Sidney Johnston Catts
Sidney Johnston Catts was an American politician and anti-Catholic activist who served as the governor of Florida as a member of the Prohibition Party. After leaving office he became involved in criminal procedures due to his activities as governor and for business activities after leaving office. He was later acquitted, although he went bankrupt in the process.
Early life
Sidney Johnston Catts was born on his father's plantation in Pleasant Hill, Alabama on July 31, 1863, to Adeline Rebecca Smyly and Samuel W. Catts, a Confederate captain, and was named after Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston. In 1866, his nurse accidentally stabbed one of his eyes with a pair of scissors while cutting pictures causing him to lose sight in it.He earned a law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Cumberland University in 1882. In 1885, he was ordained as a pastor and worked in Alabama until 1910, when he moved to Florida. He later became an insurance salesman and then a teacher. In November 1886, he married Alice May Campbell, a relative of Lord Colin Campbell.
Career
U.S. House of Representatives campaigns
In March 1904, Catts announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination against James Thomas Heflin to represent Alabama's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. During the campaign Catts gave $250 to another politician to canvass a county, but that politician later placed a bet using the money that Heflin would win. Heflin defeated Catts in the primary and following his defeat Catts endorsed Heflin.On April 7, 1930, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination in Florida's 3rd congressional district, but was defeated by incumbent Representative Tom Yon in the Democratic primary.
Governor
In 1914, Catts announced that he would run for the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida. He won the party's nomination before a recount was ordered and he came in second. He then received the nomination of the Prohibition Party on October 10, and then won the general election with 43% of the vote. As governor, his proposals for reform were stopped by the Florida legislature.Catts was inaugurated as governor on January 2, 1917. In his inauguration speech he stated:
Your triumph is no less in this good hour in beautiful Florida, for you have withstood the onslaughts of the county and state political rings, the corporations, the railroads, the fierce opposition of the press and organization of the negro voters of this state against you and the power of the Roman Catholic hierarchy against you. Yet over all of these the common people of Florida, the everyday cracker people have triumphed.
At the onset of World War I as Florida teemed with a never-before-seen wave of Anti-German sentiment, Catts attempted to exploit this to further his own anti-Catholic and racist agendas. The governor publicly theorized that the monks of Saint Leo Abbey near Tampa were planning to arm Florida's black community for a popular revolt in favor of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after which Pope Benedict XV would take over Florida and move the Holy See to nearby San Antonio and close all of the Protestant churches. This actually caused a fair number of German settlers to move to friendlier parts of the country. The abbot of St. Leo, Right Rev. Charles Mohr, OSB, published several dignified responses to these conspiracy theories. In support of the St. Leo monks, many Pasco County Protestants made it a point to appear in public with local Catholics. Because of the backlash, Catts was forced to tone down his rhetoric when in the area.
In April 1917, he admitted that he sent an insulting letter to Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory asking for Black Campbell, his brother-in-law who was a federal prisoner due to stealing $1,000 while serving as a bookkeeper in an Alabama bank, to be given a pardon.
Catts publicly labeled black residents as part of "an inferior race," and refused to criticize two lynchings in 1919. He was quoted in the press as saying that "only the vagrant, vagabond, worthless negro is lynched". When the NAACP complained about these lynchings, Catts wrote denouncing the organization and blacks generally, declaring that "Your Race is always harping on the disgrace it brings to the state by a concourse of white people taking revenge for the dishonoring of a white woman, when if you would... your people not to kill our white officers and disgrace our white women, you would keep down a thousand times greater disgrace."
Later life
Catts was ineligible to run for reelection in 1920, and he ran for the Democratic nomination for senate, but lost by a large margin to incumbent Democratic Senator Duncan U. Fletcher.On April 14, 1921, the Florida Senate voted to approve a resolution that would order a legislative investigation into Catts' pardons and appointments due to rumors about him accepting bribes in exchange for them and the state house voted to approve it four days later. On May 5 he was indicted by the Bradford county grand jury for accepting a $700 bribe to pardon J. J. Coleman, who was given life imprisonment in 1918 for the murder of a deputy sheriff, but resisted arrest for five days before surrendering. However, on May 19 a federal warrant against him was issued for the involuntary servitude of two black people forced to work on his plantation and was arrested two days later and stated that "my enemies won't let me alone" when arrested. While on bond awaiting trial Catts spoke at an Independence Day celebration in Macon, Georgia despite protests from members of the board of aldermen who stated that it was improper to have somebody that was indicted for criminal charges speak. On August 16, 1921 he stated that he was confident that he would be acquitted on all charges. In November his initial indictment was recharged and two other indictments were also issued. On May 16, 1922 his defense's motion to dismiss the indictments against Catts' bribery charges was accepted by the judge. On July 21 he filed a petition of voluntary bankruptcy as he had $44,000 in liabilities and less than $2,000 in assets. On November 20 he was acquitted by an all white jury for the involuntary servitude and bribery charges and the federal charges against him were later dropped.
Shortly after he left office he became involved in a company with F. L. Jester and in September 1921, he was called before a superior court for questioning for his involvement in a fraudulent business.
Catts ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1924 and 1928, but lost both times. During the 1928 presidential election he was one of the Democrats who supported Republican Herbert Hoover over Democratic Al Smith, who was Catholic.
On April 9, 1929, Catts was indicted by a federal grand jury in Jacksonville for aiding and abetting in counterfeiting money with multiple other people in a plan to distribute $1,000,000 in counterfeited money. His first trial in October resulted in a mistrial and was acquitted at his second trial.
On March 9, 1936, Catts died at his home in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. In 1979 the house he lived in from 1924 to 1936 was nominated as a historic place and was accepted.