National Affairs: Prize Specimen

After Stevenson finished his speech, he withdrew for a little serious politicking. In a low-ceilinged room behind the rostrum, the candidate and the President gathered with Democratic leaders to pick a Veep. The others present: Illinois’ ex-Senator Scott Lucas, House Majority Leader John McCormack, Sam Rayburn, National Committee Chairman Frank McKinney, Jack Arvey.

About 20 “witnesses” paraded through the room to give their opinions on who should be Veep. The field quickly narrowed down. Out went Kefauver (unacceptable in the South), Russell (unacceptable in the North), Barkley (too old), Oklahoma’s Mike Monroney (not well known enough). The final choice: Senator John Sparkman of Alabama who, though no Dixiecrat, failed to support Truman in 1948. Later, one of the men present explained: “Stevenson made his decision with Harry Truman’s help.”

A few hours later, at noon, the convention met once more, nominated Sparkman, labored wearily through one more demonstration. Said Stevenson: “You have inspected some of the finest political livestock in the U.S. [But] we’ve reserved until this morning the prize human animal for your approbation.” Stevenson was keeping up his record of an aphorism a day. To New York Publisher Dorothy Schiff, at the height of the convention tiredness, he had said: “intellectual rigor mortis has set in.”