Claude Augustus Swanson (March 31, 1862July 7, 1939) was an American lawyer and
Democratic politician from
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. He served as U.S. Representative (1893-1906),
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
(1906-1910), and U.S. Senator from Virginia (1910-1933), before becoming U.S. Secretary of the Navy under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
from 1933 until his death. Swanson and fellow U.S. Senator
Thomas Staples Martin
Thomas Staples Martin (July 29, 1847November 12, 1919) was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Albemarle County, Virginia, who founded a political organization that held power in Virginia for decades (later becoming known as t ...
led a Democratic political machine in Virginia for decades in the late 19th and early 20th century, which later became known as the
Byrd Organization
The Byrd machine, or Byrd organization, was a political machine of the Democratic Party led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. From the 1890s until the l ...
for Swanson's successor as U.S. Senator,
Harry Flood Byrd
Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (June 10, 1887 – October 20, 1966) was an American newspaper publisher, politician, and leader of the Democratic Party in Virginia for four decades as head of a political faction that became known as the Byrd Organization. ...
.
Early and family life
Claude Swanson was born to the former Catherine Rebecca Pritchett (1834-1873) and her husband John Muse Swanson (1829-1914) in
Swansonville,
Pittsylvania County, Virginia
Pittsylvania County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 60,501. Chatham is the county seat.
Pittsylvania County is included in the Danville, VA Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...
on March 31, 1862. His great-grandfather
William Swanson had moved to Pittsylvania from Albemarle County, Virginia, had farmed a plantation using slave labor, represented Pittsylvania County in the
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...
, and advocating for building a railroad between Richmond and Danville.
John M. Swanson, who owned slaves in 1850 and 1860, served in the
5th Virginia Cavalry
The 5th Virginia Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
The Virginia 5th Cavalry was organized in J ...
and
21st Virginia Infantry
The 21st Virginia Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in Virginia for service in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It fought mostly with the Army of Northern Virginia.
The 21st Virginia was organized in ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. After the war, he worked with his brother as merchants and tobacco manufacturers, J.M. Swanson & Bro. in Swansonville. John and Catherine Swanson had three other sons who survived to adulthood, as well as three daughters: William Graves Swanson (1860-1934), John Pritchett Swanson and Henry Clay Swanson (1870-1952) and sisters Annie Blanche Swanson (1864-1948), Sallie Hill Swanson (1869-1950) and Julia Benson Swanson (1869-1933). Two siblings did not survive to adulthood.
Claude Swanson married Elizabeth Deane Lyons on December 11, 1894 in the District of Columbia. She died on July 13, 1920. He married her widowed sister Lulie Lyons Hall (1867-1953) three years later, and she survived him. Swanson had met them both while studying at Randolph Macon Academy, for their mother ran a boardinghouse to support her family.
Career
Most Swanson men were Democrats and merchants in southwestern Virginia after the American Civil War. Commerce was the family business. A Swedish ancestor had moved from Philadelphia to southwestern Virginia in the 17th century to farm, as well as trade tobacco (and supply farmers with goods they needed). His grandfather had appeared as a "Tobacconist" in the 1850 U.S.Census, and the same label was used for his father in the 1860 census. His brother William G. Swanson later ran the wholesale Swanson Brothers Company, and served as chief clerk at the White Rock Indian Reservation in
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
during the administration of Democratic President
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
. John Pritchett Swanson operated the Swanson Supply Company, a wholesale grocery and farmers supply business, and the family also had interests in the South Atlantic Lumber Company and Clement Lumber Company in
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...
.
Merchant to teacher to lawyer
Swanson studied under Celestia Parrish then worked for his father in the family business, and taught as a schoolteacher himself for two years (for $30/month when he was 15 and 16 years old)
when the bright tobacco market collapsed in 1876.
When Virginia's fiscal crisis meant teachers were not paid, and having earned enough to fund his further studies, Swanson entered the new state agricultural college in
Blacksburg,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...
(or Virginia Tech). Another family financial crisis led him and his brother to work in
Danville as clerks in John Carter's grocery.
Four Danville Methodists lent Swanson funds to attend
Randolph Macon College in
Ashland. He graduated in 1885 after winning oratorical prizes and editing the college newspaper as well as the ''Hanover and Caroline News.'' He then went to
Charlottesville
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...
and received a law degree from the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
.
After admission to the Virginia Bar, Swanson set up a legal practice in
Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
, the Pittsylvania county seat.
