Presidents and Populism: Thomas Watson
The latter part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was the high tide of American populism, especially after the Panic of 1893 hit. Americans, especially those in the agricultural and labor sectors, mistrusted bankers, railroad owners and wealthy industrialists, and populist politicians who championed their cause thrived at the ballot box, especially in southern and midwestern states. One of the populist politicians of the day was Thomas Edward "Tom" Watson of Georgia. Watson was an attorney, a newspaper editor and a writer who championed the cause of farmers and who became a leader of the Populist Party. In his rhetoric he attacked big business, bankers, railroads, Democratic President Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party generally.
Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890, Watson pushed through legislation mandating Rural Free Delivery, called the "biggest and most expensive endeavor" ever instituted by the U.S. postal service. Politically he was a leader on the left in the 1890s, calling on poor whites and poor blacks to unite against the elites. After 1900, however, he shifted to nativist attacks on blacks and Catholics (and after 1914 on Jews). Two years before his death, he was elected to the United States Senate.
Watson was born on September 5, 1856, in Thomson, Georgia. He attended Mercer University, but did not graduate due to a lack of money in the family. Instead he became a school teacher and later studied law. He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1875. Watson joined the Democratic Party and in 1882 he was elected to the Georgia Legislature.In the legislature he championed the cause of the small farmer against the powerful influence of railroad corporations, banks and other large and wealthy institutions. He tried to get a bill passed that would require railroads to pay county property taxes, but the bill failed to pass after U.S. Senator Joseph E. Brown offered to provide Georgia legislators with a free round-trip train ticket to the Louisville Exposition of 1883. A disgusted Watson resigned his seat and returned to the practice of law before his term expired.
Watson became a supporter of the Farmers' Alliance and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890 as an Alliance Democrat. He served in the House from 1891 until March 1893. In Congress, he left the Democratic caucus, and joined the first People's Party congressional caucus. (The People's Party was also known as the Populist Party). The Populists nominated him to become Speaker of the House, but he lacked any other support to win the job.
The People's Party platform called for public ownership of railroads, steamship lines, and telephone and telegraph systems. It also supported the free and unlimited coinage of silver, the abolition of national banks, a system of graduated income tax and the direct election of United States Senators. As a Populist, Watson tried to draw support from a variety of groups as well as from both white and black constituents. He supported the right of African-Americans to vote.
Watson's greatest accomplishment as a Congressman was his pushing through a bill in 1893 that required the Post Office to deliver mail to remote farm families. Previously, persons living in more remote rural areas had to pick up their mail at distant post offices, or else pay private carriers for their mail delivery. The legislation that Watson proposed was opposed by private carriers, and by many small-town merchants who worried the service would reduce farm families' visits to town to obtain goods and merchandise. The new service began operating in 1896.
Watson ran for re-election in 1892, but was defeated by well-financed opponents. Democrats in Georgia passed legislation that made it more difficult for African-Americans and poor whites to vote. Many were removed from voter rolls by such methods as cumulative poll taxes, literacy tests and residency requirements. In 1908, Georgia also instituted primaries that only allowed white men to vote. This disenfranchisement of African-Americans occurred in spite of the fact that in 1900 African Americans made up 46.7% of the population of Georgia.
After being defeated, Watson returned to work as a lawyer in Thomson, Georgia. He also served as editor and business manager of the People's Party Paper, published in Atlanta. In the 1896 presidential election the leaders of the Populist Party approached having William Jennings Bryan, the proposed Democratic Party candidate, as their candidate also. They had hoped that Watson would become Bryan's running mate, but when Arthur Sewall, a conservative banker from Maine, was chosen as Bryan's running mate on the the Democratic ticket, this caused a split in the Populist Party. Some refused to support Bryan, while others reluctantly campaigned for him. Watson's name appeared on the ballot as Bryan's vice presidential nominee on the Populist Party ticket, while Sewall was listed as Bryan's Democratic Party vice presidential nominee. In the election of 1896 Watson received 217,000 votes for vice president. Bryan's defeat damaged the Populist Party, and it ceased to be any sort of force in Georgia politics.
As a new century began, Watson mad a dramatic shift in his expressed views on the enfranchisement of African-Americans in Georgia and the South, something he had previously supported as a populist. He had once condemned lynching and tried to protect African-Americans from lynch mobs. However, after 1900 his views shifted, perhaps because he thought that a more racist approach would make him more electable, or perhaps because this was his interpretation of populist sentiment. By 1904, his rhetoric was much more racist and much more critical of Afrrican-Americans, and he unashamedly identified himself as a white supremacist. He used his magazine and newspaper to launch virulently racist editorials against African-Americans.
