Origins of the Clemson Carolina Rivalry

Benjamen Ryan "Pitchfork" Tillman: The Political Father of Clemson

In 1896, South Carolina won the first football game against Clemson 12-6.

The origins of the football rivalry began before that first football game was ever played. Unlike other rivalries, the hostility between these two schools was spawned in the bitterness and hard-times of South Carolina reconstruction era politics, and in the black heart of Clemson's founding political father, Pitchfork Ben Tillman.

Today Tillman Hall is the tallest building on Clemson's campus. It is prominently located in the center of the campus. It honors the chief political benefactor of the school, the colorful leader Pitchfork Ben Tillman. Tillman governed South Carolina from 1890 until 1894. It was Tillman's political efforts before and during those four years of his governorship that persuaded the Legislature to convert Thomas Clemson's gift of 814 Pickens County acres into the land-grant agricultural college now known as Clemson.

The University of South Carolina already existed at that time, and it could more naturally have been expanded to support agricultural education. In fact, before Tillman's election, the Legislature had expanded South Carolina College into a University and had created an agricultural college as part of the university curriculum.

Tillman strongly opposed expansion of South Carolina, and he actively campaigned against the idea and in favor of a separate agricultural school. To score political points, Tillman was harshly critical of South Carolina. Thus, the eventual creation of Tillman's baby, Clemson, came at a steep cost to South Carolina. No other college football rivalry has such a history. The story of Pitchfork Ben Tillman and the origins of Clemson is one reason why the Clemson Carolina is the greatest rivalry in college football.

Pitchfork Ben Tillman was a master of class warfare. In his rise to political power, he skillfully exploited the rift between the growing population of poor white farmers and the wealthy Democrat leadership. On the stump, he railed against the ruling Democrat class, including General Wade Hampton and his "Bourbon Democrat" allies in the Legislature, as antebellum planters and the wealthy merchants. He argued that the merchants and financiers grew wealthy by loaning money to small farmers in exchange for crop liens, and earned as much as 25% to 100% interest on the loans. As cotton prices fell in the 1870s and 1880s, the social climate in South Carolina was ripe for a revolutionary leader who could exploit the broadening chasm between rich and poor.

"The people have been hoodwinked by demagogues and lawyers in the pay of finance," said Tillman at an 1885 address in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Beneath oak trees across the State, Tillman condemned the "damnable lien laws," and the graft seeking politicians and lawyers, to roaring crowds. In a Charleston speech Tillman accused leaders there of being, "fat lawyers who were agents of fat railroads, who are breaking the hearts of the country people." Tillman's flaming speeches swept he and his followers into power in a wave of populist sentiment.

As mentioned above, one of Tillman's highest political priorities, the first program he advocated in an 1886 Farmer's Convention, was the promotion of agricultural education and a separate agricultural college for agricultural students.

Tillman was no fan of South Carolina College. He regarded the school as a place for children of antebellum and mercantile elitists, part of a wealthy class he despised. He called graduates, "drones and vagabonds."

Tillman was unsatisfied with the state of agriculture school at South Carolina College. He called it, "pitiful, contemptible." In a letter to the Charleston News & Courier, then the State's leading newspaper, Tillman described the South Carolina college (he called it an "agricultural annex") as, "a sop to Cerberus, a bribe to maintain the support of the farmers in the Legislature." (In Greek mythology, Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades.)

Unfortunately for Tillman, the 1887 Bourbon Democrats, many of whom were friends of South Carolina College, opted to expand it. The 1887 Legislature appropriated $100,000 for South Carolina College and renamed the school as "the University of South Carolina." As part of this grant, the Legislature created a new College of "Mechanical Arts and Agriculture."

As this idea was being debated by the 1887 Leglislature, Tillman wrote furious letters to the News & Courier in opposition. "They had better compromise on the matter, ere the storm which is brewing, shakes the foundations of their beloved college and perhaps topples it to the ground."

Later when the Legislature passed the expansion of South Carolina College over Tillman's objection, he complained about the University of South Carolina people "crow[ing] lustily over the great victory they have won." Tillman warned them that the poor farmers cannot afford tax increases to fund the expansion of the University. He predicted that the folks would show the "lordly planters [their dissatisfaction] with the weak and contemptible agricultural tail which had been attached to a literary kite."

Tillman focused his angry rhetoric against the University of South Carolina. In an 1887 debate with Professor R. Means Davis of the South Carolina College, Tillman argued that the school failed to develop statesmen needed to "rebuild our shattered commonwealth." He asserted that all the University of South Carolina produced were "mere theorists and cranks" or "book farmers."

Tillman contended that it was impossible to maintain an agricultural school at South Carolina College because "the very atmosphere of the place was tainted with contempt for farming."

Tillman believed the greatest obstacle to the success of an agricultural college at South Carolina was not cultural or physical but psychological. He feared that agricultural students would develop an attitude of inferiority if they were required to attend the University of South Carolina with other students. Thus, Tillman advocated an agricultural college placed a distance away from Columbia where students should be required "each day to hoe, to ditch, to fork manure, to make butter, to feed stock, to graft, to bud, to prune."

