Presidents and Populism: "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman
There have been sorry times in the nation's history when certain politicians have ridden to political victory on the back of a populist sentiment that was rooted in racism. One of the most prominent examples of this is "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman, who served as both Governor and US Senator for the state of South Carolina in the last part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. President Lyndon B. Johnson once 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."
Tillman, a member of the Democratic Party, served as Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. He was unashamedly A white supremacist who often spoke out against African-Americans, who led a paramilitary group of "Red Shirts" that intimidated African-Americans from voting during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he frequently attacked and mocked African-Americans, and even bragged about having helped to kill them during that campaign.
In the 1880s, Tillman became dissatisfied with the Democratic and especially with President Grover Cleveland. He earned his nickname "Pitchfork" from a comment that he once made about Cleveland, when he said that he wanted to use a pitchfork to "prod that old bag of beef", referring to Cleveland. The 1880s were a time of conflict between farmers and other growers and planters, and the moneyed interests, mainly the banks and railroads. In 1884, Tillman founded the Edgefield Agricultural Club, a group designed to promote the interests of white farmers in his state. This group died out for lack of members, but in January 1885, Tillman formed the Edgefield County Agricultural Society. Tillman was elected one of three delegates to the August joint meeting of the state Grange (a state farmers' organization) and the state Agricultural and Mechanical Society at Bennettsville, and was invited to be one of the speakers. In his speech he called on his state government to do more for farmers. He blamed politicians and lawyers for the farmers' problems, including the crop lien system that left many farmers struggling to pay bills. He accused the lawyers and politicians of being in the pockets of big business and he even criticized his audience for letting themselves be duped by these men.
Tillman's speech gained notoriety in state newspapers. The Columbia Daily Register wrote that Tillman's speech "electrified the assembly and was the sensation of the meeting". The speech was printed in several newspapers, and Tillman began to receive more invitations to speak at other events. Within two months of the Bennettsville speech, Tillman was being promoted as a candidate for governor of the state in the 1886 election. He continued to speak to audiences, and was nicknamed the "Agricultural Moses". In his speeches he made political demands, including a call for primary elections to determine who would get the Democratic nomination rather than the leaving the decision to the state nominating convention. He also called for the establishment of a state college for the education of farmers.
Tillman's political opponents thought his rhetoric to be too over-the-top and at first they did not take him seriously, but his popularity grew, even though he would insult his audiences in his speeches, calling them ignorant, imbecilic, backward, apathetic, and foolish. In spite of this, his support grew. He attracted a number of allies, including those who had also belonged to "Red Shirt" groups. His goal was to control the state Democratic Party, and he came within thirty votes of doing so at the 1886 state Democratic convention. His lack of success caused him to announce his retirement from politics, but few people believed that they had seen the last of him.
Tillman had met, in 1886, with Thomas G. Clemson, son-in-law of the late John C. Calhoun, to discuss a bequest to underwrite the cost of a new agricultural school. Clemson died in 1888, and in his will he left money and land for the college, and made Tillman one of seven trustees for life, who had the power to appoint their successors. Tillman used this power to exclude African-Americans from attending what became Clemson College (later Clemson University), when the institution was authorized by the legislature in December 1888. The Clemson bequest helped reignite Tillman's movement and he began speaking publicly once again. The targets of Tillman's oratory were the politicians in Columbia and the banks and wealthy class. In letters to newspapers and stump speeches, he called the state government a pit of corruption."
