James B. Frazier, twice governor of Tennessee and for six years a United States senator from this state, is a native son of Tennessee, born at Pikeville, Bledsoe county, on the 18th of October, 1858. His parents were Thomas Neil and Margaret M. Frazier. He is descended from Scotch and French Huguenot ancestry, and is a great-grandson of Samuel Frazier and a grandson of Abner Frazier, both of whom fought in the battle of King's Mountain. Samuel Frazier was a delegate to the first constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1796. Thomas Neil Frazier, father of Senator Frazier, was graduated from Greeneville College and admitted to the bar at Washington, Tennessee, after which he became clerk and master of the chancery court of Bledsoe county. He resigned to engage in the practice of law at Pikeville and in 1861 was elected circuit judge, but before he could take his seat the state seceded and he never received his commission. Originally he was a stanch Union man, but after the state had adopted the policy of secession he did what he could to further the cause of the Confederacy. Following his removal to Rutherford county in 1863 he was appointed to the office of criminal judge for Davidson and Rutherford counties and remained upon the bench until impeached by a radical legislature in 1867, for releasing on habeas corpus several members of that body who absented themselves for the purpose of breaking a quorum. In 1870 his political rights were restored by a constitutional convention and he was reelected criminal judge of his old district, a circumstance indicating how the people of the community had stood behind him in the course he had pursued. He voluntarily retired from the bench in 1878 and died in 1887.
After attending the common schools of Rutherford and Davidson counties James B. Frazier continued his education in Franklin College, near Nashville, and in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he was graduated in 1878, with the Bachelor of Arts degree. For a time he engaged in teaching and devoted his leisure hours during that period to the study of law, thus preparing himself for admission to the bar in 1880. Through the succeeding nine years he practiced as a member of the well known firm of DeWitt, Shepherd & Frazier of Chattanooga and in the year 1891 became a partner in the firm of Cooke, Frazier & Swaney. This connection was continued until 1896, when he became senior member of the firm of Frazier & Coleman. Several times he received appointment as special judge and while serving upon the bench delivered many opinions in important cases that have been regarded as strong, logical presentations of the law. [p.29]
On the 10th of January, 1883, at Athens, Tennessee, he was married to Louise Douglas Keith, the daughter of Colonel Alexander Hume and Sarah Anne (Foree) Keith. Colonel Keith, a native of Tennessee, was a prominent attorney and wealthy planter, a veteran of the Seminole and Mexican wars, and a man of great influence and prestige. Mrs. Frazier is also descended from William Randolph of Virginia on the paternal side. Her grandfather, Judge Charles Fleming Keith, was a cousin of Chief Justice John Marshall. Sarah Anne Foree, her mother, was of French Huguenot stock and was descended from the Marquis De La Foree of France. Mrs. Frazier has been prominent in club and social circles of this state and has been particularly active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, having been regent of Chickamauga Chapter, and is also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
To Senator and Mrs. Frazier four children have been born: Annie Keith, James B., Jr., Thomas A. and Louise. Annie Keith is the wife of Robert Nugent Somerville and resides in Cleveland, Mississippi. James B., Jr., now practicing law in partnership with his father at Chattanooga, held the rank of major of artillery during the World war, having volunteered within a month after war was declared. He received a lieutenant's commission at the beginning of the war and was stationed at Fort Oglethorpe, but later was assigned as instructor in the Field Artillery Training Camp, at Camp Taylor, and while at this post was advanced to the rank of major. Thomas Alexander Frazier, now a practicing attorney at Clarksdale, Mississippi, was a lieutenant of United States Cavalry in the First army and experienced nineteen months' service overseas, having participated in the fighting at Soissons, St. Mihiel, the Argonne and Montfaucon. Louise is the wife of John Porter Fort of Chattanooga. Senator Frazier is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
Senator Frazier has long been a rceognized leader in democratic circles of the state and in 1900 was made elector-at-large on the democratic presidential ticket. In 1902 he was nominated by acclamation and elected governor of Tennessee by the largest plurality–thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two–given to any candidate since the Civil war. That his administration received public endorsement is indicated by the fact that he was again nominated by acclamation and without opposition elected a second time in 1904, by a majority of about thirty thousand.
