Laurence M. Keitt

Laurence Massillon Keitt (October 4, 1824 – June 4, 1864) was a South Carolina politician who served as a United States Congressman. He is included in several lists of Fire-Eaters—men who adamantly urged the secession of southern states from the United States, and who resisted measures of compromise and reconciliation, leading to the American Civil War.

Keitt was born in Orangeburg County, South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he was representative to the South Carolina state house, 1848, and then U.S. Representative from South Carolina's 3rd District, 1853-55, 1855-56, 1856-60. Keitt was censured by the House in 1856 for aiding Rep. Preston S. Brooks in his caning attack on Sen. Charles Sumner, after which he resigned and was re-elected to his seat within a month.

Perhaps Keitt's most famous quotation best summarized his political views. In 1860, Congressman Keitt said, "The anti-slavery party contends that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States." [ Lawrence Keitt, Congressman from South Carolina, in a speech to the House on January 25, 1860: Taken from a photocopy of the Congressional Globe supplied by Steve Miller.] That same year, Keitt was involved in a fight on the House floor with Galusha A. Grow after calling him a "black Republican puppy".

Keitt served as a delegate from South Carolina to the Provisional Confederate Congress, 1861-62, and a colonel in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Mortally wounded at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864, Keitt died the next day near Richmond, Virginia.

References

*CongBio|K000054

###@@@KEY@@@###USRepSuccessionBox
state=South Carolina
district=3
before=Joseph A. Woodward
after=Laurence M. Keitt⁽¹⁾
years=March 4, 1853 – July 16, 1856USRepSuccessionBox
state=South Carolina
district=3
before=Laurence M. Keitt⁽¹⁾
after=Manuel S. Corley⁽²⁾
years=August 6, 1856 – December 10, 1860succession box
before="(none)"
title=Representative to the Provisional Confederate Congress from South Carolina
years=1861 – 1862
after="(none)"