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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 - 01:35 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Now is the time to stop the politically-correct revision of history to satisfy a few people with nothing better to do. Ben Tillman, Thomas Clemson and John C. Calhoun, were imperfect historical figures as were Abe Lincoln, Robert and Jack Kennedy, Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King. However, they are historical figures none the less. Some people are offended by all of the above being honored. We must get over it and have the backbone to tell the troublemakers to find something worthwhile to do. It would be an insult to every Clemson graduate to change the name of Tillman Hall to anything else.

Clemson University has a proud history. In the early days it provided an opportunity for the children of poor rural families to obtain a quality education and advance the South Carolina Agricultural economy. The college trained leaders for national defense. More Officers trained and commissioned through the Clemson ROTC program led troops and served with distinction during World War II than from any other school, including the United States Military Academy.

When racial integration came, Clemson reacted by abolishing the all-male military tradition and welcomed women and men of all races and creeds to enroll.

When the new racial makeup demanded that Confederate battle flags be removed from the campus, it was done. A tiger paw banner replaced the large battle flag used to bring the football team on the field before racial integration. When demands were made that Dixie be banned from the campus, the administration quickly complied. The list goes on and on. Now a few students and faculty members supported by the liberal media and Jesse Jackson want to rename the historic structure.

Someone asked: “Who cares what Jesse Jackson thinks?” The answer is on page one of the Greenville daily.

“Pitchfork” Benjamin Tillman was a controversial leader during a difficult time in South Carolina history. He was a Democrat and in Democrat tradition was an advocate of the “Jim Crow” laws designed to control and use former slaves for political and economic purposes.

When the war ended in 1865, South Carolina faced 12 years of poverty, military occupation and abuse by federal troops and militia units composed of young male former slaves issued guns, bayonets and ammunition to control the unhappy whites undergoing “Reconstruction.”

In 1876, the “Second American Revolution” took place in South Carolina. Wade Hampton III was elected Governor on the Democrat ticket. Hampton negotiated with the President and Congressional Reconstruction along with military occupation ended.

Tillman who represented large numbers of poor farmers supported Hampton. Former members of Hampton’s Legion and his former slaves risked federal reprisals to support their former owner. The Clan being outlawed, a citizen’s organization called the “Redshirts” provided resistance to abuses by armed former slaves who were virtually running the state backed by federal bayonets.

Hampton became Governor and insisted that all South Carolinians would be treated equally under the law and there would be no reprisals against former slaves for abuses during Reconstruction. Ben Tillman and his followers were not so forgiving. They wanted retribution and most of all wanted to ensure that descendents of the former slaves never again had the power to abuse the white population.

Wade Hampton would not allow such policies to be passed into law. To remedy the situation, Tillman and his followers arranged for the State Senate to promote Hampton and get him out of town by electing him to the United States Senate.

Tillman was elected Governor and after two terms was elected to the United States Senate where he served until his death. He was a founding member of the Clemson Board of Trustees and is credited with many accomplishments in improving agriculture in South Carolina.

“Pitchfork Ben” did not get his name from chasing former slaves with pitchforks. He threatened to skewer the President of the United States with a pitchfork.

 

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