Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond began his political career as a Democrat strongly opposed to civil rights laws, but eventually he changed both his party and his ideology. Thurmond has been a strong influence on Southern Politics since his days as the Edgefield County superintendent of education. He has had a hand in most of the major events in the Southern political history of the 20th century.
Strom Thurmond's career has been a reflection of the events in southern politics in several ways: his growing up in Edgefield South Carolina, his early politics on the matter of race, his sense of duty to the armed forces, and his Gubernatorial campaign.
To understand the man you have to understand his trajectory, where he is from. "Politics have long been an important part of Edgefield's history. Many of the state's leaders came from this area, including ten former Governors: Andrew Pickens, Jr., George McDuffie, Pierce Mason Butler, James H. Hammond, Francis W. Pickens, Milledge Luke Bonham, Jon C. Sheppard, Benjamin Tillman, John Gary Evans, and Strom Thurmond." "Edgefield County was one of the first counties to mobilize troops for the Civil War, after the war, Martin Gary and M.C. Butler were instrumental in forming the Red Shirt Movement to combat corruption and violence during the Reconstruction."
The people of Edgefield county "were mean people, but of good and honest character." "They were good about helping each other, but they would also shoot you. They would fight for what they believed in." An example of this would be when Willie Harris called Strom's father George Washington Thurmond a "low, dirty scoundrel". G.W. Thurmond proceeded to shoot him in the middle of the chest, killing him instantly for that ...
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...or more minutes during the White House's defense of Clinton's impeachment trial. Strom Thurman was one of them. Senator Thurman always leaves his mark somehow.
I have to admit that I did not agree with some of Senator Thurmond's early politics, but the personal change he experienced in ideology through your relationships with Armstrong Williams and Thomas Moss really impressed me. Before reading this biography I believed Strom Thurmond to be an old racist hick. I no longer feel that way. Now, I just think he's old.
Bibliography:
http://www.csranet.com/~vlmckie/scinfo2.htm Info and History of Edgefield County.
"Ol' Strom" Bass and Thompson. Long Street Press Inc., 1999. Pg. 27
"Ol' Strom" Bass and Thompson. Long Street Press Inc., 1999. Pg. 47
http://www.strom.clemson.edu/strom/bio.html Strom Thurmond Biography, Clemson University.
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Jeff Davis was a lawyer raised in the city, but he had a way of reaching out to the small farmers. Davis dominated Arkansas politics for 10 years. He was seen as the champion for the poor whites over the rich. Davis...
In 1853, Brooks was elected to the 33rd Congress as a member of the Democratic Party. While in office, Brooks had met an anti-slavery campaigning Senator named Charles Sumner. Charles Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard law school in 1830. He edited a law review, the American Jurist, and served as a reporter for the United States Circuit Court. Sumner also lectured on constitutional and international law at Harvard ’s law school for three winter terms. Sumner first became a politician in 1845, while the Mexican-American War was in dispute. In an Independence Day speech before city officials in Boston, Sumner denounced the use of war for settling international disputes and promoted arbitration instead. He also opposed the annexation of Texas and criticized the institution of slavery. From these speeches, Sumner was known as a keen and favored public speaker. In 1848, Sumner abandoned the Whig party in support of Martin Van Buren’s unsuccessful Free-Soil campaign for presidency. In 1851, a Democratic-Free-Soil coalition in the Massachusetts legislature chose Sumner to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Daniel Webster, who had resigned to become Secretary of State.
...ain the “laid-back” attitude and shy away from social change. The irony of the political divide is the North is now Democratic and the South is Republican.
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Charles Sumner, leader of the Radical Republican group and compelling chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, was one of the more educated politicians of his epoch who sought to abolish slavery. A Harvard Law School graduate, Sumner was the embodiment of formal rhetoric, evinced by his eloquent addresses and ardent opinions on pressing issues of his time (American Experience).
Mr. Smith was appointed to be a Senator on a whim. He was the leader of the Boy Rangers with no political experience. He was principled with a clear view on right and wrong. Mr. Smith took his ideals as far as risking his career when he did not compromise in order to maintain his beliefs. In addition, special interest groups did not impact Mr. Smith's decisions. He was untouched by the corruption that he learned existed in the legislature. Yet upon discovering it, he did not change himself. Mr. Smith did not place any emphasis on re-election and did not care if people thought negatively about him as long as he remained with his values.
To appreciate what Oliver P. Morton did for Indiana and the Civil War effort one needs to take his actions into the proper context. To start we know that Oliver P. Morton was driven and smart man. Although he did not graduate high school or even college he was intelligent and an excellent debater. He could talk his way into things and used his law background and demeanor to accomplish tasks in congress. One can argue that growing up poor and without a mother and father made his drive to succeed and become accomplished was amplified. Morton took his passions and excelled at them. Morton’s rise to Governor happened at the perfect time to cement his name and legacy in history.
The author presented the information in a very solid way and sectioned it out very well. I understood what he was trying to explain. It was somewhat a long book but very much full of knowledge and history that in spirit is still alive today. We may not have slavery like it was then, but we still deal with racism and prejudice daily.
In 1829 Johnson was elected councilman and mayor of Greenville. During this, Johnson discovered a chic for public speaking. He made a rapid rise within the ladder of political offices. In 1835 he was sent to the state general assembly. Running as a Democrat, he was elected to the state senate and then two years later the House of Representatives which he served in until 1853. While in Congress, Johnson was notorious for his advocacy of cheap western land for the homesteaders and support for the Mexican War. He was elected twice as governor of Tennessee in 1853 and 1855. In 1857, he was in the U.S. Senate and he again tried to struggle for the homestead bill. Unfortunately the measure was vetoed by President James Buchanan. One of the biggest jumps in his political career came in 1862 when Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee. He took up his post at the state capital.
The Democratic Party had dominated American political life in the first part of the 19th century since defeating the Federalists. The Democratic Party was one of the few remaining organizations holding north and south together by the 1850s. During the 19th century, the party tolerated slavery, and it opposed civil rights changes after the American Civil War. They felt they had to do this to keep the support from Southern voters. While the South supported Senator Stephen Douglas’ Kansas Nebraska Act, the Senator later put off the Freeport Doctrine and the South turned against him. There were also conflicts between President James Buchanan and Senator Douglas which also interfered with the Democratic Party.
I think it is interesting how Mississippi made the switch from a “Democratic surety to a Republican stronghold,” but I do think that the transition was foreseeable. In Mississippi during 1950s and 1960s, the political ideology of White Democrats was similar to the ideology of the Republican Party at the national level, not the national Democratic Party. Chapters ...
George Wallace was a man of his era who grew up under racist conditions. After the assassination attempt Wallace was a changed man. Later in his life, he admitted that he was wrong for being a segregationist. He has always said that he was not a racist, but he was for segregation. This visionary was responsible for the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Civil Rights Movement. Although he did not want them, his actions dictated the results of these Acts and changes. His dreams died, but they established rights for all minorities.
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