Thomas S. Martin

Thomas S. Martin

Thomas Staples Martin (born July 29, 1847 in Scottsville , Albemarle County , Virginia , †  November 12, 1919 in Charlottesville , Virginia) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ) who represented the state of Virginia in the US Senate .

Early life

After finishing school, Thomas Martin attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington from 1864 to 1865 . He also served in the Confederation Army during the Civil War . Due to illness, he could not be used in the Battle of New Market , in which 57 cadets from Virginia were killed or injured. He later took part in the Lynchburg Campaign and the fighting around the Confederate Capitol in Richmond .

After the war ended, Martin continued his education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which he left in 1867 to support his family after the death of his father. In 1869 he completed a law degree , after which he was inducted into the bar and began to practice in Albemarle County. In this district he also became a member of the Board of Visitors of the Miller Manual Labor School . He also held the same position at the University of Virginia. As a lawyer, he represented the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, among others . In this way he came increasingly in contact with politics and joined the Democratic Party.

politics

Martin became a confidante of John S. Barbour , the Democratic leader in the 1880s. Barbour had succeeded in making his party the dominant political force in Virginia again after it had temporarily lost this role following the Reconstruction to the Readjuster Party , an association of Republicans , Conservative Democrats and African-Americans . Barbour also served in the US Senate from 1889 until his death in 1892.

At this point, Martin had already risen to the leadership of the Democratic Party of Virginia, but without having achieved much popularity. This was also because he preferred to work behind the scenes. He was also considered an outsider when a successor to the late John Barbour had to be elected in December 1893, whose place had been taken by Eppa Hunton for the rest of the legislature . Was favored former governor of Virginia , Fitzhugh Lee , nephew of Civil War General Robert E. Lee . However, at this point in time the senators were not elected by the people, but by the respective state parliaments; this only changed in 1913 with the 17th amendment to the constitution . Martin used his diverse relationships to garner votes for himself and ultimately prevailed in the Virginia General Assembly election with 66:55 against Lee, which is considered to be one of the biggest surprises in Virginia's political history.

With this success, Martin finally took over the leadership of the Democrats at the state level. He built a "Political Machine" that was to secure power for his party in Virginia until the 1960s. Even after he took office in Washington, DC on March 4, 1895, his focus was always on keeping control of what was happening at home. He was supported in this by the young state politicians Henry D. Flood - later a member of the US House of Representatives - and Claude A. Swanson , who was to become Governor of Virginia from 1906 to 1910 and, in his later years, US Secretary of the Navy .

Martin was first confirmed in 1899. As a result, he began to expand his position in the federal capital and to rise in the party at the national level. His ability to act as a balancing act between the party wings helped him; so he supported the young congressman William Jennings Bryan from Nebraska in the presidential election in 1896 and thus won the recognition of the progressive party members. Although he grew up in Virginia over time a strong opposition, including Carter Glass , but the primary system introduced by his opponents could not damage him politically: Martin always won the primary elections and was a Senator in both 1905 and 1911 re-elected.

His growing influence finally led to his being the Senate Minority Leader in 1911 for the Democrats who were then in opposition. When Woodrow Wilson was elected US President in 1912, this seemed to pose a problem for Martin, as he had tried to prevent his nomination by the party to the last. After Wilson took office, however, both found a way to work together. Martin secured the president the required majorities in the Senate and at the same time gave his supporters in Virginia to understand that they would have to support his re-election and that of his co-senator Claude A. Swanson in return.

In 1917 he was again floor leader of the democratic majority group; even after losing the majority in the 1918 elections, he continued to lead his party colleagues. In Virginia, he had previously been confirmed in his mandate in the first popular election without a candidate. However, Thomas Martin died on November 12, 1919, shortly after beginning his fifth term in Congress . He was buried in the University of Virginia cemetery.

Web links

• Thomas S. Martin in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Thomas S. Martin in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Biography (English)