Ellison DuRant Smith (August 1, 1864 – November 17, 1944) was an American cotton planter, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1909 until 1944.

Smith was widely known for his virulently racist and segregationist views, his advocacy of white supremacy, and his support for the Southern cotton industry, earning him the nickname "Cotton Ed".

Early life

Smith was born near Lynchburg, South Carolina, the youngest child of William Hankin Smith and Mary Isabella Smith (née McLeod), at his ancestral home, Tanglewood Plantation (formerly Smith's Grove).[1] Throughout his life, he would reside in Tanglewood.[1] Smith attended the University of South Carolina, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity,[2] and graduated from Wofford College in 1889.

Smith served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1896 to 1900. He was unsuccessful in his bid to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1900. In 1901, Smith helped organize the Farmer's Protective Association[3] and eventually became one of the principal figures in the formation of the Southern Cotton Association in 1905.[3][4] Between the years 1905 and 1908, he served as a field agent and general organizer in the cotton protective movement.[4] Smith received the nickname "Cotton Ed" after he declared: "Cotton is king and white is supreme."[5]

Election to the U.S. Senate

Smith was elected to the United States Senate in 1908. He was re-elected five times, although from 1920 until 1944, he had four close elections, with three of them leading to run-off elections because he failed to capture a majority. Smith never won more than 61 percent in Democratic Party primaries during that time. During his time in Congress, he had a goal to "keep the Negroes down and the price of cotton up."[6] Known for being a reputed showman, Smith would publicly promote this goal by riding to Washington on a wagon-load of cotton waving the banner of white supremacy.[7] He also developed a reputation for having a violent temper while speaking in Congress and would at times stand on his feet and try to get the floor speaker's attention by repeatedly hacking his armchair with a penknife whenever the speaker angered him.[6] Smith was not fond of his fellow Senators and liked to describe the Senate Chamber as "the Cave of the Winds."[6]

Senate career

Between 1909 and 1933, Smith was regarded as a fairly effective senator, though admittedly not of the first rank.[7] A tireless champion of agriculture, he supported some planks of the Progressive Era, having written a small part of them. He sponsored the Muscle Shoals project, a forerunner to the Tennessee Valley Authority.[3] During this time Smith's policies were "a curious mixture of conservatism and liberalism". He was a loyal supporter of President Woodrow Wilson and his New Freedom agenda especially regarding agriculture supporting the Smith–Lever Act of 1914, Smith–Hughes Act, the Warehouse Act of 1916, Federal Farm Loan Act, and Federal Aid Road Act of 1916.[7] His passage of the Cotton Futures Act earned him the nickname "Cotton" Ed Smith. Smith, however, would not favor legislation he felt would largely diversify the Southern economy, reduce the need for the vast presence of the plantation system in the South,[6] or endanger the old Southern way of life.[6][8] He also supported the Clayton Act, the Federal Trade Commission, the Underwood tariff, and the Adamson Act. He opposed the Keating–Owen Act which prohibited child labor.

Smith, reflecting the xenophobic views of constituents, sponsored numerous bills restricting immigration culminating in the Immigration Act of 1917 that passed over President Wilson's veto.[7] Smith spoke out in support of the Immigration Act of 1924, which limited emigration from Southern and Eastern Europe and effectively entrapped European Jews in the feverish atmosphere of emergent fascism.[9]

During the First World War he supported most of the war time actions of President Wilson but prevented attempts by the President to impose price controls on cotton. After the war he supported the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles.[7]

Smith opposed the women's suffrage movement, and specifically the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Tying the amendment to black suffrage, he warned on the Senate floor,

Personal life and death

He first married at the age of 28 in 1892 to Martha Cornelia Moorer (1865–1893) of St. George, South Carolina.[1] She died giving birth to their son Martius Ellison in 1893.[1] In 1912, at age 19, Martius was accidentally shot by his own gun while drinking water at the barnyard well.[1] He died five days later.[1][26]