In 1888 Governor John P. Richardson sought re-election, something that Tillman opposed. Tillman was given the opportunity to debate Richardson and he attacked the governor, calling him irreligious, a gambler and a drunk. Richardson was re-nominated by the state Democratic convention, which turned down Tillman's demand for a primary election. In January 1890, Tillman's supporter George Washington Shell published what came to be known as the "Shell Manifesto" in a Charleston newspaper, listing a number of complaints by farmers under the Richardson government, and calling for them to elect delegates to meet in March to recommend a candidate for governor. Tillman and his supporters were often attacked in the newspapers by Richardson supporters, but this only tended to increase Tillman' support among farmers, who saw him as their champion. A "Shell Convention" was held and state Representative John L. M. Irby nominated Tillman, for Governor. Tillman gained a narrow victory in winning the convention's recommendation. He spent the summer of 1890 making speeches and debating rivals for the nomination. The state executive committee tried to change the nomination method to a primary, in the hope that the anti-Tillman forces would unite behind a single candidate. Instead 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. Those Democrats who could not accept Tillman's candidacy held an October meeting with 20 of South Carolina's 35 counties represented, and nominated Alexander Haskell for governor. Tillman's campaign managers made race the focus of the campaign. On Election Day, November 4, 1890, Tillman was elected governor with 59,159 votes to 14,828 for Haskell.
As Governor, Tillman said that "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." Tillman made it clear he would not allow African Americans to have any role in the political life of South Carolina. He said "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."
Tillman sought election to a second two-year term in 1892. He was a strong supporter of free silver or bimetallism, making silver legal tender. Tillman felt that this would make it easier for the farmer to repay debts. His challenger was former governor John C. Sheppard. The bitter campaign was marked by violence. At the time, the likely Democratic presidential candidate for 1892 was former president Grover Cleveland, was a staunch opponent of free silver. Tillman attacked Cleveland, and when the former president was nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for President, Tillman worked to deliver South Carolina for Cleveland. But after Cleveland was elected, the president was offended by Tillman's earlier attacks, and denied Tillman any role in patronage in South Carolina. Tillman continued his vocal criticism of Cleveland, says that the president "is an old bag of beef and I am going to Washington with a pitchfork and prod him in his old fat ribs". This led to Tillman being called "Pitchfork Ben".
Tillman had wanted a Senate seat once he concluded his time as governor. Senator Butler, whose term expired in March 1895, had been a political opponent of Tillman's, but tried to shift his positions towards Tillman's, hoping to appeal to the governor's supporters. In the next election Tillman saw that candidates loyal to him ran for the legislature. As a result, on December 11, 1894, Benjamin Tillman was elected to the Senate by the new legislature with 131 votes. Butler received 21 votes.
By early 1896, many in the Democratic Party were bitterly opposed to President Cleveland and his policies, none more so than Tillman. The United States was 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, he orchestrated the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, legislation which required the government to purchase and coin large quantities of silver bullion. Its repeal outraged supporters of free silver. Cleveland's suppression of the Pullman strike by force contributed 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.Although he was elected by the same party as the president. Tillman viciously attacked Cleveland in his senate speeches, calling the president "the most gigantic failure of any man who ever occupied the White House, all because of his vanity and obstinacy". The New York Times criticized Tillman for these attacks, calling him "a filthy baboon, accidentally seated in the Senate chamber".
Tillman believed that he could be elected president in 1896 by uniting the silver supporters of the South and West. He was willing to run as a third party candidate if Cleveland won the Democratic Party nomination, though not for the People's Party (or Populists). He opposed them because they allowed African Americans to seek office. Tillman gained national attention because of his stinging oratory. He knew that the 1896 Democratic National Convention was likely to be controlled by silver supporters, and he was spoken of as a possible presidential candidate. He was his state's "favorite son" candidate, and its representative on the Democrats' Platform Committee. The platform had the support of the pro-silver majority of the committee.
At the convention Tillman and former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan were selected as the speakers in favor of the platform supporting a pro-silver policy. Tillman was selected to open the debate. Unfortunately, the speech he gave on July 9, 1896, offended many of the delegates because he put the issue as a regional one rather than as a national one. His angry, divisive, cursing, and haranguing style alienated much of his audience. It upset delegates, who wished to view silver as a national issue and many shouted for Tillman to stop even though less than half of his time had expired. Many believe that the speech effectively destroyed his chances to become a national candidate. With Tillman's candidacy stalled, when Bryan deliver an address in support of silver that did not rely on sectionalism (his famous "Cross of Gold" speech), he also won himself the presidential nomination.
