James H. Southgate
Encyclopedia
James Haywood Southgate (1859–1916), was an American spokesman for prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

. He served as the Vice Presidential candidate of a faction of the Prohibition Party
Prohibition Party
The Prohibition Party is a political party in the United States best known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. It is the oldest existing third party in the US. The party was an integral part of the temperance movement...

 which broke away from the main party in 1896, running with Charles Eugene Bentley.

Biography

Southgate was born in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

, on 12 July 1859, the son of James and Delia (née Haywood) Southgate, and was a descendant of John Southgate of England. He moved with his parents to North Carolina in 1861; there, he attended local academies, and the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...

 (1876–78). He was engaged in the banking and insurance business in Durham, North Carolina, after 1882. That year, he marrieda Katherine “Kate” Fuller, the daughter of Bartholomew and Wilhelmena (née Haldane) Fuller. She bore him two sons before her sudden death in 1893.

Southgate, a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, turned to religion soon after, rising to become president of the YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

 of North Carolina, as well as treasurer of the State Sunday School Association. A member of the platform committee of the Prohibition Party which held hearings at Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

, in 1892. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

 in 1896, he voted with a breakaway faction of the party which desired to broaden the party’s appeal strictly from the issue of prohibition. Styled as the “National Prohibition Party,” “The Liberty Party,” or the “Silver Prohibitionists” (after their desire to have the dollar based on the value of silver rather than gold), this party nominated Charles Eugene Bentley of Nebraska and Southgate for Vice President. Although many of their supporters abandoned the ticket for Democrat William Jennings Bryan, Bentley and Southgate campaigned without anger or recrimination. The ticket garned 19,363 votes out of a total of 14 million total votes cast that year, far below the 1892 showing for the party.

A civic leader in Durham, Southgate rose to become a trustee of both Trinity College and Duke University in that city. Southgate died at his home, “Southgate Cabin,” in Durham on 29 September 1916 at the age of 57. He was laid to rest in the Maplewood Cemetery in that city.
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