Isham G. Harris - United States Senate

United States Senate

By 1877, the Tennessee state legislature, which was once again controlled by Democrats, elected Harris to one of the state's U.S. Senate seats. One of his earliest assignments, in the 46th Congress (1879–1881), was the District of Columbia Committee. Subsequent assignments included the Committee on Epidemic Diseases in the 49th Congress through the 52nd Congress (1885–1893) and the Committee on Private Land Claims in the 54th and 55th Congresses (1895–1897).

During his first term in the Senate, Harris became the leader of Tennessee's Bourbon Democrats, a wing of the Democratic Party that supported laissez-faire capitalism and the gold standard. As such, Harris spent his early Senate career advocating strict constructionism and limited government, states' rights, and low tariffs. In 1884, he was interviewed by President-elect Grover Cleveland for a cabinet position. In 1887, he gave an impassioned speech in favor of the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act. In 1890, Harris denounced the Lodge Act, which would have protected voting rights for African-Americans in the South, arguing that it violated states' rights.

Though a Bourbon Democrat, Harris, representing an agrarian state, was also a "Silver Democrat," believing pro-silver policies protected farmers. He supported the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which authorized the federal government to purchase silver to prevent deflation in crop prices. He also supported the act's replacement, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. In 1893, President Cleveland, concerned that the Sherman act was depleting the U.S. gold supply, sought its repeal. When the vote came up in the Senate in October, Harris, as president pro tempore, launched a filibuster in hopes of preventing the act's repeal, but was unsuccessful. Disgruntled over the repeal of the Sherman act, Harris campaigned for unsuccessful presidential candidate and gold standard opponent William Jennings Bryan in 1896.