Edward Ward Carmack
Edward Ward Carmack was a prominent American politician and editor known for his staunch advocacy of prohibition. Born near Castalian Springs, Tennessee, he faced early hardships after the death of his father, which prompted him to work while pursuing education. Carmack established his legal career in 1879 and shifted to politics, serving as a Democratic state representative and later in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. He became known for his biting critiques of corrupt politicians and his growing focus on the connection between the liquor trade and political corruption.
Carmack was a key figure in the temperance movement, advocating for laws to restrict alcohol sales, particularly in newly admitted states. His political career included an unsuccessful run for governor in 1908, during which he united various temperance factions. Tragically, he was murdered in 1908 during a confrontation with a former ally turned adversary, which propelled him to martyrdom within the temperance movement. His legacy remains tied to his unwavering views on morality and virtue, encapsulated in his belief that diligence and virtue lead to happiness and honor.
Edward Ward Carmack
- Edward Carmack
- Born: November 5, 1858
- Died: November 9, 1908
Prohibitionist, was born near Castalian Springs, Tennessee, the son of F. M. Carmack and Catherine Carmack. His father, a minister of the Christian Church (also known as Disciples of Christ or Campbellites), died when Carmack was still young. To help support his family, Carmack worked on local farms and in a brickyard, meanwhile attending county schools. Through the help of friends he was able to go to the Webb School in Culleoka, Tennessee, and the Jacinto Academy in Mississippi.
After reading law at home and in a lawyer’s office, Carmack was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1879 and briefly practiced in Columbia, Tennessee, then entered politics, becoming a Democratic state representative in 1884. In the same year he became editor of The Columbia Herald. In 1888 he moved to the editorship of The Nashville American and in 1892 of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. He was known as a merciless lampooner of corrupt and inefficient politicians. Gradually the alcohol issue also entered his editorials, especially from about 1890, as he began to see connections between saloons and crooked politics. During his two terms as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives (1897-1900) he voted in favor of bills to prohibit liquor sales in Alaska, restrict the interstate shipment of liquor to dry areas, and protect Indians from the sale of liquor in newly admitted states. He continued his attacks on the liquor trade during a term in the U.S. Senate (1900-06), where he also spoke against imperialism and monopoly. He was married in April 1890 to Elizabeth Cobey Dunnington of Columbia, Tennessee.
After an unsuccessful attempt at a second Senate term, Carmack ran for governor of Tennessee in 1908, taking a strong stand in favor of prohibition. He lost the Democratic primary election to the incumbent governor, M. R. Patterson, but managed to unite the diverse temperance groups and interests. Patterson won a tough reelection battle in the fall and found himself with a legislature firmly in support of statewide prohibition.
Carmack, meanwhile, had become editor of Nashville’s The Tennessean, which he used as a forum for fierce attacks—often personal—on his political enemies, including Patterson. One of his editorials particularly enraged Duncan Cooper, an old Carmack friend turned opponent. On November 9, 1908, Cooper and his son met Carmack in a shootout on a Nashville street. Carmack shot quicker, but Robin Cooper straighter. Carmack died on the spot. His murderers were sentenced to twenty-year prison terms that they did not serve. Carmack, the relentless and vitriolic partisan of virtue, was elevated to the status of a temperance saint, and the legislature finally passed the statewide prohibition bill over the veto of Governor Patterson, whose political career was ruined.
Not given to subtle philosophizing or to vacillation, Carmack defined the parts of the universe as either good or evil and took his stand accordingly. His view of life is aptly summarized in words he spoke to some college graduates: “The world is now your school... but if in this school sloth and wickedness are scourged with the rod of iron, diligence and virtue are rewarded with happiness and honor.”
The best account of Carmack’s political career is P. Isaac, Prohibition and Politics: Turbulent Decades in Tennessee, 1885-1920 (1965). See also the Dictionary of American Biography (1929).