William Brimage Bate (7 October 1826-9 March 1905) was the Democratic Governor of Tennessee from 15 January 1883 to 17 January 1887 (succeeding Alvin Hawkins and preceding Robert Love Taylor) and a US Senator from 4 March 1887 to 9 March 1905 (succeeding Washington C. Whitthorne and preceding James B. Frazier).
Biography[]
William Brimage Bate was born in Castalian Springs, Sumner County, Tennessee in 1826, and he worked as a steamboat clerk before serving as a US Army lieutenant during the Mexican-American War. After the war, he founded the Democratic Tenth Legion newspaper in Gallatin and served in the State House from 1849 to 1851, and he became a staunch supporter of secession. He became a colonel in the Confederate States Army at the start of the American Civil War in 1861, and he was severely wounded at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, during which he lost several of his relatives. He later commanded a division at the Battle of Missionary Ridge in November 1863, and he was promoted to Major-General on 24 February 1864. He fought in the Atlanta Campaign and was wounded in the knee on 10 August, and he lost 20% of his division at the Battle of Franklin. He surrendered following the Battle of Bentonville, having been wounded thrice and unhorsed six times during the war.
Political career[]
An elderly Bate
After the war, Bate became active in Democratic politics, serving as a Samuel J. Tilden presidential elector in 1876. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, Tennessee struggled from a debt crisis, dividing the Democrats into "high tax" (pro-full repayment) and "low tax" (pro-partial repayment) factions. The two factions split the vote in 1880, leading to the election of a Republican governor, Alvin Hawkins. In 1882, Bate - running as a "low tax" Bourbon Democrat - was elected after promising to pay 50% of bonds held by railroads and to fully repay bonds held by schools, charities, and James K. Polk's widow. Bate successfully resolved his state's debt issue, and he narrowly won re-election in 1884. He went on to serve in the US Senate from 1887 to 1905, supporting lower taxes, funding for common schools, and the admission of Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico as states. He died in office in 1905.
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