Background
Benton McMillin was born on September 11, 1845, in Monroe County, Kentucky. He was the third of six children the youngest being a daughter of John H. and Elizabeth (Black) McMillin.
(A very good copy, edges browned. First edition. Paper wra...)
A very good copy, edges browned. First edition. Paper wrappers. 10, 6 pp. Bryan's speech arguing in favor of the income tax was originally delivered on January 30, 1894, here republished with excerpts from two other speeches for the 1896 Presidential campaign which Bryan lost.
https://www.amazon.com/Speeches-Nebraska-Illinois-McMillin-Tennessee/dp/B004I69U8K?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B004I69U8K
Benton McMillin was born on September 11, 1845, in Monroe County, Kentucky. He was the third of six children the youngest being a daughter of John H. and Elizabeth (Black) McMillin.
McMillin attended Philomath Academy in Tennessee and the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College at Lexington. He studied law under Judge E. L. Gardenhire of Carthage, Tennessee, and began its practice in 1871 at Celina, Clay County, Tennessee.
McMillin was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1874 and the following year was commissioned to treat with the State of Kentucky for the purchase of territory. In 1876, he was a presidential elector on the Tilden-Hendricks ticket. He served as a special judge, circuit court, in 1877. In 1878, he was elected as a Democrat to the lower house of Congress and served continuously in that body until he resigned on January 6, 1899, to become governor of Tennessee.
By virtue of attention to duty, long service, and party regularity, he became an important figure in the House. His significant work in that body began in 1885 with his appointment to the ways and means committee, on which he served for fourteen years.
McMillin was elected governor of Tennessee and, beginning with January 1899, served the customary two successive terms of two years each. Nothing of the radical, he devoted careful attention to administration. The result was a decided improvement of the state's current financial condition without an impairment of services. There was, in addition, a sizable reduction of the state debt.
Outstanding laws passed during his administrations provided for uniform textbooks for public schools, factory inspection, and the change from twelve to fourteen years as the minimum age for employment in industrial plants. Following his terms as governor, McMillin entered the insurance business in Nashville but continued active in politics. He regularly supported his party in all its contests, state and national, and in time came to be affectionately referred to as "the noblest Roman of them all. " In spite of this, however, he never again succeeded in holding an elective office.
As the Democratic nominee for United States senator in 1911 and for governor in 1912, he was defeated in both contests by a fusion of Independent Democrats with Republicans. He sought unsuccessfully the Democratic nomination for governor in 1922 and withdrew from a primary contest for United States senator in 1930. At the beginning of the Wilson administration in 1913, he was appointed United States minister to Peru and served until 1919.
At that time, he was transferred to a similar post in Guatemala, where he continued until January 5, 1922. In 1928, he became Democratic national committeeman from Tennessee and held that position until his death. In 1932, he conducted the preconvention campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Tennessee.
McMillin died of pneumonia, survived by his second wife, who became a member of the United States Civil Service Commission.
(A very good copy, edges browned. First edition. Paper wra...)
As governor, McMillin concerned himself increasingly with questions of revenue, expenditures, and currency. He consistently opposed governmental extravagance and Republican tariff policies. He regularly favored currency expansion and on four occasions introduced bills to repeal the federal tax on state bank circulation. He favored the coinage of silver at any ratio acceptable to Congress.
As early as 1879, he advocated an income tax, and he was largely instrumental in the inclusion of the income tax amendment to the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894. When the Supreme Court invalidated the tax, he introduced a resolution seeking an amendment to the Constitution that would authorize such a tax.
In 1869, McMillin married Birdie Brown, daughter of Gov. John C. Brown of Tennessee, but the wife died shortly after the birth of their son, Brown McMillin.
In 1887, he married Lucille Foster of Shreveport, Louisiana. They had a daughter, Ellinor.