Tillman's constituency service does not soften his racial politics

Tillman placed South Carolinians above outsiders in his political hierarchy, but that constituency loyalty was neither inclusive nor benign. He was virulently racialist, and his faction included a senator willing to oppose his own party's presidential nominee for being Catholic. Tillman could still be an effective senator for state interests because federal jobs and contracts strengthened the voters and institutions that sustained his machine. Administrative effectiveness and local patronage do not provide moral rehabilitation.