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The purpose of this study is to examine the southern policy of William Howard Taft and the Republican party between 1906 and 1912. It is primarily concerned with Taft's efforts to divide the Democratic vote in the South through extensive southern travels, appointment of numerous white Democrats to office, abandonment of the southern Negro, and appeals to southern businessmen to support the Republican party and its principle of protection. When William H. Taft was elected President in 1908, numerous Intellectuals, journalists, and politicians advocated the adoption of a southern policy by the Republican party. It appeared that the time was ripe for the dissolution of the "Solid South." Many southerners were cognizant of the detrimental effects their political solidarity had upon their role in national politics. William Garrott Brown, Walter Hines Page, Silas McBee, John Motley Morehead, and a host of other southerners encouraged Taft to establish a two-party system in their region. Many southerners had also adopted a new attitude toward the Negro. Racial relations were improving and many southern whites were convinced that they no longer needed to unite politically to prevent Negro political domination. The attitude of the South toward protection for its domestic products had also changed by the time of Taft's election. More businessmen and politicians were demanding a higher tariff for their goods. Another changed condition by 1908 was a growing political Independence among southern voters. During the Roosevelt era, many southern Democrats had broken with tradition and voted against Democratic candidates. A changed attitude toward federal regulatory laws and educational progress were other signs that indicated the time was ripe for the Republican party to make inroads into the southern Democratic vote. Before his election in 1908, William Taft embarked on one facet of his southern strategy. As Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, he visited North Carolina and Kentucky in an effort to gain support for the Republican party. In October, 1908, as the Republican presidential candidate, he became the first member of his party personally Traversing the states of Kentucky, to carry his campaign into the South. Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia, Taft was well-received and encouraged by his receptions. After his election. President Taft embarked on an extensive southern tour in 1909 which carried him into every southern state except Maryland and Florida. His speeches were devoted primarily to praising southern historical traditions and heroes. By avoiding political issues, Taft told his southern audiences exactly what they wanted to hear and was unusually well-received in return. Another facet of his southern travels included trips to dedicate Civil War battlefields and memorials and to honor the South's historical past. These excursions included the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia in 1911 and the commemoration of North Carolina's "so-called" Mecklenburg Declaratlon of Independence in Charlotte in 1909. Taft's southern travels also included six vacations. All were spent in Hot Springs, Virginia, and Augusta, Georgia. The southern travels revealed several weaknesses in Taft's political abilities. In his southern excursions, the President failed to visit and converse extensively with businessmen, workers, educators, and Negro leaders. He relished ceremonial functions too much to become involved with arduous political conversations. In his southern strategy, President Taft also sought to improve the status of the Republican party by appointing a majority of white Democrats to influential positions. The party in the South was ridden with factlonalism in practically every state and many Incumbent Republican officeholders hoped to keep the party small. Taft's inability to unite these factions weakened his southern strategy. He appointed Jacob McGavock Dickinson, a Tennessee Democrat, as his Secretary of War. In his southern judicial appointments, the President selected practically all white conservative Democrats. To the Supreme Court he selected Edward Douglas White of Louisiana, Joseph Rucker Lamar of Georgia, and Horace Harman Lurton of Tennessee. Henry Groves Connor of North Carolina and William I. Grubb of Alabama were among those white Democrats appointed to federal district judgeships. Taft's policy toward local federal offices was to insure life tenure for competent officials, regardless of party affiliations. As a result of this policy, many Republicans were replaced with Democrats. In appointing census supervisors and enumerators for the thirteenth census in 1910, President Taft divided the appointments between Democrats and Republlcans in the states of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In the politically doubtful states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, all census appointments went to Republicans. President Taft's appointment policy infuriated southern Republicans and weakened his overall southern policy. No large numbers of Democratic followers were attracted to the Republican party as a result of the President's patronage strategy. Taft's policy toward southern Negroes was disastrous for the race. In an effort to woo white southerners into the Republican party, Taft completely abandoned the southern Negro. He defended white supremacy and "lily-whitism." Taft endorsed discriminatory southern election laws disfranchising the Negro. He assured southerners that the fifteenth amendment did not require the franchise be granted to the ignorant and irresponsible. The President rejected the ideas of social equality, race amalgamation, and even social association among the races. In his handling of Negro patronage, Taft deviated from Theodore Roosevelt's policy by refusing to appoint southern Negroes to Influential positions. He secured the resignations of William Demos Crum as collector of customs at Charleston, South Carolina and Thomas Richardson as postmaster at Port Gibson, Mississippi for no other reason than that they were black. Both were replaced with whites. Many other Negro officeholders were likewise removed and replaced with whites. |