Tillman campaigned for Bryan, but was a favorite target of those who attacked the Democratic candidate and supported Republican William McKinley. Bryan had also been nominated by the People's Party (the Populists). Bryan lost the election, with Tillman likely helping to bring about that defeat by reminding voters of the Democratic Party's strong ties to the old south.
Tillman remained in the Senate for the rest of his life. He was called "the Senate's wild man" because of his inflammatory and racist rhetoric and his loose cannon style. In 1902, Tillman accused his junior colleague from South Carolina, John L. McLaurin, of corruption in a speech to the Senate. McLaurin, who had once been a Tillmanite, called Tillman a liar. This prompted Tillman to rush across the Senate floor and punch McLaurin in the face. McLaurin responded by giving Tillman a bloody nose before the Sergeant at Arms and other senators broke up the fight. Both men were held in contempt and the Senate considered suspending them, but Tillman argued that it was unfair to deprive South Carolina of both of her representatives. In the end, both men were censured. In retaliation, the politically powerful Tillman arranged for McLaurin not to be re-elected by the South Carolina legislature. The incident caused President Theodore Roosevelt to withdraw an invitation to Tilliman to have dinner at the White House. Tillman became a bitter enemy of Roosevelt, though this was just as much caused by Roosevelt dining at the White House with Booker T. Washington, an African American. When that happened, Tillman told reporters, "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."
Tillman's senate rhetoric was filled with violent racist sentiments. In one of his speeches in the senate, he said "blacks must submit to either white domination or extermination". He called African Americans inferior and said that "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."
Tillman was the primary sponsor of the Tillman Act, the first federal campaign finance reform law, which was passed in 1907. This law banned corporate contributions in federal political campaigns. When President Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913, Tillman supported Wilson's legislation in the Senate, except on women's suffrage, which he strongly opposed. When the United States entered World War I, Tillman was a strong supporter.
Tillman was re-elected to the senate in 1901 and 1907. When the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, it gave the people the right to elect senators. This made little difference in South Carolina. Tillman in 1914 announced plans to retire when his term expired in 1919, but he changed his mind and announced 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. A month later Tillman was stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage at the end of June, and he died on July 3, 1918 in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery, Trenton, South Carolina.
Tillman, a member of the Democratic Party, served as Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. He was unashamedly A white supremacist who often spoke out against African-Americans, who led a paramilitary group of "Red Shirts" that intimidated African-Americans from voting during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he frequently attacked and mocked African-Americans, and even bragged about having helped to kill them during that campaign.
In the 1880s, Tillman became dissatisfied with the Democratic and especially with President Grover Cleveland. He earned his nickname "Pitchfork" from a comment that he once made about Cleveland, when he said that he wanted to use a pitchfork to "prod that old bag of beef", referring to Cleveland. The 1880s were a time of conflict between farmers and other growers and planters, and the moneyed interests, mainly the banks and railroads. In 1884, Tillman founded the Edgefield Agricultural Club, a group designed to promote the interests of white farmers in his state. This group died out for lack of members, but in January 1885, Tillman formed the Edgefield County Agricultural Society. Tillman was elected one of three delegates to the August joint meeting of the state Grange (a state farmers' organization) and the state Agricultural and Mechanical Society at Bennettsville, and was invited to be one of the speakers. In his speech he called on his state government to do more for farmers. He blamed politicians and lawyers for the farmers' problems, including the crop lien system that left many farmers struggling to pay bills. He accused the lawyers and politicians of being in the pockets of big business and he even criticized his audience for letting themselves be duped by these men.
Tillman's speech gained notoriety in state newspapers. The Columbia Daily Register wrote that Tillman's speech "electrified the assembly and was the sensation of the meeting". The speech was printed in several newspapers, and Tillman began to receive more invitations to speak at other events. Within two months of the Bennettsville speech, Tillman was being promoted as a candidate for governor of the state in the 1886 election. He continued to speak to audiences, and was nicknamed the "Agricultural Moses". In his speeches he made political demands, including a call for primary elections to determine who would get the Democratic nomination rather than the leaving the decision to the state nominating convention. He also called for the establishment of a state college for the education of farmers.
