Claude Kitchin (March 24, 1869 – May 31, 1923) was an American politician who served as a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from the

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from 1901 until his death in 1923. A lifelong member of the Democratic Party, he was elected House majority leader for the 64th and 65th congresses (1915–1919), and minority leader during the 67th Congress (1921–1923). As

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

shifted the federal government's focus to foreign policy, Kitchin became increasingly alarmed by the prospect of U.S. becoming a combatant. In April 1917, when President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

asked Congress to declare war on

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, Kitchin delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor and then voted no.

Early life

He was born in 1869, near Scotland Neck, in

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in 1869, the third of 11 children born to William H. and Maria Arrington Kitchin. He attended Vine Hill Academy in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. Kitchen attended Wake Forest College, graduating in 1888. Afterward, he read law and served as assistant registrar of deeds in the county. He was admitted to the bar in September 1890. During the 1890s, Kitchin helped mobilize the Red Shirts, armed groups of militant white supremacists who rode through rural communities dissuading blacks from voting. These groups functioned as an arm of state's Democratic Party, and it was his effectiveness during the run-up to the 1896 and 1898 elections that gave rise to his congressional career. In 1898, Kitchin helped lead the

Wilmington insurrection of 1898 Wilmington may refer to: Places Australia *Wilmington, South Australia, a town and locality **District Council of Wilmington, a former local government area **Wilmington railway line, a former railway line United Kingdom *Wilmington, Devon *Wi ...

, a violent coup d'état by a group of white supremacists. At a November 1 rally in Laurinburg, Kitchin was cheered by a crowd of several thousand whites when he proclaimed, "We cannot outnumber the negroes...And so we must either outcheat, outcount or outshoot them." He announced that any black constable attempting to arrest a white man would be lynched.Zucchino, pp. 137 On the day after the election, white citizens of Wilmington expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people.

Congressional career

Kitchin was first elected to Congress from in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

. He was re-elected 11 times, serving until his death. In Congress, he served on the House Ways and Means Committee, chairing the Committee from 1915 to 1919. From 1915 to 1919 he was House majority leader; from this position he opposed the Wilson administration's "Preparedness" crusade, seeking unsuccessfully to hold down the growth in size of the army and navy. He was among the few members of Congress who voted against the U.S. declaration of war on

in April 1917 (approved 373–50 by the House and 82–6 by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

). Afterward, he fully supported the war effort, though he remained a critic of some of the administration's war policies, especially regarding taxation policies. He championed an "excess profits" tax that was steeply progressive over a policy of selling Liberty Bonds that shifted the financial burden of the war onto future generations.

Family and death

He married Kate Mills in 1890; they had ten children. His brother William Walton Kitchin was

governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Seventy-five people have held the office since the first state governor, Richard Caswell, took office in 1777. The governor serves a ...

from 1909 to 1913. After giving an impassioned speech in March 1920 he suffered a severe stroke, from which he never fully recovered. During the winter of 1922–23 he contracted influenza and pneumonia, and, died from complications on May 31, 1923. He is buried in Scotland Neck, North Carolina at the Trinity Episcopal Cemetery.

References

Sources

* Arnett, Alex Mathews. ''Claude Kitchin Versus the Patrioteers''. ''North Carolina Historical Review'' 14.1 (1937): 20–30
online
* Arnett. Alex M. ''Claude Kitchin and the Wilson War Policies'' (1937). xii + 341 pp. * Herring, George C. ''James Hay and the Preparedness Controversy, 1915-1916''. ''Journal of Southern History'' 30.4 (1964): 383–404. * Watson, Richard L. Jr. (1988).
Kitchin, Claude 24 Mar. 1869–31 May 1923
'. ''Dictionary of North Carolina Biography''. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. Via ''ncpedia.org''. *

External links