Congressman and Virginia politician
The young orator Claude Swanson had drawn the attention of Democratic party politicians in Richmond when he was studying in Ashland just up the railroad line. He won his first public office in 1892, a seat in the U.S. Congress representing
Virginia's 5th congressional district
Virginia’s fifth congressional district is a United States congressional district in the commonwealth of Virginia. The district is based in Southside Virginia and is heavily rural in character. It is Virginia's largest district with an area of ...
. Swanson would serve seven terms in the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
, from 1893 until 1906. The district extended from Pittsylvania and
Franklin counties into the Republican-leaning mountain counties of
Floyd,
Carroll and
Grayson. Swanson survived two close election contests.
During the
1893 depression, Swanson became Virginia's most outspoken congressman endorsing
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
's inflationary fiscal reforms, i.e. allowing both silver and gold as legal tender. By 1896, Swanson had allied himself with
Henry D. Flood,
James Hay James Hay may refer to:
*James Hay (bishop) (died 1538), Scottish abbot and bishop
*James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle (c.1580–1636), British noble
*James Hay, 2nd Earl of Carlisle (1612–1660), British noble
*James Hay, 15th Earl of Erroll (1726†...
,
Francis Lassiter and
Thomas Staples Martin
Thomas Staples Martin (July 29, 1847November 12, 1919) was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Albemarle County, Virginia, who founded a political organization that held power in Virginia for decades (later becoming known as t ...
(whom he helped elect to the Senate in 1893).
Although his family's mercantile background had shown Swanson the importance of credit, his views (and those of his allies) outraged the conservative creditor class. Railroad developer
Joseph F. Bryan, who owned the ''Richmond Times'' analogized Swanson to communists, anarchists and repudiators of debt."
[encyclopediavirginia] Congressman Swanson also endorsed free rural mail delivery, aid to rural banks, graduated federal income taxes (that became the
16th Amendment), reduced federal excise taxes and direct election of U.S. Senators (that became the
17th Amendment). He rose to influence on the House Ways and Means Committee and as proto-party whip. When the Spanish–American War in 1898 stimulated demand for farm products, the family farms again prospered and his brothers opened a wholesale grocery in Danville.
In 1903 Swanson bought Eldon, a plantation in
Pittsylvania County, Virginia
Pittsylvania County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 60,501. Chatham is the county seat.
Pittsylvania County is included in the Danville, VA Micropolitan Statistical Ar ...
, built by the Whittle family for whom
Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
's Whittle Street is named. He lived there (when not in Washington, D.C.) most of the rest of his life. Swanson also entered into various real estate consortiums with Flood and his nephew,
Harry F. Byrd
Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (June 10, 1887 – October 20, 1966) was an American newspaper publisher, politician, and leader of the Democratic Party in Virginia for four decades as head of a political faction that became known as the Byrd Organization. ...
.
Governor
Swanson's attempt to become Governor of Virginia in 1901 failed. However, after the
Virginia Constitution of 1902 disenfranchised many African American and poor white voters, he won the Democratic primary in 1905. In the
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
he defeated Republican
Lunsford L. Lewis of
Rockingham County by a nearly 2 to 1 margin.
Claude Swanson became the
45th Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
, serving from 1906 until 1910. He was known as a progressive: reducing railroad rates and reorganizing the new
State Corporation Commission, adding more capable school superintendents from his position on the State Board of Education (and funding their salaries), and building roads, schools and a tuberculosis sanatorium, reorganizing the state Board of Health, and establishing a Board of Charities and Corrections with later became the Department of Public Welfare.
However, this was also an era of increased racial polarization in Virginia, and under Swanson and his lieutenant governor
James Taylor Ellyson, African American schools received far fewer funds, and the state's eugenics program would flower in the 1920s.
U.S. Senator
Senator
John W. Daniel died in office in June 1910. In August 1910, his successor as governor
William Hodges Mann
William Hodges Mann (July 30, 1843 – December 12, 1927) was an American lawyer, Confederate soldier and Democratic politician who became the first judge of Nottoway County, Virginia and the last Confederate veteran to serve as the Governor of ...
appointed Swanson to fill the vacancy until the end of Daniel's term on March 3, 1911. In February 1911, Gov. Mann appointed Swanson to the term Daniel for which Daniel had been reelected before his death, which began on March 4, 1911. Swanson won a non-binding primary for the seat in September 1911, and in January 1912, the
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...
ratified the primary results by electing Swanson to the remainder of the term, which ended on March 3, 1917.
