Yet the ability of the party to run a smooth convention and nominate an electable candidate was in doubt. The two key questions being asked by politicians and pundit alike on the opening day were Will Stevenson run? and Will the southern conservatives bolt?

Stevenson's Reluctance

On the first day of the convention, newsmen eavesdropped on a closed-door session of the Illinois delegation. Pressed by Illinois delegates to announce his candidacy, Stevenson was overheard to say that he was not "temperamentally, physically, or men-tally" equipped for the presidency. When asked by Chicago political boss Jack Arvey if he would accept a draft, Stevenson refused to give a firm answer. Later that day he delivered a characteristically eloquent welcoming speech to the delegates, who interrupted Stevenson countless times to march through the aisles and roar their approval. Although his speech made no mention of a Stevenson candidacy, the Illinois governor—whether intentionally or unintentionally—clearly had placed himself in a position to walk away with the nomination. By having refused Truman's preconvention overtures, he had distanced himself from the unpopular Truman-wing of the party. The rest of the candidates had little choice but to hop on the Stevenson bandwagon. Kefauver had the most committed delegates (251 1/2) but no other support. Oklahoma senator Robert Kerr was perceived to be a BigBusiness candidate and a slave to oil interests—and therefore was unacceptable to labor. A Russell candidacy would falter outside the South, and the liberal campaign of wealthy presidential adviser W. Averell Harriman had no momentum beyond the borders of New York, his native state.

North-South Negotiations

In dealing with the southern conservatives, northern party leaders and administration strategists hoped to avoid the ugly North-South fight that had occurred in 1948. The northerners were prepared to further water down the already vague civil rights plank of the 1948 convention in return for a "loyalty pledge": Dixiecrats would promise to place the convention's nominees on the ballots in their states. Most of the South agreed to take the pledge as along as it applied to "this convention only." Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana refused to sign, reserving the right to break away and hold a rump convention. It soon was evident, however, than even the most ardent Dixiecrats had no intention of bolting from the convention. They had become too powerful a force to be easily reckoned with, and Georgia favorite-son Russell held 268 delegates. In response to the possibility of a walkout, Virginia governor Harry Byrd wryly declared, "We'll just sit here and maybe they'll have to throw us out."

The First Nominating Ballot

In deciding on whether to seat those delegations that had not signed the loyalty pledge, those on the convention floor understood that a proseating vote would mean a vote for Stevenson; for the liberal Harriman-Kefauver forces strenuously opposed seating the Virginia delegation. But a pro-Virginia motion was passed, and soon a strong anti-Kefauver voting bloc composed of the southern renegade states was in position on the convention floor. After the first nominating ballot, Kefauver retained his lead but was well short of the numbers of delegates needed to secure the nomination. Stevenson's momentum became evident on the second ballot, picking up more than two new votes to every new one cast for Kefauver. Sensing a lost cause, Kefauver delegates began to defect to the Stevenson camp. In one last desperate attempt to stop Stevenson, Kefauver tried to interrupt the third ballot but was turned back from the podium by the powerful convention chairman and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. "Never in the history of a Democratic Convention has a roll call been interrupted for any purpose," growled Rayburn.

A Third-Ballot Victory

Stevenson's victory on the third ballot had been anticlimactic; the "candidate who would not campaign" had emerged as the odds-on favorite for the nomination well before the doors of the convention had opened. His reluctance to be drafted as a candidate for an office he "did not seek" appealed to a party that sought to slough off its image as a corrupt political machine which produced power-hungry and cynical politicians. Stevenson deliberately cast his acceptance speech in biblical language, suggesting that a sacred covenant had been reached between a united Democratic party bent on taking the high road and a reluctant nominee chosen to conduct a crusade: "I have asked the merciful Father of us all to let this cup pass from me. But from such dread responsibility one does not shrink in fear, in self-interest, or in false humility. So, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." Some political editorialists later criticized the "Stevenson in the Garden" speech as tactless, but the New Testament rhetoric worked magic on delegates and party brass.

Selecting a Running Mat

Having given his acceptance, Stevenson and party leaders retreated into the smoke-filled back room, located directly behind the speaker's podium, to conduct the less-than-spiritual quest for a running mate. Further appeasement of the volatile southern delegations was at the heart of the selection process, and the leaders settled on Sen. John Spark man of Alabama. Sparkman was a southern moderate who had not bolted along with the Dixiecrats in 1948 but had nevertheless distanced himself from the Truman wing of the party.

Sources:

Richard C. Bain, Convention Decision and Voting Records (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1960);

Paul T. David, Ralph M. Godman, and Richard C. Bain, The Politics of National Conventions (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1960);

"National Affairs" Time 60 (14 July 1952): 17-24; (21 July 1952): 11-21.