Watson was nominated as the Populist Party's candidate for President in 1904. He received 117,183 votes, twice as many votes as the Populist Party candidate had received in 1900, but less than 12% of the party's support in the 1892 election. The Populist Party's fortunes declined even further when Watson ran as the party's candidate for President in the 1908 presidential campaign, when Judge Samuel W. Williams ran as his running mate. In that election, the ticket received just 29,100 votes, most of which came from southern states. In the 1904 and 1908 campaigns, Watson received 18% and 12% of the popular vote in his home state of Georgia. After the 1908 campaign, the Populist Party was dissolved.
Watson continued to preach a message of prejudice against African-Americans, immigrants, Jews and Catholics. He said that eastern urban America was dominated by Catholics, and he continued to rail against these groups in his publications, namely Watson's Magazine and The Jeffersonian. In 1913 Leo Frank, a Jewish American factory manager who was accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old factory worker. Frank's family had asked Watson to be Frank's defense counsel as Watson had acted for defendants in a number of capital murder cases and had been a vocal opponent of the death penalty. Watson refused to do so because Frank was a Jew. Frank was convicted of murder on August 25, 1913, after a month-long trial and was sentenced to death by hanging. At the 11th hour, on June 21, 1915, outgoing Governor of Georgia John M. Slaton commuted the sentence of Frank to life in prison. But on August 16, 1915, Frank was abducted from his prison cell by a group of prominent men and lynched in the early hours of August 17, 1915. Rather than condemn the act, Watson had in fact called for such action before it took place, and he later praised the lynch mob in his magazine, The Jeffersonian. Watson wrote "Frank belongs to the Jewish aristocracy, and it was determined by the rich Jews that no aristocrat of their race should die for the death of a working-class Gentile".
When World War I began in 1914, Watson opposed American entry into the war. In his newspaper he wrote an editorial with the headline "Do You Want Your Son Killed in Europe in A Quarrel You Have Nothing to Do With?" As a result of his continued criticism of the war after the American entry in 1917, and his class-based arguments against the Selective Service Act of 1917, the U.S. Post Office refused to deliver his publications, bringing them to an end.
In 1918, Watson made a late unsuccessful bid for Congress. He rejoined the Democratic Party, and in 1920 was elected to the U.S. Senate. But he did not serve out his term. Tom Watson died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1922 at the age of 66.
Watson was honored with a 12-foot-high bronze statue on the lawn of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta over the legend "A champion of right who never faltered in the cause." In October 2013, Governor Nathan Deal signed an order for the relocation of the statue to Park Plaza, which is across the street from the Capitol and on November 29, 2013, Watson's statue was removed from the steps of the state Capitol, and relocated across the street at Park Plaza.
Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890, Watson pushed through legislation mandating Rural Free Delivery, called the "biggest and most expensive endeavor" ever instituted by the U.S. postal service. Politically he was a leader on the left in the 1890s, calling on poor whites and poor blacks to unite against the elites. After 1900, however, he shifted to nativist attacks on blacks and Catholics (and after 1914 on Jews). Two years before his death, he was elected to the United States Senate.
Watson was born on September 5, 1856, in Thomson, Georgia. He attended Mercer University, but did not graduate due to a lack of money in the family. Instead he became a school teacher and later studied law. He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1875. Watson joined the Democratic Party and in 1882 he was elected to the Georgia Legislature.In the legislature he championed the cause of the small farmer against the powerful influence of railroad corporations, banks and other large and wealthy institutions. He tried to get a bill passed that would require railroads to pay county property taxes, but the bill failed to pass after U.S. Senator Joseph E. Brown offered to provide Georgia legislators with a free round-trip train ticket to the Louisville Exposition of 1883. A disgusted Watson resigned his seat and returned to the practice of law before his term expired.
Watson became a supporter of the Farmers' Alliance and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890 as an Alliance Democrat. He served in the House from 1891 until March 1893. In Congress, he left the Democratic caucus, and joined the first People's Party congressional caucus. (The People's Party was also known as the Populist Party). The Populists nominated him to become Speaker of the House, but he lacked any other support to win the job.
The People's Party platform called for public ownership of railroads, steamship lines, and telephone and telegraph systems. It also supported the free and unlimited coinage of silver, the abolition of national banks, a system of graduated income tax and the direct election of United States Senators. As a Populist, Watson tried to draw support from a variety of groups as well as from both white and black constituents. He supported the right of African-Americans to vote.
Watson's greatest accomplishment as a Congressman was his pushing through a bill in 1893 that required the Post Office to deliver mail to remote farm families. Previously, persons living in more remote rural areas had to pick up their mail at distant post offices, or else pay private carriers for their mail delivery. The legislation that Watson proposed was opposed by private carriers, and by many small-town merchants who worried the service would reduce farm families' visits to town to obtain goods and merchandise. The new service began operating in 1896.