Swanson continued to win reelection, and represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1910 until 1933. Fellow Progressive Virginian
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
won the 1912 Presidential election, so Swanson supported successful reforms in child labor and banking laws, reduced tariffs and federal funding of highway construction. He and Virginia's other Senator Thomas Staples Martin also supported expansion of the Norfolk Naval Base and the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
. Swanson publicly opposed women's suffrage and what became the
19th Amendment, although he advised President Wilson privately concerning its passage.
During the Republican administrations of the 1920s, Swanson's gained seniority in the Senate, and served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Swanson continued to advocate for the U.S. Navy, particularly as Japanese aggression in the Pacific threatened American commercial interests. He argued for a "treaty navy". His familiarity with the 1922 Washington agreements and those of the London Treaty (1930) led President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
(though of the opposing political party) to appoint Swanson as an American delegate to the unsuccessful
Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932.
When the Great Depression hit and voters elected Democrat
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
President, Swanson became
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
, serving from 1933 until his death in 1939.
Harry F. Byrd
Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (June 10, 1887 – October 20, 1966) was an American newspaper publisher, politician, and leader of the Democratic Party in Virginia for four decades as head of a political faction that became known as the Byrd Organization. ...
, who had succeeded to leadership of Martin's political organization after Martin's death, succeeded Swanson in the Senate, but became a leading critic of the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
. As Naval Secretary, Swanson oversaw passage and implementation of the largest U.S. peacetime naval appropriations up to that time.
Death and legacy
Ill for several months, Swanson died at
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
's
Rapidan Camp
Rapidan Camp (also known at times as Camp Hoover) in Shenandoah National Park in Madison County, Virginia, was built by U.S. President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou Henry Hoover, and served as their rustic retreat throughout Hoover's administ ...
(which was then available for use by the Roosevelt Administration) in
Criglersville,
Madison County, Virginia
Madison County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,837. Its county seat is Madison.
History
Madison County was established in December 1792, created from Culpeper County. The cou ...
on July 7, 1939. The 77 year old had also visited
Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park (often ) is an American national park that encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The park is long and narrow, with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west, and the ...
and reviewed work performed by the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...
. His funeral was held in the chamber of the U.S. Senate. Then his corpse was taken to Richmond and buried in
Hollywood Cemetery.
The
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and i ...
holds his executive papers. In 1992, Virginia erected a highway marker near Eldon to commemorate his service.
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
named
Swanson Middle School in his honor. The U.S. Navy also named a destroyer for him.
Short-lived
Swanson County, Oklahoma, was also named for him, while he was still alive.
Electoral history
*1892; Swanson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives with 53.91% of the vote, defeating Populist Benjamin T. Jones.
*1894; Swanson was re-elected with 52.34% of the vote, defeating Republican G.W.Cornett, Independent G.W. Hale, and Populist W.T. Shelton.
*1896; Swanson was re-elected with 50.98% of the vote, defeating Republican John Robert Brown.
*1898; Swanson was re-elected with 57.02% of the vote, defeating Republican Edmund Parr, Populist R.A. Bennett, Independent Republican R.O. Martin, and Independent C.T. Seay
*1900; Swanson was re-elected with 58.14% of the vote, defeating Republican John R. Whitehead.
*1902; Swanson was re-elected with 60.8% of the vote, defeating Republican
Beverly A. Davis and Populist Dan Dickerson.
*1904; Swanson was re-elected with 64.98% of the vote, defeating Republican J.B. Stovall.
*
1905
As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...
; Swanson was elected Governor of Virginia with 64.51% of the vote, defeating Republican
Lunsford L. Lewis and Socialist Labor B.D. Downey.
References
Further reading
* ''Claude A. Swanson of Virginia: A Political Biography'', Henry C. Ferrell Jr., The University Press of Kentucky, 1985
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanson, Claude A.
1862 births
1939 deaths
Democratic Party governors of Virginia
United States Secretaries of the Navy
American people of Swedish descent
Virginia lawyers
University of Virginia School of Law alumni
Virginia Tech alumni
Democratic Party United States senators from Virginia
People from Pittsylvania County, Virginia
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration cabinet members
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia
19th-century American politicians
19th-century American lawyers
20th-century American politicians