Benjamin Ryan Tillman (11 de agosto de 1847 - 3 de julio de 1918) fue un político estadounidense del Partido Demócrata que se desempeñó como gobernador de Carolina del Sur de 1890 a 1894 y como senador de los Estados Unidos desde 1895 hasta su muerte en 1918. Un blanco Tillman, supremacista que se oponía a los derechos civiles de los negros estadounidenses , dirigió un grupo paramilitar de camisas rojas durante las violentas elecciones de 1876 en Carolina del Sur . En el Senado de los Estados Unidos, defendió los linchamientos y, con frecuencia, ridiculizó a los estadounidenses negros en sus discursos, y se jactó de haber ayudado a matarlos durante esa campaña. [1]
Benjamin Tillman | |
---|---|
Senador de los Estados Unidos de Carolina del Sur | |
En el cargo 4 de marzo de 1895-3 de julio de 1918 | |
Precedido por | Mayordomo de matthew |
Sucesor | Christie Benet |
84 ° gobernador de Carolina del Sur | |
En el cargo 4 de diciembre de 1890 - 4 de diciembre de 1894 | |
Teniente | Eugene B. Gary (1890–1893) Washington H. Timmerman (1893–1894) |
Precedido por | John Peter Richardson III |
Sucesor | John Gary Evans |
Detalles personales | |
Nació | Benjamin Ryan Tillman Jr. 11 de agosto de 1847 Trenton, Carolina del Sur , EE. UU. |
Fallecido | 3 de julio de 1918 Washington, DC , EE. UU. | (70 años)
Partido político | Democrático |
Esposos) | Sallie Starke ( m. 1868; |
Relaciones | George Dionysius Tillman (hermano) James H. Tillman (sobrino) |
Niños | 7 |
Firma | |
Apodo (s) | "Pitchfork Ben" |
En la década de 1880, Tillman, un rico terrateniente, se sintió insatisfecho con el liderazgo demócrata y dirigió un movimiento de agricultores blancos que pedían reformas. Inicialmente no tuvo éxito, aunque jugó un papel decisivo en la fundación de la Universidad de Clemson como una universidad de concesión de tierras agrícolas . En 1890, Tillman tomó el control del Partido Demócrata del estado y fue elegido gobernador. Durante sus cuatro años en el cargo, 18 estadounidenses negros fueron linchados en Carolina del Sur; en la década de 1890, el estado tuvo el mayor número de linchamientos de cualquier década. Tillman trató de evitar los linchamientos como gobernador, pero también habló en apoyo de las turbas de linchamiento, alegando su propia voluntad de liderar uno. En 1894, al final de su segundo mandato de dos años, fue elegido para el Senado de los Estados Unidos por votación de la legislatura estatal, que eligió a los senadores en ese momento.
Tillman era conocido como " Pitchfork Ben " por su lenguaje agresivo, como cuando amenazó con usar una horca para pinchar ese "saco de carne", el presidente Grover Cleveland . Considerado un posible candidato para la nominación demócrata a la presidencia en 1896 , Tillman perdió toda oportunidad después de dar un discurso desastroso en la convención . Se hizo conocido por su oratoria virulenta, especialmente contra los estadounidenses negros, pero también por su eficacia como legislador. La primera ley federal de financiamiento de campañas , que prohíbe las contribuciones corporativas, se denomina comúnmente Ley Tillman . Tillman fue reelegido repetidamente, sirviendo en el Senado por el resto de su vida. Uno de sus legados fue la constitución de 1895 de Carolina del Sur , que privó de derechos a la mayoría de la mayoría negra y a muchos blancos pobres, y aseguró el gobierno del Partido Demócrata blanco durante más de seis décadas en el siglo XX.
Temprana edad y educación
Benjamin Ryan Tillman Jr. nació el 11 de agosto de 1847 en la plantación familiar "Chester", cerca de Trenton , en el distrito de Edgefield, [a] a veces considerado parte del interior de Carolina del Sur . Sus padres, Benjamin Ryan Tillman Sr. y la ex Sophia Hancock, eran de ascendencia inglesa. [2] [3] Además de ser plantadores con 86 esclavos, los Tillman operaban una posada. Poseían 2500 acres de tierra y se encontraban entre los mayores propietarios de esclavos del distrito. Benjamin Jr. era el último de siete hijos y cuatro hijas. [4]
El distrito de Edgefield era conocido como un lugar violento, incluso según los estándares de Carolina del Sur antes de la guerra , [5] donde los asuntos de honor personal podían abordarse con un asesinato o un duelo. [6] Antes de la muerte de Tillman Sr. por fiebre tifoidea en 1849, había matado a un hombre y había sido condenado por disturbios por un jurado de Edgefield. Uno de sus hijos murió en duelo; otro murió en una disputa doméstica. Un tercero murió en la guerra entre México y Estados Unidos ; un cuarto a la edad de 15 años por enfermedad. [3] [7] De los dos hermanos sobrevivientes de Benjamin Jr., uno murió a causa de las heridas de la Guerra Civil después de regresar a casa, y el otro, George , mató a un hombre que lo acusó de hacer trampa en el juego. Condenado por homicidio involuntario, George continuó ejerciendo la abogacía desde su celda de la cárcel durante su sentencia de dos años, y fue elegido para el senado estatal mientras aún estaba encarcelado. [7] [8] Más tarde sirvió varios mandatos en el Congreso. [9]
Desde temprana edad, Ben mostró un vocabulario desarrollado. En 1860, fue enviado a Bethany, un internado en Edgefield, donde se convirtió en un estudiante estrella, y permaneció allí después de que comenzara la Guerra Civil estadounidense . En 1863, regresó a casa durante un año para ayudar a su madre a pagar sus deudas. Regresó a Betania en 1864, con la intención de un último año de estudios antes de ingresar al South Carolina College (hoy, la Universidad de Carolina del Sur ). La desesperada necesidad de soldados del Sur puso fin a este plan. En junio de 1864, cuando todavía no tenía 17 años, Tillman se retiró de la academia, haciendo arreglos para unirse a una unidad de artillería costera . Estos planes también se echaron a perder cuando se enfermó en casa. [10] Un tumor craneal requirió la extirpación de su ojo izquierdo. No fue hasta 1866, meses después de la disolución de las fuerzas confederadas, que Ben Tillman volvió a estar sano. [3]
Después de la guerra, Ben Tillman, su madre y su hermano herido James (que murió en 1866) trabajaron para reconstruir la plantación de Chester. Contrataron a los libertos de la plantación como trabajadores. Se enfrentaron a la circunstancia de que varios hombres se negaban a trabajar para ellos y abandonaban legalmente la plantación. De 1866 a 1868, Ben Tillman fue con varios trabajadores de la plantación a Florida, donde se había establecido un nuevo cinturón de cultivo de algodón. Los Tillman compraron tierras allí. Tillman no tuvo éxito en Florida: después de dos años marginales, las orugas destruyeron la cosecha de 1868. [11]
Durante su convalecencia, Tillman había conocido a Sallie Starke, una refugiada del distrito de Fairfield . Se casaron en enero de 1868 [3] y ella se reunió con él en Florida. [11] Los Tillman regresaron a Carolina del Sur, donde al año siguiente se establecieron en 430 acres (170 ha) de tierra de la familia Tillman, que le dio su madre. [3] Tendrían siete hijos juntos: Adeline, Benjamin Ryan, Henry Cummings, Margaret Malona, Sophia Oliver, Samuel Starke y Sallie Mae. [12]
Aunque no era muy religioso, Tillman asistía con frecuencia a la iglesia cuando era un adulto joven. Era cristiano, pero no se identificaba con una secta en particular; como resultado, nunca se unió formalmente a una iglesia. Su escepticismo religioso también lo llevó a evitar cualquier otra asistencia a la iglesia casi inmediatamente después de convertirse en político. [13]
Tillman demostró ser un granjero experto, que experimentó con la diversificación de cultivos [3] y llevó sus cultivos al mercado todos los sábados en la cercana Augusta, Georgia . En 1878, Tillman heredó 170 acres (69 ha) de Sophia Tillman y compró 650 acres (260 ha) en Ninety Six , a unas 30 millas (48 km) de sus propiedades en Edgefield. [14] Habiendo heredado una gran biblioteca de su tío John Tillman, pasó parte de sus días leyendo. [15]
Aunque sus trabajadores ya no eran esclavos, Tillman continuó aplicándoles el látigo. En 1876, Tillman era el terrateniente más grande del condado de Edgefield. Cabalgaba por sus campos a caballo como un capataz antes de la guerra , y declaró en ese momento que era necesario que lo hiciera para "llevar a los negros desaliñados a trabajar". [dieciséis]
Camisas rojas y reconstrucción
Resistencia al gobierno republicano
Con la Confederación derrotada, Carolina del Sur ratificó una nueva constitución en 1865 que reconocía el fin de la esclavitud, pero básicamente dejaba a cargo a las élites de antes de la guerra. Los libertos afroamericanos, que eran la mayoría de la población de Carolina del Sur, no recibieron voto, y su nueva libertad pronto fue restringida por los Códigos Negros que limitaban sus derechos civiles y exigían que los trabajadores agrícolas negros se comprometieran con contratos laborales anuales. El Congreso estaba descontento con este cambio mínimo y requirió una nueva convención constitucional y elecciones con sufragio universal masculino. Como los afroamericanos generalmente favorecían al Partido Republicano en ese momento, sus votos dieron como resultado que ese partido controlara la legislatura estatal birracial a partir de las elecciones de 1868. [17] Esa campaña estuvo marcada por la violencia; 19 activistas republicanos y de la Union League fueron asesinados solo en el tercer distrito del Congreso de Carolina del Sur . [18]
En 1873, dos abogados de Edgefield y ex generales confederados, Martin Gary y Matthew C. Butler , comenzaron a defender lo que se conoció como el "Plan Edgefield" o "Plan Directo". Creían que los cinco años anteriores habían demostrado que no era posible ganar en votos a los afroamericanos. Gary y Butler consideraron que los compromisos con los líderes negros estaban equivocados; creían que los hombres blancos debían ser restaurados a su posición anterior a la guerra de preeminente poder político en el estado. Propusieron que los hombres blancos formen organizaciones paramilitares clandestinas, conocidas como "clubes de rifles", y usen la fuerza y la intimidación para expulsar a los afroamericanos del poder. Los miembros de los nuevos grupos blancos se hicieron conocidos como Camisas Rojas . Tillman fue uno de los primeros y entusiastas reclutas de su organización local, apodada Sweetwater Sabre Club. [19] [20] [21] Se convirtió en un devoto protegido de Gary. [3]
De 1873 a 1876, Tillman se desempeñó como miembro del club Sweetwater, cuyos miembros agredieron e intimidaron a los aspirantes a votantes negros, asesinaron a figuras políticas negras y se enfrentaron a la milicia estatal dominada por afroamericanos. [3] Se utilizó tanto la coerción económica como la fuerza física: la mayoría de los plantadores de Edgefield no contrataban a milicianos negros ni les permitían alquilar tierras, y condenaban al ostracismo a los blancos que lo hacían. [22]
Masacre de Hamburgo; campaña de 1876
