History of the Restoration Movement


Edward Ward Carmack

1858-1908

Writer, Lawyer, Orator, Politician, Newspaper Editor

Son Of Pioneer Gospel Preacher, F. M. Carmack

A Powerful Tennessee Politician At The Turn Of The 20th Century

1879 Admitted To The Tennessee State Bar

Served In The Tennessee General Assembly In 1884

Started A Paper In Columbia Called The Columbia Herald

1886 Moved To Nashville And Started Another Paper, The Nashville Democrat

Became Editor In Chief Of The Nashville American

1892-1896 Editor Of Memphis Commercial

1897-1901 Elected And Served In The U.S. House Of Representatives, 2 Terms

1901-1907 - Elected And Served In The U.S. Senate

1908 - Lost In A Heated Battle With Malcolm R. Patterson For Governor

1908 Became Editor Of The Nashville Tennessean

Was A Strong Voice For Temperance

Gunned Down In The Streets Of Nashville, November 9, 1908 By Robin Cooper

Buried In Rose Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Tennessee

A Statue Was Erected In His Honor At The State Capitol Building In Nashville

More On Carmack Here

Note: Edward Ward Carmack led Tennesseans in the Temperance battle in the early 20th century.
His murder in downtown Nashville was in many ways connected to his Temperance stand.
The above message was from The Christian Leader And The Way, 07.05.1910, p.5

Excerpt From, "The Passing Of The Saloon"

EDWARD WARD CARMACK. As the pages of this book are closing comes the shocking news of the cruel assassination of E. W. Carmack, stalwart son of the South, truly a hero and martyr of the Great Reform.

The Nashville W. C. T. U., representing the temperance women of the entire commonwealth, voted the following resolution as an official ex- pression of their attitude toward the assassination of the brilliant gentleman who championed their cause in the arena of politics:

"On Monday, November 9, ex-Senator Edward W. Carmack, as he quietly walked on the streets of our city, was, without the shadow of a chance to defend himself, shot down in cold blood by the murderous hand of an assassin for no other reason than that he stood fearlessly and squarely for civic righteousness as opposed to political frauds and corruptions, and for the protection of the homes of Tennessee from the blighting curse of the legalized liquor traffic."

The Christian Advocate, Nashville, one of the official organs of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and one of the most influential religious journals in the South, paid this editorial tribute to the memory of the dead editor:

"Tennessee sits in a great shadow. The deadly shot of a personal enemy on the afternoon of November 9 put out the most brilliant light in the public life of this great commonwealth. Not only the state, but the South and even the nation, felt the keenest shock when the news was flashed over the wires of the country that former Senator E. W. Carmack had been killed in Nashville. The sorrow of the best people of the state and nation is profound; for a brilliant editor, a wise and astute statesman, a courageous defender of truth and righteousness, a gallant standard bearer for the cause of sobriety, public morals and clean citizenship has fallen, and the country is robbed of the noble service of one of the most capable and fearless men and one of the most valued and honored leaders which the South has produced in this generation.

"Edward Ward Carmack was born November 5,1858, near Castalian Springs, Sumner County, Tennessee. He grew to manhood with the opportunities of only an academic education. But he was a reader of good and great books, and he remedied to a great extent the lack of his earlier years. He studied law and began its practice in Columbia, Tenn. At twenty-six years of age he entered the Tennessee legislature, but after one term turned his attention to editorial work, and was a member of the editorial staff of the Nashville American from 1886 to 1888, when he founded the Nashville Democrat, of which he was editor until it was merged with the American, and then he became the editor-in-chief of the American. In 1892 he was called to the editor-in-chief's position on the Memphis Commercial Appeal. After five years he was elected to the House of Representatives of the United States Congress from the Memphis district. At the end of his second term, in 1901, he succeeded Senator Turley in the United States Senate, where he made a brilliant record and impressed the nation with the superiority of his gifts and the stalwartness of his character. In 1907 he was defeated for re-election to the Senate by Gov. Robert L. Taylor, the most popular politician in Tennessee. In 1908 he was a candidate before the people in a Democratic primary for the office of Governor against the present incumbent, the Hon. M. R. Patterson. The chief issue in the campaign was state-wide prohibition, and Senator Carmack espoused the cause of the people against the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors. He was defeated, as he was opposed by the state administration machine and by all the liquor men of the state. He was then made editor-in-chief of The Nashville Tennessean, a paper that had stood nobly with Mr. Carmack for the prohibition of the liquor traffic. In his editorials he has attacked fearlessly the combination that has looked to the overthrow of all legislation on the question of the sale and manufacture of liquors.

"Senator Carmack has died the death of a martyr to the cause of civic righteousness and public sobriety, but his cause is not dead. Tennessee will rise in her majestic strength, and with ten thousand scourging thongs drive from her borders her social enemies who have brought about the lamented death of her most gifted and gallant son. The prohibitionist is dead, but prohibition, the choicest flower in our public life, will spring from his grave to give fragrance and beauty to this fair state of the South."

The Washington Post says:

"He would have been an ornament to British parliaments that knew Burke and Fox and Pitt. He would have been distinguished in American senates that contained Clay and Calhoun and Webster. He might have been rich. He had but to stoop. But in the true sense who dares say this American Senator is poor? Where is the man who does not respect him? All the wealth of either Ind would not buy for the base of his lofty character, his unblemished honor."

- George M. Hammell, D.D., The Passing Of The Saloon, c.1908, Cincinnati: The Tower Press, pps. 128-130.

Directions To The Grave Of E.W. Carmack

Location of the final resting place of E.W. Carmack is to be found in the city Columbia, Tennessee.

Take I-65 exit 46 and go west on highway 412. In Columbia, turn south on highway 31. Turn left on Cemetery Ave. Turn left just past the Rose Hill sign; Enter gate travel past the work building on the left. Turn right at 3AVE. and the grave is up on the right at the corner of the next road to the right.

GPS Coordinates
35°36'11.3"N 87°01'48.3"W
or D.d. 35.603133, -87.030075
Acc. to 14ft.
Grave faces East

Photos taken in 2010

Rose Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Tennessee

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