Great-grandfather Adlai Stevenson I, then a student, later vice president of the United States, told of grandfather Jesse Fell proposing to Senator Stephen A. Douglas joint discussions of slavery in the territories with a young lawyer-legislator named Abraham Lincoln, and the “cordial” conversation with Lincoln that followed. After this series of debates — each lasting three hours — brought to Lincoln national attention, he wrote and gave Fell his “autobiographical sketch” which Fell used to promote his candidacy for president. Fell was next tasked with organizing for Lincoln the Illinois Republican delegation to the 1860 National Convention. That was my family’s first and last Republican convention — and the beginning of its tradition of service to Illinois.

Adlai I acquired from Lincoln a practice of recording anecdote, jokes and stories — like Jesse Fell’s role in Lincoln’s rise — in a loose-leaf binder that expanded over the succeeding generations into a black binder that became known as The Black Book. Like my father before me, I have used this treasure trove of wit and wisdom to enliven and inform speeches, and to find strength. It’s amazing to see what has changed — and what hasn’t — in politics over 150 years.

And so it is keeping with family tradition of service to Illinois — and with a copy of The Black Book in hand — that I am giving my support to Dan Hynes for Governor. My hope is Dan can restore the politics, little remembered, that made the Land of Lincoln a great state rather than an object of national mockery. We are met with challenges unseen in decades, but we will emerge stronger with steady and principled leadership. Dan is the right man for the moment, and I am proud to support him for Governor.

Read more at the Huffington Post

image Adlai Stevenson II and Adlai Stevenson III at Quantico Marine Base, VA, US