En 1874, un republicano moderado, Daniel Henry Chamberlain , fue elegido gobernador de Carolina del Sur, lo que atrajo incluso algunos votos demócratas. Cuando Chamberlain buscó la reelección en 1876, Gary reclutó a Wade Hampton III , un héroe de guerra confederado que se había mudado fuera del estado, para regresar y postularse para gobernador como demócrata. [19] [22] Esa campaña electoral de 1876 estuvo marcada por la violencia, de los cuales el acontecimiento más notorio fue lo que se conoció como la masacre de Hamburgo . Ocurrió en Hamburgo , una ciudad mayoritariamente negra al otro lado del río Savannah desde Augusta, en el condado de Aiken , en la frontera con el condado de Edgefield. El incidente surgió de un enfrentamiento el 4 de julio cuando una milicia negra marchó en Hamburgo y dos granjeros blancos en una calesa intentaron atravesar sus filas. Ambas partes presentaron cargos penales contra la otra, y decenas de camisas rojas armadas y sin uniforme, encabezadas por Butler, viajaron a Hamburgo el día de la audiencia, el 8 de julio. Tillman estuvo presente y los sucesos posteriores fueron uno de los más orgullosos. recuerdos. [23]
La audiencia nunca se llevó a cabo, ya que los milicianos negros, superados en número y en armas, se negaron a asistir a la corte. Esto molestó a la turba blanca, que esperaba una disculpa. Butler exigió que los milicianos entreguen una y, como parte de la disculpa, entreguen las armas. [24] Aquellos que intentaron mediar descubrieron que ni Butler ni los hombres armados que lo respaldaban estaban interesados en llegar a un acuerdo. Si los milicianos entregaban las armas, quedarían indefensos ante la turba; si no lo hicieran, Butler y sus hombres usarían la fuerza. Butler trajo más hombres desde Georgia, y la turba armada aumentada, incluido Tillman, fue a enfrentarse a los milicianos, que estaban atrincherados en su sala de instrucción, sobre una tienda local. Se hicieron disparos y, después de que mataran a un hombre blanco, el resto irrumpió en la habitación y capturó a unos treinta miembros de la milicia. Cinco fueron asesinados por tener enemigos blancos; entre los muertos había un agente de la ciudad que había arrestado a hombres blancos. Al resto se les permitió huir, con disparos tras ellos. Al menos siete milicianos negros murieron en el incidente. De camino a casa en Edgefield, Tillman y otros comieron para celebrar los eventos en la casa del hombre que había señalado qué afroamericanos deberían ser fusilados. [25]
Tillman recordó más tarde que "los principales hombres blancos de Edgefield" habían decidido "aprovechar la primera oportunidad que los negros pudieran ofrecerles para provocar un motín y darles una lección a los negros" haciendo "que los blancos demostraran su superioridad matando a tantos de ellos. ellos como era justificable ". [26] Hamburgo fue su primera oportunidad de este tipo. Noventa y cuatro hombres blancos, incluido Tillman, fueron acusados por un jurado forense, pero ninguno fue procesado por los asesinatos. Butler culpó de las muertes a trabajadores de fábricas ebrios e irlandeses-estadounidenses que habían cruzado el puente desde Augusta y sobre quienes él no tenía control. [27]
Tillman elevó su perfil en la política estatal al asistir a la convención demócrata estatal de 1876, que nominó a Hampton como candidato a gobernador del partido. [28] Mientras Hampton presentaba una imagen paternal, pidiendo el apoyo de los carolinianos del sur, en blanco y negro, Tillman condujo a cincuenta hombres a Ellenton , con la intención de unirse a más de mil miembros del club de fusileros que asesinaron a treinta milicianos , y los sobrevivientes se salvaron solo por la llegada de las autoridades federales. Aunque Tillman y sus hombres llegaron demasiado tarde para participar en esos asesinatos, dos de sus hombres asesinaron a Simon Coker, un senador estatal negro que había venido a investigar informes de violencia. Le dispararon mientras se arrodillaba en oración final. [29] [30]
El día de las elecciones en noviembre de 1876, Tillman se desempeñó como funcionario electoral en una votación local, al igual que dos republicanos negros. Uno llegó tarde y Tillman lo asustó. Como todavía no había una votación secreta en Carolina del Sur, Tillman amenazó con recordar cualquier voto emitido por los republicanos. Ese recinto dio 211 votos a los demócratas y 2 a los republicanos. Aunque casi dos tercios de los elegibles para votar en Edgefield eran afroamericanos, [31] los demócratas pudieron suprimir el voto afroamericano (republicano), informando una victoria para Hampton en el condado de Edgefield con más del 60 por ciento de los votos. Reforzado por este resultado, Hampton obtuvo una estrecha victoria en todo el estado, al menos de acuerdo con los resultados oficiales. [32] Los Camisas Rojas utilizaron la violencia y el fraude para crear mayorías demócratas que no existían y darle la elección a Hampton. [33]
El biógrafo de Tillman, Stephen Kantrowitz, escribió que los disturbios de 1876 "marcaron un punto de inflexión en la vida de Ben Tillman, estableciéndolo como miembro de la dirección política y militar". [34] El historiador Orville Vernon Burton declaró que la violencia "aseguró su prominencia entre la élite política blanca del estado y resultó ser el golpe mortal para el gobierno de Reconstrucción Republicana de Carolina del Sur". [3] La toma de posesión, mediante fraude y terror, del gobierno de Carolina del Sur se hizo conocida por los blancos como la " Redención " del estado. [33]
En 1909, Tillman se dirigió a una reunión de Red Shirts en Anderson, Carolina del Sur , y relató los eventos de 1876:
El propósito de nuestra visita a Hamburgo era infundir terror, y a la mañana siguiente (domingo), cuando los negros que habían huido al pantano regresaron a la ciudad (algunos de ellos nunca regresaron, pero siguieron adelante), la espantosa vista que se encontró con su mirada de siete negros muertos yaciendo rígidos y rígidos, ciertamente tuvo su efecto ... Ahora era más de medianoche, y la luna en lo alto del cielo miraba pacíficamente la ciudad desierta y los negros muertos, cuyas vidas habían sido ofrecidas como sacrificio a las enseñanzas fanáticas y al odio diabólico de aquellos que buscaban sustituir el gobierno de los africanos por el de los caucásicos en Carolina del Sur. [35]
"Moisés agrícola"
A partir de la elección de Hampton como gobernador en 1876, Carolina del Sur fue gobernada principalmente por la rica clase de plantadores " Borbón " o "Conservadora" que había controlado el estado antes de la Guerra Civil. En la década de 1880, sin embargo, la clase borbónica no era ni tan fuerte ni tan poblada como antes. [36] La agenda de los conservadores tenía poco que ofrecer al agricultor, y en los difíciles tiempos económicos de principios de la década de 1880, hubo descontento en Carolina del Sur que condujo a cierto éxito electoral para el efímero Partido Greenback . [37] [38]
Habiendo ascendido al rango de capitán en el club de rifles antes del final de la campaña de 1876, Tillman pasó los siguientes años administrando sus plantaciones. Desempeñó un papel modesto en la vida política y social de Edgefield, y en 1881 fue elegido segundo al mando de los Edgefield Hussars, un club de fusileros que había pasado a formar parte de la milicia estatal. Apoyó la fallida candidatura de Gary para la nominación demócrata para gobernador en 1880, [39] [40] y después de la muerte de Gary en 1881, [19] como delegado a la convención estatal demócrata de 1882, Tillman respaldó al ex general confederado John Bratton para la nominación. de nuevo sin éxito. [41] Para entonces, Tillman estaba insatisfecho con los líderes conservadores a los que había ayudado a ganar el poder; creía que estaban ignorando los intereses de los agricultores y de los trabajadores pobres del molino, y había sido responsable de negar el cargo a Gary [3]: el exlíder de los Camisa Roja había buscado dos veces ser senador y una vez gobernador, y cada vez se le negó. [19] Tillman nunca olvidó lo que consideró la "traición" de Gary. [42]
Lucha por el agricultor
En un intento por mejorar las condiciones para el agricultor (con lo que Tillman siempre se refería únicamente a los hombres blancos), en 1884 fundó el Edgefield Agricultural Club. Murió por falta de miembros. Sin desanimarse, Tillman volvió a intentarlo en enero de 1885, comenzando la Sociedad Agrícola del Condado de Edgefield. Su membresía también disminuyó, pero Tillman fue elegido uno de los tres delegados a la reunión conjunta de agosto del estado Grange y la Sociedad Agrícola y Mecánica del estado en Bennettsville , y fue invitado a ser uno de los oradores. [43] [44]
Cuando Tillman habló en Bennettsville, no era muy conocido excepto como el hermano del congresista George Tillman. Ben Tillman pidió que el gobierno estatal hiciera más por los agricultores y culpó a los políticos y abogados a sueldo de los intereses financieros por los problemas agrícolas, incluido el sistema de gravámenes sobre cultivos que dejó a muchos agricultores luchando por pagar sus facturas. Atacó a sus oyentes por dejarse engañar por intereses hostiles, y habló del agricultor que fue elegido para la legislatura, solo para ser deslumbrado y seducido por la élite. [45] Según un relato del día siguiente en el Columbia Daily Register , el discurso de Tillman "electrizó la asamblea y fue la sensación de la reunión". [46] Lindsey Perkins, en su artículo de revista sobre la oratoria de Tillman, escribió que "las pérdidas de Tillman en la depresión agrícola de 1883-1898 lo obligaron a comenzar a pensar y planificar reformas económicas. El resultado fue Bennettsville". [42] Tillman declaró más tarde que comenzó su defensa después de unos pocos años malos a principios de la década de 1880, lo que lo obligó a vender algunas de sus tierras. [47] El discurso se publicó en varios periódicos y Tillman comenzó a recibir más invitaciones para hablar. Según Zach McGhee en su artículo de 1906 sobre Tillman, "desde ese día hasta ahora ha sido la figura más conspicua de Carolina del Sur". [4]
Dos meses después del discurso de Bennettsville, se hablaba de Tillman como candidato a gobernador en 1886. [42] Continuó hablando ante el público y fue apodado el "Moisés agrícola". Hizo demandas políticas, como elecciones primarias para determinar quién obtendría la nominación demócrata (entonces equivalente a una elección ) en lugar de dejar la decisión a la convención de nominaciones estatal dominada por los borbones. Promovió principalmente el establecimiento de una universidad estatal para la educación de los agricultores, donde los jóvenes podían aprender las últimas técnicas. [48] Kantrowitz señaló que el término "granjero" tiene un significado flexible, lo que le permite a Tillman pasar por alto las distinciones de clase y unir a la mayoría de los hombres blancos en Carolina del Sur predominantemente rural bajo una sola bandera. [49] Durante estos años, los caricaturistas comenzaron a representar a Tillman con una horca en la mano, simbolizando sus raíces agrícolas y su tendencia a atacar a sus oponentes. Esta fue la fuente de su apodo, "Pitchfork Ben". [50]
El historiador H. Wayne Morgan señaló que "el veneno de Ben Tillman no era típico, pero su sentimiento general representaba el de los granjeros de tierra del sur". [51] Según E. Culpepper Clark en su artículo de revista sobre Tillman,
