Ellison D. Smith

Ellison D. Smith
United States Senator from South Carolina
In office March 4, 1909 – November 17, 1944
Preceded by	Frank B. Gary
Succeeded by	Wilton E. Hall
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry
In office 1933–1944
Preceded by	Charles L. McNary
Succeeded by	Elmer Thomas
Dean of the United States Senate
In office January 19, 1940 – November 17, 1944
Preceded by	William Borah
Succeeded by	Kenneth McKellar
Personal details
Born	August 1, 1864(1864-08-01) Lynchburg, South Carolina
Died	November 17, 1944(1944-11-17) (aged 80) Lynchburg, South Carolina
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Lynchburg

Ellison DuRant "Cotton Ed" Smith (August 1, 1864 – November 17, 1944) was a Democratic Party politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina. He represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1909 until 1944.

Smith was born in Lynchburg, South Carolina. Smith attended the University of South Carolina, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity,^[1] and graduated from Wofford College in 1889. Smith served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1896 to 1900. Smith was unsuccessful in his bid to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1900. Smith then worked in the Agriculture industry, becoming a figure in the cotton industry. Smith received the nickname "Cotton Ed" after he declared "Cotton is king and white is supreme."^[2]

Smith was elected to the United States Senate in 1908. He was re-elected five times, although from 1920 until 1944, Smith had four close elections, with three of them leading to run-off elections. Smith never won more than 61% in Democratic party primaries in this time. During his time in Congress, he had a goal to "keep the Negroes down and the price of cotton up."^[3] He also developed a reputation for standing 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.^[3] In the 1930's, Smith became Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry and would imperiously summon the fellow Senators on the Committee by saying "tell those butt-heads we will assemble tomorrow morning."^[3]

Smith was described as a person who "could never join the twentieth century."^[3] In the 1930s, Smith emerged as an opponent to the New Deal, which he dubbed as "the Jackass Age,"^[3] leading President Franklin Roosevelt to try unsuccessfully to have Smith defeated in the 1938 primary. Smith won re-election in a close election in that year; it was also believed that the people of South Carolina at the point in time were fed up with Smith and that he would have lost the primary if Roosevelt had not interfered.^[3] Cotton Ed Smith lost renomination for the Senate in 1944 to Olin D. Johnston, a pro-Roosevelt New Dealer who had previously challenged Smith in 1938,^[4] and he died soon afterward, even before his Senate term had expired.

Smith opposed the woman's suffrage movement, and specifically the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Tying the amendment to black suffrage, he warned on the Senate floor "Here is exactly the identical same amendment applied to the other half of the Negro race. The southern man who votes for the Susan B. Anthony Amendment votes to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment."^[5]

At the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Smith walked out of the convention hall once he saw that a black minister was going to deliver the invocation. Smith recalled, "He started praying and I started walking. And from his great plantation in the sky, John C. Calhoun bent down and whispered in my ear – 'You done good, Ed.'"

In 1944, Johnston again challenged Smith in the Democratic Primary. During the campaign, Johnston, now Governor of South Carolina, was strongly supportive of Roosevelt's foreign policy,^[4] but was now lukewarm towards the New Deal and was able to the snatch the "flag of white supremacy" from Smith by boasting how he changed the state's laws to keep blacks from voting.^[4] During the campaign, presented himself as an aged and tired old man and during at least one debate with Johnston,^[4] he spoke for only a few minutes and then played a recording of a speech he had made six years earlier.^[4] After hearing word of his defeat on his 2,500 acre farm near Lynchburg,^[4] Smith stood up in frustration and said "Well, I guess I better go out and look at the pigs."^[4]

References

1. ^ Grand Catalogue of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity: February 1, 1910, page 105
2. ^ Gould, Lewis L. (2005). The Most Exclusive Club. Basic Books. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-465-02778-1. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886159,00.html
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886159-2,00.html
5. ^ Cong. Rec., 58:618 (June 4, 1919)

• Ellison D. Smith at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• David Robertson, Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James A. Byrnes, pp. 150, 190–196, 269–298, 328, 337, 342, 495–496, 533 (New York: W.W. Norton 1994) ISBN 0-393-03367-8.

External links

Biography portal

• Ellison D. Smith at Find a Grave

United States Senate
Preceded by Frank B. Gary	United States Senator (Class 3) from South Carolina March 4, 1909 – November 17, 1944 Served alongside: Benjamin Tillman, Christie Benet, William P. Pollock, Nathaniel B. Dial, Coleman Livingston Blease, James F. Byrnes, Alva M. Lumpkin, Roger C. Peace, Burnet R. Maybank	Succeeded by Wilton E. Hall
Honorary titles
Preceded by William E. Borah Idaho	Dean of the United States Senate January 19, 1940 – November 17, 1944	Succeeded by Kenneth McKellar Tennessee

Persondata
Name	Smith, Ellison Durant
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 1, 1864
Place of birth	Lynchburg, South Carolina
Date of death	November 17, 1944
Place of death	Lynchburg, South Carolina