Claude A. Swanson

Claude Augustus Swanson ( born March 31, 1862 in Swansonville, Virginia; † 7 July 1939 Rapidan Camp, Virginia ) was an American politician and from 1906 to 1910 Governor of Virginia. He also represented his country in both houses of Congress; from 1933 until his death he was Secretary of the Navy under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Early years

Claude Swanson attended the common schools and later taught himself as a teacher. Then he studied at the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in Blacksburg. By 1885 he then attended Randolph -Macon College nor in Ashland. With a law degree from the University of Virginia, he completed his training in 1886. After his were made in the same year admitted to the bar he began in Chatham in Pittsylvania County his new profession exercise.

Political career

Congressman

Swanson was a member of the Democratic Party. In 1892 he was elected as an MP in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1893. In the following elections he was re-elected in each case, so that he could exercise his mandate until his resignation on 30 January 1906. In 1901 he competed in his party unsuccessfully for the nomination for the office of governor of Virginia. In his time as a congressman, he was not represented in any important committee. After he was but then elected in 1906 to the Governor of his state, he resigned.

Governor of Virginia

Claude Swanson took up his new post on 1 February 1906. In his four-year tenure of the Electric chair was introduced as a method of execution in Virginia in place of a hanging. The budget for primary schools has been doubled and two new training centers for teachers were established.

U.S. Senator

After the end of his governorship on February 10, 1910 Swanson was appointed successor died on June 29, 1910 John W. Daniel as a U.S. Senator. There he should first stop the current to the March 1911 term of office of his predecessor. After he was elected, even in this office. After some re- election, he held the mandate as a Senator between 1 August 1910 and 3 March 1933. In the Senate, he was temporarily Chairman of the Committee for the administration of public properties ( Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds ). He was a member of the Committee on Naval Affairs and of another committee which controlled the naval expenditure.

Secretary of the Navy

After the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt Swanson was appointed as Secretary of the Navy in his cabinet by the new President. This office he held until his death in July 1939 in Rapidan Camp, a summer residence of the American president. Claude Swanson was married twice.