Tillman desconcertaba constantemente a sus enemigos. Cada movimiento que hacía parecía seguro que era contraproducente; sin embargo, su popularidad solo creció ... abusó de sus seguidores, llamándolos ignorantes, imbéciles, atrasados, apáticos y tontos. Atacó a sus enemigos con una lengua tan indignante que muchos creían que solo la desaparición del código duello lo mantenía vivo ... A pesar de todo esto, su movimiento creció y se multiplicó, prosperando mejor cuando los temas parecían artificiales, contradictorios o sin fundamento. [52]
Tillman habló ampliamente en el estado en 1885 y después, y pronto atrajo aliados, incluidos varios camaradas de la Camisa Roja, como los sobrinos de Martin Gary, Eugene B. Gary y John Gary Evans . Buscó convertir a los grupos de agricultores locales en una organización estatal para ser una voz para los agricultores. En abril de 1886, una convención convocada por Tillman se reunió en Columbia , la capital del estado. El objetivo de lo que se conoció como la Asociación de Agricultores o el Movimiento de Agricultores era controlar el Partido Demócrata del estado desde adentro y lograr reformas como la universidad agrícola. Al principio no tuvo éxito, [53] aunque estuvo a treinta votos de controlar la convención demócrata estatal de 1886. [42] La falta de éxito hizo que Tillman, a fines de 1887, anunciara su retiro de la política, aunque se especuló ampliamente que pronto regresaría. [53] [54]
Tillman se había reunido, en 1886, con Thomas G. Clemson , yerno del fallecido John C. Calhoun , para discutir un legado para financiar el costo de la nueva escuela agrícola. Clemson murió en 1888, y su testamento no solo dejó dinero y tierras para la universidad, sino que convirtió a Tillman en uno de los siete fideicomisarios de por vida, que tenían el poder de nombrar a sus sucesores. Tillman declaró que esta disposición, que convirtió a los fideicomisarios vitalicios en la mayoría de la junta, tenía la intención de prevenir cualquier intento de un futuro gobierno republicano de admitir afroamericanos. [55] Clemson College (más tarde Universidad de Clemson ) fue autorizado por la legislatura en diciembre de 1888. [56]
El legado de Clemson ayudó a revitalizar el movimiento de Tillman. [57] Los objetivos de la oratoria de Tillman fueron nuevamente políticos en Columbia y los elementos conservadores con base en Charleston y en otras partes del país bajo de Carolina del Sur. A través de cartas a los periódicos y discursos de tocón, condenó al gobierno estatal como un pozo de corrupción, [3] afirmando que los funcionarios mostraban "ignorancia, extravagancia y pereza" y que The Citadel de Charleston era una "fábrica de militares" que podría reutilizarse de manera rentable. como escuela para mujeres. [58]
Governor John P. Richardson had been elected in 1886; in 1888 he sought re-nomination, to be met with opposition from Tillman's farmers. As had been done to Republican rallies in 1876, Tillman and his followers attended campaign events and demanded that he be allowed equal time to speak. Tillman was a highly talented stump speaker, and when given the opportunity to debate, accused Richardson of being irreligious, a gambler and a drunkard. Even so, Richardson was easily re-nominated by the state Democratic convention, which turned down Tillman's demand for a primary election. Tillman proposed the customary gracious motion that Richardson's nomination be made unanimous.[59]
1890 gubernatorial campaign
One factor that helped Tillman and his movement in the 1890 campaign was the organization of many South Carolina farmers under the auspices of the Farmers' Alliance. The Alliance, which had spread through much of the agricultural South and West since its origin in Texas, sought to get farmers to work together cooperatively and seek reform. From that organization would come the People's Party (better known as the Populists). Although the Populist Party played a significant role in the politics of the 1890s, it did not do so in South Carolina, where Tillman had already channeled agricultural discontent into an attempt to take over the Democratic Party.[60] The Alliance in South Carolina generally backed Tillman, and its many local farmers' organizations gave Tillman new venues for his speeches.[61]
In January 1890, Tillmanite leader George Washington Shell published what came to be known as the "Shell Manifesto" in a Charleston newspaper, setting forth the woes of farmers under the Conservative government, and calling for them to elect delegates to meet in March to recommend a candidate for governor. Both Tillman supporters and Conservatives realized the purpose was to pre-empt the Democratic convention's choice, and fresh, acrimonious debate over the merits of Tillman and his methods began. He and his supporters were often attacked in the newspapers by the Conservatives, but such invective by the hated elites only tended to endear Tillman the more to the farmers who saw him as their champion. Conservatives were certain that once Tillman's voters understood how wealthy he was while speaking for debt-ridden farmers, they would abandon him; they did not.[62]
At the "Shell Convention", state Representative John L. M. Irby nominated Tillman, stating "shame on the [Democratic] party for stabbing Gary, a man who had saved us in '76 ... we could now make the amends honorable and choose B. R. Tillman".[63] Although many delegates voted to make no endorsement, Tillman gained a narrow victory for the convention's recommendation. Tillman spent the summer of 1890 making speeches and debating two rivals (former general Bratton and state Attorney General Joseph H. Earle) for the nomination, as the Democratic leadership watched with increasing consternation. Given Tillman's strength at the grassroots level, he was likely to be the choice of the Democratic convention in September. Accordingly, the party's Bourbon-controlled state executive committee tried to use the brief August convention (called to set the rules for the September one) to change the nomination method to a primary, in which the anti-Tillman forces would unite behind a single candidate. When the August convention was held, the Tillmanites had a large majority, which they used to oust the executive committee and install one loyal to Tillman. The convention also passed a new party constitution calling for a primary, beginning in 1892. Tillman was duly nominated in September as the Democratic candidate for governor, with Eugene Gary as his running mate for lieutenant governor.[64][65]
After the convention many Conservative Democrats, though not happy at Tillman's victory, acknowledged him as head of the state party. Those who submitted to Tillman's rule included Hampton and Butler, the state's two U.S. senators.[66] In his campaign, Tillman promoted support for Clemson, establishment of a state women's college, reapportionment of the state legislature (then dominated by the lowcountry counties), and ending the influence of corporation lawyers in that body.[67]
Those Democrats who could not abide Tillman's candidacy held an October meeting with 20 of South Carolina's 35 counties represented, and nominated Alexander Haskell for governor. The announcement that Haskell would run caused a closing of Democratic ranks against him, lest white unity be sundered.[68] The Charleston News and Courier, not always a friend to Tillman, urged, "stand by the ticket, not for the ticket's sake, but for the party and the State".[69] Even most Conservatives would not support a bolt from the party, and Kantrowitz suggested that Haskell and his supporters hated Tillman so much that his nomination caused them to commit political suicide. The Haskell campaign reached out to black voters, pledging that he would not disturb the limited political role played by African Americans in the state, a promise Tillman was unlikely to make.[70]
During Tillman's five years of agricultural advocacy, he had rarely discussed the question of the African American. With blacks given control of one of South Carolina's seven congressional districts, the question of black influence in state politics seemed settled and did not play a significant role in the campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor.[71] Haskell's appeals for support, added to speculation that Tillman was trying to form a biracial coalition through the Farmers' Alliance (which, though segregated, had a parallel organization for black farmers) made race an issue. Tillman boasted of his deeds at Hamburg and Ellenton, but it was Gary who made race the focus of his campaign. Urging segregation of railroad cars, Gary asked, "what white man wants his wife or sister sandwiched between a big bully buck and a saucy wench"?[70]
Although Tillman fully expected to win, he warned that should he be defeated by ballot-box stuffing, there would be war.[72] On Election Day, November 4, 1890, Tillman was elected governor with 59,159 votes to 14,828 for Haskell.[73] With no Republican to support (none had run for governor since 1878), black leaders had been divided as to whether to endorse Haskell; in the end the only two counties won by him were in the lowcountry and heavily African-American.[70] The losing candidate and his white supporters were quickly consigned to political oblivion, with some mocking them as "white Negroes".[74]
Gobernador (1890-1894)
Inauguration and legislative control
Tillman was sworn in as governor in Columbia on December 4, 1890, before a crowd of jubilant supporters, the largest to see South Carolina's governor inaugurated since Hampton's swearing-in. In his inaugural address, Tillman celebrated his victory, "the citizens of this great commonwealth have for the first time in its history demanded and obtained for themselves the right to choose her Governor; and I, as the exponent and leader of the revolution which brought about the change, am here to take the solemn oath of office ... the triumph of democracy and white supremacy over mongrelism and anarchy, of civilization over barbarism, has been most complete."[75]
Tillman made it clear he was not content that African Americans were allowed even a limited role in the political life of South Carolina:
The whites have absolute control of the State government, and we intend at any and all hazards to retain it. The intelligent exercise of the right of suffrage ... is as yet beyond the capacity of the vast majority of colored men. We deny, without regard to color, that "all men are created equal"; it is not true now, and was not true when Jefferson wrote it.[76]
The legislature, at Tillman's recommendation, reapportioned itself, costing Charleston County four of its twelve seats, and other lowcountry counties one each, with the seats going to the upcountry.[77] Although Tillman sought to reduce public expenditures, he was not successful in doing so as his reform program required spending, and the legislature could find few savings to make. Construction of Clemson College was slowed, and subsidies for fairs were cut.[78]
