Coleman Livingston Blease (October 8, 1868 – January 19, 1942) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 90th governor of South Carolina from 1911 to 1915 and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1925 to 1931. Blease was the political heir of Benjamin Tillman, but he led a political revolution in South Carolina by building an independent political base of white textile mill workers in the state's Upcountry region. He was a staunch white supremacist and frequently used inflammatory rhetoric to appeal to racial animosities among white voters.
As governor and later senator, Blease opposed civil rights for African Americans, spoke in favor of lynching, and resisted educational opportunities for Black citizens. In the Senate, he introduced legislation targeting interracial relationships and criticized efforts at racial inclusion in public life. He was also instrumental in the passage of Section 1325 of the U.S. immigration code, which criminalized unlawful entry into the United States—a provision that remains in effect.
Early life and education Coleman Livingston Blease was born on October 8, 1868 near the town of Newberry, South Carolina to Henry Horatio Blease (1832–1892), a hotel proprietor, and Mary Ann Livingston Blease (1830–1874). Blease was born the same year that South Carolina's new Reconstruction constitution was adopted, and Black Americans began participating in political life. He grew up in his father's hotel which led him to be uncommonly social. His brother, Eugene, later became chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. He was educated at Newberry College, the University of South Carolina, and Georgetown University, where he graduated from the law department in 1889. At the University of South Carolina, Blease was expelled for plagiarism and always carried a grudge against the university.
Early political career After his schooling was complete, Blease returned to Newberry to practice law and to enter politics. In 1890, he began a political career in the South Carolina House of Representatives as a protégé of Benjamin Tillman and, like most White South Carolinians, a member of the Democratic Party. In 1895, the state legislature ratified a new constitution that effectively disfranchised Black men, thus crippling the state's Republican Party, which they supported, and introducing a period of one-party rule.
Blease's rise to power, as he moved from the House of Representatives to the South Carolina Senate in 1900, was built on the support of both sharecroppers and white textile mill workers, an increasingly-important segment of the South Carolina electorate.Lander, Ernest: A History of South Carolina 1865-1960, p. 49. University of South Carolina Press, 1970. But it was not a straightforward rise, Blease lost his seat in the legislature in 1894 and his attempt to re-gain it in 1896. And while he ultimately obtained a state senate seat in 1900, he subsequently lost races to become the Democratic nominee for governor in 1904 and 1906.
In 1910, Blease was elected mayor of Newberry and held that position until November of that year, when he was elected governor of South Carolina.
Bleasism
Critics and allies of Blease alike used the term Bleasism to "designate the political uprising of first-generation South Carolina millworkers" led by Blease in 1910. The political uprising was different from the one led by Ben Tillman a generation earlier. Whereas Tillman sought agricultural reform and drew his political support from South Carolina's white farmers and planters, Blease was anti-reform and drew his support from white textile mill workers. The movement Blease led was largely characterized by white supremacy and not social policy. But it shared the same enemies as Tillmanism: the newspapers, the railroads, corporations, Charleston aristocrats, and urban businessmen.
Bleasism was made possible by the sociopolitical change South Carolina underwent at the turn of the twentieth century. For instance, in 1880, the state had close to a dozen textile mills, but in 1900 the number had grown to 115. The work force of the mills also changed, becoming increasingly xmore male each year. Because South Carolina was one of the few Southern states at the time that did not disenfranchise poor white men, Blease actively courted the workers of these mills and built a devoted political base from the men, who hung his photo in their homes and named their children after him.
His appeal to the millworkers and sharecroppers was based on his personality and his view that made the "inarticulate masses feel that Coley was making them an important political force in the state." In fact, little to no policy was tied to Blease but his invectives and shared tongue with the mill workers won him their favor. Because of this, Blease was the only politician in South Carolina who had any independence from Tillman while Tillman was alive. Blease promoted his image as a champion of the common people throughout his career, describing himself as the “poor man's best friend”From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850–1915 by Stephen A. West, 2008 while his weekly newspaper during the Twenties encouraged voters to “save South Carolina and Ring Rule and Corporate Control” and elect friends of the “Farmers and Laboring Men.”Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy By Stephen Kantrowitz, 2015, p. 296 Both Blease and supporters of his also promoted him as a supporter of working people.