Watson ran for re-election in 1892, but was defeated by well-financed opponents. Democrats in Georgia passed legislation that made it more difficult for African-Americans and poor whites to vote. Many were removed from voter rolls by such methods as cumulative poll taxes, literacy tests and residency requirements. In 1908, Georgia also instituted primaries that only allowed white men to vote. This disenfranchisement of African-Americans occurred in spite of the fact that in 1900 African Americans made up 46.7% of the population of Georgia.
After being defeated, Watson returned to work as a lawyer in Thomson, Georgia. He also served as editor and business manager of the People's Party Paper, published in Atlanta. In the 1896 presidential election the leaders of the Populist Party approached having William Jennings Bryan, the proposed Democratic Party candidate, as their candidate also. They had hoped that Watson would become Bryan's running mate, but when Arthur Sewall, a conservative banker from Maine, was chosen as Bryan's running mate on the the Democratic ticket, this caused a split in the Populist Party. Some refused to support Bryan, while others reluctantly campaigned for him. Watson's name appeared on the ballot as Bryan's vice presidential nominee on the Populist Party ticket, while Sewall was listed as Bryan's Democratic Party vice presidential nominee. In the election of 1896 Watson received 217,000 votes for vice president. Bryan's defeat damaged the Populist Party, and it ceased to be any sort of force in Georgia politics.
As a new century began, Watson mad a dramatic shift in his expressed views on the enfranchisement of African-Americans in Georgia and the South, something he had previously supported as a populist. He had once condemned lynching and tried to protect African-Americans from lynch mobs. However, after 1900 his views shifted, perhaps because he thought that a more racist approach would make him more electable, or perhaps because this was his interpretation of populist sentiment. By 1904, his rhetoric was much more racist and much more critical of Afrrican-Americans, and he unashamedly identified himself as a white supremacist. He used his magazine and newspaper to launch virulently racist editorials against African-Americans.
Watson was nominated as the Populist Party's candidate for President in 1904. He received 117,183 votes, twice as many votes as the Populist Party candidate had received in 1900, but less than 12% of the party's support in the 1892 election. The Populist Party's fortunes declined even further when Watson ran as the party's candidate for President in the 1908 presidential campaign, when Judge Samuel W. Williams ran as his running mate. In that election, the ticket received just 29,100 votes, most of which came from southern states. In the 1904 and 1908 campaigns, Watson received 18% and 12% of the popular vote in his home state of Georgia. After the 1908 campaign, the Populist Party was dissolved.
Watson continued to preach a message of prejudice against African-Americans, immigrants, Jews and Catholics. He said that eastern urban America was dominated by Catholics, and he continued to rail against these groups in his publications, namely Watson's Magazine and The Jeffersonian. In 1913 Leo Frank, a Jewish American factory manager who was accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old factory worker. Frank's family had asked Watson to be Frank's defense counsel as Watson had acted for defendants in a number of capital murder cases and had been a vocal opponent of the death penalty. Watson refused to do so because Frank was a Jew. Frank was convicted of murder on August 25, 1913, after a month-long trial and was sentenced to death by hanging. At the 11th hour, on June 21, 1915, outgoing Governor of Georgia John M. Slaton commuted the sentence of Frank to life in prison. But on August 16, 1915, Frank was abducted from his prison cell by a group of prominent men and lynched in the early hours of August 17, 1915. Rather than condemn the act, Watson had in fact called for such action before it took place, and he later praised the lynch mob in his magazine, The Jeffersonian. Watson wrote "Frank belongs to the Jewish aristocracy, and it was determined by the rich Jews that no aristocrat of their race should die for the death of a working-class Gentile".
When World War I began in 1914, Watson opposed American entry into the war. In his newspaper he wrote an editorial with the headline "Do You Want Your Son Killed in Europe in A Quarrel You Have Nothing to Do With?" As a result of his continued criticism of the war after the American entry in 1917, and his class-based arguments against the Selective Service Act of 1917, the U.S. Post Office refused to deliver his publications, bringing them to an end.
In 1918, Watson made a late unsuccessful bid for Congress. He rejoined the Democratic Party, and in 1920 was elected to the U.S. Senate. But he did not serve out his term. Tom Watson died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1922 at the age of 66.
Watson was honored with a 12-foot-high bronze statue on the lawn of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta over the legend "A champion of right who never faltered in the cause." In October 2013, Governor Nathan Deal signed an order for the relocation of the statue to Park Plaza, which is across the street from the Capitol and on November 29, 2013, Watson's statue was removed from the steps of the state Capitol, and relocated across the street at Park Plaza.