Among the matters before the new, Tillman-controlled legislature was who should fill the Senate seat held by Hampton, whose term expired in March 1891—until 1913, state legislatures elected senators. There was a call from many in the South Carolina Democratic Party to re-elect Hampton, who had played a major role in the state for the past thirty years, in war and peace. Tillman was embittered against Hampton for a number of slights, including the senator's neutrality in the race against Haskell. The legislature retired Hampton, who received only 43 of 157 votes, and sent Irby to Washington in his place. The ouster of Hampton was controversial, and remained so for decades afterwards; according to Simkins (writing in 1944), "to future generations of South Carolinians, Tillman's act was a ruthless violation of cherished traditions of which Hampton was a living symbol".[79]
Policies and events as governor
Lynching and race
Tillman as governor initially took a strong stand against lynching. The Shell Manifesto, in reciting the ills of Conservative government, had blamed the Bourbons for encouraging lynching through bad laws and poor administration. Although Governor Richardson, Tillman's predecessor, had taken action to prevent such murders, they still occurred, with no one being prosecuted for them. In about half of the lynchings in South Carolina between 1881 and 1895, there were claims that the black victim had raped or tried to rape a white woman, though studies have shown that lynchings were tied instead to economic and social issues. More lynchings took place in South Carolina in the 1890s than in any other decade, and in Edgefield and several other counties, such killings outnumbered lawful executions.[80]
During Tillman's first year in office there were no lynchings, compared with 12 in Richardson's last year, which Simkins attributed to Tillman's "vigorous attitude towards law enforcement".[81] Tillman called out the militia multiple times to prevent lynchings, and corresponded with sheriffs, passing along information and rumors of contemplated lynchings.[82] The governor pressed for a law requiring the segregation of railroad cars: opposed by railroad companies and the few black legislators, the bill passed the state House of Representatives but failed in the Senate. Tillman's calls to redistrict away the one congressional district dominated by African Americans, and for a constitutional convention to disenfranchise them also fell in the Senate, where the convention proposal failed to attract the necessary two-thirds majority. The only enactment that struck at the African American in Tillman's first term imposed a prohibitive tax on labor agents, who were recruiting local farm hands to move out of state.[83]
In December 1891, soon after the first anniversary of Tillman's taking office, a black Edgefield man named Dick Lundy was charged with murdering the sheriff's son, and was taken from the jail and lynched. Tillman sent the state solicitor to Edgefield to investigate the matter, and ridiculed the coroner's jury verdict. As usual in cases of lynching, it stated the deceased had been killed by persons unknown. Tillman said, "the law received a wound for every bullet shot into Dick Lundy's body."[84] The News and Courier opined that had he been present "with true Edgefield instinct, [Tillman] would probably have been hanging around on the edge of the mob".[84]
In April 1893, Mamie Baxter, a fourteen-year-old girl in Denmark, Barnwell County, alleged that an African American unknown to her had attempted to attack her. About twenty black men were detained and paraded before her; she stated that Henry Williams looked something like the man she had seen. Placed on what passed for a trial by the mob that took him from the jail, Williams produced several respected white men to support his alibi. A majority of the mob voted against killing him, and Williams was returned to jail. More searches were made for Baxter's attacker. A suspect in the case, John Peterson, appealed to Tillman for protection, fearing he would be lynched if taken to Denmark, and stating he could prove his innocence. Tillman sent Peterson to Denmark with a single guard. He was taken by the mob, put on "trial", and after the mob found him guilty, was murdered. There was widespread outrage among both races across the country, both at the actions of the lynchers and at what Tillman had done. The governor said, in response, that he had assumed that, as the mob had been convinced by Williams' defense, it would allow Peterson to prove his innocence as well. He thereafter ignored the issue of the Denmark lynching.[85]
There were five lynchings in South Carolina during Tillman's first term, and thirteen during his second.[86] Tillman had to walk a narrow line in the debates over lynching, since most of his supporters believed in the collective right of white men in a community to dispense mob justice, especially in cases of alleged rape. Yet as governor, he was sworn to uphold the rule of law. He attempted to finesse the matter by seeking to appeal to both sides, demanding that the law be followed, but that he would, as he stated in 1892, "willingly lead a mob in lynching a Negro who had committed an assault on a white woman". Under criticism, he amended this to a willingness to lead the lynching of "a man of any color who assaults a virtuous woman of any color"—the adjective "virtuous" limiting the commitment, in Tillman's view, to assaults on white women.[87]
During Tillman's second term, he had the legislature pass a bill to abolish elected local government, in favor of gubernatorial appointment of municipal and county officials. Tillman used this law to oust black officials even where that race held a voting majority.[3] In September 1893, South Carolina was hit by storms. Tillman discouraged northerners from sending aid to African Americans, fearing it would result in "lazy, idle crowds [wanting to] draw rations, as in the days of the Freedmen's Bureau ... They cannot be treated as we would white people."[88]
During the 1895 South Carolina state constitutional convention, however, Tillman supported a provision that permitted the removal from office of sheriffs who through negligence or connivance permitted a lynching. He also supported a provision that held the county where the lynching occurred liable for damages of $2,000 or more to be paid to the heirs of the victim.[89]
Alcohol and the dispensary
The question of prohibition of alcohol was a major issue in South Carolina during Tillman's governorship. Tillman opposed banning alcohol, but was careful to speak well of temperance advocates, many of whom were women. The concern Tillman had with alcohol issues was that they divided the white community, leaving openings for black Republicans to exploit.[90]
In the 1892 election, South Carolinians passed a non-binding referendum calling for prohibition. Bills were introduced into both houses of the state legislature that December to accomplish this, and passed the House of Representatives. Before the House bill could be passed by the Senate, Tillman sent a proposal in the form of an amendment, with instructions to pass the amended bill, and enact nothing else on the subject. Based on a system that had been successful in Athens, Georgia, the bill banned the private sale of alcohol, setting up a system of dispensaries that would sell alcohol in sealed containers—sale by the drink, and consumption on the premises, would not be permitted. Both houses passed Tillman's amendment, though there was opposition both within and outside the legislature. The dispensary system went into effect on July 1, 1893.[91]
The new law was met with considerable resistance, especially in the towns and cities, where Tillman had less support. Dozens of clandestine saloons opened, fueled by barrels of illicit liquor, often transported by railroad. Tillman appointed dispensary constables, who tried to seize such shipments, to be frustrated by the fact that the South Carolina Railroad was in federal receivership, and state authorities could not confiscate goods entrusted to it. All of Tillman's constables were white, placing him at a disadvantage in dealing with the alcohol trade among African Americans. Some of the constables tried going undercover by blacking their faces like minstrels; later, Tillman hired an African-American detective from Georgia.[92]
The small city of Darlington became a center of the bootlegging trade, with many illegal saloons. Tillman repeatedly warned the local mayor to crack down; when this did not occur, in April 1894, Tillman sent a train full of constables and other enforcement personnel to Darlington. They were repelled by gunfire, with dead on both sides. Tillman called out the state militia, which put down the unrest, though some units refused to serve. After the incident, Tillman disbanded the units of the militia that had refused his orders, and organized new companies to serve in their place. The Darlington riot divided the state politically as Tillman prepared to seek Butler's seat in the Senate, which would be filled by the legislature in December 1894.[93]
Only weeks after the Darlington affair, the South Carolina Supreme Court declared the act creating the dispensary system in violation of the state constitution on the grounds that the government had no right to run a profit-making business. The vote was 2–1, with Justice Samuel McGowan in the majority. McGowan was a lame duck in office; Lieutenant Governor Gary had been elected to fill his seat effective August 1, 1894. Tillman closed the dispensaries temporarily, resulting in prohibition in South Carolina, and fired the constables. He had taken the precaution, once the court agreed to take the dispensary case, of having the 1893 legislature pass a revised dispensary law. When Gary took the bench, the Tillmanites would have a majority on the state Supreme Court, and Tillman instructed trial justices not to hear challenges to the 1893 law until after August 1. Tillman kept the law suspended until then, afterwards reopening the dispensaries under that statute. The high court declared the 1893 act constitutional on October 8, 1894, 2–1, with Gary voting in the majority.[b][94]
Agriculture and higher education
Elected with support from the Farmers' Alliance and as a result of agricultural protest, Tillman was thought likely to join the Populists in their challenge to the established parties. Tillman refused, and generally opposed Populist positions that went beyond his program of increasing access to higher education and reform of the Democratic Party (white supremacy was not a Populist position). The Alliance (and Populists) demanded a system of subtreasuries under the federal government, that could accept farmers' crops and advance them 80 percent of the value interest-free. Tillman, not wanting more federal officeholders in the state (that in Republican administrations might be filled by African Americans), initially opposed the proposal. Many farmers felt strongly about this issue, and in 1891, Tillman was censured by the state Alliance for his opposition. Attuned to political necessities, Tillman gradually came to support the subtreasuries in time for his re-election campaign in 1892, though he was never an active proponent.[95]
