"The political warhorse of the past has been checked, martingaled, cruppered, and bestridden by King Cotton."

"But he prances in his new caparisons, and neighs a happy scorn at the old. 'We Democrats,' he avouches, 'are few potatoes in the hill at Washington, and we don't cut much figure;' therefore, let us hold and mind our own cotton at home, 'for the future is bright and promising.'... 'At Washington my policy, which some of the newspapers don't like, has been to get anything in sight for the South when I saw the chance, and I tried to get it, right or wrong, honestly or dishonestly, because the people up there have been stealing from us for so long."

 
That's from "King Cotton and King Grass," published July 10, 1905 in The New York Times. 

If you're reading this blog in chronological order — bottom to top — you probably know why I'm reading that. Writing the previous post, I needed the past participle of "bestride," and it seemed to need to be "bestridden," but I had to convince myself that the word wasn't disqualifyingly silly. 

Have you ever been checked, martingaled, cruppered, and bestridden? Have you ever pranced in a new caparison and neighed a happy scorn? Do you remember when Democrats were few potatoes in the hill at Washington? 

Who was that article about? Ben Tillman. His story is as far as you can get from silliness. Wikipedia summarizes:

Benjamin Ryan Tillman (August 11, 1847 – July 3, 1918) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A white supremacist who opposed civil rights for black Americans, Tillman led a paramilitary group of Red Shirts during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. 

On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he defended lynching, and frequently ridiculed black Americans in his speeches, boasting of having helped kill them during that campaign. In the 1880s, Tillman, a wealthy landowner, became dissatisfied with the Democratic leadership and led a movement of white farmers calling for reform. He was initially unsuccessful, though he was instrumental in the founding of Clemson University as an agricultural land-grant college. 

In 1890, Tillman took control of the state Democratic Party, and was elected governor. During his four years in office, 18 black Americans were lynched in South Carolina; in the 1890s the state had its highest number of lynchings of any decade. Tillman tried to prevent lynchings as governor, but also spoke in support of the lynch mobs, alleging his own willingness to lead one. In 1894, at the end of his second two-year term, he was elected to the U.S. Senate by vote of the state legislature, who elected senators at the time. 

Tillman was known as "Pitchfork Ben" because of his aggressive language, as when he threatened to use a pitchfork to prod that "bag of beef," President Grover Cleveland. Considered a possible candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1896, Tillman lost any chance after giving a disastrous speech at the convention. 

He became known for his virulent oratory—especially against black Americans—but also for his effectiveness as a legislator. The first federal campaign finance law, banning corporate contributions, is commonly called the Tillman Act. Tillman was repeatedly re-elected, serving in the Senate for the rest of his life. One of his legacies was South Carolina's 1895 constitution, which disenfranchised most of the black majority and many poor whites, and ensured white Democratic Party rule for more than six decades into the twentieth century.