Adlai Stevenson I

Adlai Ewing Stevenson I (October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914) was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 23rd vice president of the United States from 1893 to 1897 under President Grover Cleveland. A member of the Democratic Party, Stevenson served as a U.S. Representative for Illinois in the late 1870s and early 1880s. He was the founder of the Stevenson political family.

Appointed assistant postmaster general of the United States in 1885, during Cleveland's first administration, Stevenson fired many Republican postal workers and replaced them with Southern Democrats. This earned him the enmity of the Republican-controlled Congress, but made him a favorite as Cleveland's running mate in 1892, and he was elected vice president of the United States. During his term of office, Stevenson supported the free-silver lobby against the gold-standard men like Cleveland, but was praised for governing in a dignified, non-partisan manner. He became the first vice president to serve under a president who won a non-consecutive second term for a second presidency.

In 1900, he ran for vice president with William Jennings Bryan. He was the paternal grandfather of Adlai Stevenson II, a governor of Illinois and the unsuccessful Democratic presidential nominee in both 1952 and 1956.