Ascendancy

Abstract

This chapter examines the period from the turn of the century to the outbreak of World War I, when southern influence over national policy went from its lowest point in history to heights unmatched since before the Civil War. It begins by examining the limits of southern influence in the first decade of the twentieth century, when southern Democrats struggled to advance a legislative agenda that accommodated their multiple, at times conflicting, priorities. It then follows the story of southern lawmaking through to the dramatic reconfiguration of authority and influence that followed the elections of 1912, when southern Democratic influence over national policy jumped dramatically and the region's sometimes fractious body of legislators managed to forge and pass an ambitious progressive policy agenda. It concludes by elaborating how southern priorities were accommodated in the construction of the new American state as a southern-led Congress recognized and affirmed the power of southern states and local white elites to regulate the region's racial and class hierarchies.