William B. Bate - Governor

Governor

After the war, Bate practiced law in Nashville in partnership with Colonel Frank Williams. He remained active in politics, serving on the State Democratic Committee and the National Democratic Executive Committee in the late 1860s. He was nominated for the U.S. Senate in 1875, 1877, and 1881, and was an elector for presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden in 1876.

Throughout the 1870s and early 1880s, Tennessee's state government struggled with debt, which had accumulated over previous decades as the state issued bonds to fund internal improvements and railroad construction. The Panic of 1873 decimated the state's property tax revenue, and the state defaulted on its bond debt in 1875. By the early 1880s, the state Democratic Party had split into two factions over how to resolve the crisis: those who sought full repayment of the debt at all costs to preserve the state's credit (known as the "high tax" or "state credit" Democrats) and those who believed full payment unfeasible and sought only a partial payment (known as the "low tax" Democrats). In the gubernatorial race of 1880, each faction nominated its own candidate, causing the Democratic vote to be split, and allowing Republican Alvin Hawkins to win the election.

In the 1882 gubernatorial race, the state's Bourbon faction, led by former governor Isham Harris, rallied support for the "low tax" faction, which nominated Bate as its candidate. Bate proposed paying 50% on bonds held by railroads (some of which were believed to have been obtained fradulently during the Brownlow administration), and making full payment on bonds held by schools, charities, and Sarah Childress Polk, the widow of James K. Polk. The "high tax" Democrats nominated their own candidate, Joseph Fussell. On election day, Bate won with 120,637 votes to 93,168 for the incumbent, Hawkins, 9,660 for Greenback candidate John Beasley, and 4,814 for Fussell.

After his inauguration, Bate signed his debt plan into law, finally resolving the debt issue that had dogged the state for over a decade. There was still considerable anger over how the crisis was resolved, however, threatening Bate's reelection chances in 1884. The Republican candidate, Nashville judge Frank T. Reid, mounted a strong campaign, but Bate was able to win reelection by a vote of 132,201 to 125,246.

During his first term, Bate signed into a law an act creating the State Railroad Commission to regulate railroad rates. Farmers, who deemed railroad freight rates too high, supported this, while railroad companies opposed it. The act creating this commission was repealed in 1885, however, angering farmers, and damaging Democrats' chances of holding onto the governor's office in the 1886 election.