Governor Frazier's administration was a strictly business administration. He insisted upon the most rigid economy in the conduct of every department of the state government. He refused to sanction the creation of new and unnecessary offices and refused to approve any increase of salaries of public officers and when the legislature passed a bill increasing his own salary as governor, he promptly vetoed it. By his policy of economy he was enabled to reduce the state debt in large measure. During the two terms for which he was elected the state debt was reduced two million, four hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars. Governor Frazier was a strong advocate of public education and advocated the extension and improvement of the public schools of the state, particularly the rural schools. Up to the time he became governor, the state, as such, had never made any appropriation for the support of the public schools, except the small sum annually paid on what was known as the school fund. He insisted, in a strong message to the legislature, that public education was a proper function and duty of the state and he secured the passage of a bill making a liberal appropriation for the support of the public schools of the state. From this act has grown the splendid system of public schools in the state which the people enjoy at this time. A short time before the beginning of Governor Frazier's first term there had been a number of disastrous explosions in the coal mines of the state, involving great loss of life. Governor Frazier studied this problem with great care, examined the statutes of other coal-producing states and helped to draft and secured the passage of a law regulating the operation of and providing for the inspection of coal mines. This law resulted in reducing mine disasters to a minimum and is still in effect, with some slight amendments increasing the number of inspectors. Governor Frazier stood for law and order and equal enforcement of all laws. He was a strong temperance man and approved what is known as the Adams law, extending prohibition to cities of five thousand population. He also vetoed a bill authorizing the establishment and creation of a dispensary in one of the cities of the state. He insisted that a dispensary system by a municipality would force all people therein into the saloon business and was inconsistent with true temperance. [p.32] Governor Frazier's first term was so satisfactory to the people that he was renominated without opposition and again elected by a large majority.
In March, 1905, Governor James B. Frazier was nominated by acclamation for the position of United States senator, to succeed the Hon. William B. Bate, who died during the session of the legislature, and he was elected on the 21st of March by the general assembly, then in session. His course in the national legislative halls, where he served from March, 1905, until March, 1911, was in accord with the record he had previously made as a public official in his own state and was characterized by a masterful grasp of every problem presented for solution. Senator Frazier, being a democrat, stood for the fundamental principles of that party in his speeches and votes while a member of the senate. He consistently opposed every encroachment of the Federal government on the reserved powers of the state. During his term a question arose between the national government and the state of California as to the admission of the Japanese residents of that state into the public schools, and Theodore Roosevelt, then president, espoused the cause of the Japanese and threatened to use the army and navy to coerce the state of California. Senator Frazier introduced in the senate a resolution setting out and defining the relative powers of the Federal government and the states and insisting that the public schools of the state were domestic institutions, over which the states were supreme and that the Federal government had no right or power to dictate as to who should enter the schools by treaty or otherwise. He studied the questions involved with great care and thoroughness and made an elaborate and well considered speech in the senate in support of the principles set out in his resolution. That speech attracted great attention over the country and particularly in the west and south, where the race question was more or less acute. It was never answered, and the Federal administration abandoned its aggressive policy toward California. Senator Frazier opposed in speech and by his votes the high protective tariff known as the Payne-Aldrich bill. He was a strong advocate of an income tax and voted for an amendment to the constitution on that subject. He was an enthusiastic advocate of Federal aid to the states in the construction of a system of public highways throughout the nation. He prepared with great care and introduced a bill upon that subject. It failed to pass at that time, but it was the basis upon which the Bankhead good roads bill, which later became the law, was founded. Senator Frazier was not narrow in his partisanship, as was evidenced when he wrote the majority report of the committee of the senate, who investigated the conduct of President Roosevelt in discharging a battalion of negro soldiers for shooting up the city of Brownsville, Texas. In his report and in an elaborate and eloquent speech he sustained the action of the president. His report was accepted by the senate. Senator Frazier stood for honesty in elections and being a member of the senate committee to investigate the election of Senator Lorimer of Illinois, charged with having been elected by bribery and corruption, he refused to concur with the other members of the committee who reported favorably to Senator Lorimer and alone made a minority report, embodying such a strong and forceful statement of the facts and the law, that it was finally sustained by the senate and Senator Lorimer was unseated. Senator Frazier was a member of the Foreign Relations committee and many other important committees of the senate and took an active part in all important legislation and in the debates of the upper house of congress.
Being regarded as one of the state's most eloquent and accomplished orators, he has since his retirement from public office been in great demand as a speaker on important occasions and has made many addresses on various subjects throughout Tennessee and elsewhere. He has canvassed the state on behalf of his party in practically every campaign for many years. Senator Frazier's private life has been pure and spotless, and his public career that of an honest, sincere and able statesman.
Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 2 -- transcribed by, Amanda Jowers
