March 21, Frazier resigned and headed to Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the Senate, and Cox, as the constitutional successor, was sworn in as governor. Taylor and his supporters were furious at Frazier's actions, and accused Cox and the state's other U.S. senator, Edward W. Carmack, of conspiring with Frazier. Fearing a split in the party, state Democrats allowed Taylor to challenge Carmack in a statewide primary in 1906 (this was the first Senate primary in state history, as U.S. senators were chosen by state legislatures prior to the adoption of the 17th Amendment), which Taylor won. Bitterness toward Frazier and skepticism of Cox remained, however. Cox continued Frazier's policies and made few administrative changes. He implemented quarantines in an effort to eradicate yellow fever, which had long plagued the swampy western part of the state, and called up the state guard to protect strikebreakers at a coal mine in Tracy City during a miners' strike in 1905. He also dealt with rampant prison rioting, and increased pensions for Confederate veterans and spouses. In April 1905, a few weeks after Cox took office, the current Flag of Tennessee, designed by Colonel LeRoy Reeves of Johnson City, was adopted. In the gubernatorial race of 1906, Malcolm R. Patterson of Memphis challenged Cox for the Democratic Party's nomination. He quickly gained the support of a number of party leaders, including former governors Robert Love Taylor and Benton McMillin, who blamed Cox for engineering Frazier's controversial election in the General Assembly. At the party's convention in late May, Patterson and Cox engaged in a fierce battle for delegates, and though it was close, a rule change allowed Patterson to claim all delegates from Davidson County, and he was declared the nominee on June 1. Cox refused to support Patterson in the general election, and the two remained at odds in subsequent months. In 1908, Colonel Duncan Cooper, a Patterson advisor, arranged for a meeting between Cox and Patterson that helped mend the ties between the two. Ex-Senator Carmack, a Patterson opponent, published a newspaper article in October 1908 ruthlessly mocking Cooper for arranging the meeting. On November 8, Carmack was shot and killed by Cooper's son, Robin, in downtown Nashville. Later life Cox remained in the state senate until 1911. He served another term as a state representative from 1913 until 1915, and was the postmaster of Bristol from 1914 to