[17] Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1868, p. 18.
[18] Union and American, February 21, 1869.
CHAPTER X
CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION
After the recognition of the loyal government by Congress, the only hope of the disfranchised ex-Confederates of regaining political control of the State lay in a division in the ranks of the Union party. So long as Governor Brownlow remained at the head of affairs, no such division occurred. He served as Governor the full term of two years, and was re-elected. Before the expiration of his second term, he was chosen by the Legislature to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate. According to a provision of the State constitution, the vacant governorship descended to De Witt Senter, Speaker of the State Senate. Mr. Senter was inducted into office on the 29th of February, 1868.
Three years had now passed since the close of the war, and the restoration of civil government, but the majority of the white citizens still remained disfranchised, and no steps had been taken to remove their disqualifications. In speaking of this aspect of the situation, Mr. Fletcher, Secretary of the State, said: “Our mistake was that we made the franchise law sweeping and perpetual, offering no hope or inducement to the ex-rebel to become loyal. The man who is disfranchised in a republic is not apt to feel that it is his government, or to take pride or interest in it, nor apt to make a useful or even law-abiding citizen of it. I do not feel comfortable in a State where half of the people and two thirds of the tax-payers are publicly degraded by law, without motive to be proud of the State and government.”
Upon the day of Governor Senter’s inauguration, the air was filled with rumors and signs of coming changes. Whether it would be a violent eruption or a peaceful change through constitutional means, no one could foresee. In the great crowd which gathered at the Capitol to hear the inaugural address, there was noticed by the press reporters a number of distinguished Southern leaders. This in itself was considered a harbinger of the coming storm. The address proved disappointing to all. It was expected that the Governor would give some intimation of the policy he intended to pursue, but he simply expressed his appreciation of the office to which he had been elevated, and his desire to see peace and prosperity restored to the State.
There was little of interest in the character or career of the new Governor. He was born in Granger County in 1833. His father, William F. Senter, had represented the Second Congressional District in the Twenty-eighth Congress. Although Governor Senter had been chosen Speaker of the Radical Senate he had never shown himself an extreme partisan. He had even been a member of the secession Legislature of 1861; but Congress had relieved him of his political disabilities on the 22d of December, 1868. It was therefore with a hopeful expectancy that the people of Tennessee hailed his advent into the office of Governor.
But before Governor Senter could make any change in the administration, the State was plunged into a heated campaign to elect his successor. He was entitled by the Constitution to serve out Brownlow’s unexpired term, but only a few months remained of that. His aspirations naturally went beyond his brief pro tem. term, and he, therefore, announced his intention of becoming a candidate subject to the approval of the Union party.
A new candidate soon appeared in the person of W. B. Stokes. Mr. Stokes was the Representative of the Third District in Congress. His record had been somewhat similar to that of Governor Senter. At the beginning of the war he had identified himself with the secession movement, but had quickly deserted what he saw to be a sinking ship. After the war, as if to make amends for his past conduct, he became one of the most extreme and bitter Radicals.