payment (known as the "low tax" Democrats). In the gubernatorial race of 1880, each faction nominated its own candidate, causing the Democratic vote to be split, and allowing Republican Alvin Hawkins to win the election. Governor In the 1882 gubernatorial race, the state's Bourbon faction, led by former governor Isham Harris, rallied support for the "low tax" faction, which nominated Bate as its candidate. Bate proposed paying 50% on bonds held by railroads (some of which were believed to have been obtained fraudulently during the Brownlow administration), and making full payment on bonds held by schools, charities, and Sarah Childress Polk, the widow of the late President James K. Polk. The "high tax" Democrats nominated their own candidate, Joseph Fussell. On election day, Bate won with 120,637 votes to 93,168 for the incumbent, Hawkins, 9,660 for Greenback candidate John Beasley, and 4,814 for Fussell. After his inauguration, Bate signed his debt plan into law, finally resolving the debt issue that had dogged the state for over a decade. There was still considerable anger over how the crisis was resolved, however, which threatened Bate's reelection chances in 1884. The Republican candidate, Nashville judge Frank T. Reid, mounted a strong campaign, but Bate won reelection by a vote of 132,201 to 125,246. During his first term, Bate signed into a law an act creating the State Railroad Commission to regulate railroad rates. Farmers, who deemed railroad freight rates too high, supported this, while railroad companies opposed it. The act creating this commission was repealed in 1885, however, angering farmers, and damaging Democrats' chances of holding onto the governor's office in the 1886 election. Later life After Senator Howell Jackson resigned in 1886, Bate appointed Washington C. Whitthorne to complete his term, which was set to expire in March 1887. The Tennessee General Assembly elected Bate to fill this Senate seat. He was reelected in 1893, 1899, and 1905. During his tenure, he served as chairman of the Committee on the Improvement of the Mississippi River and Its Tributaries in the 53rd Congress, and the chairman of the Committee on Public Health and the National Quarantine in two later sessions. He supported lower taxes, and favored funding for common schools, the United States Weather Bureau, and the Army Signal Corps. He voted for the admission of Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico as states. Shortly after being elected to his fourth term, Bate attended