| Summary |
Only token numbers were given political positions. Taft also deviated from previous Republican policies by refusing to allow Negro census takers to count members of both races in the South. The President also refused to recommend congressional action against persons participating in lynchlngs. The only favorable facet of his southern strategy toward southern Negroes was conveying to them his sympathy. He believed the solution to the Negro's future was acquiring primary and Industrial education. Only doctors, lawyers, teachers, and ministers should receive advanced education. A second solution was for the southern Negro to win the respect of his white neighbor. Taft also opposed the American Colonlzatlon Society's efforts to remove American Negroes to Africa. When Booker T. Washington was attacked by Henry Adams Ulrich, a white man, In 1911, Taft wrote the Negro leader expressing his regrets for the Incident and condemning the action of the white man. President Taft's Negro policy was popular among southern whites and a few Negro leaders, especially Booker Washington, but was condemned by a majority of Negro spokemen. By betraying his Negro political allies In' the South, Taft weakened his party's strength In the region. Furthermore, no significant numbers of white Democrats were attracted to the Republican party In the South. A last major facet of Taft's southern strategy was an appeal to southern businessmen to support the Republican party and the Republican principle of tariff protection. Realizing that Industrial progress In the South had caused a corresponding demand for more protection. President Taft directed an appeal to southern Industrialists. He also undertook the first major tariff reform since 1897 by calling Congress In special session In 1909 to revise the tariff rates. During the tariff debates, many southerners demanded protection for their domestic products such as lumber, Iron and steel, citrus fruits, sugar, and tobacco. Taft often declared that he wanted a downward revision of the tariff schedules, but the Payne Aldrich Bill of 1909 revealed no significant downward revision of the Dlngley duties. Furthermore, the President's efforts at tariff reform caused an Irreparable split among Republicans between Insurgents and regulars. The measure proved unpopular among southerners because the rates on consumable products had not been reduced enough to satisfy their demands. When southern Democrats and Insurgent Republicans combined In 1911 to pass a wool bill, a cotton bill, and a farmers' free list bill drastically reducing the tariff duties, Taft vetoed all three. When the vetoed wool bill was repassed In 1912 along with a steel bill, Taft again vetoed them. The President charged that the rates were reduced so drastically as to abolish the Republican principle of protection. In an effort to Illustrate his desire for tariff revision, Taft concocted the Reciprocity Agreement with Canada late In 1910. The agreement placed hundreds of Imported Items from Canada on the free list and reduced the rates on numerous American goods consumed In Canada. The treaty was popular among southerners, but Taft did not receive credit for Its passage In Congress since a coalition of southern Democrats and Insurgent Republicans had accomplished that goal. In September, 1911, however, the Canadians defeated the agreement. President Taft's economic programs resulted In no Republican gains in the South because his pledges of tariff revision were not fulfilled during his administration. By the end of 1912, it was apparent that President William H. Taft's southern policy was a failure. He had made no inroads into the Democratic vote in the South. The President had been unable to heal the factional strife and division among his southern colleagues. White Democratic support for the Republican party had not been obtained. The congressional elections of 1910 and 1912 and the presidential election of 1912 clearly revealed the failure of Taft's southern strategy. The 1910 congressional election resulted In a Democratic landslide and In 1912 no new southern Republican congressmen were elected. The 1912 presidential election resulted In the election of a Democratic president for the first time since 1892. The split within the Republican party between Roosevelt Progressives and Taft regulars undoubtedly contributed to Woodrow Wilson's election, but Republican support was markedly less than in 1908. Taft and the Republican party failed to create a strong opposition party in the South between 1906 and 1912. The only successful aspect of Taft's southern policy was that It resulted in his personal popularity among white southerners, but this represented no political strength or gain. |