Tillman spoke at the opening of Clemson College on July 6, 1893.[96] He fulfilled his campaign promise to start a women's college. In 1891, the legislature passed a bill creating the South Carolina Industrial and Winthrop Normal College (today Winthrop University). He took a personal interest in the bidding by various towns around the state for the new school, and supported the successful candidate, the progressive town of Rock Hill, on the state's northern border. Rock Hill officials had offered land, cash, and building materials. The school, then admitting only white women, opened in October 1895, after Tillman had become a senator.[97]
Re-election in 1892
Tillman sought election to a second two-year term in 1892, presenting himself as a reforming alternative to the Conservatives. In the campaign, Tillman was a strong supporter of free silver or bimetallism, making silver legal tender at the historic ratio to gold of 16:1. Such a policy would inflate the currency, and Tillman felt that would make it easier for the farmer to repay debts. The rhetoric of free silver suited Tillman as well, as he could make himself appear the champion of the farmer against the powerful interests that had committed the "Crime of '73" (as silver supporters termed the act ending bimetallism in the United States).[3][98]
Announcing that a primary for 1892, as had been prescribed two years before, was anti-reform, Tillman put off the first Democratic gubernatorial primary in the state until 1894.[99] Thus, the nominee would be chosen by a convention, and mid-1892 saw a lengthy series of debates between Tillman and his challenger, former governor John C. Sheppard. The bitter campaign was marked by violence, often set off by provocative language from the candidates. According to Kantrowitz, Tillman "sought to prolong the confrontation, to take the crowd up to the edge of violence, demonstrating his identification with his farmers without quite provoking them to murder".[100] When former senator Hampton attempted to speak on Sheppard's behalf, he was shouted down by Tillman partisans; opponents complained that Tillman's supporters had formed a mob, and that the governor was a true son of violent Edgefield.[101]
As the likely Democratic presidential candidate for 1892, former president Grover Cleveland, was a staunch opponent of free silver, Tillman attacked Cleveland. Most of the South Carolina delegation, including Tillman, voted against Cleveland at the convention, but when the former president was nominated, the governor worked to deliver South Carolina for Cleveland by an overwhelming margin. Cleveland was elected, but the new president was offended by Tillman's earlier attacks, and denied the governor any role in patronage in South Carolina, entrusting it to Senator Matthew Butler and other remaining Conservatives. Tillman's inability to provide federal jobs for supporters made it more difficult for him to hold his coalition together. Tillman continued his verbal assaults, stating that Cleveland "is an old bag of beef and I am going to Washington with a pitchfork and prod him in his old fat ribs"—thus popularizing Tillman as "Pitchfork Ben".[3][98]
During the 1892 campaign, Tillman called for the defeat in the Democratic primary for the legislature of most of the men elected as his supporters, urging the selection of more loyal men.[42] Tillman urged the voters, "turn out this cattle, these driftwood legislators, and send me a legislature that will do what I say, and I'll show you reform."[102] South Carolinians dutifully voted out their representatives as Tillman requested.[42] Although no primary for governor was permitted, the delegates to the nominating convention were elected by the Democratic voters, and Tillman won an overwhelming victory over Sheppard, who took only 4 of 35 counties. The convention was mostly Tillmanite, and gave the governor an easy triumph. The Conservatives had agreed not to bolt the party, and Tillman won uncontested re-election.[103]
Senate election of 1894
Tillman had long seen a Senate seat as a logical next step once he concluded his time as governor. Senator Butler, whose term expired in March 1895, had soon after the 1890 election begun to shift his positions towards Tillman's, hoping to retain Conservative backing while appealing to the governor's supporters. The senator signed on to most demands of the Farmers' Alliance, and did not support the forces trying to prevent Tillman's re-nomination in 1892. Butler's seeming apostasy disheartened Conservatives, who did not bother to run candidates for the legislature in many counties in 1894, abandoning the field (and Butler's Senate seat) to the Tillmanites. The governor took nothing for granted, seeing to it that popular candidates, loyal to him, ran for the legislature. In addition to electing Tillman to the Senate, these legislators could help preserve his gubernatorial legacy, including the dispensary.[104]
Butler was aware of the uphill struggle he faced, and called for a primary for senator, with all Democratic legislators committed to vote to elect the winner. Tillman, who had already finalized his plans to win in the legislature, refused. The series of debates that marked a campaign summer in South Carolina began on June 18, 1894. Butler believed he could still win by appealing to the electorate[105] in the same manner as Tillman; the senator thought he understood the lessons of 1876 as well as anyone. In the debates, Butler and Tillman matched slander for slander, with Butler claiming that at Hamburg, when the shooting started, Tillman was "nowhere to be found".[106] Tillman shot back that when Butler had testified before Congress about Hamburg, he had downplayed his role in the events. According to Kantrowitz, "their struggle over the legacy of 1876 was in part over who could more legitimately claim to have murdered" African Americans.[107] Tillman's partisans shouted down Butler when he tried to speak at some debates. Although this tactic had been used by Butler and other Democrats against the Republicans in 1876, Butler now decried it as "not Christian civilization to howl anyone down".[107]
Balked again, Butler attempted to turn the campaign personal, calling Tillman a liar and trying to strike him. Tillman warned that Butler's tactics risked sundering white unity, stating to a questioner who asked why he did not meet Butler's insults with violence, "Yes, I tell you, you cowardly hound, why I took them [the insults], and I'll meet you wherever you want to. I took them because I, as governor of the State, could not afford to create a row at a public meeting and have our people murder each other like dogs."[107][108]
By early July, Butler had realized the futility of his race, and took to ignoring Tillman in his speeches, which the governor reciprocated, taking much of the drama from the debates. The two men even rode in the same carriage on July 4. Nevertheless, Butler refused to surrender, even after the primary for the legislature was overwhelmingly won by the Tillmanites, threatening action in the courts and an election contest before the Senate.[109] On December 11, 1894, Benjamin Tillman was elected to the Senate by the new legislature with 131 votes. Butler received 21 and three votes were scattered.[110]
Senador (1895-1918)
Disenfranchising the African American: 1895 state constitutional convention
Throughout his time as governor, Tillman had sought a convention to rewrite South Carolina's Reconstruction-era constitution. His main purpose in doing so was to disenfranchise African Americans. They opposed Tillman's proposal, as did others, who had seen previous efforts to restrict the franchise rebound against white voters. Tillman was successful in getting the legislature to place a referendum for a constitutional convention on the November 1894 general election ballot.[111] It passed by 2,000 votes statewide, the narrow margin gained, according to Kantrowitz, most likely through fraud.[112] John Gary Evans was elected Tillman's successor as governor.[113]
Opponents sued in the courts to overturn the referendum result; they were unsuccessful. During the convention, Tillman hailed it as "a fitting capstone to the triumphal arch which the common people have erected to liberty, progress, and Anglo-Saxon civilization since 1890". To assure white unity, Tillman allowed the election of Conservatives as about a third of delegates. The convention assembled in Columbia in September 1895,[114] consisting of 112 Tillmanites, 42 Conservatives, and six African Americans.[115] Tillman called black disenfranchisement "the sole cause of our being here".[3]
Tillman was the dominant figure of the convention, chairing the Committee on the Rights of Suffrage, which was to craft language to accomplish the disenfranchisement. Constrained by the requirement of the federal Fifteenth Amendment that men of all races be allowed to vote, the committee sought language that though superficially nondiscriminatory would operate or could be used to take the vote from most African Americans.[116]
Tillman spoke to the convention on October 31. In addition to supporting the provisions of the draft document, he recalled 1876:
How did we recover our liberty? By fraud and violence. We tried to overcome the thirty thousand majority by honest methods, which was a mathematical impossibility. After we had borne these indignities for eight years life became worthless under such conditions. Under the leadership and inspiration of Mart[in] Gary ... we won the fight.[117]
The adopted provisions, which came into force after the new constitution was ratified by the convention in December 1895, set a maze of obstacles before prospective voters. Voters had to be a resident of the state two years, the county one year, and the precinct for four months. Many African Americans were itinerant laborers, and this provision disproportionately affected them. A poll tax had to be paid six months in advance of the election, in May when laborers had the least cash. Each registrant had to prove to the satisfaction of the county board of elections that he could read or write a section of the state constitution (in a literacy or comprehension test), or that he paid taxes on property valued at $300 or more. This allowed white registrars ample discretion to disenfranchise African Americans. Illiterate whites were shielded by the "understanding" clause, that allowed, until 1898, permanent registration to citizens who could "understand" the constitution when read to them. This also allowed officials great leeway to discriminate. Even if an African American maneuvered past all of these blocks, he still faced the manager of the polling place, who could demand proof he had paid all taxes owed—something difficult to show conclusively. Conviction of any of a long list of crimes that whites believed prevalent among African Americans was made the cause of permanent disenfranchisement, including bigamy, adultery, burglary, and arson. Convicted murderers not in prison had their franchise undisturbed.[118]
Tillman defended this on the floor of the Senate:
In my State there were 135,000 negro voters, or negroes of voting age, and some 90,000 or 95,000 white voters.... Now, I want to ask you, with a free vote and a fair count, how are you going to beat 135,000 by 95,000? How are you going to do it? You had set us an impossible task.
