| abstract |
This dissertation utilizes the 1899 assassination of Kentucky Governor William Goebel to situate his death within the constellation of political violence common in the post-bellum South. Politically motivated violence and assassinations were extremely common throughout the post-Reconstruction era through the 1920s, and Goebel's atypical assassination especially illustrates the points at which political change becomes a catalyst for violent reaction. Though much of the animus that Republicans and anti-Goebel Democrats held from him was centered on his electoral machinations and the election law that bore his name, his proposed reforms and regulations for industries, especially railroads, created an especially powerful impetus to challenge his efforts amongst industrialists who spent lavishly to defeat his campaign and blunt the possibility of a more interventionist and regulatory friendly Democratic party.
Goebel's 1899 campaign and continued efforts to win the office through the election law that popularly bore his name, represented, depending on the perspective of the observer, malicious indifference to the will of the voters or an unwillingness to accept fraud or otherwise be intimidated by his Republican opponents. To Democrats, and those otherwise sympathetic to his reform agenda, he became a martyr for the cause of railroad regulation and the interests of the common man. Given the general opinion of him held by the average partisan Democrat, this shift in sentiment approached something closer to rebirth than a reassessment. For Republicans, especially prior to his shooting, he was a would-be tyrant and usurper. In the aftermath of his death, these critiques became more muted, but very few Republicans suddenly found themselves convinced of his newly minted sainthood.
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