Tillman's political opponents thought his rhetoric to be too over-the-top and at first they did not take him seriously, but his popularity grew, even though he would insult his audiences in his speeches, calling them ignorant, imbecilic, backward, apathetic, and foolish. In spite of this, his support grew. He attracted a number of allies, including those who had also belonged to "Red Shirt" groups. His goal was to control the state Democratic Party, and he came within thirty votes of doing so at the 1886 state Democratic convention. His lack of success caused him to announce his retirement from politics, but few people believed that they had seen the last of him.
Tillman had met, in 1886, with Thomas G. Clemson, son-in-law of the late John C. Calhoun, to discuss a bequest to underwrite the cost of a new agricultural school. Clemson died in 1888, and in his will he left money and land for the college, and made Tillman one of seven trustees for life, who had the power to appoint their successors. Tillman used this power to exclude African-Americans from attending what became Clemson College (later Clemson University), when the institution was authorized by the legislature in December 1888. The Clemson bequest helped reignite Tillman's movement and he began speaking publicly once again. The targets of Tillman's oratory were the politicians in Columbia and the banks and wealthy class. In letters to newspapers and stump speeches, he called the state government a pit of corruption."
In 1888 Governor John P. Richardson sought re-election, something that Tillman opposed. Tillman was given the opportunity to debate Richardson and he attacked the governor, calling him irreligious, a gambler and a drunk. Richardson was re-nominated by the state Democratic convention, which turned down Tillman's demand for a primary election. In January 1890, Tillman's supporter George Washington Shell published what came to be known as the "Shell Manifesto" in a Charleston newspaper, listing a number of complaints by farmers under the Richardson government, and calling for them to elect delegates to meet in March to recommend a candidate for governor. Tillman and his supporters were often attacked in the newspapers by Richardson supporters, but this only tended to increase Tillman' support among farmers, who saw him as their champion. A "Shell Convention" was held and state Representative John L. M. Irby nominated Tillman, for Governor. Tillman gained a narrow victory in winning the convention's recommendation. He spent the summer of 1890 making speeches and debating rivals for the nomination. The state executive committee tried to change the nomination method to a primary, in the hope that the anti-Tillman forces would unite behind a single candidate. Instead 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. Those Democrats who could not accept Tillman's candidacy held an October meeting with 20 of South Carolina's 35 counties represented, and nominated Alexander Haskell for governor. Tillman's campaign managers made race the focus of the campaign. On Election Day, November 4, 1890, Tillman was elected governor with 59,159 votes to 14,828 for Haskell.
As Governor, Tillman said that "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." Tillman made it clear he would not allow African Americans to have any role in the political life of South Carolina. He said "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."
Tillman sought election to a second two-year term in 1892. He was a strong supporter of free silver or bimetallism, making silver legal tender. Tillman felt that this would make it easier for the farmer to repay debts. His challenger was former governor John C. Sheppard. The bitter campaign was marked by violence. At the time, the likely Democratic presidential candidate for 1892 was former president Grover Cleveland, was a staunch opponent of free silver. Tillman attacked Cleveland, and when the former president was nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for President, Tillman worked to deliver South Carolina for Cleveland. But after Cleveland was elected, the president was offended by Tillman's earlier attacks, and denied Tillman any role in patronage in South Carolina. Tillman continued his vocal criticism of Cleveland, says that the president "is an old bag of beef and I am going to Washington with a pitchfork and prod him in his old fat ribs". This led to Tillman being called "Pitchfork Ben".
Tillman had wanted a Senate seat once he concluded his time as governor. Senator Butler, whose term expired in March 1895, had been a political opponent of Tillman's, but tried to shift his positions towards Tillman's, hoping to appeal to the governor's supporters. In the next election Tillman saw that candidates loyal to him ran for the legislature. As a result, on December 11, 1894, Benjamin Tillman was elected to the Senate by the new legislature with 131 votes. Butler received 21 votes.
