Coleman Livingston Blease

Coleman Livingston Blease
United States Senator from South Carolina
In office 1925–1931
Preceded by	Nathaniel B. Dial
Succeeded by	James F. Byrnes
90th Governor of South Carolina
In office January 17, 1911 – January 14, 1915
Lieutenant	Charles Aurelius Smith
Preceded by	Martin Frederick Ansel
Succeeded by	Charles Aurelius Smith
Personal details
Born	October 8, 1868 Newberry, South Carolina
Died	January 19, 1942 (aged 73) Columbia, South Carolina
Resting place	Rosemont Cemetery, Newberry, South Carolina
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Lillie B. Summers Carolina Floyd
Alma mater	Georgetown University
Occupation	Attorney

Coleman Livingston Blease (October 8, 1868 – January 19, 1942) was a politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina known for his populist appeals and racism. He served as a state legislator, as the 90th Governor of South Carolina, and as a U.S. Senator.

Early life and career

Coleman Livingston Blease was born near the town of Newberry, South Carolina, on October 8, 1868, the year that South Carolina's new Reconstruction constitution was adopted and blacks began participating in public life. Blease was educated at Newberry College, the University of South Carolina, and Georgetown University, where he graduated from the law department in 1889. At the University of South Carolina, Blease was expelled for plagiarism and henceforth he carried a grudge against the University.^[1]

Blease returned to Newberry to practice law and enter politics. He began his political career in the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1890 as a protege of Benjamin Ryan Tillman. But whereas Tillman drew his support from South Carolina's well-to-do white farmers, Blease recognized that the tenant farmers and textile mill workers lacked a political voice. His own rise to power, as he moved from the South Carolina House of Representatives to the South Carolina Senate in 1900, was built on the support of both the sharecroppers and mill workers, an increasingly important segment of the electorate in South Carolina in this period.^[2] His appeal to the millworkers and sharecroppers was based on his personality and his view that made the "inarticulate masses feel that Coley was making them an important political force in the state."^[3] This new era saw a sharp division within the state Democratic Party (the Republican Party being virtually non-existent in South Carolina and much of the rest of the South at this time), with the factions known for many years as being "Tillmanites" and "Bleaseites." Shortly before he was elected governor, he was elected as the Mayor of Newberry, South Carolina in 1910. He held this position until November 1910, when he became the governor of the state.

Blease as Governor

Blease was elected governor in 1910 because he "knew how to play on race, religious, and class prejudices to obtain votes."^[3] His legislative program was erratic and entirely without consistency. Blease favored more aid to schools, yet opposed compulsory attendance. He abolished the textile mill of the state penitentiary for health reasons, yet opposed inspections of factories to ensure safety and healthful working conditions.

Blease acquired such a bad reputation that he was said to represent the worst aspects of Jim Crow and Ben Tillman such that even Tillman branded Blease's style as "Jim Tillmanism", (Jim Tillman being Ben Tillman's nephew). Blease favored complete white supremacy in all matters. He encouraged the practice of lynching, he was steadfastly against the education of blacks, and he even derided one of his opponents for being a trustee of a black school. Blease once buried the severed finger of a black man who had been lynched in the South Carolina gubernatorial garden. The newspapers did not escape Blease's scrutiny and he had praised Jim Tillman for the murder of The State editor N.G. Gonzales in 1903. Blease recommended that imprisonment be given to reporters or editors who publish candidates' speeches.

In addition, Blease failed to enforce laws and even encouraged breaking the law. His black chauffeur was fined twice for speeding and both times Blease pardoned him. Blease enjoyed the use of the pardon and he stated that he wanted to pardon at least one thousand men before he exited office because he wanted "to give the poor devils a chance."^[4] He far exceeded his goal and it is estimated that he pardoned between 1,500 to 1,700 prisoners, some of whom were guilty of murder and other heinous crimes. It was rumored by his enemies that Blease received payments to pardon criminals.

Although the combined opposition of Tillman and the upper classes could not prevent his re-election in 1912, he lost the U.S. Senate election of 1914 against incumbent Senator "Cotton Ed" Smith. In a show of spite for progressive governor-elect Richard Irvine Manning III, Blease resigned five days before the end of his second term on January 14, 1915, so that he did not have to attend Manning's inauguration. Charles Aurelius Smith succeeded to the governorship and only performed ceremonial functions during his five days in office.

