Benton McMillin

Benton McMillin

Benton McMillin (born September 11, 1845 in Monroe County , Kentucky , † January 8, 1933 in Nashville , Tennessee ) was an American politician and the 31st governor of Tennessee. He also represented this state in Congress .

Early years

Benton McMillin went through the Philomath Academy and then attended the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College , which later became the University of Kentucky at Lexington . When the civil war broke out in 1861, his father forbade him to follow the example of his two brothers and to join the Southern Army. When the Union troops reached his home, McMillin refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the Union, whereupon he was briefly imprisoned. After the war he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1871. In the following years he worked as a lawyer first in Clay County and then in Carthage .

Political rise

His political career began in 1875 when the Democrat was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. In the same year he negotiated on behalf of Governor James D. Porter with the State of Kentucky to buy some land. He briefly served as a judge in the Tennessee 5th District Court before serving in the United States House of Representatives for the next 20 years . His tenure in Washington, DC lasted from 1879 to 1899. Between 1876 and 1932 he was present at all national conventions of the Democratic Party, with the exception of 1920. In Congress he was a member of the Committee on Ways and Means . He opposed some Republican proposals such as their customs policy.

His committed and rhetorical demeanor soon made him known in parliamentary circles, and in some cases he was feared by his opponents. He was a co-founder of a law that provided a two percent tax on income over $ 4,000. The law was rejected as inconstitutional by the Supreme Court . The initiative was taken up again in 1913 with the 16th amendment to the Constitution, which allowed such a tax.

Governor of Tennessee

In 1897 McMillin made a fruitless attempt to be elected to the US Senate . Instead he was nominated by his party for the post of governor of Tennessee a year later. After the successful election in 1898, he campaigned for the expansion of the public school system. He lowered the national debt by about $ 5 million. He raised the minimum age for factory workers from twelve to 14 years. In 1900 he was re-elected for a second term.

After retiring from the office of governor in 1903, McMillin was active in the insurance industry in Nashville. In the following years he ran for a seat in Congress several times unsuccessfully, then for a new term as Governor of Tennessee. In 1913, the new appointed him President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Ambassador in Peru . He stayed there for six years until September 1919, when he was transferred to Guatemala in the same capacity . He remained at his post in this country until 1922. He then returned to Nashville, where he continued to work in the insurance industry. Over the years he actively supported the Democratic presidential candidates. In 1932, at the age of 87, he took part in Franklin D. Roosevelt's election campaign in Tennessee . He saw his election victory in November 1932, but no longer his inauguration in March 1933. McMillin died on January 8, 1933 in Nashville.

From 1869 he was married to Birdie Brown, daughter of former Governor John C. Brown . The marriage produced a son. After her death in 1887 he married Lucille Foster. From this marriage a daughter was born.

literature

• Robert Sobel and John Raimo (Eds.): Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978. Volume 4. Meckler Books, Westport, CT 1978. 4 volumes.
• The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Volume 13. James T. White & Company, New York.

Web links

Commons : Benton McMillin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Benton McMillin in the National Governors Association (English)
• The governors of Tennessee (English)
• Benton McMillin in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Benton McMillin in the database of Find a Grave (English)