In 1906, Ellison married Annie Brunson Farley (1882–1958).[1] Her uncle, Henry Farley, is widely credited [by whom?] with firing the first shot in the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, initiating the American Civil War[citation needed]. He later served under J. E. B. Stuart, and died fighting in the Civil War. Ellison and Annie had four children of their own, two boys and two girls:[1]

  • Their eldest daughter, Anna, was married to L.L. Smith, vice president of Kohler Plumbing Co. of Wisconsin.[1]
  • Isobel Smith Lawton moved to Florence, South Carolina, when she married.[1]
  • Ellison DuRant, Jr. married Vivian Manning, daughter of Governor John Lawrence Manning.[1]
  • Charles Saxon Farley, a past member of the South Carolina legislature from Lee County, married Laura Douglas.[1] Laura was the daughter of Oscar Douglas (co-founder of the F.W. Woolworth empire).[1]

On November 17, 1944, a month and a half before the end of his term, Smith died at Tanglewood Plantation in the same bed in which he was born.[1] He is buried at St. Luke's Cemetery near Wisacky in Lee County.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Tanglewood Plantation – History". Archived from the original on 2013-01-31. Retrieved 2012-02-06.
  2. ↑ "Grand catalogue of the Phi kappa psi fraternity, February 1, 1910;". Chicago, Ill. November 13, 1910 – via Internet Archive.
  3. 1 2 3 "National Register of Historic Places – Nomination Form" (PDF).
  4. 1 2 "Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress – Retro Member details". bioguideretro.congress.gov.
  5. ↑ Gould, Lewis L. (2005). The Most Exclusive Club. Basic Books. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-465-02778-1.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Curtains for Cotton Ed". Time. August 7, 1944. Archived from the original on June 20, 2023. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hollis, Daniel W. (October 1970). ""Cotton Ed Smith": Showman or Statesman?". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 71 (4): 235–256. JSTOR 27567009.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Smith, Ellison DuRant". TheFreeDictionary.com.
  9. ↑ "Superman's Jewish origins and the 'curse' that haunts the actors who play him". The Independent. 2018-05-10. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  10. ↑ Cong. Rec., 58:618 (June 4, 1919)
  11. 1 2 Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 p.212
  12. ↑ Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 p.341
  13. ↑ Murphy, Larry G.; Melton, J. Gordon; Ward, Gary L., eds. (1993). "Shepard, Marshall Lorenzo, Sr". Encyclopedia of African American Religions. New York: Routledge. p. 692. ISBN 978-0-8153-0500-2.
  14. 1 2 3 Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 p.345
  15. ↑ Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 p.346
  16. ↑ Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 p.347
  17. 1 2 3 Kennedy, David Freedom From Fear, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 p.348
  18. 1 2 "The Pittsburgh Press – Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  19. 1 2 3 Bryant Simon, A fabric of defeat: the politics of South Carolina millhands, 1910–1948, p. 212
  20. ↑ "Political Notes: Southern Send-Off". Time. September 7, 1936. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008.
  21. 1 2 Bryant Simon, A fabric of defeat:the politics of South Carolina millhands, 1910–1948, pp. 210–211
  22. ↑ Sullivan, Gordon R. "Mobilization". www.history.army.mil. Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
  23. ↑ "Radio: Cotton Ed Blows a Fuse". Time. August 16, 1943. Archived from the original on December 14, 2008.
  24. ↑ 'Cotton Ed Smith Organizes Drive To Elect Dewey'; The Chicago Defender, September 30, 1944, p. 1
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Elections: Curtains for Cotton Ed". Time. August 7, 1944.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  26. ↑ "Martha Moorer Storia della famiglia e documenti storici". www.myheritage.it. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  • David Robertson (1994). Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James A. Byrnes, New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-03367-8. pp. 150, 190–96, 269–98, 328, 337, 342, 495–496, 533.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellison_D._Smith