We did not disfranchise the negroes until 1895. Then we had a constitutional convention convened which took the matter up calmly, deliberately, and avowedly with the purpose of disfranchising as many of them as we could under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. We adopted the educational qualification as the only means left to us, and the negro is as contented and as prosperous and as well protected in South Carolina to-day as in any State of the Union south of the Potomac. He is not meddling with politics, for he found that the more he meddled with them the worse off he got. As to his "rights"—I will not discuss them now. We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will.... I would to God the last one of them was in Africa and that none of them had ever been brought to our shores.[119]
1896 presidential bid
By early 1896, many in the Democratic Party were bitterly opposed to President Cleveland and his policies. The United States was by then in the third year of a deep recession, the Panic of 1893. Cleveland was a firm supporter of the gold standard, and soon after the recession began forced through repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which he believed had helped cause it. Sherman's act, although not restoring bimetallism, had required the government to purchase and coin large quantities of silver bullion, and its repeal outraged supporters of free silver.[120] Other Cleveland policies, such as his forcible suppression of the Pullman strike, led to the Democrats losing control of both houses of Congress in the 1894 midterm elections, and to a revolt against him by silver supporters within his party.[121][122]
From the time of his swearing-in in December 1895 (when Congress began its annual session), Tillman was seen as the voice of the dissatisfied in the nation; the New York Press stated Tillman would voice the concerns of "the masses of the people of South Carolina far more faithfully than did the Bourbon politician Butler".[123] He shocked the Senate with dramatic attacks on Cleveland, calling the president "the most gigantic failure of any man who ever occupied the White House, all because of his vanity and obstinacy".[124] The New York Times deemed Tillman "a filthy baboon, accidentally seated in the Senate chamber".[125]
Tillman believed that the nation was on the verge of major political change, and that he could be elected president in 1896, uniting the silver supporters of the South and West. He was willing to consider a third party bid if Cleveland kept control of the Democratic Party, but felt the Populists, by allowing African Americans to seek office, had destroyed their credibility among southern whites.[126] The stinging oratory of the South Carolina senator brought him national prominence, and with the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago likely to be controlled by silver supporters, Tillman was spoken of as a possible presidential candidate[127] along with others, such as former Missouri representative Richard P. Bland, Texas Governor James Hogg, and former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan.[128]
Tillman was his state's favorite son candidate, and its representative on the Committee on Resolutions (often called "the Platform Committee"). The platform had the support of the pro-silver majority of the committee, but the gold minority, led by New York Senator David B. Hill, opposed its support of free silver, and wanted to take the disagreement to the convention floor. With one hour and fifteen minutes allocated to each side, Tillman and Bryan were selected as the speakers in favor of the draft platform. Bryan asked Tillman if he wanted to open or close the debate; the senator wanted to close, but sought fifty minutes to do so. The Nebraskan replied that Hill would oppose such a long closing address, and Tillman agreed to open the debate, with Bryan to close it.[129]
When the platform debate began in the Chicago Coliseum on the morning of July 9, 1896, Tillman was the opening speaker. Although met with applause and shouts of his name,[130] he "spoke in the same manner that had won him success in South Carolina, cursing, haranguing his enemies, and raising the specter of sectionalism. He, however, thoroughly alienated the national audience".[3] According to Richard Bensel in his study of the 1896 convention, Tillman gave "by far, the most divisive speech of the convention, an address that embarrassed the silver wing of the party as much as it enraged the hard-money faction".[131] He deemed silver a sectional issue, pitting the wealthy East against the oppressed South and West. This upset delegates, who wished to view silver as a patriotic, national issue, and some voiced their dissent, disagreeing with Tillman. The senator alternately offended, confused, and bored the delegates, who shouted for Tillman to stop even though less than half of his time had expired. Beset by shouting delegates and one of the convention bands, which unexpectedly appeared and began to play, Tillman nevertheless pressed on, "the audience might just as well understand that I am going to have my say if I stand here until sundown."[132] By the time he had his say, he had "effectively destroyed his chances to become a national candidate".[133] With Tillman's candidacy stillborn (only his home state voted for him), Bryan seized the opportunity to deliver an address in support of silver that did not rely on sectionalism. His Cross of Gold speech won him the presidential nomination.[133]
After Tillman returned from Chicago to South Carolina, he suggested he had delivered an intentionally radical speech so as to allow Bryan to look statesmanlike by comparison. This interpretation was mocked by his enemies. Tillman is not known to have otherwise discussed his feelings at the failure of his presidential bid, and the political grief was likely overwhelmed by personal sadness a week after the convention when his beloved daughter Addie died, struck by lightning on a North Carolina mountain. Tillman campaigned for Bryan, but was a favorite target of cartoonists denigrating the Democratic candidate and supporting the Republican, former Ohio governor William McKinley. Bryan had also been nominated by the Populists, who selected their own vice presidential candidate, Georgia's Thomas E. Watson. Tillman was active in efforts to get Watson to withdraw, having a 12-hour meeting with the candidate, apparently without result.[134] Tillman traveled widely to speak on Bryan's behalf, and drew large crowds, but his speeches were of little significance. Despite undertaking an arduous campaign, Bryan lost the election. Simkins suggested that Tillman, by helping forge an image of the Democratic Party as anarchic, contributed to Bryan's defeat.[135]
Wild man of the Senate: Tillman-McLaurin fistfight
Kantrowitz deemed Tillman "the Senate's wild man", who applied the same techniques of accusation and insinuation that had served him well in South Carolina.[136] In 1897, Tillman accused the Republicans, "I certainly do not want to attack any member of the committee who does not deserve to be attacked [but] nobody denies that there have been rooms occupied for two months by the Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee at the Arlington Hotel[c] ... in easy reach of the sugar trust".[136] Simkins, though, opined that Tillman's speeches in the Senate were only inflammatory because of his injection of personalities, and if that is disregarded, his speeches, when read, come across as well-reasoned and even conservative.[137]
In 1902, Tillman accused his junior colleague from South Carolina, John L. McLaurin, of corruption in a speech to the Senate. McLaurin, who had been a Tillmanite before breaking from him after being elected to the Senate, called him a liar, whereupon Tillman rushed across the Senate floor and punched McLaurin in the face; McLaurin responded by punching Tillman in the nose before the Sergeant at Arms and other Senators intervened. The body immediately went into closed session, and held both men in contempt.[138]
The Senate considered suspending them, but Tillman argued that it was unfair to deprive South Carolina of her representation, though the body could have also expelled the two men, knowing he had enough Democratic votes to prevent this. In the end, both men were censured, and later that year, Tillman arranged for McLaurin, whose term ended in 1903, to not be re-elected.[139]
The fracas with McLaurin caused President Theodore Roosevelt, who had succeeded the assassinated McKinley in 1901, to withdraw an invitation to dinner at the White House. Tillman never forgave this slight, and became a bitter enemy of Roosevelt.[3]
Tillman was inclined to oppose Roosevelt anyway, who soon after becoming president, dined at the White House with Booker T. Washington, an African American. Tillman responded by saying "the action of President Roosevelt in entertaining that nigger will necessitate our killing a thousand niggers in the South before they learn their place again."[140]
Race relations
Tillman addressing the Senate on the Brownsville affair, January 12, 1907[141]
Tillman believed, and often stated as senator, that blacks must submit to either white domination or extermination.[142] He was reluctant to undertake the latter, fearing hundreds of whites would die accomplishing it.[143] He campaigned in the violent 1898 North Carolina elections, in which white Democrats were determined to take back control from a biracial Populist-Republican coalition elected in 1894 and 1896 on a fusion ticket. He spoke widely in North Carolina in late 1898, often to crowds wearing red shirts, disheartening his Populist supporters.[144] On October 20, 1898, Tillman was the featured speaker at the Democratic Party's Great White Man's Rally and Basket Picnic in Fayetteville. Tillman spoke furiously to the crowd of white men, asking them why North Carolina had not rid itself of black office holders as South Carolina had in 1876. He chastized the audience for not lynching Alex Manly, the black editor of the Wilmington Daily Record.[145] Tillman was one of many prominent Democrats advocating use of violence to win the 1898 election. The resulting coup expelled opposition black and white political leaders from Wilmington, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people.[146] Terror and intimidation again won the day for the Democrats, who were elected statewide. South Carolina saw violence as well: an effort to register black voters in Phoenix led whites to provoke a confrontation, after which a number of African Americans were murdered. Tillman warned African Americans and those who might combine with them that black political activism would provoke a murderous response from whites.[144]
Beginning in 1901, Tillman joined the Chautauqua circuit, giving well-paid speeches throughout the nation. Tillman's reputation, both for his views and his oratory, attracted large crowds. Tillman informed them that African Americans were inferior to the white man, but were not baboons, though some were "so near akin to the monkey that scientists are yet looking for the missing link".[147] Given that in Africa, they were an "ignorant and debased and debauched race" with a record of "barbarism, savagery, cannibalism and everything that is low and degrading", it was the "quintessence of folly" to believe that the black man should be placed on an equal footing with his white counterpart.[147] Tillman "embraced segregation as divinely imperative".[148]:153
Tillman told the Senate, "as governor of South Carolina, I proclaimed that, although I had taken the oath of office to support the law and enforce it, I would lead a mob to lynch any man, black or white, who ravished a woman, black or white."[149] He told his colleagues, "I have three daughters, but, so help me God, I had rather find either one of them killed by a tiger or a bear [and die a virgin] than to have her crawl to me and tell me the horrid story that she had been robbed of the jewel of her womanhood by a black fiend."[150] In 1907, he told the senators about the Ellenton riot of 1876, "it was then that we shot them; it was then that we killed them; it was then that we stuffed the ballot-boxes."[151] [152]
As South Carolina's economy changed in the early 20th century, with textile mills being built, Tillman complained that some African Americans were evading the supervision they would have on the farm, fearing the threat to white women. He admitted that it would be unjust to kill all of these workers, "because we might kill some innocent men, but we can keep them on the chain gang".[143]
Legislative activities and re-elections
Tillman was an early and fervent backer of war with Spain in 1898. However, he opposed taking the Spanish colonies such as Puerto Rico and the Philippines, both because he considered it wrong to annex people to the United States without their consent, and out of opposition to adding territories with large numbers of non-whites. Tillman mocked the Republicans, most of whom supported annexation rather than self-determination, stating that it was that party that since 1860 had claimed "that all men, including the Negro, are free and equal," and was annoyed when they refused to admit their positions were inconsistent.[153]
In 1906, Roosevelt backed the Hepburn Bill, imposing railroad regulation. Many Republicans initially wanted nothing to do with the bill, and Senate Republican leader Nelson Aldrich entrusted management of the bill to Tillman. Aldrich hoped the outspoken South Carolinian would cause the defeat of the bill. To Aldrich's surprise, Tillman soberly and competently conducted the bill through much of the legislative process. Tillman withdrew from the bill (though he voted for it) after Roosevelt got a provision for federal court review of agency decisions included, which Tillman opposed. The president and the southern senator ended on worse terms than before, but there was great public attention on the Hepburn Bill, and Tillman gained considerable respect for his role.[154]
This activity caused a public reassessment of Tillman, who was best known for giving speeches that shocked the North and made even southerners cringe. Writers suggested he was merely presenting an image as "Pitchfork Ben", that he could turn on and off as needed. He came to be regarded in the North as acceptable and even respectable, with some suggesting he had matured during his time in the Senate. The Saturday Evening Post compared Tillman with a coconut; hard, rough, and shaggy on the outside, but within, "the milk of human kindness".[155]
Tillman was the primary sponsor of the Tillman Act, the first federal campaign finance reform law, which was passed in 1907 and which banned corporate contributions in federal political campaigns. Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested that Tillman's motivation in introducing this legislation was to reduce the power of corporations which tended to favor Republicans and African Americans.[156]
When Tillman entered the Senate in 1895, he was opposed to expansion of the United States Navy, fearing the expenditure would cause the issuance of bonds by the president, which he felt would only enrich the wealthy. Tillman sat on the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, and soon came to understand that South Carolina could benefit from naval appropriations steered towards her. A flow of federal funds to his home state resulted, beginning in 1900,[157] followed by the establishment, in 1909, of the Charleston Naval Shipyard. Once Democrats took control of the Senate for the first time in Tillman's tenure, in 1913, he became chairman of the committee and allied with others from the southeast (such as Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels, a North Carolinian) to see that the bulk of naval appropriations would be spent there.[157] In 1912 Tillman requested the US Navy determine the maximum size of battleship that could be produced. Over the next four years the Navy developed a series of designs, called the Tillman Battleship or Maximum battleship, that were significantly larger and more powerful than any battleship in service in the world. The Navy submitted the Tillman IV-2 design to Congress, but the US entry into World War I and the Washington Naval Treaty afterward put an end to such fantastic designs.
