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Benjamin Tillman was a man of the south. He was from South Carolina and during Reconstruction he identified himself as a Democrat and fought the Republicans in the state. Prior to his governorship, he was most known for the Hamburg Massacre, which was a riot where Tillman and other white supremacists murdered blacks who had recently passed through the town of Hamburg. This incident marked him keenly as a white supremacist.

He was elected governor of South Carolina in 1890, but even prior to that he was influencing state politics through lobbying and his considerable influence. He amassed a great public following in South Carolina by advocating for farmers' rights. His anti-black views were also popular with the people of South Carolina. In 1895 he contributed to the state's constitutional convention, where the Jim Crow laws were made mandatory.

After his governorship, he was elected to the Senate as a representative from South Carolina. He was re-elected three times and was a Senate member from 1895 until he died.

Prior to his political career he was a farmer, and he stuck to his farmer roots in many of his main platform points, as he supported many of the ideals of the Populist party (although never officially supporting the group) and supported the concerns of the farmers he represented.

Tillman was against annexing the Philippines because he didn't want non-white immigrants to come to the United States, because he was a white supremacist. He also said that he didn’t believe that American lives should be sacrificed in helping the Filipinos, who did not want America’s help anyway. He also said that they would not fit in with the American system, because their government and social beliefs were different from America’s. Tillman said that America could still have naval bases in the Philippines and conduct trade there without needing to annex it.

The main reason Tillman was interested in the topic of the annexation of the Philippines was that he was a staunch white supremacist and he didn’t want to see more people who were not white join America. Particularly, he was probably influenced by the fear that the ten million Filipinos could eventually procure suffrage, which would boost minority influence at the polls considerably, and he was totally against that.

As a former farmer, and an unwavering trumpeter of their cause in the Senate, it is not unreasonable to conclude he was also threatened by the possible competition that the Philippines represented. While their country was not prime for the cultivation of crops like wheat and grain, the Philippines did have some success in the growing of sugar, which was still fairly valuable during this time. However, the risk of competition in the farming industry was fairly slim. One area of commerce the Philippines could definitely compete in was industry, though. While Tillman mainly championed the farmers’ cause, he acted as a speaker for the poor or common class in general at many points in his career. Annexation would have encouraged a vast influx of Filipino immigrants to America, which would have driven labor prices down and hurt the American white workers. This would have hurt the white working class, which was the group that Tillman had sympathy for.

References:

Grover Cleveland: Cleveland recognizes that America could probably win and retain ownership of the Philippines, but he fears that America could be hurt in the relationship. That is the same fear that Benjamin Tillman felt as well.

Emilio Aguinaldo: Aguinaldo, as a Filipino, had a prime position to declare what the Filipinos as a whole wanted done with their country: annexation or liberation? He chose liberation: he wanted the Philippines to be independent. His opinion basically reflected the feelings of his countrymen, which enforces the point that Tillman makes when he states that the Filipinos don’t want America’s help and they don’t want to be a part of America either.

Works Cited

"1896: Pitchfork Ben Tillman." //Vassar College//. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

"Benjamin Tillman." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Tillman, Benjamin. "Hon. Benjamin R. Tillman U.S. Senator from South Carolina Address to the U.S. Senate." //National Humanities Center//. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

"TILLMAN, Benjamin Ryan - Biographical Information." //Biographical Directory// //of the United States Congress//. United States Congress. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

"U.S. Senate: Art & History Home The Censure Case of John L. McLaurin and Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina (1902)." //U.S. Senate//. United States Senate. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.