One newspaper article commented on Blease's populist style from one of his speeches:
Governor of South Carolina (191115)
Blease was elected governor in 1910 because he "knew how to play on race, religious, and class prejudices to obtain votes." He favored more aid to white schools but opposed compulsory attendance. Although Blease presented himself as a supporter of legislation designed to help laboring people and regulate working hours, and abolished the textile mill at the state penitentiary for health reasons, he opposed inspections of private factories to ensure safe and healthful working conditions. Blease vetoed legislation to inspect factories for safety and health considerations, “stating that a man ought to be able to work under any conditions he chose.” He also opposed the medical examination of schoolchildren, “asserting that he would pardon any man who killed a doctor who violated his daughter's modesty.”
Blease acquired such a bad reputation that he was said to represent the worst aspects of Jim Crow and Benjamin Tillman, who branded Blease's style as "Jim Tillmanism" (Jim Tillman was Benjamin Tillman's nephew, who, as lieutenant governor, had killed a newspaper editor and been acquitted in the case). Blease favored complete white supremacy in all matters. He encouraged the practice of lynching, strongly opposed the education of Black people, and derided an opponent for being a trustee of a black school. He fired administrators without the authority to do so, ignored patronage requests from state legislators, and sparred with the state Supreme Court. Blease had also boasted of burying the severed finger of a lynched black man in the South Carolina gubernatorial garden.
As governor, Blease failed to enforce laws and was a scofflaw. On two occasions, he pardoned his black chauffeur when he was cited for speeding. Enjoying the power to pardon, Blease said that he wanted to pardon at least 1,000 men before he exited office because he wanted "to give the poor devils a chance." He is estimated to have pardoned between 1,500 and 1,700 prisoners, some of whom were guilty of murder and other serious crimes. His political enemies suggested that Blease received payments to pardon criminals. Among those he pardoned was former US Representative George W. Murray in 1912. The black Republican had lost an appeal for his conviction of forgery in 1905 by an all-white jury and was sentenced to hard labor. Refusing to serve for a conviction that he claimed resulted from racial discrimination, Murray had left the state permanently for Chicago.
Segregation was also encouraged under Blease. A proposal put forward by Blease (and passed into law) segregated the black and white convicts of county chain gangs.
Despite his racist politics and contradictory approach to reform, a number of positive measures were nevertheless enacted during Blease's time as governor. Better provision for common schools was introduced, along with a special tax on hydroelectric companies, and a state tuberculosis sanitarium. In 1914 a State Warehouse System was established under which, as noted by one study, “low insurance rates were provided and storage receipts were guaranteed by the State – consequently they immediately became acceptable collateral for the local banks. Thus cotton farmers could get at least some cash on which to live and operate.” A law of February 1911 established maximum working hours for women in mercantile establishments and “provided also that they should not be required to work after 10 o’clock at night.” An Act of February 1912, concerning notice of suspension of work, required employers to give notice to their employees, while another Act from that same month provided for the provision of headlights on locomotives. A 1914 law required railroad companies to maintain shelters at division points “if repair work is regularly done at such points.” A statute related to the working hours of women in mercantile establishments was amended (No. 262) “by authorizing its enforcement by duly authorized agents of the commissioner of labor as well as by himself and the inspectors connected with the department.” A law of February 1914 allowed for labor organizations with a national or international charter to “form mutual associations, incorporated or unincorporated, for the purpose of aiding their members or their beneficiaries in times of sickness and death by levying equitable assessments for the payment of sick relief or death benefits, upon compliance with the terms of this act.” Another Act from that same month provided for railroad warning boards to be erected.
The factory law was changed in 1912 “so as to absolutely prohibit the employment of children under 12.” A measure dated February the 20th 1912 provided that in cities with a population of 5,000 or over “no child under 14 years of age shall be employed as messenger and no minor under 18 shall be so employed between 10pm and 5pm.” A law related to public health was also introduced, together with a law to provide for the custody of destitute, abandoned and unprotected children. An Act of February the 18th 1911 provided for the payment of one annual pension for the benefit of deceased pensioners, either a soldier or soldier's widow. An Act of March the 1st 1913 sought to require Clemson College to furnish, at cost, serum to state citizens for treating hog cholera, with the serum provided free to poor persons unable to pay for it. Another law authorized the awarding of 51 beneficiary scholarships “by holding competitive examinations; said scholarships to be of the value of $100 per annum and free tuition.” This measure became law without Blease's approval. Blease's lack of support for this measure was arguably due to the fact that, while he believed in free scholarships, he felt that “they should be divided among the people, and not all poured into the laps of a few families.”ANNUAL MESSAGE OF GOVERNOR COLE. L. BLEASE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF SOUTH CAROLINA JANUARY 12 1915, P.11
Opposition to soft drinks Blease disliked the newly developed carbonated soft drinks. In his gubernatorial inaugural address in 1911, he said:
1912 re-election