Tillman also served as chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims (57th through 59th Congresses) and on the Committee on Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (61st and 62nd Congresses).[158] Strokes in 1908 and 1910 decreased his influence and ability in the Senate; his seniority entitled him to become Senate Appropriations Committee chairman in 1913, but his health did not permit it.[3][159]
President Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913, the first Democrat to hold the office since Cleveland. Tillman supported Wilson's legislation in the Senate, except on women's suffrage, where he was a strong opponent.[3] He was uneasy when Wilson's Secretary of State, Bryan, tried to prevent war through treaty-making, describing the former presidential candidate as the "evangel of peace at any price".[160] When the United States entered World War I, Tillman was a strong supporter, seeing the conflict as democratic nations against German "slaves ... and not free men at all".[160] Although he urged vigilance against spies, once he was satisfied that the accusations against German-born Friedrich Johannes Hugo von Engelken, president of the Federal Land Bank at Columbia, were unfounded, he spoke in support of the man.[161]
Tillman had been re-elected in 1901 and 1907.[158] By 1912, the Democratic nominee, who would be elected by the overwhelming Democratic majority in the legislature, was determined by a primary. A primary was also used for governor, and Tillman ran at the same time as Governor Cole Blease, who also sought re-election. Blease, also an outspoken white supremacist, had entered politics as a Tillmanite legislator in 1890, and breaking from him, adopted similar techniques to Tillman's to appeal to poor farm workers and mill hands.[162] Tillman faced two opponents in his re-nomination bid—his control over South Carolina politics had deteriorated over the years, and he had moved towards the Conservatives. He had not endorsed Blease in 1910. The two men reached an agreement that Tillman would remain neutral in the governor's race in 1912, but Tillman became convinced Blease could not win against former state chief justice Ira B. Jones. Both sides claimed to have letters from Tillman endorsing their candidate, but three days before the primary, Tillman condemned Blease and endorsed Jones. Blease, outraged, alleged betrayal, accused Tillman of "insane jealousy", and said of the senator, "possibly his mind has become more diseased of late than it was when I had my last talk with his confidential physician".[163] Both men were re-elected.[164]
Final years and death
The Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave the people the right to elect senators, but this made little difference in South Carolina, where the Democratic primary remained decisive. Tillman in 1914 announced plans to retire when his term expired in 1919, but the war and the threat that Blease would win the open seat caused him to announce his candidacy for a fifth term in March 1918. Tillman remained for the most part in Washington, and did not campaign, but came to Columbia for the state Democratic convention in May to discredit rumors about his health, which was indeed poor. He got Wilson to persuade one of his rivals, Congressman Asbury F. Lever, to abandon the race, and considered how to do the same to Blease. These plans had not yet come to fruition when Tillman was stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage at the end of June, and died July 3, 1918 in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery, Trenton, South Carolina.[165]
Tillman's death generated a large number of tributes to him in the Senate, which were afterwards collected in book form. One copy came into the hands of Blease, who was angry that Tillman was being lauded, and stated that the late senator was not what he had seemed. He wrote in front of the volume, "Don't believe me, but look up his life & see."[160] When Manly, who had barely escaped the Wilmington Insurrection, read of his death in 1918, he said to his wife, "I wonder who is making hash out of him in hell tonight."[166]
Vista histórica y heredada
According to Orville Burton, "Tillman's legacy for South Carolina and the nation is controversial and disturbing. White and black South Carolinians interpret Tillman's accomplishments in contradictory ways."[3] A national hero to white supremacists, according to an article on Tillman for The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, "for African Americans, he was the 'devil incarnate'".[167] No African American was elected to Congress under the 1895 constitution until the Civil Rights Movement, nor were any elected to statewide or county office after 1900.[168]
Simkins, a son of Edgefield, while recognizing faults in Tillman's racial policies, stated that "no South Carolinian, with the single exception of Calhoun, has ever made a profounder impression on his generation than Tillman."[169] The late senator's supporters and protégés remained long in South Carolina, encouraging a view of Tillman as a great man in state and national history. James F. Byrnes, for example, repeated Tillman's themes of race war on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1919. In 1940, Byrnes, by then a senator and soon to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, dedicated a statue of Tillman outside the South Carolina State House and called him the state's "first New Dealer".[170][171] Protestors have since asked for that statue to be removed.[172] Others who knew and at one time admired Tillman included Strom Thurmond, son of Tillman's Edgefield attorney, who saw and was inspired by Tillman's campaigning style as a boy.[3] Other Southerners were highly negative: Lyndon B. Johnson said of Tillman, "He might have been president. I'd like to sit down with him and ask how it was to throw it away for the sake of hating."[167]
Simkins noted that Tillman "rose above the handicap of his radical views, his obstreperousness, and the insularity of his issues to become a considerable force in national politics".[173] Historian I. M. Newby deemed Tillmanism the closest thing to a mass movement in the history of white South Carolinians, and one that dominated the state for a generation. "To students of black history and racial equality its most striking features are the extent to which it expressed the desire of white Carolinians to dominate blacks and the fact that much of its unity and force derived from its antiblack racial policies."[3] Tillman's movement took power from the Bourbon Democrats in South Carolina, but a greater price was paid, electorally and in lives, by African Americans.[3][159]
In 1962, Main Building on the campus of Winthrop College was renamed Tillman Hall in his honor.[174] Clemson University also has a Tillman Hall, though efforts have been made to change the name,[175] and on June 12, 2020, the university's board of trustees requested the legislature to authorize a name change back to "Main Building".[176] Kantrowitz argued that Tillman deserves little credit for what have become important Southern schools, integrated and coeducational:[3][177]
For through the doors of Tillman Hall now pass men and women whose paths stretch back to many continents, men and women who understand the right to wage political struggles without fear of violent retaliation. In this, Clemson repudiates rather than represents Tillman's legacy. He would have torn down his beloved "farmers' college" brick by brick before he would have allowed it to foster a world where neither sex nor race defined the limits of a person's attainment.[177]
Notas
- ^ The district included today's Edgefield County, where Trenton is located.
- ^ The case ruling the dispensaries unconstitutional was McCullough v. Brown, 19 S.E. 458 (S.C. 1894); the case upholding the revised law was State ex rel. George v. City Council of Aiken, 20 S.E. 221 (S.C. 1894).
- ^ A residential hotel near the White House, where a number of members of Congress lived while in Washington.
- ^ Roosevelt had issued a statement saying that each of the accused men at Brownsville would be dealt with on his merits, without regard to race. See Tillman 1907, p. 4
Referencias
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 396–397.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 23.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Burton, Orville Vernon. "Benjamin Ryan Tillman". American National Biography Online. Retrieved December 22, 2014.(subscription required)
- ^ a b McGhee, p. 8015.
- ^ Ford, pp. 328–329.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 22–23.
- ^ a b Simkins 1944, pp. 31–36.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 22–24.
- ^ "TILLMAN, George Dionysius, (1826–1902)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. United States Congress. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 41–46.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 42–48.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 51 n.7.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 55.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 54.
- ^ McGhee, pp. 8014–8015.