By early 1896, many in the Democratic Party were bitterly opposed to President Cleveland and his policies, none more so than Tillman. The United States was 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, he orchestrated the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, legislation which required the government to purchase and coin large quantities of silver bullion. Its repeal outraged supporters of free silver. Cleveland's suppression of the Pullman strike by force contributed 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.Although he was elected by the same party as the president. Tillman viciously attacked Cleveland in his senate speeches, calling the president "the most gigantic failure of any man who ever occupied the White House, all because of his vanity and obstinacy". The New York Times criticized Tillman for these attacks, calling him "a filthy baboon, accidentally seated in the Senate chamber".
Tillman believed that he could be elected president in 1896 by uniting the silver supporters of the South and West. He was willing to run as a third party candidate if Cleveland won the Democratic Party nomination, though not for the People's Party (or Populists). He opposed them because they allowed African Americans to seek office. Tillman gained national attention because of his stinging oratory. He knew that the 1896 Democratic National Convention was likely to be controlled by silver supporters, and he was spoken of as a possible presidential candidate. He was his state's "favorite son" candidate, and its representative on the Democrats' Platform Committee. The platform had the support of the pro-silver majority of the committee.
At the convention Tillman and former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan were selected as the speakers in favor of the platform supporting a pro-silver policy. Tillman was selected to open the debate. Unfortunately, the speech he gave on July 9, 1896, offended many of the delegates because he put the issue as a regional one rather than as a national one. His angry, divisive, cursing, and haranguing style alienated much of his audience. It upset delegates, who wished to view silver as a national issue and many shouted for Tillman to stop even though less than half of his time had expired. Many believe that the speech effectively destroyed his chances to become a national candidate. With Tillman's candidacy stalled, when Bryan deliver an address in support of silver that did not rely on sectionalism (his famous "Cross of Gold" speech), he also won himself the presidential nomination.
Tillman campaigned for Bryan, but was a favorite target of those who attacked the Democratic candidate and supported Republican William McKinley. Bryan had also been nominated by the People's Party (the Populists). Bryan lost the election, with Tillman likely helping to bring about that defeat by reminding voters of the Democratic Party's strong ties to the old south.
Tillman remained in the Senate for the rest of his life. He was called "the Senate's wild man" because of his inflammatory and racist rhetoric and his loose cannon style. In 1902, Tillman accused his junior colleague from South Carolina, John L. McLaurin, of corruption in a speech to the Senate. McLaurin, who had once been a Tillmanite, called Tillman a liar. This prompted Tillman to rush across the Senate floor and punch McLaurin in the face. McLaurin responded by giving Tillman a bloody nose before the Sergeant at Arms and other senators broke up the fight. Both men were held in contempt and the Senate considered suspending them, but Tillman argued that it was unfair to deprive South Carolina of both of her representatives. In the end, both men were censured. In retaliation, the politically powerful Tillman arranged for McLaurin not to be re-elected by the South Carolina legislature. The incident caused President Theodore Roosevelt to withdraw an invitation to Tilliman to have dinner at the White House. Tillman became a bitter enemy of Roosevelt, though this was just as much caused by Roosevelt dining at the White House with Booker T. Washington, an African American. When that happened, Tillman told reporters, "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."
Tillman's senate rhetoric was filled with violent racist sentiments. In one of his speeches in the senate, he said "blacks must submit to either white domination or extermination". He called African Americans inferior and said that "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."
Tillman was the primary sponsor of the Tillman Act, the first federal campaign finance reform law, which was passed in 1907. This law banned corporate contributions in federal political campaigns. When President Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913, Tillman supported Wilson's legislation in the Senate, except on women's suffrage, which he strongly opposed. When the United States entered World War I, Tillman was a strong supporter.
Tillman was re-elected to the senate in 1901 and 1907. When the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, it gave the people the right to elect senators. This made little difference in South Carolina. Tillman in 1914 announced plans to retire when his term expired in 1919, but he changed his mind and announced 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. A month later Tillman was stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage at the end of June, and he died on July 3, 1918 in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery, Trenton, South Carolina.