Meanwhile, Tillman's class-conscience rhetoric drew great crowds, and as a politician, he became more and more popular. Still, in 1888, Tillman's popularity was insufficient for his attempt to wrest control of the party from the Bourbon Democrats.

However, while Tillman's followers were unable secure Tillman's nomination as the Democrat nominee for Governor, they did gain a majority in the State House and lacked only two of a majority in the State Senate. Tillman's allies then made acceptance of Thomas Clemson's 1888 gift, which was contingent in the Will upon legislative "founding [of] an agricultural college," the leading issue of the day.

There was significant legislative opposition among the remaining Bourbon Democrats to the proposed plan for creation of a separate land grant school for agricultural education. First, Tillman's harsh rhetoric alienated many friends of the University of South Carolina, other church colleges, and even The Citadel. Tillman called The Citadel, "a military dude factory."

Second, Thomas Clemson's will required lifetime appointments of seven of the thirteen trustees, one of whom was Tillman. These seven trustees could never be replaced nor out-voted by the Legislature's six other appointees. Thus, the Legislature would not have authority over the educational undertaking.

Finally, there was a great deal of sentiment for not disinheriting the only living descendant of John C. Calhoun, Floride Isabella Lee. Philadelphia-born Thomas Clemson's will dispossessed Lee of Calhoun's family property.

Nevertheless, with the support of Tillman's allies, the bill to create Clemson passed the House by a substantial majority, and eked out a win in the Senate by one vote. In November 1889, Governor Richardson, the last Bourbon Democrat to ever govern in South Carolina, signed the bill establishing Clemson Agricultural College.

Simultaneously, the University of South Carolina was deprived of all federal funds provided for industrial and agricultural education. Those funds were fully diverted to Clemson.

In 1890, Tillman won the Democrat nomination and was elected Governor. In his acceptance speech, Tillman the election was a mandate for him to remedy for the "absolute retrogression" in education. Tillman's opening remarks revealed that his election as South Carolina Governor was an unmitigated disaster for the University of South Carolina.

"The people have decided," said Tillman, "that there is no use for a grand University in Columbia." Tillman argued that the university status should be stripped and that the school would be renamed South Carolina College. It would be a school for liberal education only. The agricultural and mechanical education appliances should be transferred to Clemson.

Following the Governor's advice, the Legislature altered radically the organization of the University of South Carolina. The agricultural and mechanical departments established in 1887 were abolished, and a new Board of Trustees composed of the governor and his allies were elected and authorized to reorganize the school as "South Carolina College." The teaching staff was reduced from 25 to 13.

Tillman, using the Governor's bully pulpit and alleged mandate of his election, struck the historic South Carolina College severe blows. He stated that the school was "a center of foppery and snobbery." He frequently criticized the school standards and procedures.

Tillman's frequent criticism of South Carolina, turned the students and Columbia society against Tillman. During a March 1890 campaign speech, students hissed at Governor Tillman when he appeared. Students also snubbed him at the 1891 commencement ceremony.

Tillman admitted the South Carolina students' conduct, "has soured me." He described the student's reaction as "evidence of the narrow prejudice and bitter partisan feeling."

Without funding or political support, South Carolina College fell into bad condition, causing Tillman to write, "there is dilapidation everywhere about the institution and a woeful lack of modern books in the library." By 1892, the number of students fell from 91 to 72, and the school began to lose its ability to attract students. Tillman's followers then began a movement to abolish the school. Tillman's State Superintendent of Education stated the college did not justify the annual appropriation of $41,500.

Ironically, the self-educated Tillman, who was a well-read individual, recognized the need for the study literature and art. Tillman, thus, did not join with those advocating abolishing the school. Ironically, Tillman's temperance on abolishing South Carolina College might have saved the school.

Meanwhile, Governor Tillman took a very active role in the creation of Clemson Agricultural College. He enthusiastically endorsed the suggestion that a school originally planned for 250 students be expanded to 600. He bragged that Clemson Agricultural College would become "one of the grandest schools of applied science in the Union." Tillman arranged for Clemson to get federal aid for agricultural and industrial education, and to receive revenues derived from a tax on fertilizer. He ordered African American prisoners be supplied for labor.

On July 6, 1893, Governor Tillman was the featured speaker for the opening of Clemson Agricultural College. Tillman boasted in the speech that Clemson would prove more valuable to South Carolina society than the university in Columbia he had helped disassemble. He told the 424 students assembled, "We do not propose to make any one-sided, one-horse men of you, but you must work."

Tillman left the governor's office four years later, in November 1894. He listed the establishment of Clemson Agricultural College as one of the greatest accomplishments of his four-year governorship.

Two years later, in 1896, the University of South Carolina would defeat Clemson on the football field in the first ever meeting between the schools by a score of 12-6.

Tillman went on to represent South Carolina in the United States Senate. He served in the Senate until his death in Washington in 1918. Ever controversial, Tillman's service as a Senator was marred by excessive foul language, race baiting, and a 1902 fist fight on the floor of the Senate with a fellow South Carolina Senator.



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