Stevenson 's governorship coincided with the Second Red Scare , and during his term , the Illinois state legislature passed a bill that would have " made it a felony to belong to any subversive group " , and would have required " a loyalty oath of public employees and candidates for office . " Stevenson vetoed the bill . In his public message regarding the veto , Stevenson wrote " Does anyone seriously think that a real traitor will hesitate to sign a loyalty oath ? Of course not . Really dangerous subversives and saboteurs will be caught by careful , constant , professional investigation , not by pieces of paper . The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a natural characteristic of the police state , not of democracy . I know full well this veto will be distorted and misunderstood ... I know that to veto this bill in this period of grave anxiety will be unpopular with many . But I must , in good conscience , protest against any unnecessary suppression of our ancient rights as free men ... we will win the contest of ideas that afflicts the world not by suppressing those rights , but by their triumph . " Stevenson proved to be a popular public speaker , gaining a national reputation as an intellectual , with a self-deprecating sense of humor to match . One example came when the Illinois legislature passed a bill ( supported by bird lovers ) declaring that cats roaming unescorted was a public nuisance . Stevenson vetoed the bill , and sent this public message regarding the veto : " It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming ... the problem of cat versus bird is as old as time . If we attempt to solve it by legislation who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problem of dog versus cat , bird versus bird , or even bird versus worm . In my opinion , the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency . For these reasons , and not because I love birds the less or cats the more , I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No. 93 . " On June 2 , 1949 , Stevenson privately gave a sworn deposition as a character witness for Alger Hiss , a former State Department official who was later found to be a spy for the Soviet Union . Stevenson had infrequently worked with Hiss , first in the legal division of the AAA in 1933 , and then in 1945 , 1946 , and 1947 on various United Nations projects , but he was not a close friend or associate of him . In the deposition , Stevenson testified that the reputation of Hiss for integrity , loyalty , and veracity was good . In 1950 Hiss was found guilty of perjury on the spying charges . Stevenson 's deposition , according to his biographer Porter McKeever , would later be used in the 1952 presidential campaign by Senators Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon to " inflame public opinion and attack Adlai as ' soft on communism ' . " In the 1952 campaign , Senator Nixon would claim that Stevenson 's " defense of Hiss " reflected such " poor judgment " on his part that " doubt was cast about Adlai 's capacity to govern . " In a 1952 appearance on NBC 's '' Meet the Press '' , Stevenson responded to a question about his deposition for Hiss by saying " I 'm a lawyer . I think that one of the most fundamental responsibilities ... particularly of lawyers , is to give testimony in a court of law , to give it honestly and willingly , and it will be a very unhappy day for Anglo-Saxon justice when a man , even in public life , is too timid to state what he knows and what he has heard about a defendant in a criminal trial for fear that defendant might later be convicted . That would to me be the ultimate timidity . " Early in 1952 , while Stevenson was still governor of Illinois , President Harry S. Truman decided that he would not seek another term as president . Instead , Truman met with Stevenson in Washington and proposed that Stevenson seek the Democratic nomination for president ; Truman promised him his support if he did so . Stevenson at first hesitated , arguing that he was committed to running for a second gubernatorial term in Illinois . However , a number of his friends and associates ( such as George Wildman Ball ) quietly began organizing a " draft Stevenson " movement for President ; they persisted in their activity even when Stevenson ( both publicly and privately ) told them to stop . When Stevenson continued to state that he was not a candidate , President Truman and the Democratic Party leadership looked for other prospective candidates . However , each of the other main contenders had a major weakness . Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee won most of the presidential primaries and entered the 1952 Democratic National Convention with the largest number of delegates , but he was unpopular with President Truman and other prominent Democrats . In 1950 Kefauver had chaired a Senate committee that traveled to several large cities and held televised hearings into organized crime . The hearings revealed connections between organized-crime syndicates and big-city Democratic political organizations , which led Truman and other Democratic leaders to oppose Kefauver 's bid for the nomination : " a machine politician and proud of it , Truman had no use for reformers who blackened the names of fellow Democrats . " Truman favored U.S. diplomat W. Averell Harriman , but he had never held elective office and was inexperienced in national politics . Truman next turned to his Vice-President , Alben Barkley , but at 74 years of age he was dismissed as being too old by labor union leaders . Senator Richard Russell Jr. of Georgia was popular in the South , but his support of racial segregation and opposition to civil rights for blacks made him unacceptable to Northern and Western Democrats . In the end Stevenson , despite his reluctance to run , remained the most attractive candidate heading into the 1952 Democratic National Convention in Chicago
1952 Democratic National Convention
1952 Democratic National Convention
Adlai Stevenson II