[Editor’s Note: Sargent Shriver wrote this statement in support of George McGovern ahead of the 1972 Democratic Convention, in which McGovern became the Democratic candidate for President of the United States and Terry Eagleton was selected as his running mate. (Nineteen days after his selection as Vice President, Eagleton dropped out of the race, after it became public that he had been hospitalized for depression and had undergone electroshock treatments. Sargent Shriver would then go on to be McGovern’s running mate.) Sargent Shriver’s show of support for McGovern, at a moment when he had no guarantee that neither he nor McGovern would be part of the 1972 Presidential campaign, is notable.]
I was not an early supporter of George McGovern for President. I did not help him win any of his victories in the Primaries. I did not participate, directly or indirectly, in the disputes before the Credentials Committee. But I am one Democrat appalled by the contemptible effort to steal McGovern’s California victory away from him by replacing his freely elected Delegates with substitutes chosen in the backrooms.
I am not trying to defend all the new party reforms; but they were agreed upon in a democratic manner and therefore until democratically changed, they are the rules. I am not trying to attack or defend Mayor Daley or the action of the Credentials Committee regarding Illinois. This is a more complicated situation where compromise may well be desirable and possible. But I am saying that the Democratic Party has always had one fundamental virtue: It has always been the party of the people, of the poor, the disenfranchised, the immigrants, the weak -- the party of all those who need the strength and help of the common wealth to redress the inequalities of nature and society -- the inequalities of birth, brains, wealth and power. The Democratic Party has always been open to all and its procedures have always tried to live up to President Wilson’s famous saying, “open covenants, openly arrived at.”
The Credentials Committee’s actions threaten the best traditions of the Democratic Party. As a result, many Democrats today would rather win or lose with an honest candidate, honestly and openly selected by procedures agreed to by all, than support a candidate who was not able to get the people’s votes in open elections.
During 1972, George McGovern has been the only Presidential candidate consistently fighting for the political rights of all Americans, young and old, rich and poor, white and bIack, Anglo and Spanish, Indian and Eskimaux, urban and rural. His courage and endurance under enemy fire in World War II explain much about his coolness today when he is attacked by some politicians who have never even smelled gunpowder. His positions on some issues may not please all of us; but his integrity, fortitude, intelligence, and his confidence in the people are exactly what the Democratic Party needs.
Let us, therefore, unite behind George McGovern, who has already demonstrated his popular appeal. Let us put behind us the image-makers, the media-manipulators and the power brokers, and give the Democratic Party and the Nation back to the people.
Let us back McGovern and create a new America.