- ^ JBHE, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 40–49.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d Burton, Orville Vernon. "Martin Witherspoon Gary". American National Biography Online. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 58.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 53–57.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 61–64.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 65–68.
- ^ Miller, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 67–69.
- ^ Dew, Charles B. (May 21, 2000). "Tightening the Noose". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 70, 77.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 71–74.
- ^ Smith, Mark M. (1994). "'All Is Not Quiet in Our Hellish County': Facts, Fiction, Politics, and Race: The Ellenton Riot of 1876". South Carolina Historical Magazine. 95 (2): 142–155. JSTOR 27570004.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 75–76.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 67.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000a, p. 500.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 65.
- ^ Tillman 1909, pp. 1, 24–25.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 73.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 108–109.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000a, pp. 503–507.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 66–68.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 102.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 68.
- ^ a b c d e f Perkins, p. 2.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 110.
- ^ Clark, pp. 426–427.
- ^ Perkins, p. 1.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 114.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 117–118.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000a, p. 510.
- ^ JBHE, p. 49.
- ^ Morgan, p. 379.
- ^ Clark, p. 427.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 125–127.
- ^ Clark, p. 430.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 127–128.
- ^ Begley, p. 123 n.17.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000a, p. 514.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000a, p. 513.
- ^ Begley, p. 121.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000a, pp. 514–516.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 128–129.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 129–132.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 137–138.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 137–143.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 149, 162.
- ^ Cooper, p. 209.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 153.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 163–166.
- ^ Cooper, p. 219.
- ^ a b c Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 142–146.
- ^ Cooper, pp. 210–211.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 145.
- ^ Cooper, p. 211.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 146.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 169–171.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 171.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 182.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 184.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 185–187.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 164–165.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 174.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 167.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 174–175.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 167–168.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 174–179.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 225.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 168–169.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 218.
- ^ Clark & Kiran, The South Since Appomattox (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 323
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 182–183.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 234–240.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 189–191.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 193–196.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 257–259.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 147–150.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 232.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 179–181.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 151, 185.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 204–205.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 158–160.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 159–161.
- ^ McGhee, p. 8018.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 216.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 262–267.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 267–268.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 161.
- ^ a b c Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 162.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 268–269.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 270–272.
- ^ "The South Carolina Assembly Gives Butler Only Twenty-one Votes". The New York Times. December 12, 1894. p. 1.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 281.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 208.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 205–208.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 209, 211.
- ^ Tindall, p. 277.
- ^ Tindall, pp. 277–282.
- ^ Tindall, p. 294.
- ^ Tindall, pp. 285–287.
- ^ Tillman, Benjamin (March 23, 1900). "Speech of Senator Benjamin R. Tillman". Congressional Record, 56th Congress, 1st Session. (Reprinted in Richard Purday, ed., Document Sets for the South in U. S. History [Lexington, MA.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1991], p. 147.). pp. 3223–3224.
- ^ Jones, pp. 43–45.
- ^ Kazin, pp. 41–43.
- ^ Jones, p. 49.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 317.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 320–322.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 323.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 245–246.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 248–251.
- ^ Jones, p. 184.
- ^ Coletta, pp. 130–133.
- ^ Bensel, p. 209.
- ^ Bensel, p. 210.
- ^ Bensel, pp. 211–212.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 251.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 251–252.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 337–339.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 253.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 15–16.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 254–255.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 9–12.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 259.
- ^ Tillman 1907, p. 4.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 258.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 261.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 256–258.
- ^ Zucchino, pp. 121–125
- ^ "RACE QUESTION IN POLITICS:North Carolina White Men Seek to Wrest Control from the Negroes". New York Times. October 24, 1898.
- ^ a b Simkins 1944, p. 394.
- ^ McWhirter, Cameron (2011). Red Summer. The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. Henry Holt. ISBN 9780805089066.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 396.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 397.
- ^ Quoted in Charles Wesley Melick (1908). Some Phases of the Negro Question. D.H. Deloe. p. 63.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 63.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 352–355.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 270–271.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 272–273.
- ^ Liptak, Adam (February 3, 2010). "Justice Defends Ruling on Finance". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 266.
- ^ a b "TILLMAN, Benjamin Ryan, (1847–1918)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
- ^ a b Orville Vernon, Burton (2002). "Introduction". Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian. University of South Carolina Press. pp. xxvi–xxvii. ISBN 1-57003-477-X.
- ^ a b c Kantrowitz 2000b, p. 305.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 522.
- ^ Stone, pp. 54–56.
- ^ Stone, pp. 65–67, 71.
- ^ Stone, p. 67.
- ^ Simkins 1944, pp. 538–546.
- ^ Zucchino, pp. 351
- ^ a b JBHE, p. 48.
- ^ Tindall, p. 303.
- ^ Simkins 1944, p. 546.
- ^ Herbert, Bob (January 22, 2008). "The Blight That Is Still With Us". The New York Times. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
- ^ Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 306–307.
- ^ Marchant, Bristow (August 25, 2017). "Protesters want Confederate monuments removed from SC State House". The State. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
- ^ Simkins 1937, p. 18.
- ^ "Tillman Hall, York County (Winthrop University, Rock Hill)". National Register Properties in South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
- ^ "Clemson Trustees weigh in on Tillman Hall name change". WYFF. February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
- ^ Bustos, Joseph (June 12, 2020). "Clemson wants to drop Tillman Hall name. It wants SC lawmakers' help". The State. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
- ^ a b Kantrowitz 2000b, pp. 307–308.
Bibliografía
- Begley, Paul R. (April 1988). "Governor Richardson Faces the Tillman Challenge". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 89 (2): 119–126. JSTOR 27654607.
- Bensel, Richard Franklin (2008). Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-71762-5.
- Clark, E. Culpepper (November 1983). "Pitchfork Ben Tillman and the Emergence of Southern Demagoguery" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of Speech. 69 (4): 423–433. doi:10.1080/00335638309383667.
- Coletta, Paulo E. (1964). William Jennings Bryan: Political Evangelist, 1860–1908. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-0022-7.
- Cooper, Jr., William J. (October 1972). "Economics or Race: An Analysis of the Gubernatorial Election of 1890 in South Carolina". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 73 (4): 209–219. JSTOR 27567146.
- Ford, Lacy K. Jr. (October 1997). "Origins of the Edgefield Tradition: The Late Antebellum Experience and the Roots of Political Insurgency". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 98 (4): 328–348. JSTOR 27570267.
- Jones, Stanley L. (1964). The Presidential Election of 1896. University of Wisconsin Press. OCLC 445683.
- Kantrowitz, Stephen (August 2000). "Ben Tillman and Hendrix McLane, Agrarian Rebels: White Manhood, 'The Farmers,' and the Limits of Southern Populism". The Journal of Southern History. 66 (3): 497–524. doi:10.2307/2587866. JSTOR 2587866.
- Kantrowitz, Stephen (2000). Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2530-3.
- Kazin, Michael (2006). A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-41135-9.
- McGhee, Zach (September 1906). "Tillman, Smasher of Traditions". The World's Work. pp. 8013–8020.
- Miller, Jeffrey W. (Fall 2002). "Redemption through Violence: White Mobs and Black Citizenship in Albion Tourgée's A Fool's Errand". The Southern Literary Journal. 35 (1): 14–27. doi:10.1353/slj.2003.0011. JSTOR 20078347. S2CID 153523492.
- Morgan, H. Wayne (1969). From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877–1896. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2136-2.
- Perkins, Lindsey S. (1948). "The Oratory of Benjamin Ryan Tillman". Speech Monographs. XV (1): 1–18. doi:10.1080/03637754809374940.
- "'Pitchfork' Ben Tillman: The Most Lionized Figure in South Carolina History". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (58): 38–39. Winter 2007–2008. JSTOR 25073824.
- Simkins, Francis Butler (May 1937). "Ben Tillman's View of the Negro". The Journal of Southern History. 3 (2): 161–174. doi:10.2307/2191880. JSTOR 2191880.
- Simkins, Francis Butler (1967) [1944]. Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian (first paperback ed.). Louisiana State University Press. OCLC 1877696.
- Stone, Clarence N. (January 1963). "Bleaseism and the 1912 Election in South Carolina". The North Carolina Historical Review. 40 (1): 54–74. JSTOR 23517346.
- Tillman, Benjamin R. (1907). The Race Problem. unknown. OCLC 1174778.
- Tillman, Benjamin R. (1909). The Struggles of '76. unknown. OCLC 10148685.
- Tindall, George B. (July 1952). "The Question of Race in the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1895". The Journal of Negro History. 37 (3): 277–303. doi:10.2307/2715494. JSTOR 2715494. S2CID 149809267.
- Zucchino, David (2020). Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 9780802128386.
Otras lecturas
- Burton, Orville Vernon (1985). In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1619-6. New social history; online edition
- Krause, Kevin Michael. "A Different State of Mind: Ben Tillman and the Transformation of State Government in South Carolina, 1885–1895" (PhD. Diss. University of Georgia, 2014.) online
- Logan, Rayford W. (1997) [1965]. The Betrayal of the Negro, from Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80758-9. This is an expanded edition of Logan's 1954 book The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir, 1877–1901.
- Robison, Daniel M. (1937). "From Tillman to Long: Some Striking Leaders of the Rural South". Journal of Southern History. 3 (3): 289–310. doi:10.2307/2191237. JSTOR 2191237.
- Simkins, Francis Butler (1926). The Tillman Movement in South Carolina. Duke University Press.
- Simon, Bryant (1998). A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910–1948. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2401-6. online edition
enlaces externos
- "Their own Hotheadedness": Tillman speech in Senate advocating disenfranchisement of blacks and lynching of those who protested
Party political offices | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by John Peter Richardson III | Democratic nominee for Governor of South Carolina 1890, 1892 | Succeeded by John Gary Evans |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by John Peter Richardson III | Governor of South Carolina 1890–1894 | Succeeded by John Gary Evans |
U.S. Senate | ||
Preceded by Matthew Butler | United States Senator from South Carolina 1895–1918 | Succeeded by Christie Benet |