A couple weeks ago, I posted a C-SPAN interview with former Kefauver staffer John Hoving in which he shared his memories of the 1956 Democratic convention. Today, again courtesy of C-SPAN, I have a video from that ’56 convention: the speech nominating Kefauver for the Vice Presidential spot.
As you’ll recall if you read my previous piece on the subject, Adlai Stevenson – out of some combination of indecision and unwillingness to alienate the many factions of the party – decided not to choose a running mate in 1956, but to leave the choice to the convention.
Stevenson’s decision, or lack thereof, brought a spark of drama to a convention that had sorely lacked it, and set off a scramble among numerous contenders to be chosen. The battle ultimately came down to Kefauver vs. John F. Kennedy, with Kefauver emerging the ultimate victor.
Kefauver’s VP nomination speech was made by Michael DiSalle, who was the former mayor of Toledo, Ohio. That may not seem like a particularly prominent position, but he was running for governor of Ohio that year. (He would lose that race, but won two years later.) Also, DiSalle was a respected party power broker and strategist.
DiSalle and Kefauver had been friendly for several years at this point. In fact, Kefauver had asked DiSalle to manage his two Presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956. DiSalle declined both times, out of loyalty to President Truman in ’52 and his sense in ’56 that the nomination was Stevenson’s for the taking. However, he remained an admirer of Kefauver’s work in the Senate, and the two men remained close.
In his book Second Choice on the history of the Vice Presidency, DiSalle said that when Kefauver’s camp approached him about making the nominating speech, he said he’d have to clear it with the Ohio delegation first. The delegation gave its blessing, and DiSalle hurriedly wrote up a 10-minute nominating speech.
Unfortunately, the convention changed the rules that morning to limit nominating speeches to 5 minutes, in light of the expected number of contenders. DiSalle didn’t find out until he was already on the rostrum – in the middle of his speech!
“I was just getting my second wind,” DiSalle recalled, “and was reaching the pith of my speech when [convention chairman Sam] Rayburn tapped me on the shoulder and said in a stage whisper, ‘Two more minutes.’”
Impressively, DiSalle managed to edit his speech on the fly and hit the five minute mark (as Rayburn loomed over his shoulder).
And the speech – particularly given the fact that he had to shorten it in midstream – was pretty good. He began by quoting ex-VP Thomas Marshall’s old joke about the two brothers, one who went off to sea and the other who became Vice President, “and neither was ever heard of again.” (He didn’t credit Marshall for the joke.)
But, DiSalle said, the old joke no longer fit in the modern era. “Today, in this new era,” he said, “with world problems becoming more complex and our national economy subject to many stresses and strains, the post of Vice President looms as more of a co-partnership with the Presidency.” This was both a tribute to Kefauver’s qualifications and perhaps a hidden jab at Dwight Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon, whom many Americans didn’t trust.
DiSalle paid tribute to Kefauver’s broad-based national popularity. “Few men in our time have so totally captivated the hearts and minds of the rank-and-file American,” he said, to cheers from the delegates. “Whether they live on a farm, work in a factory, or are engaged in the business and commerce of the nation, these men know Estes Kefauver and they like him.”
He also touted Kefauver’s “willingness to face problems regardless of the political consequences” and his willing to speak out “on issues where courage was required.” He lauded Kefauver’s understanding of “what our Bill of Rights was intended to mean at the time it was written,” which was likely meant to spotlight his defense of civil liberties during the McCarthy Red Scare era.
Unsurprisingly, DiSalle made a point of mentioning Kevfauver’s organized crime hearings that “electrified the American people,” saying that the scourge of crime and racketeering “cost the people of America so much in loss of morale, and which contributed so greatly to the loss of faith in the operation of government.” (Regarding that last point, Americans were in for a real shock over the next couple decades.)
DiSalle then pivoted to discuss Kefauver’s characters and his service to the party. He pointed out that after Kefauver had the nomination snatched away from him by party leaders during the 1952 convention, he “was not a poor loser who sulked; he was a gallant partner in an effort to elect Adlai Stevenson.” Similarly, when Kefauver entered the primaries in 1956 and was beaten out by Stevenson, “he recognized the will of those primaries and… released in delegates in order that this convention might not be deadlocked.”
This was a pretty clever rhetorical move, aimed at those party bosses who still distrusted Kefauver for being stubbornly independent. He’d been a good sport even after getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly by the party; how dangerous could he be?
DiSalle then pivoted to a jab at Republicans. “The frailties of human life being what they are,” he said, “we cannot afford to give any lesser consideration to the choice of a Vice President than to a President.” This both hinted at Eisenhower’s frail health and again raised the specter of a President Nixon.
As Rayburn crept up behind him, DiSalle closed with a grand flourish, “The spirit of America is awakened, the conscience of America is aroused,” he said. “Together, Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver will be the voices of that spirit. They will be the keepers of that conscience.” This turned out not to be true at all, but it sounded good!
If you’d like to see DiSalle’s speech for yourself, you can watch it here.
Estes Kefauver for President 
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