Narciso Gonzales | |
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| Born | (1858-08-05)August 5, 1858 Edisto Island, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | January 19, 1903(1903-01-19) (aged 44) Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Occupation | Newspaper editor |
Narciso Gener Gonzales (August 5, 1858 – January 19, 1903) was anAmerican journalist born in Eddingsville,Edisto Island, South Carolina. He foundedThe State newspaper inColumbia, South Carolina, with his brother,Ambrose E. Gonzales in 1891. Gonzales was a frequent critic ofTillmanism. He was also aDemocratic powerbroker in the state, directing patronage from thesecond Cleveland administration within South Carolina. Gonzales was murdered in 1903 by South Carolina Lieutenant GovernorJames H. Tillman, the nephew of Senator Ben Tillman, after Gonzales effectively ended James Tillman's chances of becoming governor with a series of scathing editorials.
Gonzales was the son of Confederate ColonelAmbrosio José Gonzales and Harriet Rutledge Elliott. His father played an instrumental role in the defenses of South Carolina during theAmerican Civil War after he had been a Cuban revolutionary leader with Venezuelan GeneralNarciso López,[1] who opposed the oppressive Spanish rule in four failed expeditions. His mother was the daughter of a wealthy South Carolina rice planter, state senator, and writer,William Elliott. Gonzales was an uncle ofRobert E. Gonzales.[2]
Although his formal education ended at 17, he became atelegraph operator in 1875 to help support his extended family.[1] He worked in railroad depots inVarnville, South Carolina, as well asSavannah andValdosta inGeorgia. While he was a telegrapher and handled news reports, he developed an interest in journalism and state politics.
While Gonzales worked in Varnville in 1876, he wrote a report on a local uprising of plantation workers and telegraphed it to theCharlestonJournal of Commerce. The report came to the attention of the editors of a rival newspaper, theNews and Courier. Shortly after going to work for the GreenvilleDaily News in 1880, Gonzales accepted a position as the state capital correspondent for theNews and Courier. While employed by theNews and Courier, Gonzales extensively covered the rise ofBen Tillman, a white supremacist who led a populist revolt against the state's political establishment.[3]
In 1891, Gonzales and his brotherAmbrose E. Gonzales foundedThe State, a newspaper inColumbia, South Carolina. Owning his own newspaper allowed the well-known Gonzales to wage war against Governor Ben Tillman unrestrained by the conservatism of his former employer.[1][4] Although Gonzales and Tillman shared similar prejudices, they differed in their comportment. Whereas Tillman utilized the politics of violence, Gonzales railed against dueling, murder, and lynching.[5] Ultimately, while Tillman respected the newly created newspaper for its audacity, he successfully painted the paper as anti-populist during the 1892 gubernatorial election.[5]
Gonzales was a political powerbroker. Tillman was unable to persuade PresidentGrover Cleveland to stop directing state patronage through Gonzales and another man; to the detriment of Tillman.[6] And in 1898, Governor Ellerbe made a deal with Gonzales, who opposed prohibition and the state-run dispensary system, that in return for Gonzales support in the election, Ellerbe would abandon the dispensary system. For the promise, which Ellerbe ultimately broke, Gonzales allegedly returned 2,600 votes.[7]
During Gonzales's life,The State supported a number of progressive causes; its editorials called for an end tolynching, the reform ofchild labor laws, andwomen's suffrage.[8]
Gonzales was shot on January 15, 1903, by South Carolina Lieutenant GovernorJames H. Tillman, the nephew of Ben Tillman, and died four days later. Gonzales had waged a veritable crusade against Tillman's personal failings in his newspaper that helped to ensure Tillman's defeat in the 1902 South Carolina gubernatorial race.[9] Tillman had shot Gonzales in broad daylight in the presence of many eyewitnesses but was acquitted, ostensibly on a shaky self-defense theory but really because the jury believed Tillman to have been right in taking justice into his own hands.[10] The assassination effectively ended Jim Tillman's political future and provided an opening forColeman Livingston Blease to become the next political leader in the state.[11]
A memorialcenotaph for Gonzales was later erected on Senate Street across from the State House in Columbia, purportedly on the route on which Tillman regularly walked home.
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