Benjamin R. Tillman
Governor of South Carolina
In office 1890 – 1894
Preceded by	John Peter Richardson III
Succeeded by	John Gary Evans
United States Senator
In office 1895 – 1918
Preceded by	Matthew Butler
Succeeded by	Christie Benet
Born	August 11, 1847 Trenton, South Carolina
Died	July 3, 1918 Washington, DC
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic

Benjamin Ryan Tillman (August 11, 1847 - July 3, 1918) was an American politician who served as governor of South Carolina, from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator, from 1895 until his death. The Governor of the State of South Carolina is the Head of state for the State of South Carolina. John Peter Richardson III ( September 25, 1831 July 6, 1899) was Democratic Governor of South Carolina from 1886 to 1890 John Gary Evans ( October 15, 1863 June 27, 1942) was Democratic Governor of South Carolina from 1894 to 1897 Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Matthew Calbraith Butler ( March 8, 1836 – April 14, 1909) was an American military commander and politician from South Christie Benet (1879&ndash1951 was a Democratic Party politician who briefly represented the state of South Carolina in the U Events 2492 BC - Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Trenton is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Events 2492 BC - Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. Year 1918 ( MCMXVIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A list of South Carolina Governors. Colonial Period (1670-1775 See also List of colonial governors of South Carolina South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives Tillman was a member of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party.

Tillman, of German descent, was born near Trenton, South Carolina. Trenton is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. He left school in 1864 to join the Army of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, but was disabled by an illness that later caused the removal of his left eye; he never served in the Confederate Army. The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, and CSA) formed as the government set up from 1861 Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South During Reconstruction, he became a paramilitary fighter in the struggle to overthrow the interracial Republican coalition in the state and disempower the black majority. He was present at the Hamburg Massacre in July 1876, during which black Republican activists were murdered by Tillman's fellow "Red-shirts. The Hamburg Massacre (or Hamburg Riot) was a key event of South Carolina Reconstruction. The Red Shirts or Redshirts of the Southern United States were a white Paramilitary group in the 19th century active primarily after formal Reconstruction "

Presenting himself as the friend of ordinary white farmers, Tillman took over the South Carolina Farmers Alliance, and used the organization as a platform for his political ambitions. The Farmers' Alliance was an organized agrarian economic movement amongst U He was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1890, and served from December 1890 to December 1894. He helped establish Clemson College and Winthrop College while in office and Tillman Hall on the campus of Clemson is named in his honor. Winthrop University (formerly Winthrop College is an American public four-year Liberal arts College in Rock Hill, South Carolina When the Alliance founded the Populist Party on the Ocala Demands, Tillman arranged for the South Carolina Democratic Party to adopt the platform, though he refused to endorse the "sub-treasury," the Populists' most ambitious economic proposal, or to countenance any appeal to black voters. The Populist Party (also known as the People's Party) was a relatively short-lived Political party in the United States in the late 18th century The Ocala Demands was a platform for economic and political reform that was later adopted by the People's Party. The South Carolina Democratic Party is the South Carolina affiliate of the United States Democratic Party. The strategy prevented the development of an independent Populist Party and the biracial politics of North Carolina, thus assuring white control through the dominant, white Democratic Party. North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party.

He was largely responsible for calling the State constitutional convention in 1895 that disfranchised most of South Carolina's black men and required Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 As Tillman proudly proclaimed in 1900, "We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]. . . we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it. " (Logan, p. 91)

He was elected to the United States Senate in 1894, and was re-elected in 1901, 1907, and 1913. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives He served from 1895 to his death in 1918. A hotheaded and intemperate debater, Tillman became known as "Pitchfork Ben" after a speech he made on the Senate floor in 1896. In this speech, Tillman made several references to pitchforks and threatened to go to the White House and "poke old Grover [Cleveland] with a pitchfork" to prod him into action. Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18 1837 June 24 1908 was both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth President of the United States.

During his Senate career, he was censured by the Senate in 1902 after assaulting John L. McLaurin, another Senator. John Lowndes McLaurin ( May 9, 1860 - July 29, 1934) was a United States Representative and Senator from South Carolina He became the chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims (57th through 59th Congresses); served on the Committee on Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (61st and 62nd Congresses); and the Committee on Naval Affairs (63rd through 65th Congresses). During World War I, impatient with the Navy's requests for larger battleships every year, he ordered the United States Navy to design "maximum battleships," the largest battleships that they could use. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The "maximum battleships" also known as the "Tillman Battleships" were a series of World War I -era design studies for extremely large Battleships

Tillman took the lead in railroad regulation, though his foe Republican President Theodore Roosevelt out-maneuvered him in passage of the Hepburn Act of 1906. Theodore Roosevelt (ˈroʊzəvɛlt October 27 1858 January 6 1919 also known as T The Hepburn Act ( 59th Congress, Sess 1 ch 3591, enacted June 29[[ 906]] gave the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC the power to set maximum Tillman was the primary sponsor of the Tillman Act, the first federal campaign finance reform law, which was passed in 1907 and banned corporate contributions in federal political campaigns.

Tillman opposed American annexation of the Philippines because he feared an influx of non-white immigrants would result, undermining white racial purity. The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP Tillman maintained his white supremacist beliefs in the Senate that he had implemented as governor; he was one of the most outspoken and unapologetic advocates of white supremacy ever to serve in Congress. Another quote of Tillman's is "We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be the equal of the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him. "^[1]

Tillman died in Washington, DC and is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery, Trenton, South Carolina. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Trenton is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. A statue of him in his honor is outside the South Carolina State House. The South Carolina State House is the state capitol building of the U ^[1]

An early trustee of Clemson University, Tillman Hall is names in his honor.

References

• Burton, Orville Vernon (1985). In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina. Chapel Hill, N. C. : University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1619-1.   New social history; online edition
• Kantrowitz, Stephen (2000). Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy. Chapel Hill, N. C. : University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2530-1.  
• Stephen Kantrowitz. "Ben Tillman and Hendrix McLane, Agrarian Rebels: White Manhood, 'The Farmers,' and the Limits of Southern Populism. " Journal of Southern History. 66#3 (2000) pp 497+. in JSTOR; online edition
• Logan, Rayford W. [1965] (1997). Rayford Wittingham Logan ( January 7, 1897 &ndash November 4, 1982) was an African American historian and Pan-African activist The Betrayal of the Negro, from Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80758-0.   This is an expanded edition of Logan's 1954 book The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir, 1877-1901.
• Simkins, Francis Butler (1926). Francis Butler Simkins ( December 14, 1897 - February 8, 1966) was a historian and a past president of the Southern Historical Association The Tillman Movement in South Carolina. Durham, N. C. : Duke University Press.   online edition
• Simkins, Francis Butler [1944] (2002). Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian. Columbia, S. C. : University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-477-X.  
• Simon, Bryant (1998). A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948. Chapel Hill, N. C. : University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2401-1.   online edition

1. ^ ^{a b} Herbert, Bob. Robert “Bob” Herbert (born March 7 1945 is an American journalist Op-ed Columnist for The New York Times. "The Blight That Is Still With Us", The New York Times, 2008-01-22. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. Retrieved on 2008-01-22. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.  

External links

• "Their own Hotheadedness": Tillman speech in Senate advocating disenfranchisement of blacks and lynching of those who protested
• "The White Man's Burden" as Prophecy. Tillman speech in Senate denouncing U.S. imperialism in the Philippines on humanitarian and patriotic grounds