Dewitt Clinton Senter

Dewitt Clinton Senter ( born March 26, 1830, McMinn County, Tennessee, † June 14, 1898 in Morristown ) was an American politician and the 21st Governor of Tennessee.

Curriculum vitae

Dewitt Clinton Senter The boy spent most of his youth on a farm in Grainger County. There he received his education. Since 1852, he studied law. 1855-1861 he was a deputy in the Parliament of Tennessee for the Whig party. He was a loyal supporter of the Union and rejected the secession of Tennessee. The Confederates arrested him and held him prisoner for six months. After the Civil War, he was president of a railroad company. In addition, he was elected for two terms in the Senate in his home state. Meanwhile Senter was, become a member of the Republican Party after the dissolution of the Whig party. In the Senate, he brought it to the speaker (eg chairman). In this capacity, he automatically fell in 1869, the Office of the Governor William Gannaway Brownlow gave as to this office to move into the U.S. Senate. Senter completed the tenure of his predecessor, and was subsequently elected himself for another two years. He campaigned for the abolition of restrictions on choice of former supporters of the Confederacy and gave them back the right to vote. The new federal law on the abolition of slavery and the civil and voting rights for his black compatriots, he acknowledged. However, the right to vote for blacks with a control was connected who could pay the least. Simultaneously, Tennessee, as the entire southern United States, struck by a wave of terror of the Ku Klux Klan. Senter also had to face this problem. The most significant event of his tenure was the constitutional reform of 1870. Then the Constitution is drafted in large part to this day. After the end of his tenure, Senter withdrew from politics. He lived until his death in 1898 on his farm near Morristown.

He was married in 1859 Harriet T. Senter.