Agrarian-Rebel-Biogr

C. VANN WOODWARD TOM WATSON Agrarian Rebel THE BEEHIVE PRESS SAVANNAH • GEORGIA Contents I The Heritage I II Scholar and Poet IO III "Ishmael" in the Backwoods 27 IV The "New Departure" 44 V Preface to Rebellion 62 VI The Temper of the 'Eighties 7i VII Agrarian Law-making 81 VIII Henry Grady's Vision 96 IX The Rebellion of the Farmers no X The Victory of 1890 125 XI "I Mean Business" 143 XII Populism in Congress 163 XIII Race, Class, and Party 186 XIV Populism on the March 210 XV Annie Terrible 223 XVI The Silver Panacea 240 XVII The Debacle of 1896 261 XVIII Of Revolution and Revolutionists 287 XIX From Populism to Muckraking 307 XX Reform and Reaction 320 XXI "The World is Plunging Hellward" 343 XXII The Shadow of the Pope 360 XXIII The Lecherous Jew 373 XXIV Peter and the Armies of Islam 390 XXV The Tertium Quid 411 Bibliography 422 Index i V Preface to the 1973 Reissue THE reissue OF an unrevised biography thirty-five years after its original publication raises some questions about the effect that history has on historical writing as well as the effect that changing fashions of historical writing have on history written according to earlier fashions. Among the many historical events of the last three decades that have altered the perspective from which this book was writ ten, perhaps the most outstanding has been the movement for political and civil rights of the black people. All that was still in the unforeseeable future in 1938. At that time the Negro was still thoroughly disfranchised in the South, and no white South ern politician dared speak out for the political or civil rights of blacks. In writing about a Southern politician who had dared to speak up for their rights in the 1890^, I was dealing with what was at that time—and even more so at the time I was writing— a rare and remarkable phenomenon. Under the circumstances it was natural that I should have stressed the comparative bold ness of the effort and such success as it enjoyed rather than its limitations and shortcomings. From a much later perspective critics have called attention to the elements of paternalism and racism intermixed with Watson's approach to his black Populist allies. Those elements were present, to be sure, but they are more evident now than they were then, and they have an altered sig nificance. Fewer concessions, it seems to me, are due the changing fash ions of historiography that have occurred since this book was written. One of these was the "consensus" school, which held that historians have placed too muchemphasis on conflict in their interpretation of American domestic history. According to these Vll Preface to the IQ73 Reissue critics, basic agreement, or consensus, was the distinctive charac teristic of American history, and historians who stressed themes of conflict wereprone to distort the past. Of course conflict is the very core and central theme of this biography of a Southern Populist, conflict in every department—political, racial, sec tional, and class conflict, violent and irrepressible conflict. I do not see how my account of it could have been otherwise and do not believe that the emphasis was misplaced. Distortion would have resulted rather from minimizing the theme of conflict. Another development in historiography that should be men tioned in this connection, is the revisionist interpretation of Populism that emerged in the mid-i95o's. The revisionists held that earlier historians had overlooked the seamy and sinister as pects of Populism. They attributed to the movement a basically irrational mentality expressed in paranoidal obsession, conspira torial delusions, and nostalgic fantasies. Populist leaders, accord ing to this view, were given to demagogic exploitation of racism, anti-Semitism, and zenophobia. I have set forth my criticism of the revisionist views elsewhere (in The Burden of Southern His- tory) and will not repeat them here. It is my belief, however, that, as in the instance of the consensus interpretation, subse quent scholarship has done considerably more to sustain my views than to support the revisionists. None of this is intended to suggest that I would have written the same biography in 1973 that I wrote in 1938, nor that I com placently assume this to be the final word on the subject. It does make bold, however, to suggest to the reader who picks the book up for the first time in its present cover that the ravages of his torical relativism may not have rendered it wholly outdated. C. Vann Woodward New Haven, Connecticut Vlll fr<3X><><><><3><3K><>^^ Preface A fter reading this book in manuscript, a friend of mine, a xV man of excellent instincts and sympathies, offered what might have seemed a strange criticism, had I not known his pre dilections and half anticipated his reaction. "As I look back," he writes, "I feel a little unhappy over having come through those [latter] chapters with so kindly a feeling toward Watson." Be lieving that Watson, in some phases of his later life, became the embodiment of much that was detestable, my friend felt that his own better instincts had been betrayed into a false alignment of sympathies. Granting the damaging character of certain chap ters, were they, after all, "sufficiently damning"? Were not the splendid battles of Watson's early days overshadowed in impor tance by his later career, and should he not therefore be blamed for certain aspects of Southern society that both my friend and I deplore and condemn? The criticism started an exchange of philosophies, historical and literary, that led to a result some what rare in such transactions—an agreement. Only after I had explained my position in some detail, however, was my friend willing to withdraw his criticism and agree with me. In view of this fact we decided that I had best anticipate similar questions among readers of like mind. Readers of another class deserve an explanation. I refer to those whose impressions of Watson were fixed by the last ten or fifteen years of hiscareer. They willlikely be puzzled by the first part of the book, just as my friend was troubled by the last—and for much the same reason. It is usually a truism to say that the life of a man contains paradoxes. To say this of Tom Watson, however, is to make the only broad generalization one can make concerning the man. His life was a paradox. Especially is this truewhenthe two parts ix Preface of his career, divided by the interval of eight years that began in 1896, are contrasted. One can not arrive at any fair or true judgment of Watson by considering either of these two aspects of his life to the exclusion of the other. When a liberal journal fastens uponWatson the responsibility for "the sinister forces of intolerance, superstition, prejudice, religious jingoism, and mob- bism," it is indulging in half-truths as surely as does the veriest demagogue it denounces. The term "Southern demagogue" should be recognized for what it is, a political epithet. It does not contribute anything to ourunderstanding of the men to whom it is applied. I hold no brief for men of this type, nor for Tom Watson in so far as he was representative of them. I do insist upon understanding them clearly. I do not believe it is accurate to blameWatson for the "sinister forces" alreadymentioned.To do sowouldbe to assign him far too importanta role, a role that belongs to the vastly more impersonal forces of economics and race and historical heritage. To do so, moreover, would be to miss at the same time the deep meaning of his story. He did not produce those forces: he was produced by them. They thwarted at every turn his courageous struggle in the face of them during his early Populist battles, and they led him into the futility and degeneration of his later career. This was what made his life a personal tragedy. Although I have not sought to imposethe view upon the reader, I might confess here my private feeling that his story is also in many ways the tragedy of a class, and more es pecially the tragedy of a section. To counterbalance various difficulties encountered in writing this book, I have had several advantages, one of which only a biographer can fully appreciate. Miss Georgia Durham Watson has not only permitted but insisted upon my complete freedom in the use of the wide range of manuscripts, photographs, and materials which she has made available to me. Had it not been for her truly rare qualities of intellectual detachment, which are combined with a genuine devotion to her grandfather, this work would have presented problems so difficult that I should never have attempted it. I am deeply grateful to her. In no sense, however, does she stand as sponsor to this work, nor does she share responsibility for anyviews expressed in it. I have received valued assistance and counsel from many peo ple. Foremost among these is Professor Howard K. Beale, who Preface has given unsparingly of his time and attention in advising me in the latter stages of the work. For this aid I am especially grateful. I also recall with gratitude the many hours I have spent across a littered desk from Dr. Rupert B. Vance, plunder ing that storehouse of knowledge about the South. I gladly ac knowledge my indebtedness to Professors A. R. Newsome, F. M. Green, W. W. Pierson, H. T. Lefler, W. G. Carleton, M. J.

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