Robert Roberts Hitt (late a representative from Illinois) Memorial addresses. Fifty-ninth Congress, second session
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Robert Roberts Hitt was an American politician. He served as the 13th United States Assistant Secretary of State and member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th, 6th, 9th and 13th districts.
Background
Robert Roberts Hitt was born on January 16, 1834 in Urbana, Ohio, United States. His grandfather, Martin Hitt, had moved from Kentucky to Ohio in order to emancipate his slaves; his father, Thomas Smith Hitt, was a Methodist minister; his mother was Emily John of Brookville, Indiana. In September 1837 the Hitt family established themselves near Mount Morris in Ogle County, Illinois.
Education
Hitt studied at Rock River Seminary which his father had assisted in founding.
He went to Indiana Asbury University, now De Pauw, in 1853, graduating in 1855.
Career
Hitt set up in Chicago as a shorthand reporter for court and newspaper work. At Lincoln's request he reported the Lincoln-Douglas debates for the Republican side, and he was official stenographer for the state legislature, 1858-1860, reporting, among other things, the testimony as to the state-scrip frauds of Governor Matteson.
During the Civil War he accomplished various tasks of reporting for the Federal side, notably that for the Davis-Holt commission sent to inquire into Frémont's proceedings in Missouri. In 1871 he visited Santo Domingo with a commission to investigate its resources with a view to annexation.
In 1872 he acted as reporter for the Ku-Klux committee of both houses of Congress. In December 1874 he was appointed secretary of legation at Paris, a post which he filled for seven years. The training in methods of diplomacy which he thus received was to prove a great assistance to him in his future career. He served as assistant secretary of state during Blaine's tenure of the secretaryship in 1881. In 1882 he was nominated and elected member of Congress from his district, being, also, elected to fill out the unexpired term of his deceased predecessor. He held his seat in Congress without a break until his death.
Hitt's most important service in Congress was on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which he became chairman when the Republicans gained control of the House in the Fifty-first Congress; and thereafter he was chairman of the Committee in the Congresses which the Republicans controlled--the Fifty-fourth to the Fifty-eighth. He was active in favor of Civil Service reform. In the session of 1887-1888 he offered a bill to establish a commercial union with Canada, recurring to the subject in 1888-1889 and 1890. In 1891-1892 he agitated the question of the loss of revenue by the importation of dutiable goods over Canadian railroads. He died at his summer home, Newport, Rhode Island, in 1906, having served in twelve successive Congresses.