Afterward, Blease spent a decade outside the mainstream of politics. Manning's administration (1915–1919) brought many Progressive Era reforms to the state, but as the political climate turned more reactionary after 1919, Blease's popularity rebounded. Blease lacked a constructive program and the prudence of a successful organizer. But his agitations had permanently quickened the political consciousness of the cotton-mill operatives and other poor whites.

In virtually all of his campaigns, Blease used a catchy, nonsensical, non-specific campaign jingle that became well known to virtually every voter in South Carolina in the era: "Roll up your sleeves, say what you please...the man for the job is Coley Blease!"

Blease and soft drinks

Governor Blease disliked carbonated soft drinks and gave voice to his beliefs in his gubernatorial inaugural address in 1911.

“

I also, in this connection, beg leave to call your attention to the evil of the habitual drinking of Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and such like mixtures, as I fully believe they are injurious. It would be better for our people if they had nice, respectable places where they could go and buy a good, pure glass of cold beer, than to drink such concoctions. [5]

”

Blease as Senator

In 1924, Blease defeated James F. Byrnes in the Democratic primary and was elected to the U.S. Senate. His campaign showed that he was the same politician he had always been and foreshadowed his style as Senator. Blease's defeat of Byrnes was widely credited to a rumor campaign that Byrnes, who was raised a Roman Catholic in Charleston had not really left that faith when he entered politics. Such an assertion in an overwhelmingly Protestant state in the years when the Ku Klux Klan was at the height of its power ruined Byrnes's hopes that year, though it was Byrnes who defeated Blease in his 1930 run for re-election.

Notes

1. ^ Lander, Ernest: A History of South Carolina 1865-1960, page 141. University of South Carolina Press, 1970.
2. ^ Lander, Ernest: A History of South Carolina 1865-1960, page 49. University of South Carolina Press, 1970.
3. ^ ^{a b} Lander, Ernest: A History of South Carolina 1865-1960, page 50. University of South Carolina Press, 1970.
4. ^ Lander, Ernest: A History of South Carolina 1865-1960, pages 51-52. University of South Carolina Press, 1970.
5. ^ Blease 1911 inaugural address, page 85

References

• Adams, James Truslow (1940). Dictionary of American History. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
• Simon, Bryant (1996). "The Appeal of Cole Blease of South Carolina: Race, Class, and Sex in the New South". Journal of Southern History 62 (1): 57–86. doi:10.2307/2211206. JSTOR 2211206. 
• Burnside, Ronald Dantan (1963). The Governorship of Coleman Livingston Blease of South Carolina, 1911-1915. Indiana University. 
• Hollis, Daniel W. (1979). "Cole Blease: The Years Between the Governorship and the Senate, 1915-1924". South Carolina Historical Magazine 80: 1–17. 
• Hollis, Daniel W. (1978). "Cole L. Blease and the Senatorial Campaign of 1924". Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association: 53–68. 
• Lander, Jr., Ernest McPherson (1970). A History of South Carolina, 1865-1960. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 49–53, 141. ISBN 0872491692. 
• Miller, Anthony Barry (1971). Coleman Livingston Blease. University of North Carolina, Greensboro. 
• Simon, Bryant (1998). A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4704-6. 
• Stone, Clarence N. (1963). "Bleaseism and the 1912 Election in South Carolina". North Carolina Historical Review 40: 54–74. 

External links

• SCIway Biography of Coleman Livingston Blease
• BLEASE, Coleman Livingston at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• NGA Biography of Coleman Livingston Blease

Political offices
Preceded by Martin Frederick Ansel	Governor of South Carolina 1911–1915	Succeeded by Charles Aurelius Smith
United States Senate
Preceded by Nathaniel B. Dial	United States Senator from South Carolina 1925–1931	Succeeded by James F. Byrnes

Persondata
Name	Blease, Coleman Livingston
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 8, 1868
Place of birth	Newberry, South Carolina
Date of death	January 19, 1942
Place of death	Columbia, South Carolina